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upgrading from 4870...

R

rhone89

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 30, 2011
Messages
131
I am currently pondering an upgrade to my 4870 in my rig. The rig can certainly handle a better card, its an i7 @ 3.9Ghz with 12GB of ram, so no worries about being CPU limited.

Problem is, I've been out of the game for awhile and I am really not sure what the best performance/$ cards are these days that would actually be a decent upgrade to what I got.

So... advice?
 
rhone89 said:
I am currently pondering an upgrade to my 4870 in my rig. The rig can certainly handle a better card, its an i7 @ 3.9Ghz with 12GB of ram, so no worries about being CPU limited.

Problem is, I've been out of the game for awhile and I am really not sure what the best performance/$ cards are these days that would actually be a decent upgrade to what I got.

So... advice?
Click to expand...

Not sure why you'd even want to upgrade at this juncture.
 
Chihlidog said:
Given its age, the 4870 is still a strong card, but why would you suggest not upgrading? A 69xx would smoke it.
Click to expand...

Not many PC games to push it? All praise the console ports!!

I don't plan on upgrading my 4870 until BF3/Skyrim.
 
Master_Pain said:
Not many PC games to push it? All praise the console ports!!

I don't plan on upgrading my 4870 until BF3/Skyrim.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, it doesnt look like Skyrim is going to be very demanding. Devs have stated that their focus is "accessibility". basically another console port.
 
Master_Pain said:
Not many PC games to push it? All praise the console ports!!

I don't plan on upgrading my 4870 until BF3/Skyrim.
Click to expand...
well there may not but many games that push the graphics but there are some good ones. and maybe he wants to play those games and crank the settings and AA. he cannot do that on a 4870 especially if he is playing at 1920x1080.

here are just a few games he will not be maxing out with a 4870 at 1920x1080 especially with any AA.

ARMA 2
Clear Sky
Crysis
Crysis 2
Warhead
Just Cause 2
Metro 2033
GTA 4
Lost Planet 2
Alien vs Predator
Shogon 2
Witcher 2
 
If your board can handle crossfire, adding another 4870 for crossfire would give you great performance that would probably end up costing you half as much as simply replacing your existing card.

You could even add a 4870x2 for Tri-fire and still likely come ahead price-wise, ending up with the same level of performance you would be lucky to get from any single-GPU card currently on the market.

Nothing wrong going with a new card instead, but if your board does crossfire, that's a price/performance option that is hard to ignore.
 
cannondale06 said:
well there may not but many games that push the graphics but there are some good ones. and maybe he wants to play those games and crank the settings and AA. he cannot do that on a 4870 especially if he is playing at 1920x1080.

here are just a few games he will not be maxing out with a 4870 at 1920x1080 especially with any AA.

ARMA 2
Clear Sky
Crysis
Crysis 2
Warhead
Just Cause 2
Metro 2033
GTA 4
Lost Planet 2
Alien vs Predator
Shogon 2
Witcher 2
Click to expand...

Almost all those games I can max or play at very high settings on my 4890 w/ a C2D @ 3.6GHz with at least 2x AA. A lot of those are console ports or at least available on console. I don't know where you're getting your info from.

OP: Your 4870 has still got a lot of life in it. Your CPU has plenty of power to push it along even to BF3. I can find no practicality in buying a new video card at this point in time. I'm still running my C2D & 4890 from 2008. I can play anything I want with good IQ at 1920x1080. Most of those games suck and are not even worth playing let alone putting down 400$ on a video card for, especially if you mostly game on multiplayer, the difference between 4x and 8x AA is just not going to matter.
 
PoopsMacClaude said:
Almost all those games I can max or play at very high settings on my 4890 w/ a C2D @ 3.6GHz with at least 2x AA. A lot of those are console ports or at least available on console. I don't know where you're getting your info from.

OP: Your 4870 has still got a lot of life in it. Your CPU has plenty of power to push it along even to BF3. I can find no practicality in buying a new video card at this point in time. I'm still running my C2D & 4890 from 2008. I can play anything I want with good IQ at 1920x1080. Most of those games suck and are not even worth playing let alone putting down 400$ on a video card for, especially if you mostly game on multiplayer, the difference between 4x and 8x AA is just not going to matter.
Click to expand...
no you cant because some of them offer DX11 so you are not even able to access the demanding optional DX11 features. GTA 4 you do not even have enough vram to max out the game. and the others you may come close but you are not maxing them out no matter what you claim. official benchmarks and my own experience with a gtx260 and gtx470 says otherwise.
 
cannondale06 said:
no you cant because some of them are DX11 so you are not even able to access the demanding optional DX11 features. and the others you may come close but you are not maxing them out no matter what you claim. benchmarks and my own experience with a gtx260 and gtx470 says otherwise.
Click to expand...

DX11? Who gives a shit about DX11 until its actually used to its potential and in games that don't suck? Of the games you listed maybe 5-6 support DX11 and most of that support is marginal. Of those DX11 games, half are available on consoles and maybe a few are actually worth playing.

Further, I did state that I could max OR play at very high settings. And yeah, the difference between a few settings away from max is extremely negligible. Tessellation or not, if you wanna waste the money, go for it, but I'd rather not recommend impractical solutions to the OP without knowing a thing about why he wants to upgrade in the first place.
 
PoopsMacClaude said:
DX11? Who gives a shit about DX11 until its actually used to its potential and in games that don't suck? Of the games you listed maybe 5-6 support DX11 and most of that support is marginal. Of those DX11 games maybe a few are actually worth playing.

Further, I did state that I could max OR play at very high settings. And yeah, the difference between a few settings away from max is extremely negligible. Tessellation or not, if you wanna waste the money, go for it, but I'd rather not recommend impractical solutions to the OP without knowing a thing about why he wants to upgrade in the first place.
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yeah I guess its hard to give a shit about something that you cant run at all. again the demanding features in some of those games are only optional in DX11 so you do not even have the option of maxing the game out. bottom line is you cannot max any of those games so it made no sense to even claim you can.

I do agree that you can pick the right settings and play most games just fine on a 4870/7890 level of card but that was not point. some people like to push everything so I was just throwing that out there because those seem to be the few really demanding games IF you are trying to run max settings.
 
PoopsMacClaude said:
DX11? Who gives a shit about DX11 until its actually used to its potential and in games that don't suck? Of the games you listed maybe 5-6 support DX11 and most of that support is marginal. Of those DX11 games, half are available on consoles and maybe a few are actually worth playing.

Further, I did state that I could max OR play at very high settings. And yeah, the difference between a few settings away from max is extremely negligible. Tessellation or not, if you wanna waste the money, go for it, but I'd rather not recommend impractical solutions to the OP without knowing a thing about why he wants to upgrade in the first place.
Click to expand...

I thought this was HArd forum?

Direct x 11 sucks?
tessalation sucks?
texture pack suck?
Lower your settings?

Go back to reading PC Magazine dude.:D
 
cannondale06 said:
yeah I guess its hard to give a shit about something that you cant run at all. again the demanding features in some of those games are only optional in DX11 so you do not even have the option of maxing the game out. bottom line is you cannot max any of those games so it made no sense to even claim you can.

I do agree that you can pick the right settings and play most games just fine on a 4870/7890 level of card but that was not point. some people like to push everything so I was just throwing that out there because those seem to be the few really demanding games IF you are trying to run max settings.
Click to expand...

Are you retarded? When did I claim I could max out DX11 games specifically? Half the games in your list are DX9/10.

You keep talking about all these "demanding features." Guess what, the only feature in DX11 anyone gives a fuck about is tessellation. There are currently very few games in DX11 because it doesn't offer much to the developer and especially not the consumer. Due to the state of consoles and the games marketplace there are hardly any Dx11 adopters, and it's for good reason. The games suck and I can just play them in DX9/10 anyway. It's going to take AAA titles like BF3 for DX11 to even gain any ground, and after the joke that is DX10, even then it seems sketchy as long as consoles and console ports represent the overwhelmingly vast majority of the market.

You seem to really care a lot about a pretty much worthless standard. Sorry I burst the bubble. Moving on.
 
happymedium said:
I thought this was HArd forum?

Direct x 11 sucks?
tessalation sucks?
texture pack suck?
Lower your settings?

Go back to reading PC Magazine dude.:D
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's vastly more intelligent to advocate spending hundreds of dollars every quarterly/6month refresh like a good little peon in order to move a menu slider a little higher. Now I can say, "Gee Wiz, isn't that something?" Go back to googling "How I get a girlfriend??" dude.:D
 
PoopsMacClaude said:
Are you retarded? When did I claim I could max out DX11 games specifically? Half the games in your list are DX9/10.

