4850x2 vs 4870x2 vs 4890

[snoozingpooch]

hello everyone and its wonderful to be here.

I am currently looking at get a new video card seeing as how i just sold one of my 8800gt's and only have a single 8800gt atm.

This is my setup:
AMD Phenom 9850 BE OC at 3.0Ghz with zalman heatsink
Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe mobo
8 gigs of ddr2 800 Supertalent memory
evga 8800 gt 512meg
Corsair 750 watt
Antec 900 case

Im looking between these 3 cards trying to decide on the best for my money, i encode a lot of video and play cod4, l4d, and mw2 and sc2 when they come out.

4850x2: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102809
4870x2: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150349
4890: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102848

ive been researching on hwbot.org and these are the results
http://hwbot.org/hardware.compare.do?type=gpu&id=1426_1&id=1233_2&id=1475_1&id=1373_1&id=1233_1
(i threw the 8800gt sli so i could compare to what i had previously)

Im hoping some of you had had some personal experiences with one or some of these cards so i can get a first hand opinion of how they run, and not just a benchmark program.

Thanks so much and i look forward to hearing from you all.

 

[invisik]

What resolution are you playing at?

 

[mactronix]

Hi,
I would personally wait for the new 5 series from ATI, its due for a press launch on the 10th of Sept last i heard so they should let on when they will be on general release, shouldnt be too long after that.
The reason i say wait is because i have heard that the Compute shader that is in the new cards as part of DX11 will help where encoding is concerned. Its best supported under W7 with a nice drag and drop feature but it will still work as a GPGPU based Transcoding tool. Just what i heard though untill the cards are released take nothing as fact.

Mactronix

 

[outlw6669]

I second waiting a few weeks before upgrading your 8800GT.

 

[Guest]

Waiting is better if you can, as for the 4890 replace the sapphire by this one XFX double lifetime warranty :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150359

 

[snoozingpooch]

i play at 1680x1050

 

[outlw6669]

TBH, your current GPU should be able to max out most games at your current resolution.
Unless you have an urgent need for more GPU power, wait until the next generation cards are released.

 

[AMDThunder]

TBH, your current GPU should be able to max out most games at your current resolution.
Unless you have an urgent need for more GPU power, wait until the next generation cards are released.

+1

This is one of the few times I recommend waiting. Since you have a good working solution, there's no need to rush.

 

[snoozingpooch]

well ive decided to wait on the gpu upgrade but ive decided to upgrade my mobo and ram

gonna be grabbin these

this mobo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128387

and 2x of this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231166

i figure it will give me the ability to upgrade my cpu later on and also give me crossfire support 😀

 

[AMDThunder]

If you're doing an upgrade to consider future upgrades, I'd spend a few more $$$ and get an AM3 mobo and RAM. If you're not considering a Crossfire set up, get something like this.

GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128392

OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ3P1600EB4GK - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227286

To keep the option open for Crossfire, consider this:
GIGABYTE GA-MA790GPT-UD3H AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128398

 

[Ehsan w]

+1

This is one of the few times I recommend waiting. Since you have a good working solution, there's no need to rush.

love your pc build man 😛