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Unexpected Upgrade from a 4870

V

Vg33k

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 17, 2008
Messages
82
After wading through pink artifacts and BSoD's, I have come to the conclusion that my trusty old 4870 has finally bitten the dust. The specs in my sig is the machine in question. I was thinking of staying w/ ATI because of the price/performance ratio, but I could be swayed otherwise. My price range is: 200-300, 400 would be pushing it. Thoughts?

(Sorry in advance if I don't respond quickly/at all for the next few hours, I'm working at the moment.)
 
Well, I think you consider an ATI 6950 or a Nvidia GTX 570.

I know a lot of people will say they are overkill etc. etc. But the performance of both card above will keep you going for a long time.

Another option of course would be to get say a gtx460 or an ATI 6850, and put some money into upgrading your CPU and maybe your monitor.

If you plan to upgrade your mobo/cpu/monitor in the near future then it's down to the first two cards I mentioned. And, yeah I admit I am a little biased, but, I would pick the 6950. It's the best bang for buck card out at the moment. But you won't be disappointed if you choose the gtx 570, it's faster than the 6950 and if you can get a good deal on one then it's really worth thinking about.
 
note that the 6950 can be flashed to be exactly like a 6970 with a BIOS update
 
I would not spend over 300 bucks for a gpu on an E8400. at just 1680, getting a 6850 and ocing it makes much more sense.
 
cannondale06 said:
I would not spend over 300 bucks for a gpu on an E8400. at just 1680, getting a 6850 and ocing it makes much more sense.
Click to expand...
6850 is 35% faster than the 5770 @ 1680x1050.
From there, the 6950 is 29% faster than the 6850.

(Can't check the 4870 since it's too old :p )
 
UtopiA said:
6850 is 35% faster than the 5770 @ 1680x1050.
From there, the 6950 is 29% faster than the 6850.
Click to expand...
thats with an overclocked i7. with his E8400, the 6850 makes more overall sense and is plenty fast for that res. the 6850 is much much cheaper than a 6950 so it would be hard to justify a 6950 at that res even if he had a fast quad. he is only getting a new gpu because his other one is dying so the extra performance of a 6850 will be nice.
 
Yeah, as tempting as the 6850 is based on the reviews, I knew that my E8400 wouldn't keep up.
I'm not sure about upgrading my whole system yet...I'm going into my final semester of college, so I don't have much money to throw around. Aren't there new processors/chipsets around the corner, anyways? If not, I could possibly manage a full system upgrade, but if it isn't suggested, then I won't yet. Otherwise, it seems that a 6950 looks like the best option for my Wolfdale + 22" Screen...

*Edit: I meant 6950 were I said 6850...and vice versa. It's fixed now.
 
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nardox said:
How about an used 5870? or even two used 5850s..
Click to expand...
I would go with a new card with a warranty myself. his cpu would be lacking a bit with a 6950 so 5850 crossfire would be even worse with his cpu at 1680. even a single 5850 is already a bit faster than a 6850 which he said would be okay at his res.

EDIT: oops I had you confused with the op so I edited my comment.
 
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Still, 6850's are waay cheaper than 6950's...I'm thinking about getting a 6850.
 
I really really like the 6850 and GTX460...I have them both, but will lean towards the 6850.You may wanna also Check out the Radeon 5770 or an Overclocked GTS450 with your current computer if you don't plan on a cpu/MoBo upgrade anytime soon.
 
Rauelius said:
I really really like the 6850 and GTX460...I have them both, but will lean towards the 6850.You may wanna also Check out the Radeon 5770 or an Overclocked GTS450 with your current computer if you don't plan on a cpu/MoBo upgrade anytime soon.
Click to expand...
a 5770 or gts450 would be a downgrade or sidegrade in some games at best. he might as well get a 6850 or gtx460 and get some more performance than his 4870.
 
You can pick up a replacement for next to nothing. Plenty of people upgrade their cards and have no need for their used hardware. Do the expensive upgrade when you're ready to replace the other parts, to make for a more matched system.

There are several games out lately that are very CPU dependent.
 
Vg33k said:
After wading through pink artifacts and BSoD's, I have come to the conclusion that my trusty old 4870 has finally bitten the dust. The specs in my sig is the machine in question. I was thinking of staying w/ ATI because of the price/performance ratio, but I could be swayed otherwise. My price range is: 200-300, 400 would be pushing it. Thoughts?

(Sorry in advance if I don't respond quickly/at all for the next few hours, I'm working at the moment.)
Click to expand...

err doesnt visiontek have a lifetime warranty why not rma it ?
 
dajet24 said:
err doesnt visiontek have a lifetime warranty why not rma it ?
Click to expand...

Because I never "registered" on their website, I doubt they will let me cash in now...

By the way, I found this deal on Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125326&cm_re=5870-_-14-125-326-_-Product

I know it's probably overkill on my current system, but it comes with a 1TB HDD....
I've been itching to get one since my HDD is getting close to full on games...
Is this HDD good or should I ignore it? :eek:
 
Well I still think you should go for a 6950 if you are planning on going AMD.

