Radeon 4800 & GeForce 200 Series Value Guide @ [H]

SpeedyVV said:
There have ben lots of articles to see how the 8800gtx sli performs.

I sold my 8800GTX and bought a GTX 280. Very happy with the decision.
Click to expand...

same here. My 8800GTX paid for almost half my GTX 280 purchase.
 
The only thing I would liked to have seen would be the inclusion of the 9800GX2 now that it is price competitive with the GTX 260 and 4870, and perhaps something sub $150, like the 8800GT

Otherwise, it was excellent as always. Another game would have been great, but now I'm just being greedy :)
 
harmattan said:
True, but even if the overall prices change, I'd bet the relative price between each card stays about the same.
Click to expand...

Looking at what happened between the 260/280 at launch and now, I wouldn't count on it. Nvidia has been moving very agressively on price, AMD however isn't budging. Which is almost ironic considering Nvidia was so badly priced at launch.
 
This had to take quite a While to assimilate. W O W! is all I can say, what an awfull lot of info to digest. Great Job bringing it to us Guys. I'm still very Glad in my HD4850 Purchase, and can only surmise that the HD4850 X2 1 Gig Crossfired with the HD4850 should be another Notch up on the Performance Ladder. Should be interesting to see.
 
M13 said:
One big problem with this article and others of the same type. You've done a lot of work and a great job evaluating each of these options against each other! But, here comes my problem, since I don't run any of those games I have NO point of reference to judge these new cards against what I'm currently running.

It would have been real nice to see some older (previous generation) cards in the apples to apples charts.

Other than that, you've done another well done article!
Click to expand...

I'm running NFS:Carbon, NFS:Most Wanted, Quake Wars: Enenmy Territory and COH, without any Problems on my HD4850, it chews them up and spits my 8800GTX Ultra OC into the Dust, which is really Impressive.
 
vengence said:
Looking at what happened between the 260/280 at launch and now, I wouldn't count on it. Nvidia has been moving very agressively on price, AMD however isn't budging. Which is almost ironic considering Nvidia was so badly priced at launch.
Click to expand...

they haven't dropped yet because they haven't had to. That may be changing. with the new round of price drops but Nvidia was in a position to take a loss on a cycle, AMD was not. If anything this is making up lost ground for them. I think they will drop the prices as soon as the sales slow down. right now they are doing very well even at a higher cost then Nvidia. That may change. But Nvidia really shot themselves in the foot, First it became very apparent to the customers that they were being milked, that absolutely f"ed up minimum price displaying policy, and a few other things. but that only goes so far. At some point ATI is going to have to respond.

If the 4870 drop below 200 I think we could revise that charts a little. And AMD has the margin to do it I believe. I may be upgrading by Christmas
 
Valset said:
not if it releases at the price they stated, 399. If it comes in at less then 300 sure. otherwise it going to land badly.

interesting. AMD needs to do some price cuts.
Click to expand...

There's no way the X2 would be priced less than two single cards. Doesn't make any kind of sense.
 
Im curious If can you put more then 2 4850's in crossfire?

I just picked up an M3A79-T mobo, and supports up to 4 single slot cards in xfire?....might make me not buy
4870 this friday...i mean seriously I think you guys pretty much sold me on 2 of those 4850's now...maybe

Thanks and Great Review :) was perfect timing for me
 
DASHlT said:
Im curious If can you put more then 2 4850's in crossfire?

I just picked up an M3A79-T mobo, and supports up to 4 single slot cards in xfire?....might make me not buy
4870 this friday...i mean seriously I think you guys pretty much sold me on 2 of those 4850's now...maybe

Thanks and Great Review :) was perfect timing for me
Click to expand...

I wonder, scaling doesn't seem to work well beyond two GPU. it would be interesting to see how well trifire 4850 work, didn't work well with the 4870X2 and 4870. wonder if there is any chance of getting an H review on that. I can put 3 4850 on my machine. not sure it would be better then My GTX280
 
Good review, I'm somewhat ready to take the plunge, I'm thinking sli gtx 260, but where are you getting them for $215 apiece, if I read that right.
 
