4850 1GB

If gaming, the 4870x2 is your best option. Then the 4870 1gb would be the 2nd option. The 4850, for gaming on a 30" monitor is a distant 3rd, especially if you like to play with all settings maxed out.
 
my point was that:

YES; extra memory will almost always help. regardless of monitor or situation.

but if you look at spreadsheets all day or view .avi files then no.
 
This box requires a single slot card. It presently has a 4870 in it, but I need to close the case. So, the 4850 appears to be the best possible candidate. So, if the extra memory will provide better gaming ( I am not expecting miracles here :)), perhaps it is the way to go.
 
My next project, which will use the same monitor (This present box will find its way to a 1920x1200 24" monitor) will have the room for a better card(s)
 
Noetic there is no single GPU currently on the planet regardless of ram that will allow you to play 2560x well in certain very demanding titles. You might get acceptable averages and your mins would likely be in the 10-15FPS range, or horrid. Yes, there are games where you will be able to.

Crysis, Crysis Warhead, STALKER: Clear Sky, and Far Cry 2 are not among them. Again, just because you see a card can pull a 30FPS average in a game does not mean it's playable. It may frequently fall to 10-15FPS in crunch situations. Some people may be able to tolerate that and I can't stomach anything lower than the mid 20s. Even that feels sluggish to me.

I should qualify that assertion. I am talking about using the best quality settings the game can afford with filtering on top. Of course there is always the option to run medium settings which would mostly negate my point. Personally I would not want such a nice large HQ monitor to run average graphic settings on it.

I can't recommend replacing a HD 4870 with a HD 4850 1Gb. In most case the HD 4870 512Mb will still pass up the 4850 1Gb well.

So if you're going to use a single HD 4850 1Gb @ 2560x some titles are going to require you to reduce the quality settings, perhaps drastically. Some titles may be perfectly playable.

I run overclocked HD 4850 1Gb Crossfire @ 1920x here, and it's fine. I can't imagine upping my res and dropping to a single card though. I bought the cards I did because they are passively cooled and thus perfectly silent.
 
Noetic said:
This box requires a single slot card. It presently has a 4870 in it, but I need to close the case. So, the 4850 appears to be the best possible candidate. So, if the extra memory will provide better gaming ( I am not expecting miracles here :)), perhaps it is the way to go.
Click to expand...

um, why not just get a new case? its not that big of a deal.

at any rate yes, 1gb on a 4850, or for that matter 2gb (powercolor makes a 2gb, mwave carries them I believe, guru of 3d has a review on it) would be marginally better at that resolution. but not nearly what GDDR5 would.
 
A 4870 512MB for the same price would be the better choice. If you're gunning to play the outlier games on native res both 1GB 4850 and 512MB 4870 would die the same gross way. At least the 4870 has more power for games that don't use all the memory.
 
lowteckh said:
A 4870 512MB for the same price would be the better choice. If you're gunning to play the outlier games on native res both 1GB 4850 and 512MB 4870 would die the same gross way. At least the 4870 has more power for games that don't use all the memory.
Click to expand...

he just said the reason was he needed a single slot card.
 
The system is mentioned in my sig, the Shuttle with the G33 based motherboard. It is presently running a 4870 without a hitch (I was an early adaptor for the ati board), however I wish to close the case.

I do not require the high settings for this application, as it will eventually be pushing the 24" monitor and very light on the gaming. Moreover, it is to limp along until the next box is ready.
 
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