Second 4850 worth it?

[LstBrunnenG]

I already have one 4850 on the way, and I'm really not interested in trying to sell it to get a 4870. I game at 1920x1200, and I plan to plow through the following games this summer:

FEAR (borrowed this one a long time ago, finally recently bought it on eBay)
Flight Simulator X
Sins of a Solar Empire
World in Conflict (free with Q9450, yay!)
Supreme Commander Gold
CoD4
Entire Command & Conquer series
Crysis (if I can find it priced decently)
Halo 2 PC (maybe)

Would buying a second 4850 to play these games be a waste of money?

 

[tisb0b]

One 4850 should be able to max out the bulk of those games at 1920x1200 excluding crysis but once you've gotten your 4850 if your unhappy with the performance buy another.

 

[POPEGOLD]

adding another 4850 will have u set for a long time... but for current games ... u are fine where u are

but the next round of BIG games are coming

 

[LstBrunnenG]

I really wish the [H] Crossfire review would come out.

 

[snowysnowcones]

I would suggest against Halo 2 PC.

Anyway, if you're not satisfied with performance at 1920x1200 with just one 4850, then a second one couldn't hurt. There's some nice rebates at Newegg, too.

 

[LstBrunnenG]

I would suggest against Halo 2 PC.

Look, I realize it's the faithful PC gamer thing to do to rag against the Halo series, but I actually really like those games. Unless it's actually worse than the XboX version (which I only played once on someone else's console), I will enjoy it.

adding another 4850 will have u set for a long time...

You think as long as my 7800 GTX has kept me going until now?

 

[LstBrunnenG]

Well, I just bought Crysis...anyone here have experience with single vs. dual 4850s in Crysis at 1920x1200? Real-world, not just benchmarks please.

I realize I can buy a second later if I'm not satisfied, but I've got this idea in my head that I want to build my new computer once, and not have to crack the case open for a few years...

 

[rennyf77]

I really wish the [H] Crossfire review would come out.

might not do you much good since [H] editors tend to stay away from rts titles. maybe because they're so cpu dependent?

 

[LstBrunnenG]

might not do you much good since [H] editors tend to stay away from rts titles. maybe because they're so cpu dependent?

I have the impression that a single 4850 would be fine for all the titles I listed, except Crysis. Now that I found Crysis for $20 in the fs/t, I'm wondering if I'll have to invest $150 into a second video card to play it at 1920x1200...

 

[rennyf77]

for me the most important graphic setting in crysis is the shader setting. as long as i can have that at high, i'm happy because i get hdr, depth of field, normal maps, the modern eye candy. if you can run high shaders with everything else at medium at 19x12 i'd say you're pretty much golden.

 

[sn_85]

which motherboard chipset do you have? I prob would not want to CF on a P35.

 

[LstBrunnenG]

X48

My signature does reflect this.

for me the most important graphic setting in crysis is the shader setting. as long as i can have that at high, i'm happy because i get hdr, depth of field, normal maps, the modern eye candy. if you can run high shaders with everything else at medium at 19x12 i'd say you're pretty much golden.

Okay, the question is, has anyone with a 4850 done this?

 

[Vengance_01]

I have the impression that a single 4850 would be fine for all the titles I listed, except Crysis. Now that I found Crysis for $20 in the fs/t, I'm wondering if I'll have to invest $150 into a second video card to play it at 1920x1200...

just run it at 1680x1050 and do 1:1. So you loose a bit of your screen. No big deal in my eyes.

 

[Salavat23]

I'm not sure the 4850 will max out at 1920x1200 on Crysis.

I run Crysis at 1280x1024 with everything at high, and 16x AA. I get around 40-50 frames per second.

 

[Astrodave]

I have 4850CF and run crysis at 1920x1200 and it runs ok but not stellar. I would say it's in the mid 20's jumping to 30 and lagging in firefights in the low 20's if I had to guess. About 2/3 of the settings are on high and the rest are on medium. I can't recall what setting the shaders are on. My motherboard is an old 975x chipset board where the cards in dual mode are running at PCIE 1.1 x8. A new x48 board where they would be at PCIE 2.0 x16 might speed things up a bit. I'm thinking of upgrading my board, ram and processor but not sure if the PITA to do it all is worth it or if I will get any noticeable increases in crysis framerate. Every other game runs so fast it's not even worthwhile. The upgrade would strictly be to increase my crysis framerate and to future-proof myself for far cry 2 and the new tombraider game coming out later this year.