Saphire 4870 2gig vs 4890 1gig

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Hey guys I was curious what your opinion was on these 3 video cards. I currently play WoW, CD4, Crysis, Far Cry 2, and soon AION which runs on the Crysis engine and would like to spend as little as possible and still be able to play whatever games come out in the near future. I have a 22inch LG monitor and a AMD triple core BE with a Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P MB.

SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon HD 4870 2GB $219
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102826

SAPPHIRE VAPOR-X 100269VXL Radeon HD 4890 1GB $214.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102841

EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 $199
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130433

I am trying to spend as little as possible but hey, I want this new system to last. So any opinions will help. Thanks GUys
 
Definitely the 1GB 4890, not even a GTX285 showed any benefit to an extra GB except at resolutions above 1920x1200, and the 4870 definitely wont be able to make use of it. A 4890 is stronger than the GTX260 and the 4870 so it is definitely your best option. Just make sure you have a strong enough power supply for which ever one you pick.
 
+1^ 1GB vs 2GB won't make a noticeable difference (when the cards are the same) in this case since a HD 4890 is faster than a HD 4870 then i vote for it as well,the extra memory of t he 4870 won't make it a faster option than a 4890 because as i said it(extra memory)won't make a noticeable difference in performance
 
Most 22 inch monitors have a native resolution of 1680x1050 and a regular HD4870 is excellent at that resolution. If you'd really like to spend as little as possible as you say one can be had for nearly $90 less than that HD4890 you are looking at.
 
4890 no questions asked.....The 4890 is truly an amazing GPU... specially if you have 2 in xfire =)

But that Sapphire is horrible IMO, I built a PC a month ago with that same GPU (customer wanted the vapor-x no matter what)... and ended up RMA'ing the card due to a faulty fan....

Now he has this 4890 and it is working fine.... 65c load (fan speed @ 50%) ambient @ 28c

XFX HD-489A-ZDDC Radeon HD 4890 XXX Edition 1GB 256-bit GDDR5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150368&cm_re=4890-_-14-150-368-_-Product

don't know if i was one of the unlucky ones but that was a bad experience, specially with a company that only provides a weak 2 year warranty... hope this helps...
 


XXX edition is overclocked, isn't it?

Have fun with that beast ;)
 
By no means I say that Sapphire is an inferior brand... The have certain model's that are TOP-NOTCH but when a company gives you a 2 year warranty that normally means that you are not being taken care of... once that card fails after the warranty expires you are on your own.....

There is a reason why they give you a weak warranty, it would cost too much to fix/replace all the faulty cards they recieve from RMA's ......

It's like a gamble, you can run a Sapphire for 5 years strait with 0 problems whatsoever, but if it does fail you should be entiltled to a new card... Specially if you paid 350.00$ for a 4870x2 =)