Which card will run games at 1680x1050?

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GMcDougal

Gawd
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Aug 22, 2004
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im looking for a ati card that will use crossfire in the future. which card would give me the best bang for my buck and run most games smoothly at the res listed above with most options on? ill be running this on a 7750 x2 cpu.
 
4870 1GB should be excellent. 4850 1GB only if you can find one significantly cheaper than the 4870. It doesn't really make sense to Crossfire 512MB cards because of the high resolutions and AA levels that are needed to realize the potential.
 
With the games that are out today, a 4850 will be just right. If you want a little future proofing, get the 4870, go for the 1gb versions if you can. On the nVidia side a gtx260, only get the 216 core though, more stream processors.
 
board i just bought has crossfire support. Plus ever since i left ATI and got this 7800gt, ive been kicking myself in the butt. I dont like nvidia drivers, and ati picture quality is better. Oh yeah, what about the physics thing? how do i get physics?
 
GMcDougal said:
board i just bought has crossfire support. Plus ever since i left ATI and got this 7800gt, ive been kicking myself in the butt. I dont like nvidia drivers, and ati picture quality is better. Oh yeah, what about the physics thing? how do i get physics?
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You would need a second card for dedicated physics. http://ati.amd.com/technology/crossfire/physics/index.html

4870 is a great card and you can find them as low as $155 right now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131140

You may want to go the 1GB route however and that is right around $200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102801
 
here is a second recommendation for a 4870 at that resolution it should be fine. Seems to be a great bang-for-buck since the recent price drops
 
Bang for the buck right now, HD 4870 512Mb all the way, especially for 1680x. It should handle that res exceptionally well.

Anand recently did a review that includes a bunch of cards in Crossfire and single. You can click on each res below the chart to get the desired selection to load. 2560x will load default on each page.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517&p=6

HD 4870 512Mb Crossfire doesn't lose real steam until 2560x and even then that's only in a few select titles. FC2 @ 2560x with AA is the only title I've seen outright murder 512Mb cards in Crossfire.
 
GMcDougal said:
im looking for a ati card that will use crossfire in the future. which card would give me the best bang for my buck and run most games smoothly at the res listed above with most options on? ill be running this on a 7750 x2 cpu.
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1680x1050 would hardly require crossfire.
 
PRIME1 said:
1680x1050 would hardly require crossfire.
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it's not about the resolution, crossfire can give you really high quality antialiasing modes with minimal perfomance loss ( like that "free" 8x AA on age of conan using a 4870X2 ) or maybe he's just a framerate whore :D, getting lots of fps gives a really smooth feeling for me, i settle on 30-50 when playing single player games but only if the image quality justifies it :)
 
Blacklash said:
Bang for the buck right now, HD 4870 512Mb all the way, especially for 1680x. It should handle that res exceptionally well.

Anand recently did a review that includes a bunch of cards in Crossfire and single. You can click on each res below the chart to get the desired selection to load. 2560x will load default on each page.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517&p=6

HD 4870 512Mb Crossfire doesn't lose real steam until 2560x and even then that's only in a few select titles. FC2 @ 2560x with AA is the only title I've seen outright murder 512Mb cards in Crossfire.
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512mb is not enough for Far Cry 2 with AA even at 1680. http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2009/02/23/sapphire-ati-radeon-hd-4870-1gb-toxic/4
 
4850 will max out everything but a handful of games at 1680x1050. If you don't play those handful of games go with the 4850.
 
cannondale06 said:
512mb is not enough for Far Cry 2 with AA even at 1680. http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2009/02/23/sapphire-ati-radeon-hd-4870-1gb-toxic/4
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25min 30FPS average is borderline, and no I wouldn't consider that ideal.

[H]ard said 2xAA was playable in FC2 @ 1680x on a 512Mb HD 4870.

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU3MSwzLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

FC2 is a rare exception. I'd definitely recommend the 1Gb cards if people can afford them. I wouldn't do something like buy HD 4850 1Gb Crossfire and expect to out perform HD 4870 512Mb Crossfire except in rare circumstances like we've already discussed, FC2 with AA. Then only in the case of 2560x, when considering Crossfire.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517&p=10
 
Considering you want to crossfire later on, the HD4870 1GB is probably the way to go. 512MB is not enough ram for Crossfire.

If you want a great card for now that will run all games at 1680x1050 with 4xAA that you can sell later for the new and improved video card releases, the HD4870 512MB will do nicely. (with some exceptions, such as Frycry 2, that will only run at 1680x1050 2xAA).
 
I love my 4850, but some of these new games are crying for more video memory :( (I also have a 22" 1680x1050 monitor)
 
I don't see much love here for the gtx260? It seems to be a better choice for this res(albeit not by much) and less money eVGA GTX 260 216 core $199 + $20 mir. still less than most 4870 1gb + better board partners to choose from and better warranty and arguably the better driver support. I'm not an nvidia honk, I owned both ati and nvidia until last weekend. I'm looking for my next card right now, hence my interest in this thread.

