Should I get the sapphire 4890 1GB or XFX 5770 1GB

[matt_mu]

i found a sapphire 4890 1GB video card on ebay for $81 and an xfx 5770 for $105. Should i get the 4890 or the 5770. the 4890's bench marks are better the the 5770s. but the 5770 has directX 11. i want to be able to play gta IV on at least medium settings nicely. and i dont have a whole lot of money. if i can get my hands on a 4890 for a good price should i do it or should i get the 5770?

PSU- 700w ocz stealthxstream
CPU- athlon x2 64 4800+ 2.5GHz
Ram- 4x1gb g skill ram
MOBO- Gigabyte GA-MA69g-S3H w/ 1 PCI-e x16 1.1(?)

Thanks

 

[lowriderflow]

I'd absolutely go with the 5770... Dx11 is a big plus since more and more games will be coming out for it

 

[lewdawg]

definatley the 5770 man, that would do great for todays games!

 

[matt_mu]

ok thanks i guys! i was out bidded on the 4890 any way. i went on new egg and i found a sapphire 5770 for $135 on rebate!

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

HD4890 is better near term, but if you're keeping it long term then the HD5770 will let you play around with a few more things later.

The value of DX11 is somewhat limited now, but the HD5770 at least lets you play around with those features, and when you re-sell it, higher value to the people who go "Oh it's just DX10.1" or "Ooooh DX11!".

 

[matt_mu]

Ok thanks I'm. Trying to decide between the xfx 5770 and the sapphire 6770. Which one should I get. The sapphire is cheaper.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

If you can get a 6770 then definitely.... no but seriously, I'm not a fan of XFX too many issue with them on other models, Sapphire is sort of the standard for ATi cards, no frills unless you go Toxic or Vapor.

See if there's anything that really stikes you as a 'must have' in either, and then go with that, if they are relatively equal, then Sapphire makes good cards so save the extra money.

 

[matt_mu]

lol I didn't see that 6770 typo. I think I'm going to go with sapphire because there on rebate right now and xfx are like 30$ more and I've heard of issues too. Should I get the reference card or the one that's $5 less with the "egg" shaped cooler?

Thanks for the help.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

I don't like the Egg shaped cooler, it is effective enough and some can be quieter (others not), but their biggest drawback IMO is that they spew hot air inside the case instead of ejecting it out the back of the case, thus not contributing as much to heating your other components.

The issue is that there are a bunch of coolers, this one looks like it eject all the air out, with the box shape but it still spews it out;
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?psn=0001&pid=343

This one ejects the air out the back and is the same speed;
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?leg=&psn=000101&pid=290

Now this Egg-shaped one is mediocre and kinda 'cheap';
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?leg=&psn=000101&pid=296

But this Egg-shaped one (less egg than circular) is the Vapor-X model I mention above which is their higher end quality ones built for low temps, but also speed and overclocking potential;
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?leg=&psn=000101&pid=305

I like the Vapor-X ones and then after that the one that ejects hot air out of the case, but the other box one would likely overclock slightly better than the one that ejects out the back, but I would prefer the cooler case than to guess at that, the true egg shaped one I am not fond of, even though it might be slightly quieter than the box one.

 

[Doom3klr]

5770 no doubt direct x 11

 

[Tamz_msc]

Get the 5770 as it is quieter, cooler, consumes much less power than the 4890 and has DX 11.

 

[matt_mu]

I don't like the Egg shaped cooler, it is effective enough and some can be quieter (others not), but their biggest drawback IMO is that they spew hot air inside the case instead of ejecting it out the back of the case, thus not contributing as much to heating your other components.

The issue is that there are a bunch of coolers, this one looks like it eject all the air out, with the box shape but it still spews it out;
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?psn=0001&pid=343

This one ejects the air out the back and is the same speed;
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?leg=&psn=000101&pid=290

Now this Egg-shaped one is mediocre and kinda 'cheap';
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?leg=&psn=000101&pid=296

But this Egg-shaped one (less egg than circular) is the Vapor-X model I mention above which is their higher end quality ones built for low temps, but also speed and overclocking potential;

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?leg=&psn=000101&pid=305


I like the Vapor-X ones and then after that the one that ejects hot air out of the case, but the other box one would likely overclock slightly better than the one that ejects out the back, but I would prefer the cooler case than to guess at that, the true egg shaped one I am not fond of, even though it might be slightly quieter than the box one.

thanks I think I'm going to go with the box one that puts all the air out of ye case thanks

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

No problemo, enjoy!