You seem to only upgrade every so often and the last graphics card you had was the 4870. That was a great card in it's day. And you can see how well it lasted.

The 6950 will last you longer, and when you do decide to upgrade your CPU etc. it won't be holding you back. The 6850 and 460 are great cards, don't get me wrong and they will probably do fine for now, but, once you crank up the eye candy in DX11 games they don't perform as well.

Your E8400 will not bottleneck the 6950. Yes of course in games that are cpu intensive and games that use 4 cores then you are going to be bottlenecked by your cpu no matter what graphics card you get. The E8400 is a great cpu and I noticed that you have it at stock clocks, E8400's are easily pushed up to the 3.6Ghz mark.

Your budget according to your first post is 200-300, I always think that a person should buy the best graphics card they can afford for their budget. The 6950 is within your budget. It should last you two years easy and through one or two pc/monitor upgrades too.
 
anything over the 6850/70 is overkill for your resolution. The fact of the matter is 1680x1050 is a cake walk for any mid level gpu right now. I just upgraded from a 4890 1gb to my 6870. FPS only went up 15% which sounds like a decent bump. But, when its COD4:BO and it only goes from 91 fps to 105-110fps who cares?
 
reaper12 said:
Well I still think you should go for a 6950 if you are planning on going AMD...

The E8400 is a great cpu and I noticed that you have it at stock clocks, E8400's are easily pushed up to the 3.6Ghz mark...
Click to expand...

I have overclocked my CPU in the past, I just cranked it down because I wasn't really needing it, lol.

Yeah, I am simply adamant about spending so much since this is a forced purchase, but the 6950 really is impressive...I might upgrade more of my computer soon if finances permit me, so it will work out in the end...damn, I kinda wanted to buy a Corsair case with my purchase too, as my Antec case is showing signs of rust in the screws. :(

I would still like (at least) a 1 TB HDD for games too...I still have much to consider it seems.
 
hossdaddy said:
anything over the 6850/70 is overkill for your resolution. The fact of the matter is 1680x1050 is a cake walk for any mid level gpu right now. I just upgraded from a 4890 1gb to my 6870. FPS only went up 15% which sounds like a decent bump. But, when its COD4:BO and it only goes from 91 fps to 105-110fps who cares?
Click to expand...

I'm also considering the future-proof-ability of my machine. I plan on eventually upgrading to 1920x1200 (not that demanding, but still). I love how long the 4870 lasted and I would like something akin to it's durability to time. I am still "weighing" my shopping cart, tho. :D
 
I'd consider picking up a decent value HSF (Cogate True Spirit, Cooler Master 212, Corsair A70) and over clock your chip to 3.4+. I'm assuming you only have the stock cooler based on your sig.

Then pickup a GTX 460 or 6850. That should play pretty much every game very well for the next 2 years at that 1680 res. Reason being, console refreshes aren't due for another 2-3 years, and lots of games are console ports, so most games are designed to run on that lower hardware.
 
if you get the 460 stay away from the 768mb... and you might as well get the 5850 I posted earlier, it's cheaper than any 6850 and slightly better I believe
 
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canna said:
I'm assuming you only have the stock cooler based on your sig.
Click to expand...
Ew. No, I have a XIGMATEK HDT-S1283; I just don't have my CPU overclocked at the moment.

canna said:
Then pickup a GTX 460 or 6850. That should play pretty much every game very well for the next 2 years at that 1680 res. Reason being, console refreshes aren't due for another 2-3 years, and lots of games are console ports, so most games are designed to run on that lower hardware.
Click to expand...
As I mentioned, I will likely upgrade my monitor and CPU/Mobo/etc in the future.
 
Vg33k said:
I have overclocked my CPU in the past, I just cranked it down because I wasn't really needing it, lol.

Yeah, I am simply adamant about spending so much since this is a forced purchase, but the 6950 really is impressive...I might upgrade more of my computer soon if finances permit me, so it will work out in the end...damn, I kinda wanted to buy a Corsair case with my purchase too, as my Antec case is showing signs of rust in the screws. :(

I would still like (at least) a 1 TB HDD for games too...I still have much to consider it seems.
Click to expand...

LOL, well maybe you might need the little bit of an overclock now :D

Yeah you have a lot of things to consider. Every card mentioned from both camps are really good. You are going to have to decide what's important for you.

What might be a plan is If you buy the cheapest of the cards mentioned as a stopgap until you upgrade the rest of your system. Or maybe even get a second hand card, like another 4870? I think a monitor would be the best upgrade you should go for at the moment once you decide on what graphics card you will get.
 
Buy a used 5870, more money for beer, or hookers and blow if that's your thing. Or a 6950 if the CPU / monitor upgrade is in the nearish future.
 
What games do you play?

Remember that when your viewing online benchmarks that your fps will be much different in your C2D setup due to bottlenecking.

