4870, 4890 or 5850?..

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
M

muni50

Distinguished
Sep 27, 2009
9
0
18,510
I'm just building a rig that looks like this (trying to finish it ASAP), and buy Windows 7 when launching in a couple of weeks.

Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156
ASUS P7P55D motherboard (already bought)
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F1, 3.5", SATAII/300, 32MB, 7200RPM
Coolermaster RC-690
Monitor: Probably some 24" 1900x 1080 or 1900 x 1200

Ok, so I'm very undecided about the GPU (and consequently the PSU).

Building my first PC from scratch is already quite expensive (~900-1000 euros). Initially I was set on a nice 4870 to run most current games. Then I read some reviews that stated that actually the HD4890 was probably even better value for money. THEN, I read some forums where some people vehemently slated others not willing to buy the new HD5850, 'because only an idiot will not spend extra money to future proof themselves'. So, these are my options (I live in Finland), roughly:

Sapphire Radeon HD4870 1GB: 132 euros (145 euros for Vapour X version)
Sapphire Radeon HD4890 1GB: 150 euros
Sapphire Radeon HD5850 1GB: Around 240-260 euros (God know when will this be easily available where I live, most companies have waiting lists of buyers!)

BTW, I intend to play games like Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, Dragon Age Origins, which I don't think require Dx11.
So, which card?

Thanks.
 
gkay09

gkay09

Splendid
Jul 28, 2008
8,861
0
31,960
^ For now buy the HD 4890 1GB...It should suffice for the games that you play...
Later on when the DirectX 11 games become widely available, then upgrade your graphics card...by then you would get many options both from ATI and Nvidia and cards would be easily available...

Actually the HD 5850 would have been a good option but the price difference between the HD 4890 and the HD 5850 is huge unlike in other places like US and UK...
 
hallowed_dragon

hallowed_dragon

Distinguished
Jan 17, 2008
1,016
0
19,360
My solution for you problem involves a little compomise. I suggest you buy a 4770 to last you until December when most probably 5850 will become more available and more affordable. The 4770 will not provide maximum quality or FPS for current games at that resolution, but it will give you a little extra cash to save until December.
 
J

jakes69

Distinguished
Oct 5, 2009
130
0
18,680
How much the 5850 going to drop by the end of this yr...anyone knows?

I'm currently building a new rig...have all the parts and the only thing that is holding me back is the GPU.
 
T

Techno-boy

Distinguished
Dec 5, 2008
357
0
18,810
Get a Radeon HD 5850 now or wait until Christmas when its price drop.

It is a No-Brainer/stupid to buy or spend more money on an old generation card which is becoming obsolete soon like HD 4890 and then after 1 month when DX 11 games are more available, dump the HD 4890 in a garbage bin and then upgrade to HD 5850, thus, you would end up paying for $420-$470!!! :ouch:

HD 4890 = $210
HD 5850 = $260 (possibly could be discount to $220 during Christmas (my prediction))
Total for both HD 4890 and HD 5850: $420 - $470! :ouch:


If you buy 2 of those then you would spend more so why not saving more money for just a single HD 5850 or single HD 5870 and being able to enjoy better Windows 7 experience together with DirectX 11 and OpenCL for the next 2-3 years? :eek:

Either you buy HD 5850 now and spend only $260 or wait until its price goes down sometimes during Christmas which could possibly be only $220. There is no point to get HD 4890 since it does not even support DX 11 and OpenCL and HD 4890 would not future proof you for the next 2-3 years and you would end up paying $420-$470 for both HD 4890 and HD 5850 (even if HD 5850's price goes down during Christmas)...

Just save your money for just DirectX 11 Radeon HD 5850 and don't bother with the old video cards like Radeon HD 4890. That is just my recommendation but at the end, you decide... Good Luck! :)

PS: And there will be many DX 11 games coming in Q4 2009 so many DX 11 games would already be available by Christmas which is only 2 months away from now. Also, Diablo 3 and Starcraft 3 games will use DirectX 11 and they will come soon...
 
D

dirtmountain

Splendid
Apr 19, 2008
3,530
0
22,860
Usually prices drop after a month or so when a card comes out due to availability and competition between the makers (sapphire, powercolor,HIS,XFX,Gigabyte,MSI etc.) once the initial surge of buying is done. I wouldn't expect Nvidia to have much of an impact on prices until 2010.
 
T

Techno-boy

Distinguished
Dec 5, 2008
357
0
18,810


You could have get a Radeon HD 5770 which would only be for $150 (only $15 more than XFX HD 4850 XXX Edition) and it would be faster than the old HD 4850 and it also consumes lesser power as well as supporting DX 11 and OpenCL. Radeon HD 5700 series will come in a week (October 13, 2009). HD 4850 does not support DirectX 11 and OpenCL and it is a very hot card based on many reviews and sometimes with noisy fan. :bounce:
 
jennyh

jennyh

Splendid
Mar 3, 2009
4,292
0
22,860
Don't hang around waiting on price drops on these cards. Nvidia have nothing to compete against either the 5850 or 5870 meaning ATI have no pressing need to lower prices.

