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Really starting to consider the 4850,

2

2wiced

2[H]4U
Joined
Feb 14, 2005
Messages
3,366
The 4850 is on average like 7-10 fps behind the 4870, but it can be had for $150 bucks. thats more than half what the 4870 is. So being screwed by bestbuy has made me kind of reconsider ordering the 4870, dont get me wrong its a good card but is it really that much better? I am not wanting to start a flame war, but more of a forum where people discuss the advantage and disadvantage and possibly link benchmarks to support them.

I sold a 9800gtx to a friend so my main computer is sitting without a gaming card. I am on my laptop right now. The one thing that im thinking now is, the 4850 is faster then the 9800GTX so why dont i just settle for it and be happy... then in a year or 1.5 or when need to upgrade, spend another 150-200 bucks on a newer card....?

i dont wanna sit here with no card. lol.
 
You're sort of where I am atm.

I'm still looking for bargains on PSU and another MB since I'm upgrading my 2nd (older, AGP system).

The 4850 is just insanely tempting at that price for the awesome performance it offers.
 
I was in for the 4870 as well earlier today (was looking at BB as well).
Then I stumbled into the other thread with the $20 promocode // $30 rebate for the ASUS card, with free shipping, and I had to pounce.

With the 4870 being sold out across the board, I figure the prices are likely to go up, while it seems the 4850 is getting cheaper by the day really.

I'd rather CrossFire two 4850's than buy a single 4870, at these prices... As much as I hate CrossFire.
But with $150 for the 4850, I'd never forgive myself for passing up such a deal. The 4870 isn't worth the $310 (and likely increasing) price tag.
 
I agree the 4850 is the better buy, and if you have a decent CF board read X38/48 or P45 board its a smart buy.
 
i have the 4850, its the perfect video card for my needs. It plays every game out on my 22 inch flawless.
 
after the review i decided im going to get a 4850 then in a few months get another one and CF them since im on a 22" lcd monitor
 
dreamer3kx said:
i have the 4850, its the perfect video card for my needs. It plays every game out on my 22 inch flawless.
Click to expand...

From what [H]'s review says, the 4850 is also the perfect card for the owners of most CRTs (19" or less) as it can run *anything* at those almost-normally-unreachable (by a single card) 1600x1200 resolutions at High or better (the only exceptions are Crysis and Age of Conan, and, for once, in the case of Crysis, it's certainly not by much). FP display owners aren't the only ones that hate moving from the resolution sweet spot (in the case of my ex-Micron 19", it's 1600x1200 @ 75Hz NI), especially in Vista.

Crysis @ 16x12? On a CRT? With a mainstream graphics card on a mainstream PC?

Seriously, have any of us expected to see that before the current President left the White House?
 
Ok I bit. I got the 4850 @ $194.99, included the promo code to drop it down to $174.99 free shipping and mir to bring the total to $154.99 :D
 
UtopiA said:
Any reason why you picked Sapphire ??
Click to expand...


no. i do have a $20 ati Sapphire 1300 holding me over till i get the new card and it has been working fine for me.

EDIT:

ok i remember one reason was that there wasn't some dumb sticker covering the entire hsf cover
 
ALL4AMD said:
no. i do have a $20 ati Sapphire 1300 holding me over till i get the new card and it has been working fine for me.

EDIT:

ok i remember one reason was that there wasn't some dumb sticker covering the entire hsf cover
Click to expand...
Yeah, the stickers are quite annoying, but they can be peeled off like any other stickers.
 
I'm on the fence too, between the 4870 and 4850. The 4850 is probably enough for every past and current game that I want to play, but I want something that will last at least a year or so. I also would like to be able to crank the AA way up. The 4870 is the card with the promise of future performance that I want, but it's tough to justify double the price for the actual performance in today's games.

The 4850 has already seen $50 discounts, so I'm hoping there might be one really good rebate or coupon deal on the 4870 next month (like the Microsoft Live discount). If it was $249 AR/AC, I would stretch my budget and go for it.

