Radeon 5770 vs 4890?

[devinkoz]

I'm building a new rig soon and am having a hard time deciding between the 5770 and the 4890. I know, technically, the 4890 beats the 5770 performance wise (higher clocks, better benchmarks, etc). Though I know the 4890 eats up a crapload of power (isn't it 2x 6pin's?) and it runs quite hot. The 5770 includes dx11 (is it worth it?) and eyefinity which is cool and all but how many people actually use it? Not many I asume. But I also know the 5770 runs quite cool and is very energy efficient. I am planning to get an athlon or phenom quad core (2.8-3ghz) cpu. Would a higher clock dual core cpu work better for these cards? Thanks, - Devin

 

[Maziar]

I would go with the 5770 because although it performs slower, but the difference gap has become lower with new drivers,also it runs cooler,quieter and packs technologies like DX11,eyefinity etc.

 

[mactronix]

Depending on your budget and where in the world you are it may be worth you looking at a GTX 460.

Mactronix

 

[devinkoz]

Souther California, USA is where i live. My budget is around 100-165$ so a gtx would be a little to much for me... Thanks for your opinion Maziar, gave me a new perspective - but what about the gtx 260? How would that perform vs those?

 

[leon2006]

I Have CF 4890 and its awesome.

5770 would be great and consume less power. Of course its DX11.

If you are for performance 4890 will run better than the 5770. If you want less energy bill go for 5770.

Its your choice.

GTX 260 is lower than 4890 or 5770. A GTX 275/280 is the match for 4890.

Below is the path for GPU Hierarchy

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-radeon-hd-geforce-gtx,2676.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-radeon-hd-geforce-gtx,2676-7.html

 

[leon2006]

4890 is phase out and its hard to get replacement from vendor or suppliers...Just take note of it

 

[devinkoz]

@ leon I just looked at tons of benchmarks from dozens of games and the gtx 260 beat the 5770 in every one and was a little lower than the 4890 (~3-6 fps). Any other thoughts from anybody about the gtx 260?

 

[jyjjy]

The HD4890 is DX10 and high power/heat. I'd stick with the HD5770 and the GTX 460 as your two options.
What is the native resolution of your monitor? If it is 1920x1080 or above I would lean towards the GTX 460 if you can afford it. Below that I'd just go with the HD5770.
Also whether or not your motherboard is SLI or crossfire compatible may be a worthwhile consideration when choosing.

 

[Maziar]

Souther California, USA is where i live. My budget is around 100-165$ so a gtx would be a little to much for me... Thanks for your opinion Maziar, gave me a new perspective - but what about the gtx 260? How would that perform vs those?

Both GTX 260 and HD 4890 perform better than HD 5770, but like i said the difference isn't huge.
What resolution do you play at ?

to jyjjy
I don't think GTX 460 is an option,because its out of the price range of OP

 

[jyjjy]

The GTX 260 was only faster than the HD5770 when it was introduced. Since then the HD5770 has caught up as the drivers have matured. The GTX 260 also uses significantly more power and is DX10 rather than DX11. The HD5770 is the obvious choice IMO if your limit is $160. I doubt you would find an HD4890 for that price in any case, apart from used.

 

[leon2006]

5770 is a safer choice. To get more performance you can CF with another 5770 in the future.

 

[kikireeki]

The 5770 is a poor performer in DX11 so buying one for that does not make any sense. looking for performance with limited budget, then get the 4890.

 

[Maziar]

5770 can handle games including the DX11 titles fine on resolutions like 1680x1050, for higher resolutions some settings have to be turned down in order to get a decent FPS.

 

[devinkoz]

I currently play at 1600x900 with a 20" monitor so I don't have a problem with high res... I think i'll end up siding with the 5770... I'll play it by the year because I still have a few weeks to decide. Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[Maziar]

A 5770 can handle games fine on that res, you won't be disappointed.

 

[devinkoz]

Thx... I currently actually have a 4850 512mb (visiontek), dual core 2ghz, 2gb of ram (667 mhz). Will I notice a big performance increase with 4gb of ram (800-1600mhz), phenom II x4 2.9ghz, and a 5770?

 

[leon2006]

Below is a benchmark involving 4890, 260 , and 5770. The path is for crysis. There are other games that you can check.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5830,2564-5.html

4890 is better than 460 and 5770. Of course this is an old card and hard to find. Power consumption is also a downside.

Below is the power consumption index. GTX 260 is the worst at 213W full load. 5770 full load is 108W. 4890 full load is 189W

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5830,2564-13.html

Given the availability issue of 4890. The best option is 5770; Eyefinity, DX11, HDMI 7.1 Audio, lowest power consumption at idle/full load.

 

[jyjjy]

Thx... I currently actually have a 4850 512mb (visiontek), dual core 2ghz, 2gb of ram (667 mhz). Will I notice a big performance increase with 4gb of ram (800-1600mhz), phenom II x4 2.9ghz, and a 5770?

For the video cards the HD5770 should be approximately 25% faster than your HD4850 while using less power, especially at idle. When crossfired it will give you performance similar to an HD5870 so getting a board with crossfire capability(second slot at least x8) is a good idea so you have an upgrade path.
As for the other upgrades the extra ram will help but the difference from a 2ghz dual core to 3ghz quad should be pretty huge, especially in games that are multithreaded to take advantage of all the cores.