Recent price drops are making things interesting but, it could get even more interesting when ATI drops its 4900 series in April(first week estimated). The rumored performance increase isn't much (8-20%) apparently but there may be other things that make it worth while.

In the mean time I am trying to stay the course and wait until these ATI cards are released so as to maximize my deal on the next card. I do this mainly because both the 4870 and gtx 260 are coming up on 1 yr on the market and it doesn't seem to be the best spend of today's dollars on almost 1 yr old gpu.
 
hey ClearM4 it must be nice to be perfect. Maybe you should start a thread on how cool your life is.
I am on these boards multiple times per day, and forgot which one I was in. Simple mistake. It really is sad that so many people assume that people are just jumping the gun, instead of it being a legitimate error.
Again more negative energy that is completely unecessary.
 
Forget that ATI site that talks about dedicated physics support. It is an utter lie. As of now there is no hardware physics support for ATI...you would need a separate card, either nvidia or an old ageis dedicated ppu or identicle...using an nvida card (ppu) with an ati card (gpu) is not possible in vista...I hear it is doable in xp and windows 7 though...

I am not saying your plans should hings on physics acceleration...it is a minor concern at this point (imho) except for e-penis rights.

Other than that a 4870 would be sweet for you.
 
1650x1050 = is easy for ATI HD 4850 or 4870 , and NVIDIA GTX 250 above

but right now the bang for the bucks is HD4850
 
With an eVGA gts 250 @ $129 as well as an xfx and msi at the same price point this is definitely a card worth considering based upon gaming performance, driver support as well as greatly improved stock cooling and noise levels.
 
hossdaddy said:
Recent price drops are making things interesting but, it could get even more interesting when ATI drops its 4900 series in April(first week estimated). The rumored performance increase isn't much (8-20%) apparently but there may be other things that make it worth while.

In the mean time I am trying to stay the course and wait until these ATI cards are released so as to maximize my deal on the next card. I do this mainly because both the 4870 and gtx 260 are coming up on 1 yr on the market and it doesn't seem to be the best spend of today's dollars on almost 1 yr old gpu.
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Gah, I wish I hadn't seen that... I'm building a new rig and I'd been looking mainly at 4850/4870 cards because I wanted to keep my current case and the GTX 260 won't fit inside it. However after I saw your link I looked thru my wishlist of 'alternatives' on Newegg and saw an MSI 260 that has dropped to $160 after MIR, are you kidding me? :p

That's what 4850's were going for like three months ago! Heh... I hadn't realized NVidia was getting so aggressive with their 260 price cuts tho. The cheapest 4870 1GB are still like $190-ish, hrm.

The 49xx series is more like a refresh than anything else, as far as I can tell, not a major architecture update (faster clocks etc., it's still a 55nm card tho). Here's hoping it forces 48xx prices down but doesn't completely phase those cards out immediately, so I can jump some good deals too. :D
 
I can run race driver grid on a single 4850 at 1920x1200 4xaa max settings and get pretty much a constant 55-60fps at 1920x1200 4xaa. I don't think you can go wrong with a 4850. Less power consumption, less heat, etc. Also fallout 3 looks good on a 4850.
 
hossdaddy said:
4850 or 4870, If you are going to crossfire you will need a really beefy psu, make sure to check the ati site for certified crossfire psu's. Here is an example,
SAPPHIRE 100259L Radeon HD 4870 512MB $164.99 - $ 15 mir + free shipping
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If you'd rather shop B&M (immediate gratification), here's MicroCenter's current 4870+PSU deal:

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0305411
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0264292

The PSU (Silencer 750 Quad) is both CrossFire *and* SLI certified, single-rail, and has enough plugs to drive a server. The graphics card is from (surprisingly) XFX (the only AIB, other than VisionTek, to offer a Lifetime Warranty), and is one of only two HD4870 single-GPU cards MC carries (the other, a 1 GB model, is also from XFX).
 
I'm running my 4850 512 @ 1650x1050 and I have yet to have any problems. It will not be as future-proof as a 4870 with 1GB but it certainly does the job with almost all games right now.

If you have the extra money get the 4870 but if you're forced to go with a 4850 you won't be disappointed.
 
Considering you list no games that you play or wish to play I vote for a GF2 GTS or if you need Pci-E an FX5750 :)

Also since you gave no budget I'll sell you either of the above cards for a low 1 time only price of $599.93
 
Radeon 4850 X2 2GB wins hands down. I have had this card for over two weeks now and it has been running great.

Be sure to install the Catalyst 9.2 or later drivers only as AMD has full support from Catalyst 9.2 upwards with this card.
 
GMcDougal said:
im looking for a ati card that will use crossfire in the future. which card would give me the best bang for my buck and run most games smoothly at the res listed above with most options on? ill be running this on a 7750 x2 cpu.
Click to expand...
I'd go with either a 4850 or 4870 depending on your budget. 1 of my 4850's can run every game I've played at 1680 x 1050.
 
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