Hi guys,
I've been looking to buy a budget gpu for a while now and a while back I came across Sapphire's 4860. At the time I hadn't thought much of it, because many were saying that it was just a crippled 4770.
Recently I've been doing a bit more research on it and apparently it was originally meant to be restricted to parts of Asia. Not sure why it's on Newegg. Anyway, it's actually a cut-down 4890, much like the 4850 is a cut-down 4870 (Sorry if this is old news to some of you), and based on the RV790 architecture. Which implies some serious overclocking potential.
After a bit of googling, I found that some people had OC'ed their 4860's to roughly 910 core / 975 mem using MSI's Afterburner. Not too surprising if you consider its 2x6 power connectors and massive heatsink. BUT that's clocked higher than a stock 4890.
Even though it's limited by it's 640 SPUs, I think it's performance should rival that of the 4890. Which makes my previous choice, the 5770, look rather overpriced, seeing as this card costs $130. Yes, I know, it doesn't support DX11 or Eyefinity, nor is it based on particularly efficient architecture, but those factors don't appear to justify the price difference or performance difference for me ATM. By the time DX11 games are mainstream, the 5770 will be a relatively low-end card with poor overclocking abilities. I don't mean to bash the 5770, but I think buying this card now and another upgrade in ~3 years would be more practical for a budget gamer like myself (If you're rolling in cash, you probably won't understand where I'm coming from. Enjoy your 5870/295 and forget about this post).
Some links:
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=334555
http://www.overclock.net/ati/648665-sapphire-hd-4860-overclock.html
So to the point, this card looks like a steal. It's just that there aren't many reviews on it considering it's been out a few months, and I'm still somewhat skeptical. :lol:
Anyone have benchmarks on it? I'd like to see benchies of it OC'ed of course. Thoughts on this would be appreciated too.
I've been looking to buy a budget gpu for a while now and a while back I came across Sapphire's 4860. At the time I hadn't thought much of it, because many were saying that it was just a crippled 4770.
Recently I've been doing a bit more research on it and apparently it was originally meant to be restricted to parts of Asia. Not sure why it's on Newegg. Anyway, it's actually a cut-down 4890, much like the 4850 is a cut-down 4870 (Sorry if this is old news to some of you), and based on the RV790 architecture. Which implies some serious overclocking potential.
After a bit of googling, I found that some people had OC'ed their 4860's to roughly 910 core / 975 mem using MSI's Afterburner. Not too surprising if you consider its 2x6 power connectors and massive heatsink. BUT that's clocked higher than a stock 4890.
Even though it's limited by it's 640 SPUs, I think it's performance should rival that of the 4890. Which makes my previous choice, the 5770, look rather overpriced, seeing as this card costs $130. Yes, I know, it doesn't support DX11 or Eyefinity, nor is it based on particularly efficient architecture, but those factors don't appear to justify the price difference or performance difference for me ATM. By the time DX11 games are mainstream, the 5770 will be a relatively low-end card with poor overclocking abilities. I don't mean to bash the 5770, but I think buying this card now and another upgrade in ~3 years would be more practical for a budget gamer like myself (If you're rolling in cash, you probably won't understand where I'm coming from. Enjoy your 5870/295 and forget about this post).
Some links:
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=334555
http://www.overclock.net/ati/648665-sapphire-hd-4860-overclock.html
So to the point, this card looks like a steal. It's just that there aren't many reviews on it considering it's been out a few months, and I'm still somewhat skeptical. :lol:
Anyone have benchmarks on it? I'd like to see benchies of it OC'ed of course. Thoughts on this would be appreciated too.