radeon £300+ spendage problem

siumatfung · 17 Apr 2009 at 19:04

i am going to order this next week

i am looking at:

2 x 4870 1Gb
2 x 4890 1Gb
4870x2

which one of these choices would you choose and why?

and would there really be much point waiting? for example when the 5800 cards come out im not really that bothered

gurusan · 17 Apr 2009 at 19:05

At what resolution? If between 1680x1050 and 1900x1200 a single 4890 would be more than sufficient.

siumatfung · 17 Apr 2009 at 19:06

really i am running 2048 x 1152 guess i could crossfire them later this year but erm my 8800Gt struggles real bad atm at this res

gurusan · 17 Apr 2009 at 19:10

Well that's the same resolution I run and I am very happy with a single overclocked 1GB 4850 @ 830/1120....a 4890 will do 900mhz easily and of course has the benefit of gDDR5.

Why not just start with 1, if you aren't satisfied then throw in another. Which games do you play primarily?

siumatfung · 17 Apr 2009 at 19:12

well i guess it is now bargin hunting now

want the best of both worlds sub £200 and at least a 2 year warranty likes

arc@css · 17 Apr 2009 at 19:24

gurusan said:
Well that's the same resolution I run and I am very happy with a single overclocked 1GB 4850 @ 830/1120....a 4890 will do 900mhz easily and of course has the benefit of gDDR5.

Why not just start with 1, if you aren't satisfied then throw in another. Which games do you play primarily?

This.

Magnum_Force · 17 Apr 2009 at 20:56

Gurusan you are starting to make me regret selling you that 4850....

....830mhz...I mean, damn, congrats bro!

gurusan · 17 Apr 2009 at 21:02

lol thanks. I have vmodded it to 1.3V load and 1.0V idle though....

But still, on stock voltage it did 780mhz under water which I was VERY pleased with. Not ever seen a 4850 clock this well.

4850s are great if you have no problem pencil or hard modding...but the 4890s have their place as well. They will do 900MHz to 1GHz without any voltage adjustments, something a 4850 can't even dream of :/

Rroff · 17 Apr 2009 at 21:23

Depends on your requirements...

I have a 2048x res display and switch between 2 PCs: 8800GT and 260GTX SLI...

The 8800GT does admirably but the 512Mb VRAM deffinatly holds it back at this res causing some stuttery performance in some cases. Too many drops to 30fps for my liking.

A single 260GTX copes pretty well with 60fps _mostly_ at max settings and lots of FSAA in most games but I like max quality and a fairly constant 100+fps being the multiplayer junky I am, so it had to be SLI.

GoRedwings19 · 18 Apr 2009 at 01:51

Rroff>What does that have anything to do with the OP's original query of Radeon cards with a @300 pound budget?

What does 8800gt's and a 260 SLi setup fit in from his original list

2 x 4870 1Gb
2 x 4890 1Gb
4870x2

Unless he/she edited it.

Rroff · 18 Apr 2009 at 02:07

I was replying to someone elses reply to

siumatfung said:
really i am running 2048 x 1152 guess i could crossfire them later this year but erm my 8800Gt struggles real bad atm at this res

but they seem to have edited their post, I prolly should have quoted it so it made sense.

straxusii · 18 Apr 2009 at 08:53

The best bang for the buck is the 4870s. you should get 2 1GB for around £300

Dsteviedee · 18 Apr 2009 at 11:17

siumatfung said:
i am going to order this next week

i am looking at:

2 x 4870 1Gb
2 x 4890 1Gb
4870x2

which one of these choices would you choose and why?

and would there really be much point waiting? for example when the 5800 cards come out im not really that bothered

With the mobo in your sig it would have to be the X2 as crossfire is crippled

on the P35 chipset.

willy · 18 Apr 2009 at 13:06

For what i read, 4870x2 a tad faster than 2x4890

gurusan · 18 Apr 2009 at 13:19

Where did you read that? From what I've seen, 4890s in CF even beat out the GTX 295 even in TWIMTBP games, which is faster than the 4870x2 in most situations....

willy · 18 Apr 2009 at 14:05

I think i read it somewhere before and i couldn't find it now. Maybe i'm wrong

siumatfung · 19 Apr 2009 at 03:36

Dsteviedee said:
With the mobo in your sig it would have to be the X2 as crossfire is crippled

on the P35 chipset.

why would the corssfire be crippled because it slows down both lanes to 8x???

edit: should i also buy the Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo ?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-030-AR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787

would that be a hell of a lot better than the reference cooler?
a lot of people say it doesnt cool the VRM chips very well any ideas guys?
would the zalman ram heatsink set do the job for them?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-014-ZA&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787

Geckovich · 19 Apr 2009 at 03:48

P45 slows the two lanes to x8, I thought P35 slowed the second lane to x4 (also PCIe v1 and not v2 so less bandwidth anyway).

I may be horribly wrong, it's just a thought.

siumatfung · 19 Apr 2009 at 04:00

yeh it does the 2nd one runs at 4x which is so stoopid i duno why

Ben M · 19 Apr 2009 at 09:49

A p35 mobo slows to x16 x4 pci 1.0
so the second card is slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

go for a single card, or get a new motherboard.