3870X2 Or 4830

thehitmen · 12 May 2009 at 00:32

My little brother wants to get into some pc gaming, he has fell in love with the PC Version of L4D and has saved some money to get a pc gaming up, he has a small budget, and has set the most aside for his Graphics card.

He does not want a OMG amassing GFX card like the 4890,but would like to place L4D with a FPS over well over 100 constant with a 19" Screen.

Which is better the 4830 With a OC to match it to the 4850 or just buy a 3870X2 and have some future proofing.

Many thanks to all answers

jak731 · 12 May 2009 at 00:34

4770, low power usage and almost 4850 performance

chumpit · 12 May 2009 at 00:39

jak731 said:
4770, low power usage and almost 4850 performance

agreed and their pretty cheap

thehitmen · 12 May 2009 at 01:42

I hope this does not sound stupid, he wants the the card to look like this.

is there any cards which looks like this ?

jak731 · 12 May 2009 at 01:51

erm the 4850 and 4830don't look like that (single slot cooler), the 4870 looks identical and the 4770 has the same cooler (from the outside) with a shorter pcb.

Perfect_Chaos · 12 May 2009 at 03:21

thehitmen said:
but would like to place L4D with a FPS over well over 100 constant with a 19" Screen.

That would be quite a struggle, you need the best cards available now to get over 100 constant even for L4D, even then you may need 2 cards(if all details high).

but the performance would be acceptable at least.

thehitmen · 12 May 2009 at 08:31

Perfect_Chaos said:
That would be quite a struggle, you need the best cards available now to get over 100 constant even for L4D, even then you may need 2 cards(if all details high).

but the performance would be acceptable at least.

I did not know l4d was a major GPU hog ?

Source games are far as i know are CPU intensive, being how old and the way the engine is.

Would turning AA etc... of improve it.

Emlyn_Dewar · 12 May 2009 at 08:45

He might want the card to look like that, wont take him long to get bored of the insane-o loud fan.
Unless he's playing the game off a reflection from a windowed PC case, how the card looks should have nothing to do with it...

4770 is the win right now on a budget.
The 3870 X2 is not future proofing as it's a worse card than the newer mid-high range 4 series.

thehitmen · 12 May 2009 at 08:50

Emlyn_Dewar said:
He might want the card to look like that, wont take him long to get bored of the insane-o loud fan.
Unless he's playing the game off a reflection from a windowed PC case, how the card looks should have nothing to do with it...

4770 is the win right now on a budget.
The 3870 X2 is not future proofing as it's a worse card than the newer mid-high range 4 series.

Yes it is a Window case, i gave him my old Kanfalf

I am not fazed about the loudness of the fans, im custom to my 4890 sounding like a hair dryer and i like it! lol

I still can't seem to find a 4770 on OCUK which looks like a double slot cooler

Fenris · 12 May 2009 at 08:56

Emlyn_Dewar said:
He might want the card to look like that, wont take him long to get bored of the insane-o loud fan.

Why do people insist on saying this?

At 30% (i.e stock speed) the the fan is unnoticable, hell it gets drowned out by my fortress case fans which are hardly loud as it is.

I would suggest the 4770, great card by reviews, dirt cheap and looks decent.

Playing LFD at 100 FPS is unrealistic, 30-40 with decent graphics settings is a better mark.

thehitmen · 12 May 2009 at 09:16

Is there a double slot cooler on OCUK like the one in my pic?

I cant seem to find one?

willhub · 12 May 2009 at 09:33

Fenris said:
Why do people insist on saying this?

Oh I don't know.... Maybe because it's VERY LOUD for allot of people.. :rolleyes:

thehitmen · 12 May 2009 at 11:18

willhub said:
Oh I don't know.... Maybe because it's VERY LOUD for allot of people..

Its not

Emlyn_Dewar · 12 May 2009 at 11:37

Fenris said:
Why do people insist on saying this?

I hear mine every day, and whilst it is much quieter set at 30%, there are circumstances where I like it to be set faster.
Even at 30% you can still hear it's whiny ways. (I notice it over my OCZ PSU and it's a noisy ****)

When you're playing a chilled/relaxed game that doesn't constantly involve loud explosions/gunfire, it can get annoying.

Edit: Still don't understand the importance of the looks of the cooler? :confused:

A) That's a pretty ugly cooler
B) Just how long are you going to look at it for?
It's really not the greatest of cooling solutions, far from it actually...

willhub · 12 May 2009 at 11:42

thehitmen said:
Its not

And you speak for everyone? And you like your GPU running 80+ degrees?

reflux · 12 May 2009 at 11:43

thehitmen said:
Is there a double slot cooler on OCUK like the one in my pic?

I cant seem to find one?

Here's the cooler that the factory-spec 4770 uses. It looks quite similar to the 4870s cooler....possibly because it's based on the design of the 3870's cooler. It is the reference design for the 4770, but no one appears to be using it.

thehitmen · 12 May 2009 at 17:52

Is there Any chance that OCUK have any of these lying about or even B grade stuff?

Many thanks, as his case is see threw, he wants it to look nice, no harm in that i suppose?

TheRealDeal · 12 May 2009 at 18:00

thehitmen said:
Is there Any chance that OCUK have any of these lying about or even B grade stuff?

Many thanks, as his case is see threw, he wants it to look nice, no harm in that i suppose?

When the card is slotted into the machine you are not even gonna see the cooler as it will be facing down so its gonna look the same as all the rest. If you really insist on getting that cooler maybe send ocuk a web note or give them a ring. I have that shape cooler on my 3870 and looking through my window i can barely see any of the cooler.

reflux · 12 May 2009 at 18:02

Yeah, the stock ATi coolers are pretty difficult to see because they're fairly small and only sit on one side of the card.

GTX280 still best looking graphics card IMO