Alternative to the 4890

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Yep I just checked that.

It's a tough call tbh. I personally would wait on the 5850, in fact that is exactly what I am doing. I don't feel buying a dx10 card is prudent now, and I understand that the 5770 isn't as powerful as the dx10 cards. That's why I'm waiting for the 5850...although seriously considering crossfired 5770's.
 


I could get an Asus 5850 for £202 from CCL (http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=37823&tid=gsearch) so I would be seriously tempted by that or the GTX 275 either from MSI with the Frozr cooling system and a slight OC (http://www.cclonline.com/product-in...=996&manufacturer_id=0&tid=n275gtxtwinfrozroc) or the BFG with more of an OC (http://www.cclonline.com/product-in...d=996&manufacturer_id=0&tid=bfgegtx275896ocxe).

In spite of DX11 I'm still more tempted by the nvidia thanks to the problems I've had with ATIs recently, I'm getting quite annoyed of my PC breaking on me! Asus have a 3 year warranty, MSI also provide a 3 year warranty and BFG a lifetime/10 year warranty. So if anything went wrong with any of them I wouldn't have to have a massive argument with CCL like I am currently having with Overclockers to get it refunded (replacement is unlikely as the 3870X2 is sold by almost nowhere now!).

Reading more into the GTX 275 it has full GPU support for Photoshop CS4, which I use a lot! One question will it still work in my Asus P5E mobo. I know that the P5E is only crossfire capable, not SLI. I don't think that will matter as it's unlikely I'll ever SLI it and it's only single core...I'm also pretty sure my Hiper 680W SLI ready PSU will support it.
 
I personally would never buy a product with a "replace with exact product only" warranty. Normally, if a product is off the market, yet still has a warranty, they will replace it with a newer product of similar value and performance.
 

Technically the warranty has run out as it was only 1 year. However an EU directive was brought in in 2002 which extends the warranty of any item bought to 2 years providing the fault is reported within 2 months and it isn't due to consumer error. So that covers me. However a retailer is allowed instead to use the Sales of Goods Act which states that a warranty of up to 6 years must be provided based on the durability of the product.

Overclockers are using the Sales of Goods Act and claiming that 1 year is sufficient, so basically 1 year is the expected lifespan of a £300 graphics card...

I've told them that I'm prepared to take it through the county courts (free for me!) as 1 year is no way the expected life and so they will hopefully have to replace it (unlikely as its 'rare' now) or give a full/partial refund. Chances are they will go for the partial refund but it should still be enough to cover some of the cost of a new GTX275 or 5850.
 
Ah ok, I have heard about the Eu's labrynthine warranty laws, but to be completely honest, know about this much

more than I knew before today!
 

Haha, I knew a little about the law from my dad but didn't know that they could legally use Sales of Goods instead, so i read up on both and discovered that they either had a choice of accepting the EU and giving me 2 years or arguing that a reasonable time (i.e. lifespan) of the card is less than 2 years.

In my opinion a card costing £300, which hasn't been overclocked, has had a Tier 2 PSU and has never got so hot as to use the safety cutout (hell, my case has a 30cm fan on the side!), should last a hell of a lot more than 22 months! They can also get away with offering me £150, instead of the full £300, so they would either still be in profit or making only a slight loss!
 
All dual-card GPUs tend to burn out fast.

The Nvidia 9800GX2 and GTX295 both have a much higher failure rate than their counterparts in SLi. Same with the 3870x2, 4850x2, etc

Both ATI and Nvidia are good companies...just don't get another x2 or dual-card GPU cuz they burn out fast...
 


Amen, I went through 2 4870x2s this summer, in a well ventilated case (3x120mm + direct pipe intake to 92mmCPU fan) in an airconditioned steady 18c room, never OC'd. Sitting on the second burned out one until my January build (XFX) to see if they give me another brand new 4870x2 (which I would sell without opening) or a 5850/70 as fair value replacement.
 

If I go for an nvidia I couldn't get a dual core one as my mobo is only CrossfireX ready, so I'm restricted to single core on that. Also, the new range of dual core cards cost a fair bit more than I want to spend! So I'll be getting a single core (they are still faster than my X2)! Just the decision of a 5850 or GTX 275!

Even if they do burn out fast I would still expect 2 years out of it, especially when I don't play games as often as many do. The BSOD and CTD issue I'm having is quite well documented as almost impossible to solve on the internet however the fact that one of the DVI plugs doesn't output is clearly hardware!

 
@jennyh

yeah another option indeed , the 5770 crossfire :-

1.price : roughly the same .
2.availability : 5770cf wins .
3.power : 5850(150w) wins over 2x108=216 w , but that just needs a better psu .depends on the OP's current config .
4.performance : depending on the game , sometimes 5850 wins sometimes 5770cf wins .
5.motherboard support : depends on the OP's system again .
 
