512mb 4870 to 1gb 4870 - Good idea ?

AgedIdiot · 28 Jan 2009 at 21:40

Running 1920x1200. Cpu q9550@ 3.4. 4gb Ram. Will be running vista 64bit shortly.

Could manage to do the swap mentioned for about £65.

Simple question really - worth it or not ?

P.S. Nearly bought the 280 when it was at its best price but ,in the end, decided that cost of the swap £120 was a bit too much BUT OcUK's price for the 1gb (with new cooler) is tempting......Aaaagh!!!

lunarwolf · 28 Jan 2009 at 21:42

yes at that res for sure

IcE-ColD · 28 Jan 2009 at 22:44

I'm in the same boat as you. I just need to sell my 512Mb card asap before the prices go back up.

carrot1401 · 28 Jan 2009 at 22:45

What about 1680x1050 with a 4850 512mb to the same 4870 1gb?

Credo · 28 Jan 2009 at 23:50

Do it. I did when the 1Gb cards were £190, and haven't looked back...

Phatjayunoi · 28 Jan 2009 at 23:52

A 4850 512mb is decent enough for 1680x1050.

Besides, any of the 512mb 48X0 card at 512mb is decent enough for either 1680x1050 and 1920x1200.

I have a 4830 512mb, the lower end of the series, and it can manage 1920x1200 gaming fine. Granted that certain settings had to be cut down, or use less intensive AA/AF, but with the right settings, you can still get great gaming performance out of it. Besides most people don't really need AA/AF at such high resolutions anyways and it just depends on the game itself.

Unless you are playing extremely graphically intensive games like Crysis or just have the money to spend, then upgrade if you like.

95thrifles · 29 Jan 2009 at 00:07

Save your money, theres no point, theres so much misinformation about this, unless youre going above 1920*1200 a 512mb card is fine, in fact if you add a 2nd card in crossfire then it'll even beat the new 285's, check this review out if you want to see for yourself

coupe69 · 29 Jan 2009 at 01:18

95thrifles said:
Save your money, theres no point, theres so much misinformation about this, unless youre going above 1920*1200 a 512mb card is fine......snip

Gaming @ 1920x1200 most definately does benefit from more video memory, you only have to look at a few benchmarks including the one you posted to realise that. Even at 1680x1050 you'll get a few extra frames.

95thrifles · 29 Jan 2009 at 09:56

Yes but its not worth going out and spending all that extra money for a few extra frames, its only above that resolution where the difference becomes significant, too many people trying to spend other peoples money needlessly

HeX · 29 Jan 2009 at 09:57

You wouldn't seen enough of a boost for your £65 to make it worth while imho.

ro55o · 29 Jan 2009 at 10:18

Agreed, it's not worth the extra £65, maybe if it was something like £20 as you would see a slight difference, but not worth it for that kind of money. Get a 2nd hand 512mb 4870 and crossfire

There seems to be a lot going around at the moment since people have upgraded to gtx 280's or likewise, it means a good bargain for anyone looking to crossfire.

Final8y · 29 Jan 2009 at 10:23

I assume all the people saying its not worthit are playing at 1920x1200 i hope.
I personally would take the 1GB card as there are allready games that max out 512MB & even pushing 900MB already GTA-V

95thrifles · 29 Jan 2009 at 10:28

I really wish people would stop qquoting GTAIV as an example, its a horribly coded game so cannot be used to judge anything. Yes I play at 1920*1200 it say so in my sig for starters. And if you bothered to read the review I linked you'd see that in their test set up which measures multiple resolutions 1680*1050, 1920*1200 and 2560*1600, the only one where the 1 gig makes a significant difference is the last and highest. They tested across multiple different games and ran multiple test runs on each and measured both the average and minimum framerates and found negligible difference. So this is tried and tested fact not just my opinion

Final8y · 29 Jan 2009 at 10:32

95thrifles said:
I really wish people would stop qquoting GTAIV as an example, its a horribly coded game so cannot be used to judge anything. Yes I play at 1920*1200 it say so in my sig for starters. And if you bothered to read the review I linked you'd see that in their test set up which measures multiple resolutions 1680*1050, 1920*1200 and 2560*1600, the only one where the 1 gig makes a significant difference is the last and highest. They tested across multiple different games and ran multiple test runs on each and measured both the average and minimum framerates and found negligible difference. So this is tried and tested fact not just my opinion

I said use of Vram, not performance.

Video RAM - how much do you really need?
And these are only upto 1600x1200 tests
http://www.yougamers.com/articles/13801_video_ram_-_how_much_do_you_really_need/images/oblivion_ram/
http://www.yougamers.com/articles/13801_video_ram_-_how_much_do_you_really_need/images/stalker_ram/
http://www.yougamers.com/articles/13801_video_ram_-_how_much_do_you_really_need/images/bioshock_ram/
http://www.yougamers.com/articles/1...uch_do_you_really_need/images/cod4_ram_usage/
http://www.yougamers.com/articles/13801_video_ram_-_how_much_do_you_really_need/images/crysis/

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17922341

JaseUK · 29 Jan 2009 at 11:10

I have been thinking of upgrading my 2 x 4870 512mb'ers for 2 x 4870 1Gb'ers or even the 4870X2.

I use dual monitors 1920x1200 & 1028x1024.

Will I be wasting money or is it a good idea just to get that little bit extra bumf.

95thrifles · 29 Jan 2009 at 12:58

You'll be wasting your money!

95thrifles · 29 Jan 2009 at 13:02

Looked at your graphs and if it were someone buying one new from an upgrade of say x1900 or round that area then Id say yeah go for the 1 gig, but its not worth someone upgrading from a 4870 512mb to a 1 gig version, whilst those usage tables show they are able to use more than 512mb the review I linked to shows the real world effect on gaming to be only a few frames per second, therefore its not worth the cash in this instance

gurusan · 29 Jan 2009 at 13:03

512mb seemed to handle most things fine for me at 2048x1152...I did not play a LOT of games though but they were fairly late titles such as Mirror's Edge, CoD4, and Stalker clear sky

Final8y · 29 Jan 2009 at 14:22

95thrifles said:
Looked at your graphs and if it were someone buying one new from an upgrade of say x1900 or round that area then Id say yeah go for the 1 gig, but its not worth someone upgrading from a 4870 512mb to a 1 gig version, whilst those usage tables show they are able to use more than 512mb the review I linked to shows the real world effect on gaming to be only a few frames per second, therefore its not worth the cash in this instance

I would say from a 3870 card.
It may be worth it going from 4870 512MB if you can get a good price for it but i would not bother with a res below 1920x1200.

Walter Sobchak · 29 Jan 2009 at 17:28

Yes go for it!