 

[capt_taco]

I don't like the Egg shaped cooler, it is effective enough and some can be quieter (others not), but their biggest drawback IMO is that they spew hot air inside the case instead of ejecting it out the back of the case, thus not contributing as much to heating your other components.

Thank you. I was beginning to wonder if I was the only person in the world who is not happy about this.

Other than that, I've got nothing to add since the question's basically answered already ... just had to get that off my chest, though.

 

[Kkkk1]

Yes i'd also go for the 5770 but don't get too excited about DX11 as I think it'll struggle with Tesselation. I think you'll have to downsize the resolution or shaders to retain playable frame rates. You could always add another at a later date though.

 

[JDFan]

Thank you. I was beginning to wonder if I was the only person in the world who is not happy about this.

Other than that, I've got nothing to add since the question's basically answered already ... just had to get that off my chest, though.

If you have decent air flow in the casee the egg shaped cooler is actually better than the box shaped IMO -- the box shape restricts the airflow into the Graphics card which is one of the components that needs the air the most and results in the video card running hotter that the rest of the system (while video cards can handle more heat this can cause an otherwise stable system to become unstable where the egg shape lets more air in around the card so it can run at lower temps but as you say can raise the internal case temp a bit but with proper airflow the system can dissipate that few extra degrees better than the enclosed video card can resulting in a cooler video card temp.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

If you have decent air flow in the casee the egg shaped cooler is actually better than the box shaped IMO -- the box shape restricts the airflow into the Graphics card which is one of the components that needs the air the most and results in the video card running hotter that the rest of the system (while video cards can handle more heat this can cause an otherwise stable system to become unstable where the egg shape lets more air in around the card so it can run at lower temps but as you say can raise the internal case temp a bit but with proper airflow the system can dissipate that few extra degrees better than the enclosed video card can resulting in a cooler video card temp.

How is the slightly higher temperature of the box shape causing issues to the rest of the components when almost all the heat is being pumped out of the case instead of being swathed over other components like the Egg-shaped cooler?

Are you saying that the tiny amount of heat provided by the backplate is significantly different?

You do realize that the thermal load from the GPU that needs to be dissipated is pretty much the same on both cards, the only difference is that one is sending those thermal joules into the case the other not. Even if it's showing 65 degrees instead of 70 degrees, that's because the air moving over the surface of that HSF is moving alot more air and therefore dissipating is better away from the GPU, but still sending X amount of watts somewhere. Unless the difference was enough to significantly lower electrical resistance you're likely still consuming nearly the same amount of power, and pretty much all of that power is turned to head in ICs, so if they are both consuming 75W or even 75-77W respectively, that a large portion of that thermal load is going outside the case is better than swirling it back into the system, even if it's at twice the speed of the one exiting the case and thus making the GPU cooler, but not the system.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Yes i'd also go for the 5770 but don't get too excited about DX11 as I think it'll struggle with Tesselation. I think you'll have to downsize the resolution or shaders to retain playable frame rates. You could always add another at a later date though.

I think you'll have to do that with any solution.
When there is a hit in games all solutions suffer a hit when significant amounts of tessellation is required/used, it's not restricted to just the HD5770 or other cards, and not specific to just one brand (other than in tech demos, but not in games), regardless of whether it's an HD5870 or GTX480, you will have to 'downsize' resolution to retain playable framerates (although some other tests earlier show minimal impact also);

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/hardware-tesselation_8.html

And that's because the current implementations are simply tack-ons, and not really optimized tessellation examples that would replace high-polygon models with lower ones and then tessellation, that method in the future should allow you to improve your visuals with little impact to your performance. There are two ways of implementing tessellation and right now we are just getting the add-on kind.

 

[matt_mu]

Best answer selected by matt_mu.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey