Graphics card upgrade - Modern Warefare 2 is calling - 4870?

[TurinX]

Hi,
Just a quick question on people's views on a new cheapish graphics card.
I'm currently on my 8800GTX (got a q9540, 4GBs of ram and a Corsair 750W).
I'm looking for something quite cheap so am thinking a 1GB 4780 for about £105... Didn't really want to go beyond £100, but as far as i can tell the 1GB versions are worth it over the 512GB.
Oh, for reference I'm on a 22" 1680x1050 screen but may well upgrade sometime in the early new year.....

what are peoples thoughts for that price range? I've been really happy with the 8800GTX but think its time to do an upgrade...

thanks v much, any help is much appreciated!

 

[jay_l_a]

Is Modern Warfare 2 running the same engine as Modern Warfare 1? If so it's a pretty optimized engine, and at 16x10 you'll be fine with what you've got.

 

[jay2tall]

To be honest the 8800GTX was a monster card in the day. You are not got to get a HUGE improvement, but it will be noticeable. IF your board is SLI you could always get a used 8800GTX on eBay and SLI them, that would stomp a single 4870. But for a single card the 4870 is a good choice.

 

[jennyh]

Yep I'd either try to get another 8800gtx and sli if possible - the 4870 isn't enough of an upgrade imo. Alternatively, save up your cash for something a step above like a 5850.

 

[TurinX]

I haven't tried MW2, but I was under the assumption (that could be wrong) that it was a revised engine so thought I'd buy a new card.

I need to double check, but I have the ABIT IP-35PRO S775, and i'm not sure if I can do SLI on it....

 

[jay2tall]

No that board is Crossfire only. I'd stick with the 8800GTX, they are solid with COD games. Try it then upgrade if you aren't happy.

 

[ShrimpMan]

Why don't you just upgrade to the 4870 and immediately sell your 8800gtx? You could probably make most of the money back on Ebay.

 

[invisik]

8800gtx should run MW2 just fine at 1680x1050. Its using enhanced version of MW1 engine.

 

[sabot00]

The 8800GTX was a monster, seeing as how CoD's engines are usually pretty optimized I'd guess that 8800 should slaughter it.

I really don't think you need a upgrade, but if you got money to throw away I'd suggest you upgrade at least to a 4890 to find a big difference, a GTX285/275/295 or a 4870X2 (if you can find one for cheap) will be best if you want a big improvement.

All in all it depends on your monitor size, anything up to 1680x1050 should be fine with the 8800GTX, if you're going to 1900x1200 or above with AA turned on then a upgrade will do you good.

And finally, you might want to wait for ATI's 5xxx series to get in gear, that will drive the 4xxx series & nVidia's cards down.

 

[TurinX]

Thanks everyone, I think the overriding opinion is just to hold off. Will see how far my GTX gets me, and then in the new year I'll look at upgrading the screen and graphics card in one.
Time to go and buy MW2!
tx again!!

 

[jay2tall]

^Good choice on the GPU. Not sure about the MW2 game though, haha. I hear the single player is AWESOME. However, the new multiplayer setup is horrible. High pings, 9x9 max maps, smaller maps, no dedicated server, and its ONLY DX9. Basically the game is the same as the consoles get. Good luck, let us know how the multiplayer is.

I'll buy it when it's $30 just to play the multiplayer.

 

[okini]

dont go for the HD 4870. The 8800GTX is pretty equal to the HD 4870 i think. And ATI sucks hard. Keep your nvidia! or buy another nvidia!

 

[jay2tall]

^I smell Nvidia fan boy. Don't be a fanboy here, you will get flamed. haha. And you "think" wrong. A 4870 DOES perform better than an 8800GTX in every way. However, MW2 is still only DX9 and uses the same if not similar engine as the other COD games. And I know from experience an 8800GTX has NO issues running the last 2 titles. So upgrading to a 4870 really wouldn't yield much benefit.

I am not a fan boy, but I'm pretty sure, last I checked, my 5870 stomps any single GPU card Nvidia has out there. I am anxious to see what the green team has coming out, but I fear it will be to late and to expensive. ATI has already won this round before Nvidia even had a chance to play.

 

[okini]

^I smell Nvidia fan boy. Don't be a fanboy here, you will get flamed. haha. And you "think" wrong. A 4870 DOES perform better than an 8800GTX in every way. However, MW2 is still only DX9 and uses the same if not similar engine as the other COD games. And I know from experience an 8800GTX has NO issues running the last 2 titles. So upgrading to a 4870 really wouldn't yield much benefit.

I am not a fan boy, but I'm pretty sure, last I checked, my 5870 stomps any single GPU card Nvidia has out there. I am anxious to see what the green team has coming out, but I fear it will be to late and to expensive. ATI has already won this round before Nvidia even had a chance to play.

lol Nvidia won dude^^ the 5 series are the DX11 new ones. The nvidias your comparing with are the last gen 200 series. And GTX 295 which is way older than HD5870 crushes it hard! And its much older and uses DX10. When the 300 series nvida cards arrives to the market ATI will be done for ^^

 

[jay2tall]

lol Nvidia won dude^^ the 5 series are the DX11 new ones. The nvidias your comparing with are the last gen 200 series. And GTX 295 which is way older than HD5870 crushes it hard! And its much older and uses DX10. When the 300 series nvida cards arrives to the market ATI will be done for ^^

Yes they are the new one, but where are Nvidia's new ones? I wanted a new video card and hmmmm no nvidia new ones to be found. Guess ATI won. I had nothing to compare against the 5870. Umm the GTX295 and 5870 are pretty comparable in performance. I believe the 295 does outperform the 5870 in most cases, but when it does, it is only by a few fps. And it needs (2) GPU's to do so, where as the 5870 is 1. When the 300's hit the street, everyone who wanted to upgrade will already have done so.There will be a few that held out, like my buddy who has a GTX285. He has no reason to upgrade now. But what you will see is the ATI cards come down in price to under-price and out sell Nvidia's cards. That is what ATI does. Even if they under perform, the cost/performance will be better. The 5850/5870 are now out of stock everywhere, but I have a suspicion that ATI is creating a demand, and they can, with no new Nvidia cards out it is ATI's playground. ATI is also holding out on their 5970 (5870x2) card for Nvidia's release. So we will see.