As for the 4850, I would like to wait a few weeks and see if there is any news of a dual-slot cooler or some other kind of cooler (like the one shown on the Asus 1GB card).

I'm hoping Nvidia will drop prices on the GTX 260, so we might begin to see some discounts on the 4870 in July, after ATI cranks up production and supply on July 8th. I also want to see what other non-reference designs are in the works. Other cooling options and built-in HDMI (instead of an adapter) would be nice.

The $150 4850 is very tough to resist, but I'm hoping I can hold out and snag a great deal on a 4870. You make a good point about getting a $150 4850 now, then buying a new $150 card next year. That may be the best option, since next year's top $150 card will probably beat out the 4870.
 
I went and did it. This is going to be my first ATI setup. Going from a 8800 GTS G92 to a XFire 4850 setup on my X38. We'll see how it all turns out. I was tempted to go with one 4870 and then add another later but at ~$150 each how can I not at least try it. :D
 
the value of the 4850 is really incredible especially with the deals from newegg today. like others i also struggled with this decision, but ultimately went with a 4870 crossfire setup. I already pick up all the other parts (minus the mobo and cards) in the last two weeks so i should be up and running monday or tuesday.
 
im gonna do 4850 crossfire... was gonna do 4870 crossfire but from the benches ive seen theyre not much different.
 
Aye, I'd have liked a pair of 4870's but here in the UK one of those cost more than a pair of 4850's... So I went with those instead!
 
So it looks like i am still on the edge... new coolers would be nice, or overclocked versions
 
I went ahead and pulled the trigger on one. Mainly for power and space reasons (its predecessor being an 8800GTX), but damn if that price point doesn't hurt either. Whenever a tweak comes along for the fan speed, though, that'll just be the icing on the cake...
 
PGHammer said:
From what [H]'s review says, the 4850 is also the perfect card for the owners of most CRTs (19" or less) as it can run *anything* at those almost-normally-unreachable (by a single card) 1600x1200 resolutions at High or better (the only exceptions are Crysis and Age of Conan, and, for once, in the case of Crysis, it's certainly not by much). FP display owners aren't the only ones that hate moving from the resolution sweet spot (in the case of my ex-Micron 19", it's 1600x1200 @ 75Hz NI), especially in Vista.

Crysis @ 16x12? On a CRT? With a mainstream graphics card on a mainstream PC?

Seriously, have any of us expected to see that before the current President left the White House?
Click to expand...

Crysis is much more demanding than aoc though.
 
I am thinking about crossfire 4850 as well if i can get them for $150 or so but my psu only has 2 pcie plugs. For you sli and crossfire folks out there how do you do crossfire if you need 4 pcie plugs and your psu only has 2? Is it ok to use 1 molex to pcie adapter and 1 native pcie plug on each card? My psu is a 700w ocz gamexstream.
 
I really don't think the 4870 is going to come down in price any time soon. Why should AMD lower it? It competes with cards that cost atleast $100 more than it, and in some cases even more powerful cards than that. Those $299+ price tags are here to stay unless nVidia has some drastic price reductions planned for the near future.
 
yea, i'm really tempted to pull the trigger on the 4850 with it being like 160$ now AR, but having a 24" lcd makes me really really wanna hold out for the 4870, even though gddr5 is rare... i guess it's keeping me from spending money for now, hehe
 
I just bought one at BB with the 10% off coupon that is floating around the net. $179.99 not bad for this level of performance. It will be replacing an 8800gts 640. Think I will notice any difference in games? Another thing I didn't know that is awesome is that the hdmi adapter has the ability to output sound as well as video so when I upgrade my htpc then I will most certainly buy another one of these cards for that machine as well and probably a 2nd card for my game box that this one is going into. These cards are the celeron 266 equivalent of video cards imo. Ultra cheap, ultra fast. Here's hoping that I don't get any lockups or blue screens with this baby unlike with my x850xt pe from 2005...
 
