1gig 9800gt or 512 meg hd4850

i have only enough room for a single slot card and have only one 6pin connector, of these two cards which is the best? I will be playing games on a 24" monitor at 1920x1080 and want everything maxed out, i am doing fine with a 7800gt now..lol
but it tends to be a bit choppy at times. So is it the 1gig 9800gt or the 512meg HD4850?

Hey, yes i am playing older games like Counter strike mainly i am playing Bf2 and Bf2142 and COD4, i have only one slot and i cant use anything larger then a single slot card because the cpu fan is in the way of anything to wide is thee reason i am looking at these two cards , also i have only one 6pin connector
cpu 3.2g
3.g ram ddr2
7800gt
24" monitor
is what u=i can say
i will upgrade my comp in another year or so, so what is the better card for me?

Well actually .. just to give these cards a fair shake .. I just want to say my 4850 (about to be replaced by a 5870) is able to run most current games at 1680x1050 with max settings. To be fair though I have a fairly stout system so not all 4850's will handle these games like mine. Plus I'm running the HIS TurboX 4850 which has very high clock speeds and such so you're average 4850 won't put out the juice that this one will either. Anywho though .. games like COD WaW and Modern Warfare for example are able to me maxed at 16xAA, 16xAF, AI, and all the other settings in CCC maxed out with ease. Very playable framerates as well. Heck Crysis runs okay at 8xAA with everything at enthusiast as well but I prefer to drop the res down a tad bit to get better FPS. Can't wait for the 5870 so I can truly max it out!

With all that said though .. I would not reccomend going with either of those cards with all these great new .. almost revolutionary .. cards hitting the market currently. You should be able to say get a 4750 for near the price point of the 4850 and easily beat it in performance .. while having DX11 capability to boot. So yeah if I were in your shoes and was on a budget I'd hold out to see what new cards come out in my price range in the coming weeks and months.

Jsh1284, have you tried playing a game like STALKER:CS with your 4850? Cause at 1680x1050 that game will eat your card for breakfast, regardless of processor. lol

To the poster, either of those cards will run those games great. I have the 512mb 4850 factory overclocked and it runs about 95fps on COD 4 with AA/AF enabled.

I had a 9800GT at one time and it idled at 70c and ran at 90c during gaming, I returned it.

My HD4850 is the one that blows the air out the back of the case and it maxes at 56c during gaming. However jsh1284 is right, the cheaper single slot 4850's do run hot, but I doubt as hot as the 9800GT I had.

You still have not told us what power supply you have, therefore I still cannot suggest a video card for you.

4850 is equal to a 9800GTX, so it's better than a 9800GT.

The 9800GT is too weak to use 1GB of RAM, so it's a waste of money.

A 4850 can play most newer games such as COD4, COD5, Far Cry2, Fallout 3, etc maxed out at 1680x1050 (except very GPU intensive games such as Crysis or Stalker)

4850 is the correct choice.

And to all the reviews and folks who have these cards running too hot, its called turning up the FAN. You have to set it to over 60% and it will keep the card cool just fine. The only time reviewers mess with the fan is if they overclock the card, otherwise it stays at stock speed which I believe is no more than 25-30%.

FYI, if this card can play CoD4 @ 1650x1080 with 16xAA, then there should be zero question who is the winner here.

HIS is a decent brand. Looks thats the only single slotted card they carry. Not too bad after the MIR @ $119. Although if you could use a dual slot then you could get one of the IceQ Turbo cards for the same price which would give you a better cooler and higher clocks (but thats all relatively marginal).

Your performance increase from a 7800 will be phenomenal.

OverdoseATL .. I currently use an HIS 4850 and I really got a lot out of this card. It's a good brand .. at least going my own personal experience with the brand.

I have the 9800gt and it runs Crysis: Warhead on max without AA on a 1680 by 1080 res screen. If i change the setting to allow the use of 1gb of RAM(which is set to default 256mb until you create a file to tell it otherwise) it will run at least 8AA. So is it really not the card i thought it was? I'm not going for a top of the line gaming computer. Im also considering upgrading motherboard to support 8gb of 1200-1066mhz im considering the Maximus II Formula. The reason is i currently have 4gb of 800mhz and at times with vista it seems not enough nor will it be within the next year. Also i have a core 2 quad @ 2.67ghz(its like 5.62ghz all 4 cores together) and this motherboard is the best I've found for around 200. Overall im looking for a great pc that can do rendering in Revit 2010 with ease, play games on high with ease, overall browsing without lag, and great audio quality. I am looking at doing this off a $600 ZT pc with a 9800gt card and a 650watt power supply. Other than re upgrading the video card(unless i can get better for cheap) does anyone have any suggestions that could help me achieve this for under $400? As for video card i am definitely considering overclocking. I mean its got overclocking truly written all over the box.

well than that does not apply to me.

Naw man, nawwwwww...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127401

I have this one, blows air out the back and has the heatpipes. It's factory overclocked and It never runs over 55c.
I cant believe its still $112 though cause I paid $125 about 8 months ago.

Even though some of you posters didn't say if you were running in DX9 or DX10 I have to say some of you are totally full of crap about how good your cards are inre to certain games. Having said that, you should get the card with the most video memory on it you can get in your machine especially at that high a resolution. That's my opinion.

Here's a shortie from THIS site, and although I don't agree with some of "Toms" numbers read the last couple of lines.

http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2428.html

"In the final analysis, even 512MB of graphics RAM can provide excellent high-resolution service as long as the user is aware that lowering quality settings and AA will allow the card to perform at its peak potential. However, if you plan to use the highest visual quality settings in addition to AA, it's likely worth the extra money for a 1GB or even 2GB card."

Something I have been saying for a long time.