Current 4870 owners, when do you plan on upgrading?

When do you plan on upgrading?

  • The immediate future. I'm going to buy something this week.

    Votes: 1 1.2%

  • In the near future, I'm going to purchase a new mainstream card.

    Votes: 7 8.1%

  • I plan on getting the next best thing, as soon as it's available.

    Votes: 22 25.6%

  • I haven't thought about it yet/in the farther future.

    Votes: 56 65.1%
  • Total voters
    86
P

panfist

Gawd
Joined
May 1, 2008
Messages
638
I own a 4870 1GB and I'm starting to think about my next purchase. When the 40nm process becomes more stable I'm expecting both camps to come out with some kind new flagship product based on 40nm.

I'm considering adding another 4870 1GB soon, possibly waiting for them to come down in price. Depending on the performance/watt improvement with the new process, I might ditch the 4870 and get a RV870.
 
you'd be more than fine adding another 4870 1GB to your setup, if your power supply is okay.

I don't foresee myself getting a 58xx series at all, unless I absolutely need a direct x 11 card. my 4870x2 runs anything i throw at it, and it does it well.
 
4870 512 user here, i'll have to see what a 5870 offers, but i doubt ill upgrade right away
 
No real need to upgrade from dual 4870 1GB cards yet. Don't see myself upgrading to the next gen either, or until I run into a game I can't play at max settings.
 
I haven't quite thought about it.

I'm the owner of an E8400 so my upgrade will be dependent on how big of a bottleneck my CPU will be next year. In all likelihood I will wait for a killer game that *absolutely* needs to be played at full fidelity b4 upgrading (HL2 Episode 3)
 
I've owned my Diamond 4870 x2 2GB since Aug,2008. Used the ATI Overdrive "Fan Speed" for a few months. The card is really hot so being able to increase the fan speed helped get lower temps but added more noise. Then I went from Air Cooling to Water Cooling for my CPU & GPU use Danger Den 4870 x2 water block into a 2x120 Rad. Really glad I went Single card solution back then vs these 1GB cards ATI put out for 2-way or 3-way Crossfire also helped me by going WC.
 
gonna have to see how much improvement ati/nvidia are gonna make with next gen
 
I'm rockin a 16x10 display, so I'll wait and see what the next gen brings us. I might just go with a high clocked 4890 depending on price/performance/power ratios. But the 4870 does what I need now, so no need to change.
 
I upgraded from 2x 512MB 4870s to 2x GTX 280s as I got them cheap, biiiiiig difference when playing at 1920x1200 :D
 
4870 512 owner here, on release day i bought 2 for crossfire and have been a huge fan of these.

I just sold one and am still happy with single performance, I'll stick with single card upgrades from now on. I'm looking to upgrade but not off the bat with the GT300/RV870 release, I'll wait for personal reviews as well.
 
gaming at 1280*1024 my 4870 1gb is holding up nicely. can play any game with maximum graphics settings including Crysis. i see no reason to think about upgrading my gfx just yet.
 
As is ATI still has not gotten the drivers for the 4870x2 to a point where the card is running at or near the potential, I doubt the current drivers even use 70% of the capability of it.
 
I'd just like to put out hte difference between a 4890 and a 4870 is not worth it... I'll prolly get another 4870 and xfire or save up for next gen.
 
I upgraded last week, but only because my 4870 died on me. I got a 4890.

Generally I upgrade every 1.5-2 years. If the 4870 hadn't died that would have been the plan. Its was a good card.
 
Running an HD 4870 1GB for a 1280x1204 monitor, I haven't found a game which is completely unplayable at max settings, so I'm happy with it
 
You will probably be good for a while at that resolution. I had to upgrade my card because there was hardly any games I could run at native resolution. ati 1800XT -> 4890.
 
I play at 19x10 on my dual 4870 512's with no problem, and I just got them. No upgrades for my videocards anytime soon.
 
I'm Crossfired with two 512MB 4870s. Have zero interest in upgrading at the moment. If the first DX11 parts are reasonably faster I could see myself thinking about upgrading. But since we all know how quick new DX games come out I'll probably wait till the refresh of the first DX11 parts are out then upgrade.
 
now that I think about it, I wanna see the HD5xxx temperatures. I want enthusiast speed, but I'm tired of my video card raping my rooms cold air supply.
 
Seeing how I just upgraded from a 7900GTO to my 4870/512 a few days ago, Im thinking somwhere in the lines of 2-3 years. This thing rocks 19x12 on all the games I play so Im good for a long while.
 
I am upgrading my 4870 to 4890 about this week, since there is no news on RV870 and its pretty expecting to be release at the end of the year...
 
I currently have a 4870/512 one of the first to arrive in NZ, but definitely feeling the itch now it will probably be upgraded with the cpu and the rest of the system in a couple of months.
 
I'll add a second 4870 1Gb around christmas time or if I get upgrade from a 24" to a 30".
 
