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What should I do

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I have a gigabye ep45-u3dp with an e8400 @3.5ghz 4gb of ddr2 radeon 4850, I am getting to the point were I want more performance in gaming and what not. My question is should I get another 4850 for 100 bucks and crossfire them or would I be better off spending the extra cash and getting a newer card? if so what card would you recommend?

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Go for an 5770
It will give you something more, but you may not feel a real performance boost.

Wait a week or so, for 5830 HD
or
Go for 5850 HD


5850 is a good choice at $320
However,
5770 CrossFire is an excellent choice at $320
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You mean $289 shipped.
Don't listen to mfarrukh at all, the 5770 will be a flimsy upgrade at best (5-10%) if you can find a cheap 4850 & your PSU/Mobo supports CF then do it.
Don't CF with a 4870, even though they're 'CF Compatible' doesn't mean it will scale well, however it will still be more performance than the 4850 & due to weird supplies of the 4800 series a 4870 might be the same cost.
I support the 5850, if you won't or can't then get another 4850/70.

^ +1 I vote for the 5850. It is the 5000 series replacement for the 4850. It will give you roughly twice the performance. You can try your hand at crossfiring another 4850, but you have to watch out for heat issues, and power requirements. In a dual card solution the heat from the bottom card will cause the top card to run much hotter. I've tried this with two 4870's and had terrible issues. I sold both and got a 5870, I'm a much happier person even thoug hit cost more.

The deal redwave pointed out is a great deal. Sell your 4850 for $50 to someone or put it in another system. It's much less hassle to deal with a single card.

I really appreciate all the advice. My psu is the 700watt OCZ Gamer X So i am sure that would not be an issue I do see heat being a problem however. If i can sell my 4850 for a decent price ill go with the 5850 for sure :) 

Depends on the cooler on the 4850 & the mobo setup, mobos dedicated to 2-way CF/SLI often have 3 slots between 2 PCI-E slots, custom cooling like the HIS ICEQ & Sapphire Vapor-X often render heat a non-issue except for the most cramped of cases.

Your PSU is not efficient, so although it should have the juice for 2xHD4850, it might run hotter than usual.
Heat could still be an issue with your Sapphire card, since it does not exhaust its heat; your mobo has TWO slots between its PCIE slots. They will run in x8,x8, which is a lot better than x16,x4. Still, I think the single HD5850 is a better choice.

Onus said:
Your PSU is not efficient, so although it should have the juice for 2xHD4850, it might run hotter than usual.
Heat could still be an issue with your Sapphire card, since it does not exhaust its heat; your mobo has TWO slots between its PCIE slots. They will run in x8,x8, which is a lot better than x16,x4. Still, I think the single HD5850 is a better choice.
What do you mean my psu is not efficent?

Your PSU is not 80+ certified for efficiency. This means that a few extra % of the power it draws from the wall will be wasted as heat, rather than powering your components. That may not seem like much, but I wouldn't care to grab onto a hot soldering iron, even one of the little 15W ones.
OCZ is not a crappy brand; that's not what this means. It does mean that you may need to pay more attention to heat in your case. The HIS HD5850 exhausts its heat, and I think would be a better choice then adding another HD4850, especially since the one you already have does not.

I'll also vote for getting another 4850. It'll give you the best gaming performance boost for the least money.

You should also overclock your cpu more. With a descent air cooler, the 8400 can get to 4.0ghz with your motherboard pretty easy.

orangegator said:
I'll also vote for getting another 4850. It'll give you the best gaming performance boost for the least money.

You should also overclock your cpu more. With a descent air cooler, the 8400 can get to 4.0ghz with your motherboard pretty easy.
I have had it close to 4 but I think my memory is my bottle neck. I also do not want to kill the stupid thing.
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