4850 512mb upgrade

[NathanT]

Sorry, you guys probably get tired of reading so many of these threads. but I've been reading review after review and have only served to confuse my choices even further.

Currently have a 4850 512mb version and its starting to struggle. Was going to get a 4870x2 second hand but not heard any news from the guy selling it.

I'm on a bit of a budget after the tax man has hit me (again), so probably going to try and hit a 2nd hand 4890 or 5770 for around the 90-100 mark.

I've done some research and from what I can tell the 4890 still pulls out a little in front of the 5770 but I've heard some people getting pretty good results OC'ing their 5770s due to the smaller power draw and heat difference.

Are the dx11 drivers improving, is the 5770 going to be a better option maybe at a later date to x-fire?

My final choice is to save my cash for 2 or 3 months and go for a brand new 5850 at around £230, the benefit of this would be getting the full 3 yr warranty and piece of mind that the card has not been abused previously.
Any news on if these cards are going to ramp up in price in the not so far future?

Thanks in advance

 

[stulid]

does your motherboard support symmetrical crossfire?

get a second card- http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-135-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

 

[NathanT]

Nope, motherboard wont let me, so its got to be a single card. No chance of x-fire at the moment. Sorry should have said that in OP

 

[C64]

Get a 5770 the 4890 might be faster in a few things but overclocked the 5770 is about even and make sure you get an egg/batmobile cooler steer clear of the reference leaf blower cooler ones.

Imo they are noisier and offer poorer cooling but for some reason people think a card that exhausts hot air directly out of the case makes a difference to other temps but cant say I have ever noticed any.

5850 is overpriced imo and by the time you need a 5850 just to be able to play a game well on high details the 5850 wont be that price.

I cant see much on the pc games horizon that's going to bring a 5770 to it's knees any time soon.
Making sure you have a quad core is of more importance at the mo although only a few games such as bad company 2, GTA 4 I would call it almost essential to have.

 

[NathanT]

Thanks, currently running a quad core so its only the GPU that is letting em down hitting some of the higher settings. I'll keep an eye out for a 5770.. or cross my fingers that this ATI price drop comes in the next few weeks.