Alternative to the 4890

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haydox

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Jan 8, 2008
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My 3870X2 is potentially on it's way out (trying to return it) so I'm thinking of what to get to replace it. I don't want to get anything less powerful and looking at the price guide on this site my best bet is a Radeon 4870 which I can get for £150 off overclockers (the sapphire version with the vapor-x heatsink).

However I had two 3850s in Crossfire before my 3870X2 which had fans that were determined to burn out the GPUs (they didn't scale), so they went back. To replace them I got the 3870X2 which had only been released that week and as this may be already done after just under 2 years I'm somewhat hesitant to go for another ATI!! I've also heard bad things from quite a number of people regarding ATI's drivers (I myself have had no issues until recently when I can't play a game without a CTD or BSOD!!).

So is there an nvidia card of similar price and power to the 4890? I've not paid much attention to graphics cards since buying my current one so don't fully understand all the new ranges!!

Thanks

Rich
 
Who is the one running around telling people ATi's drivers have problems? Regardless, what is your price range... what are you planning to play at what resolution?
 
I've read on a couple of places that ATi aren't as good with their drivers as nvidia, it's not that they are really bad, just apparently not as good as nvidia...they could have been wrong!

I want to spend about £150-200 (£150 seems to be able to get a card to beat the 3870X2 and I'll go up to £200 if it's going to be worth it). I usually play at 1680x1050 and I was playing, before the CTD and BSOD errors, Borderlands, CoD6, Fallout 3 and Dragon Age (primarily new games, either fps or rpgs). Sorry, should probably have stated that first!
 


I'd recommend an HD 5770. The HD 4870 is also a good choice and it will perform a bit faster, but it lacks DirectX 11 compliance. It's up to you. Here's a list of released/upcoming DX 11 games and engines (which are used to create games). Some notable mentions are CryEngine 3/Crysis 2, DiRT 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, Race Driver: GRID 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Of course DirectX 11 has only been out for a little, so there'll be more.

The only NVidia card I can recommend around that price point is the GTX 260. It's comparable to the HD 4870/4890 depending on the game. It only supports DirectX 10, as opposed to the HD 4870/4890s DirectX 10.1 which provides some performance/graphical optimizations but nothing that will be particularly noticable. Regardless, it's a good choice as well.
 
@ Haydox:If you shop around the GTX275 can be found for under your maximum 200 pounds and it is equal to the HD4890.
A few places to start looking: Scan, CCL, Misco, Pixmania, Dabs, Ebuyer, Overclockers and Microdirect.
As for the HD5770, Google a few reviews😉 But start at Toms (natch) Xbitlabs, Techpowerup and Guru3D.
 
Excellent, thanks. Looks like it's going to be another ati for value! I'll check out prices of that 5 series ati, direct x 11 sounds like a good investment! There's a chance my card may get replaced however as sod all places still stock it its unlikely!
 
Thanks coozie, ill check out that geforce, would be a nice change having an nvidia again! I'll compare the 3 on the tables here on this site.
 


The HD 4890 can also be found at well under 200 pounds. Was there a particular reason you didn't want to use one? 😛
 
Proper driver installaiton procedure eliminates any driver issues, that are truly just driver issues. The largest issue with ATI drivers comes from those who switch to ATI from Nvidia without properly removing the Nvidia drivers.

In my experience, this "ATI has bad drivers" issue is born out of this one way problem. I have never witnessed the same level of issues in going from ATI to Nvidia, and have never had a driver problem when using driversweeper to clean things up prior to installing new drivers.
 
I got the Sapphire 4890 for under 200 bucks. Overclocks like a beast (1000/1130), and runs all latest games (NFS Shift, COD4:MW2, Fuel) at everything turned all the way up at 1920x1200. I have nothing to complain about it at all.
 

I found the Vapor-X Sapphire for £150 from OcUK. It isn't really that I don't want to use one, it's just that my last two ATi cards have had faults (suicidal 3850s and an infuriating X2 which loves CTDs and BSODs the day after Modern Warfare 2 comes out)!


I'll try driversweeper to clear every trace of drivers. Will there still be remnants even after a hard drive format? Every once in a while I generally re-image my PC with a 'clean' image to refresh things and I think Acronis formats the drive before rebuilding.


If I get the Sapphire I'll be tempted to OC it, the Vapor-X system apparently makes it quite a lot cooler.

Thanks for your replies people, I'll have to compare the 4890, 5770 and GTX275 to see which seems the best for the price. I must say, I'm quite tempted by DX11 ready cards!
 