Uncle said:
Good review, I'm somewhat ready to take the plunge, I'm thinking sli gtx 260, but where are you getting them for $215 apiece, if I read that right.
Click to expand...

if you look around you can find some deals, you can get 2 for 400 if your willing to deal with PNY. The better brands are going to be more then that.
 
This is far and away the most excellent and valuable graphics card article I've ever seen at [H]. A Great format, and the summary bar graphs were a hell of a lot easier to read than the normal EKG-style, I hope you keep them. A truly excellent job, Guys!
 
Modred189 said:
Odd , Kyle. I have 4850 CF, and I have never experienced any of these bottlenecks, but as we mentioned in a previous thread, may be due to my maritally limited red of 1280X1024, I thought it would be worth mentioning to my fellow 19" lcd users...
Click to expand...
4850 crossfire for 1280x1024? that seems like a nearly complete waste of one of those 4850s. :confused:
 
Holy Cow! That guide must have taken awhile to put together. Thanks for all the [H]ard work. :)
Glad to see you used the 177.92 Betas for the nVidia lineup.

I've been F@H for the [H]orde, so I have brand new games sitting still in the box ATM. :eek:
 
For those that asked for more cards to be included, it doesn't make much since to add them when the title specifically says "Radeon 4800 & GeForce 200 Series Value Guide" Everything else has already been done to death and one could easily go back to previous reviews since a couple of the games used in this review are the same. My conclusion to this is, if you play modern games on a widescreen, you should at least be using a 4850 if not higher depending on your current rez.
 
Great rundown. I'm glad we're back at a point where you can get excellent performance for under $300, something that was seriously lacking through most of last year when nVidia held prices high without refreshing their product line because ATI didn't offer any compelling alternatives.

Competition is good. :)
 
I can't agree with the guide. Since it does not factor in the cost of the motheboards. SLi costs more than Crossfire boards.
 
Hooray, just got a 3870 for $200 shipped, a H1200 score difference in 3DMark Vantage from 9800GTX+, which I also spend $200 couple weeks ago... I think I made good choice.
 
lt_shiro said:
I can't agree with the guide. Since it does not factor in the cost of the motheboards. SLi costs more than Crossfire boards.
Click to expand...

true but not so much that it throws it off. and you can get an EVGA 750i FTW board for around 170. still you can get a good P45 board for around 100.

for me the issue would be having to go with a Nvidia board. that would be a deal breaker for a lot of people. Nvidia needs to give it up and let SLI go where it will
 
lifanus said:
Hooray, just got a 3870 for $200 shipped, a H1200 score difference in 3DMark Vantage from 9800GTX+, which I also spend $200 couple weeks ago... I think I made good choice.
Click to expand...

err, I think you mean 4870, I mean I hope you did cause 200$ for a 3870 is not exactly what I would call a deal lol.
 
The review seems to bash the 4870x2 alot. I'm seeing some hints of fanboyism in your reviews lately :)
 
I loved the article, and loved the data, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out how the HardOCP philosophy could call the CrossFire 4850 a standout value. The data in real world gameplay shows that it only improves real world gameplay in a real of the games, and is overkill for most 1680x1050 monitors. (The size most people limited by a sub-$300 GPU will have, at best) Additionally, it doesn't mention the extra $50-100 you will have to spend on a MB to get crossfire capability, shooting the real world price to $350+.

The data just did not show that the extra $135 beyond a GTX260 got enough to justify that type of $$$. I thought the data clearly showed that while the Crossfire 4850 was the clear performance winner of the bracket, the VALUE leader was the GTX260.

That is, of course, if you believe in real world gameplay, not just benchmark numbers.
 
Just had to jump in to request one more page to be added to the article.

Please list estimated PPD per configuration for Folding@Home.

These cards can do so much more than just play games.

