Asus 4870 1GB or XFX 4890 1GB?

[masop]

I'm trying to decide which card will give me the best bang for the buck. The following cards are being put into consideration for being fast and under $200 (my budget) with decent reviews on the egg, for what that is worth...

$149.99 with Free Shipping and $20 MIR Card - ASUS EAH4870 DK/HTDI/1GD5 Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121291

$194.99 with Free Shipping - XFX HD-489A-ZDFC Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150359

Keep in mind that I am currently using a Sapphire x1950 Pro 256MB PCI-E. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

-- MaSoP

 

[coozie7]

Please give us the rest of your specs: CPU, monitor resolution and, critically the powersupply, either make and model or read the rating label and list the +12 output/s.

 

[Mousemonkey]

GTX275 is faster/better.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1027/1/

 

[masop]

Please give us the rest of your specs: CPU, monitor resolution and, critically the powersupply, either make and model or read the rating label and list the +12 output/s.

Asus M2N-E Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ (65w Model)
OCZ 4GB PC2-6400 Platinum Revision 2 @ CL5 (1GB x 4, Dual Channel Mode)
Samsung 19" LCD (1400x900)
Ultra X3 850-Watt PSU (55Amp Single +12v Rail)


I play games in 1024x768 mode normally, though I would consider 1400x900 (native) if the card and my current cpu can handle it well enough.

-- MaSoP

 

[masop]

GTX275 is faster/better.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1027/1/

Well, this is the only one that fits in the $200 budget, by one penny, free shipping, lol.

MSI N275GTX TwinFrozr OC GeForce GTX 275 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127429

Hmmmmm.....


-- MaSoP

 

[Mousemonkey]

Well, this is the only one that fits in the $200 budget, by one penny, free shipping, lol.

MSI N275GTX TwinFrozr OC GeForce GTX 275 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127429

Hmmmmm.....


-- MaSoP

That's all the boxes ticked on my checklist.

 

[coozie7]

^+1.
Enjoy.

 

[masop]

^+1.
Enjoy.

How are my specs in relation to the possible 4870, 4890 or GTX275 graphics card upgrade?

-- MaSoP

 

[Mousemonkey]

Just crank all the eye candy to the max and hopefully the CPU won't 'bottleneck'.

 

[masop]

Just crank all the eye candy to the max and hopefully the CPU won't 'bottleneck'.

LOL. Well, I have given myself 4 weeks to decide on which card to get. I've read that there are new gpu's being released by the end of August. Any idea if that is true? If so, I may hold off, as a price drop would likely occur on the "current" and older models.

-- MaSoP

 

[coozie7]

@ Masop: News is rumour at the moment but rumour says sometime in October, I suspect late September/early October, ahead of the Windows 7 launch.
Your current specs would be closer to the HD4870/GTX260 but games constantly increase the resources they use, so for a longer term ownership, the GTX275/HD4890 is a better investment.
And there is also the possibility of a monitor upgrade, either by choice or circumstances, the 'weaker' cards will be less able to handle that, while a faster card will deal with it with aplomb.

 

[masop]

@ Masop: News is rumour at the moment but rumour says sometime in October, I suspect late September/early October, ahead of the Windows 7 launch.
Your current specs would be closer to the HD4870/GTX260 but games constantly increase the resources they use, so for a longer term ownership, the GTX275/HD4890 is a better investment.
And there is also the possibility of a monitor upgrade, either by choice or circumstances, the 'weaker' cards will be less able to handle that, while a faster card will deal with it with aplomb.

Alright. I think I'll settle on either a GTX 275 or a 4890 model. I'm getting closer to making a choice and buying, lol.

-- MaSoP

 

[Duesouth]

if you got the doh to blow then sure go for it!!! otherwise go for the 4870. there is really no difference. just a difference of 5 to 10 % of fps depending of the game. otherwise they are both plenty for now and you can always buy a case of 24 with the extra cash. so it is up to you but there is not really any difference. do not forget to download rivatuner after the upgrade to properly get ventillation and temperature readings. my ati radeon hd 4870 was running hot out of the box and then got it down from 80 to 45 and 50 degrees Celsius. but do not forget like everyone is saying. you need at least an 1000 watts power supply to be on the safe side. hence I gone thru 4 750 and then gone off to a 1250 cooler master real power.

