Radeon 4770 or Nvidia gts 250

[nik_stevenson]

heya, i was just wondering which would be the best card for me to put in a new pc im building, a radeon HD4770 for about £82 or a nvidia gts 250 for £87?
the pc is a phenom II x4 955 3.2ghz with 8gb of ddr3 1066 ram
or would another graphics card be better than either of them for around the £85 mark?

 

[Bluescreendeath]

A 4770 is about equal to a 4850, which is about equal to a GTS250/9800GTX/GTX+

Go with whatever is cheaper and if your board is SLi or Xfire.

 

[HibyPrime]

I scanned through that site, and it looks like the GTS250 is the fastest card for under 85.

The 4770 isn't far off though, do you have a crossfire or sli motherboard, or neither?

 

[nik_stevenson]

erm ATI crossfire i think, its this motherboard http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...k+M3A790GXH/128M+AM3+DDR3+ATX?productId=36807

 

[HibyPrime]

It supports crossfire. You'll want to get the 4770 then so that in the future you can get a second 4770 if you need more performance.

 

[nik_stevenson]

does having a second graphics card increase performance in games? i heard the difference was usually minimal

 

[TimeWarrior]

It's supposed to. However, when you look at the history of SLI/Crossfire it seems like the technology becomes obsolete quickly enough that the 2nd card doesn't make a huge difference. Not that I'm knocking SLI or Crossfire - often 2 cards can be cheaper and better than one (the 4770 would be a very good example). In my opinion buying a card and then waiting a year or more before buying the second won't be such a good idea because there will be single card solutions that are better. Just my 2 cents.

 

[HibyPrime]

Adding the second card will ALWAYS net you 40-60% more performance in 90% of games, just to clarify. What time warrior is saying is that 2 years from now, 60% more performance when you're only getting 20fps isn't going to help.

That said, in a year from now, 4770's will likely only cost you $50 bucks or less. 40+% performance for $50 aint half bad.

 

[nik_stevenson]

can you use crossfire with a 4770 and a 4750? if so i think ill get the 4770 and my brothers 4750 he'll be selling when the 5xxx series comes out if not then i think ill get the gts250 as the more powerful single card because i cant see me buying another 4770 in the next year

 

[HibyPrime]

I wasn't aware they ever actually released the 4750/4730?

I dont know if they will CF together, but most likely yes. If you meant a 4850 then no, no they wont work together

 

[nik_stevenson]

oh, i thought it was a 4750 but if it wasn't released then i might of got it wrong so I'll check with him tomorrow before i buy either.

 

[TimeWarrior]

Our prices are a bit different in NZ so I can't tell whether this will help you but I'm going to buy a good brand 4850 and OC it rather than buy a GTS250 which is my other option. (4770s are still a lot more expensive than the 4850 here and the GTS250 is more expensive than both).
I think 48xxs should crossfire together so yeah, 47xxs should as well. I havn't heard of a 4750 yet though.

 

[HibyPrime]

There were rumors about it being released, but I haven't ever actually seen one...

if it's a 4850 though, you might be better off buying a 4830, because they can CF together, and they shouldn't be much different in price

 

[TimeWarrior]

Good call on the 4830, definately worth it if it is a 4850 that your brother has.

 

[nik_stevenson]

i've just had a look on the site i'll be buying it from and a 4770 is £83 a 4850 is £87 and couldn't find a 4830 so there's nothing in it in terms of price really so i think i might go for the 4850 over the 4770 anyway. if i cf'ed a 4870 with a 4850 would it have to either underclock the 4870 or overclock the 4850 or would they both run at there native speeds?
edit: just found the 4830 for £79 but has gddr3 not gddr4 ram and a 110mhz slower clock speed, not sure what difference that makes in terms of performance.

 

[HibyPrime]

If you put the 4870 with 4850 they will run at native speeds but essentially the performance will be as if you were using two 4850s. It's a long explanation why.

A 4830 is a good buy, but obviously the 4850 will be faster, probably about 15% faster

 

[nik_stevenson]

i was just wondering if there would be any point in me getting a 4870 if his was a 4850 but if theyd run as 2 4850s i may as well use 2 4850s its £15 cheaper.

for the sake of £8 i think ill go for the 15% improvement with the 4850

 

[TimeWarrior]

Good choice - just bought one myself. Should be a step up from my 3850!

 

[nik_stevenson]

i'm upgrading from a 8600gt, decided it was time to upgrade when a friend bought a laptop more powerful than my desktop, now i'm just waiting for delivery, always the worst time in my opinion

 

[TimeWarrior]

Ha, I upgraded from a 8600gt about 6 months ago. You are going to be blown away by the difference one 4850 will make, let alone 2!

 

[megamanx00]

Of those two choices the GTS250 is clearly better. A 4850 would be a better choice though as it is cheaper than both and is faster than the 4770 and trades blows with the GTS250 depending on the game. The only downside is the 4850 uses more power.

 

[cybot_x1024]

depends on your psu. the 4770 draws way less power than the gts 250, therefore if you have a <500w it would be better to go with the 4770. both cards perform just about the same