Radeon 4850 vs 4870 for my build

[dgmt321]

Hey guys I been having a hard time deciding whether I should get the radeon 4850 or 4870. I need your guys help picking out a card for me.

The 4850 im looking at cost at around $80 dollar and the 4870 is around $130 dollars (50 dollars difference). The games I am playing are crysis, starcraft 2, resident evil 5, and GTA 4. I would like to play these games at max settings with good fps. So which card will give me the best price/performance ratio. Here is my computer spec. Any help would be appreciated, thanks guys.

Dell 2007fp 20" LCD (1600x1200 max resolution)
AMD athlon II x4 630 2.8ghz
4Gig ram OCZ memory
500w OCZ power supply
Creative Sound Blaster audigy 2 zs
Window 7 64 bit ultimate edition

 

[Maziar]

4870 performs better and its worth $50 more.
I was going to recommend HD 5770 instead of both but it costs $160 and you have found a 4870 for $130 which is great

 

[shadow187]

The HD5770 mate.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131328&cm_re=5770-_-14-131-328-_-Product

 

[jyjjy]

If you are in the US jump on this while it is still available;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161317
$132 after the promo code and free shipping.

 

[Maziar]

Since i couldn't find any 5770 for under $140 i didn't recommend one but then one which jyjjy found looks a great deal

 

[materijalmen]

Hey guys, maybe its not the rightp place but i ahve aquestion. currently i have an evga 8800gtx card, but when i paly games my corsair hx520 psu gives some high pitching noise...
I am able to sell this card, and i can buy a 4850 512mb. Is it worth to upgrade? the guy who sells it told me this:-i used google translate sorry for grammar

" HIS, Gainward and some manufacturers have had some kind of a philosophy of making cards (especially Gainward who used the experience from nVidia) and dramatically raised their performance and I noticed how many other endangered large manufacturers who have rebelled and AMD / ATI then prescribed strict conditions under which they could do after that card from Gainward revolt stopped working this program. The His that I was probably limited to the drivers that come with it, and BIOS that he has been flešovan, Asus driver recognizes DDR5 memory and installs the card as 4870 but later in the work interferes with the card bios does not allow him a full frequency, however, when HIS back drivers have extraordinary good copy 4850th Have had no time to play but I still installed Crysys, Assasian creed, Avatar, etc., and of course all goes to full 1650x1050."

what do you think about this?

 

[Maziar]

No its not,HD 4850 performs a little better than a 8800GTX which isn't worth it

 

[materijalmen]

i can sell my 8000gtx for 70eur, and i can buy a HIS iceq4 4850 512mb for 72
and this guy told me that its an excellent one, cos if he install the asus drivers its a 4870..jus need to put a new flas(bios) cos now with the asus drivers its a bit buggy...

 

[Maziar]

Its not worth it,but its your choice

 

[bobalazs]

Considering the 50 bucks difference to 80 dollars worth of the 4850 it's not worth it. The 4850 will run those games just fine at that resolution.

 

[photonboy]

The 5770 is worth it when you throw in the difference in noise (DX11 isn't a big deal yet).

The new HD5xxx cards are far more power efficient. If you could use your system with and HD5770 for a month then an HD4850 for a month you'd quickly want the HD5770 back.

I always recommend the following for gamers building or upgrading a PC:
1) Heatsink/fan combo for CPU (read reviews for low noise)
2) second 120mm fan near CPU (very low noise just to help move case heat out)
3) 120mm fan at bottom front
4) PSU with good fan control
5) Graphics card with low noise and good fan control where possible (while expensive, the Sapphire Vapor-X is a great example of this. A system with 2xHD5870 Saphire Vapor-X cards when combined with the above fan control methods provides and awesome, relatively quiet gaming PC)

It will be a HUGE deal when NVidia releases desktop motherboards and cards which support Optimus. In this setup you could have multiple Fermi cards which turn 100% off when not needed and use only the onboard graphics.