I just upgraded from 8800gts 640mb to the 4850 from Best buy, and I love it. Solid improvements in games, and 1000+ improvement in 3dMark06 shader score. I think my SM3.0 score went from 4200 to 5700.

It was totally worth it, considering I will probably sell my 8800GTS for ~$100.
 
yea see its replies like yours that make me want to get it even more. Its cheap! its quick, the only thing i have a problem with is that there is a 4870 and it is faster, but noone has identical numbers! lol. I want to see how far each car can be clocked, sincei have a accellero at home. I dont have a video card right now but ill do my best to wait for a good deal, i want one at 150
 
Thanks keldegar, that's good to know that you just did what I am doing and actually saw solid gains. I plan on going crossfire with these babies later when I upgrade because from what I'm seeing 4850CF > GTX 280 at half the cost and still only takes 2 power plugs.
 
ALL4AMD said:
after the review i decided im going to get a 4850 then in a few months get another one and CF them since im on a 22" lcd monitor
Click to expand...

Exactly what I'm doing too... picked up a 4850 yesterday, will probably get another next month or maybe the one after (I get paid monthly) :)
 
keldegar said:
I just upgraded from 8800gts 640mb to the 4850 from Best buy, and I love it. Solid improvements in games, and 1000+ improvement in 3dMark06 shader score. I think my SM3.0 score went from 4200 to 5700.

It was totally worth it, considering I will probably sell my 8800GTS for ~$100.
Click to expand...

Same thing for me too, except I had an 8800GTS 320. Overall 3dmark 06 went up by about 2400 and same SM 3.0 improvement as you. Going to bench some games tonight but the overall feel is a noticable and solid improvement... Totally worth it.
 
2x 4850's for 270 :)

Only reason not to go for the 4870 is power. I don't want to drop like 250+ for another modular corsair PSU =/ (I got my 620HX for like 80 AR)
 
I found the Corsair HX1000W on Provantage last week for $158 + s/h. So, when it came down to decided between the 4850CF and the 4870CF, I figured I could let my new PSU go to waste and went with the 4870's.
 
lol, dang thats nice. I'm still stalling on the purchase. I went to frys today with a friend, and there it was a visiontek 4850.... i kinda felt like i wanted to buy it right then and there, i didnt. for me to pay 200 when its cheaper 150-190 online...i couldnt get myself to do it. Though coming home today and wanting to play GRID lol really kinda makes me order one. But im still holdin out!
 
I've decided on the 4850. I guess it depends what resolution you play at - The 4850 has almost as much GPU horsewpoer as the 4870, but not nearly as much bandwidth. Since I play at 1280x1024 on a 19" LCD, and I'm honestly satisfied with 2xAA and 8X AF, the 4850 is enough for me.

It also means my audio card doesn't have to sit right against a hot videocard (m-atx mobo) and I can be absolutely sure my 450W PSU will be enough (it only has one PCI-E connector so I would need to use an adapter for the 4870). Plus, it's $150 cheaper :)
 
2wiced said:
The 4850 is on average like 7-10 fps behind the 4870, but it can be had for $150 bucks.
Click to expand...
That's why I jumped on it when it was $150AR at newegg. The highest resolution screen I have is only 1920x1080, so this is enough for anything I play (I wasn't impressed with Crysis so I didn't buy it).

I would have also been happy with a 9800GTX+ if both cards were the same price. It's not out yet and the HD 4850 was an impulse buy.

I'm thinking of taking back my other HD 3870 since I don't really need it now. But it is so easy to soft mod to a FireStream, I should keep it.
 
Definitely, I spent $430 on my release 8800GTS 640MB :(

This $180 ($150 for some people) card is kicking the crap outta my old card. But at least I got a good 18 months out of my 8800GTS.
 
a part of me still wants a 4870. I just keep thinking.... that bandwidth!! on the ddr5 is amazing. if you bought the 4870 what was your decision booster?
 
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