8800 GT vs 4870

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sanitarium16

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 5, 2007
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I run all games in resolutions of 1900x1200. I can pretty much play all my games in this res but Company of Heroes stutters at times. Would it be a noticible increase if i upgrade my 8800GT to the new ATI 4870? Is it worth it at this time? Or should i skip a generation
 
I'm in the same boat as you except I run at 1080p.
You can test if you are CPU limited or GPU limited by declocking the gfx card say 10% and then the CPU 10%, only one at once.
Whichever gives the largest difference in FPS is the one that is bottlenecking.

If its your GPU then a faster one will certainly help.
Your CPU is fast enough to drive the newer cards very well.
 
i dont think CoH is one of the games worth buying a new card for, not even crysis. I'd say the 8800gt is still good untill december maybe (warhead, far cry 2, alan wake if they turn out to be good)

But theres the irony... I have an 8800gt too and in a months time i will be getting my hands on a 4870.. why? Im an impulsive person :D
 
I'll hold onto my 8800gt for a while since I just got it.I don't want to upgrade for a while but I only play at 1280x768.I have no need for a bigger monitor right now plus I can't afford one.I am in the beginning of a new build
 
Nenu said:
You can test if you are CPU limited or GPU limited by declocking the gfx card say 10% and then the CPU 10%, only one at once.
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In his sig is says he's running a core2 at 3.2, which is unlikely to be much of a bottleneck, except maybe in crysis or supreme commander.
 
Glacian22 said:
In his sig is says he's running a core2 at 3.2, which is unlikely to be much of a bottleneck, except maybe in crysis or supreme commander.
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Its not that straight forward because CoH can be very CPU intense.
I agree that it should be ok but the OP needs verify and then he can see for himself which is why I gave the 2 tests.
 
Well I can tell you a bit about the 4850 and a 8800GT. I play at 1680x1050, and I bought the 4850 to replace my 8800GT. But after running benchmark after benchmark and actaully playing some games like, COD4, BF2 Company of Heroes I found out that my 8800GT runs them just as good as the 4850 did. The 4850 got like 5 fps more than my GT, so I returned the 4850. Now if you want a card that is alot faster than the GT then you need the 4870, that card is a good replacement for the 8800GT imo.
 
Yup, thats why the OP was talking about the 4870 :)
 
Leepox said:
i dont think CoH is one of the games worth buying a new card for, not even crysis. I'd say the 8800gt is still good untill december maybe (warhead, far cry 2, alan wake if they turn out to be good)

But theres the irony... I have an 8800gt too and in a months time i will be getting my hands on a 4870.. why? Im an impulsive person :D
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exact same story here. i know i don't need to upgrade but i'm an impulsive bitch. it's taking some self control, but i'm waiting to see how the 4870X2 turns out
 
I replaced my 8800GT with the 4870 and noticed a huge improvement in AC, Bioshock and Crysis. I still feel somewhat constrained by the 512MB when playing at 2560x1600 because turning AA on really begins to kill performance (even though AA is supposed to be vastly improved on the 4870), but for you at 1900x1200 I think you couldn't do wrong with either upgrading to the 4870 now or waiting till August for the 4870x2 which we've recently heard is roughly 80% faster than the 4870 and lacks major microstudder issues. Either way, you'll be noticing a very very considerable increase in performance. And, maybe if you had the extra power you'd play games that required more than an 8800GT to max out ;)
 
I'm probably going to hold off. You're right when you say one game really isnt a reason to upgrade. It still looks good and i have all the settings maxed at a lower resolution. I really only play BF2 (One of the best games i think),COH,TF2,CS,IL2 Sturmovik and COD4 on a Dell 2408WFP. Im not into Massive Multiplayer games like WOW or Conan.
 
Yeah, supposedly they're using a new interconnect for the GPUs for even better performance, so it will be one to watch out for.
 
OP you got a great case with excellent air-flow, a good CPU cooler and a good motherboard...you should bump that e6850 to 3.6 GHz at least.
 
Saw a noticable performance increase when going from 3870 > 4850 , I game at 1680x1050 resolution. Going from 8800GT to 4870 should give good boost.
 
I got my 4870 on friday which replaced an 8800GT, and yeah GET IT :)

Able to max games now and run athem at 1920x1080. Only thing is that its louder than the 8800GT.
 
Ogilvy said:
OP you got a great case with excellent air-flow, a good CPU cooler and a good motherboard...you should bump that e6850 to 3.6 GHz at least.
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I know, I can, i have done done it but I am afraid of the chip being run at a constant 1.41V. Don't want to buy a new chip until Nahalem comes out.
 
I would skip a generation the latest review on anandtech shows minimal differences at this stage, Gddr5 has a long way to mature before I would jump ship.

Until then my 8800GT does every game just fine :)
 
sanitarium16 said:
I know, I can, i have done done it but I am afraid of the chip being run at a constant 1.41V. Don't want to buy a new chip until Nahalem comes out.
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Maybe our chips are different but I only need 1.35v (less than 1.3 after droop) for 3.6 to pass a 10 hour orthos test. Which is more than stable enough for games.
 
im waiting for the 4870x2 also.. Im tired of NV's strutting around like big yahoo on campus.. Giving us rehashed cards and calling them new... and we wont even talk about he pricing thing they have going on... if the x2 looks as good as they say-- then im in for my first red card:)
 
Porter_ said:
exact same story here. i know i don't need to upgrade but i'm an impulsive bitch. it's taking some self control, but i'm waiting to see how the 4870X2 turns out
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same here. i';m sure it will be super bad :D
 
sanitarium16 said:
Yes, i know it takes a lot to kill it but i don't have the best of luck and I don't feel like wasting close to $250 for a new chip (would go Quad Core this time)
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I'm with you, re: CPU OC. I've had my quad running faster, but I hate to play with electricity, and the freakin thing screams at 3.2.

Regarding the 4870, I ordered one and it will replace an 8800GT. I love the GT, but the 4870 was the level of performance I wanted when I built my rig last fall. For 1900 x 1200 gaming it should be a significant upgrade. I'm only upgrading, though, because I have to build my kid a new system and he games at 1280 x 1024. The 8800GT should work for him for a while.
 
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