You might pay a $10-$20 premium right now but that's going into the hands of the suppliers. Once they start competing with each other the prices will come down to the MRP and probably stay there for a while.
 
J

JWD

Distinguished
Oct 20, 2009
2
0
18,510
I've been re-building my new system over a few months. No sense buying anything less then a 5800 series video card, and 5850 or 5870 seems to be the best choices. I'm going to go with the 5850 and then later buy a second one to cross fire it (better performance then a single 5870 but with total cost spread over a couple of months). I wouldn't spend money on a $150 video board to wait to buy the 5850, either use a video board you have laying around (or borrow one from a friend) to make sure you computer build works or at worse case buy the cheapest video card you can find while waiting to buy a 5800 series board. Also if buying the cheapest video board there is it gives you more incentive to save and buy the board you want instead of just ending up saying "I'll make do with what I bought for tempory".
 
M

muni50

Distinguished
Sep 27, 2009
9
0
18,510
Thanks JWD, I think I will definately go for th 5850, now if I can only get my shops to stock up on them quick.

Bit off topic, how much PSU i need if in future I want to cross fire two 5850 (considering their low energy consumption?) It is very unlikely I will xF, therfore in ym new i5 build I'm going with a 650W, will think maybe (just maybe) be enough for a future xF? Shall I just forget about xF, and perhaps even get a good 550W PSU?

Thanks.

 
J

JWD

Distinguished
Oct 20, 2009
2
0
18,510
Specs for power supply requirments as listed by XFX on their web site:

(http://www.xfxforce.com/en-us/products/graphiccards/HD%205000series/5870.aspx#4)

"500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended (600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)."

But must also keep in mind what your complete system requires too, if you have some other power hungry items you might need bigger power supply. You notice on my new system I have 6 drives, a quad core processor, 4 Gigs memory, and a cheap video board all on the 600 watt power supply. The power supply showed no problems with this load, I believe it could have handled at least one and I would not have been too surprised if two 5850 (or 5870) video boards.

I think people over kill with power supplies too often. But then again who knows what hardware there is unthought of as yet that will need more power. But then again as new stuff is developed very often the connectors change and old power supplies are no longer useable with new hardware.

My old hardware was a AMD AM2 mother board with a X2 processor and 2 Gigs of 800 Mhz memory with 1 hard drive and 1 dvd/cd drive.

I have been re-building my computer which had a 600 watt power supply with only 4 pin connectors for the PCIe which would have been the incorrect size for the 5800 series video boards. So far I am still using my old video board and saving to buy my first 5850 the end of this month and the second one a month or two later.

I have been building my new system since the end of June and started first with the mother board and was able to use all of my old hardware with it and kept updating the hardware each month (and continue using my computer too). Now all that is left to be replaced is the video board (to be replaced the end of this month).

All of this new hardware worked just fine with a 600 watt power supply, but I was a little worried about 600 watts might have been too little for 6 drives, quad core processor and two 5800 series video boards. If it wasn't for the connectors being incorrect I would have tried the 600 watt P/S before buying a bigger one... but on the other hand I was planning to re-use the old hardware to upgrade another computer I have and would have needed a power supply for that anyways.

Old Hardware still using:
ASUS N EN7600GS SILENT/HTD/512M Video Board (to be replaced by two 5850s).
1 - Pioneer CD/DVD Writer (IDE).
1 - Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" (not part of a raid array, used for back up, from old computer).

hardware in the order I replaced it each month:

1: mother board: DFI LP DK 790FXB-M2RSH AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard

2: Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 920 2.8GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Processor.

3: Memory: Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Model CT2KIT25664AA1067.
one - SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S203B (SATA).
(plus five Rosewill 18" Serial ATA II cable Model RC-18"-SA-90-BK).

4: two - Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" (In raid 0 array).
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit. (replaced XP Home Edition).

5: two - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" (in 2nd raid 0 array).
one - CORSAIR Power Supply CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC .


My computer has always been very stable even during the upgrades and still runs stable. To me that is very important, I'm not an overclocker and speed is not the most important to me. But that is not to say I don't like a fast computer. I don't want a computer that is being overdriven and dies a quick death just for the sake of maximum speed. I want fast, stable and last forever.
 
F

frankie_b

Distinguished
Apr 1, 2006
12
0
18,510
It is never a good idea to buy a newly released graphics card, particularly one introducing new Direct X technology (DX11), and the reason is very simple. You will pay way over the top for the price of ownership, I can almost guarantee that the price of an HD5870 will halve within 12 months.

My advice is to buy an HD 4870 card now, it will never be cheaper and will play any current game at a fraction of the price of an HD 5780.

HD4870 DDR5 = £100 (GBP) in the UK

HD5870 DDR5 = £300 (GBP) in the UK

Don't worry too much about DX11 games, they will still play in DX10 and you won't notice much difference unless your running high resolutions

If you wait 12 months before buying an HD5870 you will save yourself a bundle of cash!


 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom