Upgrade from 4890CF

[sameo88]

Im wanting to upgrade from my current 4890CF set up to a single card to allow room for a wireless card! and need help on what i should do.

Thinkin a GTX480, but having a crossfire board i think it might still be best to stick with radeon incase of future upgrade once i no longer need the wireless card

 

[GotNoRice]

Do the right thing.

Get a USB wireless adapter instead.

The fastest single GPU Radeon is the 5870, which will be a downgrade in terms of performance compared to your current setup. You could go for a 5970 which would leave triple or quad crossfire options open down the road, but the cards are pretty pricey.

 

[m0unds]

Do the right thing.

Get a USB wireless adapter instead.

^^^ if you're thinking you might not need a wireless adapter down the road, this is the best advice anyone can give you

 

[blastingcap]

Do the right thing.

Get a USB wireless adapter instead.

The fastest single GPU Radeon is the 5870, which will be a downgrade in terms of performance compared to your current setup. You could go for a 5970 which would leave triple or quad crossfire options open down the road, but the cards are pretty pricey.

+1

CF4890 is powerful even today, so I'd just sit tight and get a USB wireless adapter.

 

[edifyingkarma]

yep, just do what these guys said

 

[sameo88]

trueee, no worries then, ive just heard bad things about the usb adapters? like they drop out a fair bit or something

 

[Archmage]

SOME USB adapters are horrible, but some are just great.

My older Hawking "ralink" adapter is great - the best adapter I've ever tried. There are multiple models sold by various brands utilizing the same chipset, but I figure it's old and obsolete by now.

I'd do some research to figure out what's good now.

Also: AMD's crossfire scaling seems lackluster, so I wouldn't bother planning for a multi-GPU AMD setup until they begin to compare favorably against nvidia. I suppose the best reasons to upgrade would be for lower power consumption and reduced heat, DX11, and eyefinity (if you go AMD again).

The GTX 470 has been seen for under $250 (even down to $220-$230) a few times in the past few weeks. That and the 5850 are your best deals for single-GPU performance (I figured the GTX 460 wouldn't be enough). If you need the best: I think TigerDirect had the GTX 480 for about $400 just recently (or right now maybe).