You keep talking about all these "demanding features." Guess what, the only feature in DX11 anyone gives a fuck about is tessellation. There are currently very few games in DX11 because it doesn't offer much to the developer and especially not the consumer. Due to the state of consoles and the games marketplace there are hardly any Dx11 adopters, and it's for good reason. The games suck and I can just play them in DX9/10 anyway. It's going to take AAA titles like BF3 for DX11 to even gain any ground, and after the joke that is DX10, even then it seems sketchy as long as consoles and console ports represent the overwhelmingly vast majority of the market.

You seem to really care a lot about a pretty much worthless standard. Sorry I burst the bubble. Moving on.
Click to expand...
stop twisting words and back pedaling. YOU were the one who quoted me and said you could run nearly all those games on max settings. the truth is you cannot run any of them smoothly on actual max settings. I only mentioned DX11 because you DO NOT HAVE a DX11 card. you cant max a game if you cannot even run in the DX that allows you to max the game now can you? how about thinking before you make silly comments about how magical your dual core/4890 system is? this is hardforum here and people know whats going on.
 
cannondale06 said:
stop twisting words and back pedaling. YOU were the one who quoted me and said you could run nearly all those games on max settings. the truth is you cannot run any of them smoothly on actual max settings. I only mentioned DX11 because you DO NOT HAVE a DX11 card. you cant max a game if you cannot even run in the DX that allows you to now can you? how about thinking before you make silly comments about how magical your dula core/4890 system is.
Click to expand...

Obviously pretty much all the DX9 titles, which represent the majority of your list, can be run maxed on a 4890 @ 1920x1080 with acceptable framerates.

I think I will just take Crysis for example as it should be a rule of thumb for any DX9 game.

YOU were the one who quoted me and said you could run nearly all those games on max settings. the truth is you cannot run any of them smoothly on actual max settings.
Click to expand...

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-4890,2262-7.html

Keep eating your own words. I don't know why you keep bringing up the DX11 argument as I never said I could max a DX11 game. You fail to see most of the games in your list are DX9/10 games/console ports or games with barely any actual DX11 support just so they can slap on the DX11 sticker as a selling point.

I really wanted to believe you were a troll but after seeing like 20 pages of your derpy ass posts (all 20 pages taking place within a roughly 30 day timeframe...) I think I believe otherwise. In any case you're hardly worth talking to since you seem to have taken great offense at me suggesting that DX11 isn't man's greatest invention. Maybe you need to find some new things to occupy yourself with other than fanboyism?
 
PoopsMacClaude said:
Obviously pretty much all the DX9 titles, which represent the majority of your list, can be run maxed on a 4890 @ 1920x1080 with acceptable framerates.

I think I will just take Crysis for example as it should be a rule of thumb for any DX9 game.



http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-4890,2262-7.html

Keep eating your own words. I don't know why you keep bringing up the DX11 argument as I never said I could max a DX11 game. You fail to see most of the games in your list are DX9/10 games/console ports or games with barely any actual DX11 support just so they can slap on the DX11 sticker as a selling point.

I really wanted to believe you were a troll but after seeing like 20 pages of your derpy ass posts (all 20 pages taking place within a roughly 30 day timeframe...) I think I believe otherwise. In any case you're hardly worth talking to since you seem to have taken great offense at me suggesting that DX11 isn't man's greatest invention. Maybe you need to find some new things to occupy yourself with other than fanboyism?
Click to expand...
how does any of that BS you spouted make sense? you were the genius who claimed to run those games on max settings. when I tell you that some of those can only be maxed in DX 11, you tell me no one gives a shit about DX11. you are completely illogical.

so lets look at this list again. 1/3 of them can only be maxed in DX 11 which you cannot run. to max GTA 4 requires more than 1gb of vram at 1920 and you only have 1gb. Just Cause 2 on max settings will even slow down much faster cards than yours so that's out. Crysis and Warhead on DX10 very high settings, especially with any AA, would not be very playable so that's out. ARMA 2 on max settings would slow your dual core and 4890 down in to the 20s on max settings so that's out. Clear Sky would be too sluggish on all max settings so that's out. Witcher 2 would kick the crap out of your card on max settings even without ubersampling so thats out.

I believe that about covers them all so which ones would you like to still claim you can max out? it will only take a few seconds to link to a review showing otherwise. not to mention I played nearly all those games on a gtx260 and gtx470 and had to reduce settings in EVERY one of them that I played. I doubt you have even play half of them.

what you should have said was that you can run most of those games on fairly decent settings. I would have no problem with that because you can lower just a few settings in each game and they will certainly play fine. thats not what you said though so stop trying to defend your silly comment.
 