I'll need to get a 24" monitor first. My setup handles all of the games I play at 1680x1050 just fine.
 
evolucion8 said:
Running an HD 4870 1GB for a 1280x1204 monitor, I haven't found a game which is completely unplayable at max settings, so I'm happy with it
Click to expand...

Same here. I havent thought and wont be thinking of upgrading my graphics card for a long while (I only bought my 4870 a few months ago). My next upgrade will be cpu+mb+ram when I can afford it.
 
Well i had a 4870 512mb card and it was great, a bit hot but the accelero twin turbo fixed that. Just upgraded to a gtx280 and am happy with that as well.
 
When the 5870x2 launches.

My 4870x2 is doing fine on my 24" now. Hopefully ATi will have their new cards ready by late summer when I do my i7 build.
 
4830 @ 4850 speeds here
not thinking about it till i start gaming more
cuz atm my 4830 plays all my games @ 1080p dandy
 
I've had my 4850 512MB since launch day (1 year at the end of this month), and I have yet to find a game it can't play on max at 1280x960. I usually upgrade every couple years, but with the dearth of quality new games pushing the envelope (plus the longer video card release cycle), it could be longer.

My biggest upgrade concern is finding a real replacement for my awesome CRT in the next few years. You can't get an LCD that does it all (good color gamut, good viewing angles, fast response time, no overdrive artifacts), and the closest products to this dream cost over a thousand dollars. I'm holding out for OLED for as long as I can, and that's where I expect to spend some real money.
 
4870 1GB here.

I'll be going DX11 when titles become popular. If Christmas comes, and I don't see any good DX11 titles in the pipe, I'll be snagging another 4870 1Gb or a 4870x2 if it's in the 300 dollar range.
 
defaultluser said:
...My biggest upgrade concern is finding a real replacement for my awesome CRT in the next few years. You can't get an LCD that does it all (good color gamut, good viewing angles, fast response time, no overdrive artifacts), and the closest products to this dream cost over a thousand dollars. I'm holding out for OLED for as long as I can, and that's where I expect to spend some real money.
Click to expand...

Yep, no LCD's in my house, My main rig is on a 21" Hitachi CRT at 1856x1392 max resolution and looks awesome.

I was hoping FED's or SED's might see the light of day too. :(

As far as upgrading goes, my 4870 will be around awhile, it was the last upgrade on this build and I'm making myself wait untill the 8 core cpu's come out for a new build. By then Windows 7 will be cooked to medium and savory, DX11 should have a must play game out and DX11 cards will be plenty.
 
Last edited:
Sabrewulf... said:
Yep, no LCD's in my house, My main rig is on a 21" Hitachi CRT at 1856x1392 max resolution and looks awesome.

I was hoping FED's or SED's might see the light of day too. :(

As far as upgrading goes, my 4870 will be around awhile, it was the last upgrade on this build ans I'm making myself wait till the 8 core cpu's come out for a new build. By then Windows 7 will be cooked to medium and savory, DX11 should have a must play game out and DX11 cards will be plenty.
Click to expand...

This sounds a lot like the situation I am in. I want to upgrade my display first before my video card, but my current and next displays will both be 1920x1200.

I currently have a 4870 1GB that plays 1920x1200 very well, but not perfectly. I want to be able to turn on AA and AF in all my games. One thing that frustrates me is when the control panel settings don't work in game! ARHKAGBAFHAVRE!

I don't play on buying a video card anytime soon just because it wouldn't be a huge improvement over my 4870, but if one comes along that plays crysis at 1920x1200 with AA, AF and a min framerate of 45, and an average of 60+ I'm buying it. Unless that video card comes out first, I'm going to wait until DX11 is mature.

Not that I endorse crysis as the best of the best gaming titles, but if a video card conquers crysis then you know it'll max out anything and everything else you toss at it.

Is it just me or does it seem like the reason we're not getting other games with graphics equal to or better than crysis because console graphics are now so far behind that PC gaming has left it and entered another league. Especially with a huge CPU and RAM advantage, a current $600 PC is like a supercomputer compared to an Xbox360. To me the current divide between the capabilities of PCs and consoles is about when 3dfx released the voodoo and voodoo2, and the I don't think the playstation had even come out yet; except this time, PCs don't have a monopoly on something like the FPS genre or multiplayer gaming. When the original Quake came out, what the fuck game on a console could touch a 16 player deathmatch?
 
My daughter uses my 4870-512 MB that I bought at launch.

It is still a very stout card and plays everything she likes......mostly CS:S,HL2 and L4D.

I can't really see an upgrade coming for her.....maybe a 4890 if/when the price drops.
 
I usually skip two or three generations before getting anything new. My last card was an nvidia 7900 GTO, and I got a 4870 1GB last sept in '08. Getting the newest thing every year hurts the wallet too much :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top