I believe you can use a dual GPU single card on any Mobo with PCI-E x16, as the SLI/CF is built into the card itself, and the mobo chipset has nothing to do with the function in that situation, just the drivers. Hell, you could use a 295 + a 240 for PhysX on a CF motherboard.
 


My PSU (tier 2 680W) and mobo (CrossfireX ready Asus P5) would support twin 5770s...that's made the list 5850, GTX275 or twin 5770s! All would cost me between £200-220 roughly. Given the problems I've had I must say I'm still tempted by the GTX275!

I've got until it's all sorted with OcUK to decide!


Oh, didn't know that! That takes motherboard and PSU requirements out of the question then. It's now just down to what card I want and how much I'm willing to spend!

Just got back from uni now, changed DVI plug and I have visuals again! That is definitely faulty!

Also just got an email back from Overclockers requesting the serial number of my card so they can contact HIS and find out if they can provide a replacement through them. Looking on the HIS site however they don't list the 3870X2 (along with every other electrical supplier on the internet who either don't have it or show it as out of stock) and only show the IceQ 3870, so if they can't get one I presume I'll get a (partial) refund. To be honest I'de prefer to get a refund (I'd possibly accept two IceQ 3870s and Crossfire them!), as even if it isn't the full amount I can use it as an excuse to upgrade to a newer card! They apparently don't want me to go through the courts (thank god!).
 
@ Haydox: Keep with it! Overclockers have improved their service game over the years but can still be 'difficult' at times. I would give good money to see the look on the managers face when he heard of the possibility of County Court action:)
Did not realise the 5850 was getting so 'cheap'
If I had n't got the 5770 recently (plan on CF for the new build next year-first time for a dual card rig!) one would already be on the way.
Because you use Photoshop a lot and I'm not sure what, if any, GPU accelleration the HD5850 has for it, I would say the GTX275 is going to be your best choice: It's hardly a slow card and is DX10 compliant, and it will be some time before DX10 or even DX9 dies out, so the card should last quite some time.
And did you know the Q6600 is a good overclocker? 😉
 

Lol, yes I did! I also know from CPUz that my chip has some of the lowest voltages that the Q6600 can range in! However I don't have the time or experience to up the multiplier and play around with the voltages, running Prime to test when they become stable (apparently leaving them on Auto always runs it too hot). I was tempted to get a Zalman heat sink and try it but don't want to risk anything! As easy as it sounds to just bump up the multiplier and let the bios alter the voltages if that can cause it to get hotter than necessary, and with a stock fan on, I'd rather not burn out my cpu!

By the sounds of it OcUK are trying to get HIS to get me a replacement X2, however their site doesn't list it and nowhere on the net has them, so unless they have backstock it's unlikely they will have one. This means they will either offer me two 3870 IceQs, some other 'equivalent' card or OcUK will just give me a full/partial refund!

If I get a choice of the card I'm tempted by either a 5850 or the BFG or MSI GTX 275...will decide when I know the outcome of OcUKs dealings with HIS.
 
Well, just tried a reinstall. I got Windows 7 Professional for £30 as I'm a student and installed that (custom install). Deleted the windows.old folder, installed CCC 9.10 and drivers and dried playing Dragon Age (with nothing else except a virus scanner installed) and after a minute or two on the main menu it crashed! Didn't blue screen but the screen went black, sound still playing, and computer was totally unresponsive!

Would I be correct in assuming that this wasn't a driver install error as even on a clean install is still messes up (or will there still be old driver remnants even after a custom install)? Or could it be the 3870X2 update Windows 7 tried to install as soon as I installed the OS, but which failed? The only other thing I can think of is maybe a bios upgrade for my mobo, but as it was working fine for almost two years until recently I don't see how that could make any difference as nothing has changed!

I had hoped that a clean install would solve it, but this is really p*ssing me off now! Still no word from OcUK about a replacement from HIS so I don't know if that's good or bad! I'm starting to think more and more that this is a hardware issue.
 
Just an update on the problem. I'm almost certain it's a hardware fault now!

Where before it only errored/blue screened when playing games, I just woke it up from sleep (now with Windows 7) and the screen went all weird with small squares of black all over it and flickering! It froze, then recovered saying that the display driver had stopped responding but had recovered! If it's started doing it (infrequently at least) during normal operation something is deteriorating!
 
either its a driver problem, which a clean install of the OS should determine,

or its a problem of over-heating (faulty card) / insufficient power to card.

it seems to me the latter.
 
That's what I'm thinking, I've already done a clean install and my PSU is Tier 2 rated and 680W and I've never had any issues before. I'm not sure it's overheating though as the temps seem fine, it appears to me that it's another fault. Especially as it's got worse over the past two weeks, it now crashes just during normal use!
 
it could be a defective card that is not supplying ample voltage to the GPU, or while the GOU temperature might be fine, the RAM chips on the card might be overheating.

definitely a hardware issue. RMA if you can.
 
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