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cannondale06 said:
how does any of that BS you spouted make sense? you were the genius who claimed to run those games on max settings. when I tell you that some of those can only be maxed in DX 11, you tell me no one gives a shit about DX11. you are completely illogical.

so lets look at this list again. 1/3 of them can only be maxed in DX 11 which you cannot run. GTA 4 requires more than 1gb of vram at 1920 and you only have 1gb. Just Cause 2 on max settings will even slow down much faster cards than your so that's out. Crysis and Warhead on DX10 very high settings, especially with any AA, would not be very playable so that's out. ARMA 2 on max settings would slow your dual core and 4890 down in to the 20s on max settings so that's out. Clear Sky would be too sluggish on all max settings so that's out. Witcher 2 would kick the crap out of your card on max settings even without ubersampling so thats out.

I believe that about covers them all so which one what you like to still claim you can max out?
Click to expand...

I believe you won that debate, unless he turns the sliders down. :D:p
 
The Witcher 2: Many 4890 owners reporting 30-40fps with all settings maxed except ubersampling, google will show that much. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_pJHSlMb6s"]‪The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings | 1080p Max | on HD 4890‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

Crysis Warhead is even easier. Crysis was an unoptimized POS and Warhead helped smooth things over. The 4890 performs just great in vanilla Crysis and thus even better in Warhead.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4890-review-test/12

I ran ARMA 2 myself at high settings with good view distances on my OC'd 4890 and 3.6GHZ E8400 and maintained an avg 30-35 FPS.

This guy reports 30-50 FPS in Just Cause 2 in his XFX 4890: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RKA7pZmdT8"]‪Just Cause 2 Demo gameplay XFX 4890‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

ATI RADEON XFX 4890 1GB overclocked
Intel core i5 2.67 GHz
4gb ram
win7 home prenuim 64 bit

all on max + AA x 8 (max) AF x16 (max)

fps

with fraps: 20 - 25 +
without : 30 - 50 +

As far as GTA is concerned, it is a console port and I have no idea why you'd think it would be demanding to run for a 4890. As for my 4890 concerned, you are again wrong as it is a 2GB model. However, even a 1GB 4890 will max the game.

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/revie...nd-nvidia-gtx-275-graphics-review-gta-iv.html


I'm sorry but you are absolutely retarded and a complete waste of time. I'm going to bed.
 
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lol, sure... at 1920 it takes over 1gb of vram to push all the sliders to max and use all max settings in GTA 4 so no it could not be done on a 4890 1gb.

here is Warhead with only one setting on very high and the rest on high and a 4890 is getting 28 fps. turn that all to very high and you are in the low 20s. even with no AA you would not be averaging 30fps in this game on very high settings. http://www.anandtech.com/show/2848/4

in Witcher 2 a 4890 is not even included but the faster 5830 and gtx460 are only getting 30 and 31 fps. that means below 30 for an average with a 4890. not to mention that game really uses quads so I doubt your 4890 could actually deliver its full potential at times. http://www.techspot.com/review/405-the-witcher-2-performance/page5.html

as for Just Cause 2 that is 100% BS running all max and 8x AA in that game with a 4890. here you can see even with only 4x AA a card like the 5830 which is faster can only average 33 fps. http://techreport.com/articles.x/19242/7

here is a bench for a more demanding part of the game and you see even faster cards like the 5850 not cracking 35 fps at 1920 with JUST 4x AA never mind your slower 4890 running 8x AA. http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/10/22/ati-radeon-hd-6870-review/7

how about some real Just Cause 2 gameplay benchmarks? again a faster 5830 is only getting 35fps with just 4x AA at 1920. EDIT: its the hardwarecanucks gtx460 review but hardforum blocks links to that site

so now you ran ARMA 2 on high and not very high or max like you claimed to run these games? on a mix of high and very a 4890 can only muster 21 fps at just 1280x1024. and that game needs a quad too for best performance. http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,...y-compared-Top-article-of-June-2009/Practice/




now Witcher 2 and Warhead would be close to playable on max settings without AA but none of the other games would be and I think you know this.


so earlier you said "Almost all those games I can max or play at very high settings on my 4890 w/ a C2D @ 3.6GHz with at least 2x AA."

so almost all means 2 or 3 because that is all you are claiming to have run now? and you did not even run those at the settings you mentioned earlier...
 
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