At 1680x1050 an ati 5870 for $250 on newegg with a free 1Tb drive is going to be your best bet if you play BC2 and BlackOps. I did extensive testing and in our C2D setups and the $250 ati5870 is even faster then a $700 ati5970 and the gtx570 in both BC2 and Black Ops.

I know this sounds hard to believe, but I received the same results in (2) different C2D machines....

http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036625577&postcount=56

If you do plan to run at higher resolutions, I'm unsure of the performance difference since I did all my testing at 1600x1200.
 
YamahaAlex37 said:
What does that mean?
Click to expand...

OP, check this out.

Look at the results of the 460 768MB and the 1GB at 1680 x 1050(OP's resolution) and then at 1920 x 1200. The overall difference is 6%, that percentage does not change. Even with ~30% more pixels than OP's resolution, there is no limitation associated with the amount of VRAM, only with memory bandwidth. Only Metro 2033 lets the 1GB pull ahead because of VRAM, and that's at 1920 x 1200 mind you. If OP would like to spend less, there is no reason for him not to get the 768MB, if he would like to upgrade a short time later or something.

I mainly posted that to give people another perspective on the 768MB. It's quite sufficient for 1680 x 1050 and below.

EDIT: Oh, and at 1680, the 460 768MB gets 93% of the 6850's overall performance, despite costing ~$120 instead of $180. It's the best price/perf. card you can get for your resolution, assuming you don't mind selling it once you upgrade monitors.
 
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Get a GTX 460, and OC. You'll get the approx performance of a 470 at stock. If you feel you have more money you don't mind spending, get the 470 and OC it to get stock 480 performance.
NVidia cards will handle tessellation better as well as PhysX.
 
Damn, way too many cards on the market right now, lol.
This will be a hard decision...

I would like to stick with a card for a while...so I'm leaning towards 6850/5870 territory...but still, other factors I need to consider...

I have a boat-load of steam games right now, btw. Too many to count: GTA 4+Eps, Borderlands, Black Ops, Metro 2033, JC 2, Dead Rising 2, New Vegas, etc, etc, etc...way too many to mention. Many of which are rather demanding at max settings...

400 is okay on my rig but far from future proof...
5800 price point is nice, but the tech isn't going to last either (tessellation)...
6800 is similar in price, but newer...
6950 is the new shiny kid on the block, but it's exp + overkill for my current rig.

Many ways I can slice it. :/
 
dajet24 said:
err doesnt visiontek have a lifetime warranty why not rma it ?
Click to expand...

Seems like the best option to me, why spend the money if you don't have to. Still want to upgrade, at least get your replacement, use it in another system or sell it.
 
6950 or GTX 570, for sure.

If you rather stick with AMD, then the 6950 is a great proposition as it can be flashed into a 6970.
 
XacTactX said:
OP, check this out.

Look at the results of the 460 768MB and the 1GB at 1680 x 1050(OP's resolution) and then at 1920 x 1200. The overall difference is 6%, that percentage does not change. Even with ~30% more pixels than OP's resolution, there is no limitation associated with the amount of VRAM, only with memory bandwidth. Only Metro 2033 lets the 1GB pull ahead because of VRAM, and that's at 1920 x 1200 mind you. If OP would like to spend less, there is no reason for him not to get the 768MB, if he would like to upgrade a short time later or something.

I mainly posted that to give people another perspective on the 768MB. It's quite sufficient for 1680 x 1050 and below.

EDIT: Oh, and at 1680, the 460 768MB gets 93% of the 6850's overall performance, despite costing ~$120 instead of $180. It's the best price/perf. card you can get for your resolution, assuming you don't mind selling it once you upgrade monitors.
Click to expand...

Interesting... I don't know I was just assuming from all the complaints about the 768mb and all the other recommendations I've been reading about the 1gb over the 768, I thought there must be a bigger difference.
 
Vg33k said:
After wading through pink artifacts and BSoD's, I have come to the conclusion that my trusty old 4870 has finally bitten the dust. The specs in my sig is the machine in question. I was thinking of staying w/ ATI because of the price/performance ratio, but I could be swayed otherwise. My price range is: 200-300, 400 would be pushing it. Thoughts?

(Sorry in advance if I don't respond quickly/at all for the next few hours, I'm working at the moment.)
Click to expand...

Lets see.

Radeon 6950 unlocked to 6970 is $300

Radeon 5870 runs around $260-280

Radeon 5850 runs around $220


You can even get a 5850 for around $180 on amazon if you want to save money. A 5850 would almost double the 4870's performance and isn't very expensive esp used.
 
eastmen said:
Lets see.

Radeon 6950 unlocked to 6970 is $300

Radeon 5870 runs around $260-280

Radeon 5850 runs around $220


You can even get a 5850 for around $180 on amazon if you want to save money. A 5850 would almost double the 4870's performance and isn't very expensive esp used.
Click to expand...
at 1680 a 5850 is about 40-45% faster than a 4870 and thats with an i7 cpu.
 
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