2x4850 or a 5850?

[ntg]

This is the case,

I got one Asus 4850 and a full HD monitor. I don't game a lot (thus not really happy to spend a lot of money on a 5850) but when I do I like to have all the goodies as high as I can.

I have noticed that in synthetic benchmarks 2x4850 are a good match to a 5850. However the low ram of the cards has been singled out as a consideration against the 1gb of the 5850 - which some posters say makes a different when gaming at full HD.

What is your take on this?

Is it worth getting an extra 4850 for around £50? Is it going to make a considerable difference when gaming at 1920x1280 or not?

I am not that interested on lower resolutions.

Thank you in advance for any reply.

 

[Overslop]

If you don't game much then just get another 4850, it will serve you very well!

 

[hyperst]

from experience with crossfire of 4850's, my next card will be a single soulution

 

[ntg]

hmm..divided opinions!!

anyone else care to provide their 2c?

I guess the electricity consumption will be much greater with 2x4850 than 1x5850, no?

 

[gareth170]

i've had 2x4850 and it is faster than a 5850 at the moment.

 

[~>Dg<~]

maybe a good idea but i would get a slightly better cpu .

 

[Richy1204]

get another 4850

 

[TheRealDeal]

I would get the 5850 as i think the ram is going to limit you with some games when adding in aa with a 4850 512 crossfire setup. If you can sell that 4850 for around £60 and add on what another 4850 would cost you are probably looking at around £140 all in. So you would probably be paying around £60 more for a next gen single gpu solution which imo is pretty good.

 

[Jakus]

A nice S/H hd 4890 1GB is the best way to go bang for the buck !

 

[hyperst]

my experience with crossfire wasnt exactly brilliant, games were glitchy sometimes which is a big no no in my book, ocossionaly changing some setting in windows resulted in my desktop area going to a black background , wallpaper was completly replaced lol, in the end i figured its more hassle than its worth,at the momeent ive settled on using 1 out of the 2 cards i have and my gameplay is now smooth as it was before crossfire, maybe it was the setup i was using and you will get totally different results, but for me it wasnt worth the hassle that it brings, i next plan on a single card like the 5870 or see if nvidia bring anything out to compete against the 5870, and as you say the 1gb memory should be a much better advantage when higher resolutions are used, also the new ati's are dx11 so if you go to windows 7 your card is fully compliant aswell

 

[LoadsaMoney]

If you don't game a lot, then get nowt, no point.