PEAK POWER and RMS POWER
whatever they say the power supply is use the thumb of rule of 1000 watts multiplied by 60% equal the real power of the power supply. 600 watts under constant load for like 30 seconds then say hmm what that smell. ah crap my psu is burning. lol

later

 

[spentshells]

if your not getting a new monitor forget the 4870 even
get 4850 512MB buy yourself a better processor
Athlon 2 or phenom 2 @ 3.0 GHZ much better results
at that resolution its a waste of money for the extra memory
buy a cpu enjoy that performance and a doule upgrade
all for the price of 275 ....P2 might cost a bit too much
still A2 would walk your current proc

 

[masop]

if you got the doh to blow then sure go for it!!! otherwise go for the 4870. there is really no difference. just a difference of 5 to 10 % of fps depending of the game. otherwise they are both plenty for now and you can always buy a case of 24 with the extra cash. so it is up to you but there is not really any difference. do not forget to download rivatuner after the upgrade to properly get ventillation and temperature readings. my ati radeon hd 4870 was running hot out of the box and then got it down from 80 to 45 and 50 degrees Celsius. but do not forget like everyone is saying. you need at least an 1000 watts power supply to be on the safe side. hence I gone thru 4 750 and then gone off to a 1250 cooler master real power.

PEAK POWER and RMS POWER
whatever they say the power supply is use the thumb of rule of 1000 watts multiplied by 60% equal the real power of the power supply. 600 watts under constant load for like 30 seconds then say hmm what that smell. ah crap my psu is burning. lol

later

Well, the 4870 1GB is $45 less ($150 free s/h) than the 4890 1GB ($195 free s/h), so if it is only going to make a difference of 5 or 10%, I'll just go with the savings and get the 4870 instead and put the savings towards a cpu. I use the ATITool utility which works well on my x1950, though it may need to be upgraded to support a newer card. I thought the riva tuner utility only worked with nvidia cards?

A 850watt psu is more than enough. I just got the thing as a free replacement for an older model that failed from Ultra a month or so ago. My system is only pulling 280 Watts currently when playing games such as Fallout 3 and Far Cry 2 and less than 200 Watts when not gaming, that is 80 watts for 3d gaming. I used a P3 Kill-A-Watt to confirm that. I can't imagine a newer graphics card will pull another 500 watts during gameplay. No way. 🙂 Thanks for the input!

-- MaSoP

 

[malstrom]

Well, this is the only one that fits in the $200 budget, by one penny, free shipping, lol.

MSI N275GTX TwinFrozr OC GeForce GTX 275 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127429

Hmmmmm.....


-- MaSoP

GTX's Suck

 

[masop]

GTX's Suck

Heh. I haven't owned an NVidia based card since the GeForce Ti500 AGP back in 2001 when XP first came out, lol. I've had ATI cards since 2003 or so.

-- MaSoP

 

[daedalus685]

GTX's Suck

You are a moron and every word you say detracts from the already festering pile of dog crap that is the internet.


That review of the 4890 vs 275 sure didn't break the bank with games on the test lineup though...

 

[daedalus685]

The msi 275 is the best deal on the egg atm.. comes with two game and whatnot.

There are a couple overclocked 4890's for the same price as well, performance wise they would probably be identical. As every post about this price point boils down to.. there is no mistake to be made, get either one, always hunt for the best deal.

 

[masop]

The msi 275 is the best deal on the egg atm.. comes with two game and whatnot.

There are a couple overclocked 4890's for the same price as well, performance wise they would probably be identical. As every post about this price point boils down to.. there is no mistake to be made, get either one, always hunt for the best deal.

So, you're saying a stock gtx 275 will outperform a stock 4870 1gb and a 4890 1gb?

-- MaSoP

 

[daedalus685]

Yes, in the majority of games, at stock a 275 wins out. Not in all games mind you.

They are really really close though.. also note that the 4890 can OC far beyond what a 275 can.. in some cases surpassing what a 285 can reach, specially when comparing a crossfire setup to sli. But if you are only concerned about stock the 275 is the best bet, and is a better deal to boot (at least today).