Thanks,
Bugs
 
SvdSinner said:
I loved the article, and loved the data, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out how the HardOCP philosophy could call the CrossFire 4850 a standout value. The data in real world gameplay shows that it only improves real world gameplay in a real of the games, and is overkill for most 1680x1050 monitors. (The size most people limited by a sub-$300 GPU will have, at best) Additionally, it doesn't mention the extra $50-100 you will have to spend on a MB to get crossfire capability, shooting the real world price to $350+.
Click to expand...
True, regarding the cost, but the asumption here is that you already have a CFx board, or that you are choosing between CFx and SLi. At that point the cost is about the same between the two in terms of board cost. At least, you can find boards at every price point that will to either,
SvdSinner said:
The data just did not show that the extra $135 beyond a GTX260 got enough to justify that type of $$$. I thought the data clearly showed that while the Crossfire 4850 was the clear performance winner of the bracket, the VALUE leader was the GTX260.

That is, of course, if you believe in real world gameplay, not just benchmark numbers.
Click to expand...
Keep in mind that 'value' is a relative terms in some respects to your wallet and your preferences in performance. This is simply [H]'s reccommendation.
 
Man, I just saw that XFX GTX 260 on Newegg going for $230 after MIR that ALSO includes Assassin's Creed... Which I haven't bought yet since I've been meaning to upgrade. That's such a sweet deal, you're virtually getting the card for $200. I was set on a 4850 (there's an Asus down to $140) but it's hard to resist that. :eek: I'll only be gaming at 1680x1050 though, and I doubt I'll play thru Crysis more than once... Still though, I'm sure the GTX 260 will shine in future games, hrm.
 
Great article btw, I don't mind the omission of the older cards (9800GTX+, 8800GT, etc.) but I do think some mention of the cost involved in going SLI/CF would've been worthwhile in the Conclusion... Since you titled this as a Value Guide and not just a run of the mill review anyway. 'Course the specifics on that would vary a lot depending on everyone's situation, but some mention of it would be helpful to some I'm sure.

Things that might've been worth noting are the prices of SLI boards ($155 for EVGA's 750i FTW board after MIR) vs X38/48 boards ($200+ still AFAIK?), most enthusiast's preferences for Intel boards, etc. Still haven't seen a really good article that shows how 4850 CF scales on P45 boards either... I know it's bottlenecked at high res, but I'm sure there's some sweet spots at 1680/1920 where it'd be a good solution.
 
I can write my experience with clear sky and warhead.

clear sky, 2.8 ghz all high 2x AA avg fps is very low, cant give exact number, but with a 2nd 4870 and fps gameplay was smooth with ALL max dx10 2x AA. 1280x1024. @ 2.8 ghz phenom.
@ 3ghz i did 4x, and im the type of person who like alot of fps, and not like min 22-24 so crossfire worked perfect in that game, almost 2x the performance.

Warhead, mixed feelings, worked better than crysis 1, but cf didnt impact much on the fps, and yet again 1280x1024. since im using a ancient LCD.


i brought my LE1620 and playd stalker @ 3700 MHZ! and that was kinda cool, playing with 2x 4870 clocked, with a single core LE @ 3700 mhz and it did better than the phenom @ 3ghz.

Singlecore users out there, stalker runs fine ;) it utilizes only ONE core.
 
This year I played w/ HD4850 CF, HD4870 CF, a single HD4870X2 and now I got a GTX280. If you're not benching, a single HD4870 or GTX280 will do just fine. Mine does 20K on 3DMark06 overclocked which is awesome for a single GPU card.
 
a 2nd 4870 helps alot on stalker clear sky...

a 2nd 4870 helps little in crysis warhead =/

a single 4870 does pretty good in warhead anywayz.. cpu bound game...
 
For me in the original Crysis adding a second 4850 card made it from being quite laggy at high settings to holding steady at 50fps.
 
Wow! I was thinking of going single GPU with a GTX 260 or 280 for my new build, but that 4850 Crossfire performance...

Just wow!
 
This is one of [H]'s most informative articles ever. I just wanted to say thanks for all the hard work i know that this took. Benchmarking just one card on one system leaves me wanting to pull my hair out sometimes. You guys managed all those!
 
They should do a 4870 1GB crossfire too. I would love to see that at cranked settings.
 
spaceman said:
They should do a 4870 1GB crossfire too. I would love to see that at cranked settings.
Click to expand...
well heres a little hint for... it will be the same performance as the 4870X2. considering you can get the 4870X2 for $450-$500 buying two 4870 1gb cards would be pretty stupid.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top