As far as your comment about ATI sucking hard? I don't think so buddy. The 4xxx were great and so are the 5xxx cards. It is just a shame that Nvidia doesn't have new cards out for some competition. And competition is good for us all.

 

[okini]

Yes they are the new one, but where are Nvidia's new ones? I wanted a new video card and hmmmm no nvidia new ones to be found. Guess ATI won. I had nothing to compare against the 5870. Umm the GTX295 and 5870 are pretty comparable in performance. I believe the 295 does outperform the 5870 in most cases, but when it does, it is only by a few fps. And it needs (2) GPU's to do so, where as the 5870 is 1. When the 300's hit the street, everyone who wanted to upgrade will already have done so.There will be a few that held out, like my buddy who has a GTX285. He has no reason to upgrade now. But what you will see is the ATI cards come down in price to under-price and out sell Nvidia's cards. That is what ATI does. Even if they under perform, the cost/performance will be better. The 5850/5870 are now out of stock everywhere, but I have a suspicion that ATI is creating a demand, and they can, with no new Nvidia cards out it is ATI's playground. ATI is also holding out on their 5970 (5870x2) card for Nvidia's release. So we will see.

As far as your comment about AT

 

[okini]

Yes they are the new one, but where are Nvidia's new ones? I wanted a new video card and hmmmm no nvidia new ones to be found. Guess ATI won. I had nothing to compare against the 5870. Umm the GTX295 and 5870 are pretty comparable in performance. I believe the 295 does outperform the 5870 in most cases, but when it does, it is only by a few fps. And it needs (2) GPU's to do so, where as the 5870 is 1. When the 300's hit the street, everyone who wanted to upgrade will already have done so.There will be a few that held out, like my buddy who has a GTX285. He has no reason to upgrade now. But what you will see is the ATI cards come down in price to under-price and out sell Nvidia's cards. That is what ATI does. Even if they under perform, the cost/performance will be better. The 5850/5870 are now out of stock everywhere, but I have a suspicion that ATI is creating a demand, and they can, with no new Nvidia cards out it is ATI's playground. ATI is also holding out on their 5970 (5870x2) card for Nvidia's release. So we will see.

As far as your comment about ATI sucking hard? I don't think so buddy. The 4xxx were great and so are the 5xxx cards. It is just a shame that Nvidia doesn't have new cards out for some competition. And competition is good for us all.

they will be out soon i guess. Nvidia is selling better. Atleast they dominated with those 9800GTX and GTX260s and 280s last gen. When the new 300 series arrive they will dominate. And as you said. Those who bought GTX260s or even more powerfull cards doesnt need to upgrade to a 5series ATI. They can just wait for the 300 series.

 

[jay2tall]

To each his own I guess. But to state that "ATI sucks hard" is not accurate at all and pretty asinine comment. I'd suggest keeping those comments out of the forums. And if you make them, be a little more political and back it up with proof.

 

[invisik]

The g200 series did not dominate. They sold decently at best. The ati 4xxx series performed near the g200 series cards but with a lower price tag.

 

[jzsang]

Let's look at some benchmarks...

...no 8800 GTX, but the 9800 GT is a good reference point...

http://www.techspot.com/article/219-cod-modern-warfare-2-gpu-performance/page5.html

 

[invisik]

^ Add like 10-15% more power on the 9800gt.

 

[jzsang]

^ Exactly.

Anyways, my point is this... consider other games before selecting a new card, as the move from a 8800 GTX to a HD 4870 is not necessarily night and day. This is especially true in games that you should already run well, including CODMW2. Specifically, in the case of CODMW2, you realistically might jump from 50 something frames at max settings + AA with a 8800 GTX to 60 something frames with a HD 4870 at the same settings. A 10 - 15 frame increase is great, but when you are already hovering around 60 frames... who cares?

 

[TurinX]

hi jzsang, thats a really great benchmark.... when i started looking i couldn't find any like this. The results of the 9800 GT are very promising...
i might be wrong but i thought the 8800 GTX was in fact slightly better, just fractionally worse that the 9900GTX... (though I remember giving up on nvidia's naming convention around about then.....)

On the ATI vs nvidia war that somehow started, I was under the impression that when I bought the 8800, nvidia were clearly doing better, but then the 4xxx generation came out which were great value/performance and its been pretty even going and now ATI are ahead with their new 5xxx....

which, in theory, is the way you want things to work: nvidia do better, ATi catchup, then ATI do better, nvidia catch up, etc... innovation always good for the consumer.

I'll post my feelings of MW2 when i've had a play, i know it has got a lot of people upset because it feels like a console port....but I have faith!! I loved the firs MW, so lets see....

 

[rescawen]

lol Nvidia won dude^^ the 5 series are the DX11 new ones. The nvidias your comparing with are the last gen 200 series. And GTX 295 which is way older than HD5870 crushes it hard! And its much older and uses DX10. When the 300 series nvida cards arrives to the market ATI will be done for ^^

ATI>Nvidia