Single 5770? Crossfire 4850s? 4850 X2?

[bwillman]

Hey Everybody,

I've been looking into building a gaming computer and I'm trying to decide on a graphics card. I'm planning on building an AMD Phenom II X2 550 processor on a Gigabyte (crossfire ready) Mobo with about 4gigs of 1600 DDR3 ram on a 650W Corsair PSU (4 PCI-E cables).

Basicially my thread title says it all. I'm trying to get a good comparison on price to performance between the single 5770, crossfired 4850s and then the single sapphire 4850 X2 (which has the two gpus in one foot long board).

From what I've seen the single 5770 is about $180, the crossfired 4850s will be about $240 for the pair, and the single sapphire 4850X2 runs about $240 as well.

EDIT: Also want to add an HD4890 into the mix. Thoughts about this card relative to the others would also be appreciated.

Thanks for your input!
Ben

 

[kingnoobe]

If I had the choice I'd go with the 5 series. Simply cause of new tech, dx..etc. And I'm sure it'll run all the games fine, and maybe now the new dx some little extra eye candy for the newer games.

 

[belial2k]

Your best price to performance ratio is with the 4850s or 4850x2. That will give you basic equivalent of a gtx285 performance. If you do some bargain shopping for the 4850s you can find them for as low as $100, but supply is going fast on those. IF you can find a couple of 4870s for less than $125ea I'd go that way.
http://www.eworldsale.com/powercolor-ax4870-1gbd5-pph-pcs-radeon-hd-4870-1gb-gddr5-pci-express-20_5882_29335.html
http://www.eworldsale.com/diamond-radeon-hd-4870-512mb-gddr5-pci-express-x16-hdcp-ready-crossfire_5873_25693.html
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5509358&SRCCODE=GOOGLEBASE&cm_mmc_o=VRqCjC7BBTkwCjCECjCE
http://www.warehousedeals.com/Sapphire-100247L-HD-4870-512MB-GDDR5/M/B001EH1ZIY.htm

 

[Bluescreendeath]

5770 performs the same as a 4870, but runs cooler, uses less power and supports dx11, but is more expensive.

A 4870 or 5770 is about 20-30% better than a 4850.

 

[bwillman]

What about the 4890? I have heard of people overclocking them to run very well and they are only $200 or so. Would it be better to invest in a 4890 or a 5770?

Thank you guys for your wise input

Ben

 

[Bluescreendeath]

4890 is about 20% better than either the 4870 or 5770.

The drawbacks are it uses more power and runs hotter.

So it's between:
4870: Cheapest
5770: DX11, runs cooler, uses less energy
4890: 20% more performance than the 4870 or 5770