If you are formatting your HDD for a fresh windows install, you won't need driver sweeper, that program is meant for cleaning out drivers that have been installed on a current OS installation. But since you are using an image restoration, you may need to use driver sweeper if the image you are using was created AFTER you installed the display drivers for your old card.
 
Just compared the 4890 and GTX275 and the 275 is higher in almost every test TH did! Which I don't understand as it has less memory which is only GDDR3 compared to the 1Gb GDDR5 of the radeon, the core of the 275 is also 200mhz slower and about £20 cheaper.

The 5770 isn't on the chart on this site, however it seems slightly cheaper than the 275. Will it be slower than both these cards? Need to work out if the performance dip is worth DX11.

Thanks JofaMang, if OcUK don't replace my card I'll give that a go before doing a complete reinstall! Really want to get this problem sorted out somehow, sick of having a computer built for games but not able to play any!
 
Direct clock and memory speed comparisons between Nvidia/ATI cards is not accurate, they go about their business in different ways, and in game performance are the only way to truly compare the products.

The 5770 will be slower than both cards, but having DX11 may be a bonus in the long term, should DX11 titles may become desirable to you.
 


Mine's actually not the Vapor-X model. Its the regular Sapphire reference 4890
 


Yep; it's important to note the Vapor-X model is missing voltage regulators. It's pretty much impossible to overclock (with some sense of stability) without some serious modifications.
 


If you look at older benchmarks the 4890 loses a lot to the 275, but in the newer ones the 4890 is beating the 285 a lot. 'Drivers' - I dunno what the reasons are for it but I can guess. A lot of games are created using Nvidia hardware and it takes longer for ATI to make what is basically superior hardware run games that way.

Check out this link for an example of it. An Nvidia 'TWIMTBP' title starts out with Nvidia cards performing a lot better, then ATI's driver team get to work on it and the superior hardware begins to show.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1130/3/

Same can be said about the 4870x2 vs the gtx295, or the 4870 vs the gtx 260. The ATI's are now benching higher than the Nvidia's in a lot of games whereas before they were a little bit behind.
 


Good find. I knew Quad GTX 295 would suck at scaling.
 
Thanks for the advice. One of the output plugs on the back of my card is now refusing to work! Computer still passes post check but no visuals. It's done this once before so i'll have to switch plugs again (i switched it back to the faulty one in case that effected the BSOD issue, apparently it's still faulty)! Sounds to me like i have a few choices for a new card; 4890, faster than the 275 with driver updates in general (normal or vapor edition depending on if i'll oc or not); GTX275, initially faster than the radeon when games come out (usually when i get them); or 5770, slower but with dx11. Will dx11 make up for the performance loss in the long run? I apologise if the layout of this reply is confusing, my phone is quite poor with forums!
 
The 5770 is performing slower than expected right now because of drivers. People are saying it's because of the 128-bit bus but it's not, its the drivers and I would expect to see a big improvement soon.

For that reason I'd go with the 5770. It wont beat the 4890 or gtx275 in most games but it will in some eventually. It's cheaper and has dx11 so that makes it the choice for me.
 

So with improved drivers, even though the 5770 is a slightly slower card, will DX11 make enough of a difference to counter this over a 4890 or gtx275?


If I decide against a 5770 for DX11 I'll be tempted by a 275. Even though they are outperformed by the 4890 thats usually only after ATI have sorted out drivers, and as I play games when they are released I may benefit from having a card which games are based around. I Also am sceptical about ATIs as I've has 3 break on me as I mentioned earlier (oveheating 3850s and my 3870X2 loves BSODs and CTDs and, this morning, decided that one of it's DVI plugs doesn't want to work!).

The MSI Twin Frozr 275 from CCL (http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=34606&category_id=996&manufacturer_id=0&tid=n275gtxtwinfrozroc) looks tempting and should be kept cool.

Ok, looking on CCL I can get a 5850 for not much over £200 (Asus one is £202) so would prefer to stump up the extra for that than get a 5770 which is slower than the 4890 and GTX275. So now I'm down to a 4890, GTX275 or 5850...
 
none of the nvidia cards are dx11 . i checked the link , that gtx275 will give you handsome dx10 performance , and the price is good . the 5770 will give you dx11 features to be used in games , but it wont give you the fps performance of gtx275 , and i would prefer the former . considering you have used some powerful setups , go for the 3d horsepower of 275 . also , you can sell it one year later , and you'll have both nvidia's and ati's dx11 cards to look at , and then there would be a lot of games and benchmarks to give you a good idea of performance , and a big factor , reduced prices .

just getting the first dx11 chip may not be that worthy . i would wait for dx11 to mature in games , hardware prices , drivers , and lots of real world benchmarks .

every dx11 game would be playable on a dx10 card and still look fine .
 
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