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4870 - Just bought, should I keep?

matt_fsr

matt_fsr

matt_fsr

Soldato
Joined
20 Jul 2005
Posts
5,714
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Durham
OK so I took advantage of the lovely OcUK people and upgraded my 8800GT to a 4870 512Mb Toxic, got it delivered yesterday, so i grabbed a few benchmarks off the old 8800GT then popped it in for a spin.

Little noisier than the passively cooled 8800GT ;) - but I could always transfer the Accelero over.

Trouble is, its a *tad* thirstier on the electricity than I'd hoped for, based on the several reviews that I'd read.

On 2D use in windows, it pulls 50W more from the wall socket, and during gaming closer to 75W more. (Measured using a plug-in meter, seems accurate based on all other things I've used to test it) Shouldnt be too much of a problem, but I gave the CPU a little 100% usage and then ran Furmark for a bit on the GPU.

343W maximum power draw :eek: (Keep in mind I am running a 350W PSU here boys and girls)

Now I'm not too bothered about the extra electricity usage, which a brief calculation makes at around £17.30 per year. (4hr a day 2D usage, 2hrs a day gaming - i dont use the PC at all some evenings)

But I'm worried that this leaves me no headroom on the PSU for any future upgrades, and may be stressing the PSU a little too far. Crysis seems to be drawing ~250W when playing - just concerned for when everything suddenly wants power all at once!

What do you reckon? Should I return the 4870? It isn't really economical to upgrade PSU, as this is fixed into the case - so I'd need a new case and PSU, which would cost far more than the £112 that the card cost!
 
Can't believe you have worked out the 17 pound fifty :(
**** the money, power is good & you don't have enough of it. Sell something & upgrade the PSU & case as although your PSU is managing it's to close to the limit for my liking. You don't need to go mental a Decent 550w or even a 480w would do you.
 
Yup. I'd recommend upgrading your PSU as well.

A 350W PSU just doesn't cut it these days, for a gaming rig with a modern graphics card.
 
350W.. hmmm... sounds like that 350W won't last too long powering up that rig.. might want consider upgrading it.
 
As posted in OP though, I dont really want to just "upgrade the PSU" as I cant - its a permanent fixture of the case.

So even getting an ordinary looking Antec case with 430W PSU will set me back another £100 - thus making the upgrade from the 8800GT actually cost me £212!
 
Same situation here Matt, got myself a 4870 (sapphire with the stock cooler) and when it arrived it was the one with the toxic cooler, not complaining there. Installed and all seemed well, ran furmark to make sure all is working, within about 10 seconds temps were in the 90's then they hit 100 and i turned it off.

To RMA or not to RMA?

Matt, was yours the 1gb or the 512mb?
 
512Mb version - slightly cheaper, and as I game at 1440x900 I dont really need the extra VRAM.

I'd say 90+ temps is WELL off the mark - mine has the toxic cooler and was getting around the 50 mark, but with fan speed on auto it just made more noise rather than getting hotter.

I'd return yours as faulty to be honest...
 
Yeh, started another thread as to not hijack yours but I thought 100'C was far too hot too. Also annoyed at the noise this cooler makes considering how good it looks like it should be.

Looks like OcUK may be getting 2 of these returned soon.
 
Kev_19 said:
What PSU would you need therefore to run a decent i7 system with a GPU in the line of a GTX280?
Click to expand...

Just pop a small coal/gas fired power station in your back garden and you'll be fine :D

500/600W id say, perhaps more if you have lots of hard disks or peripherals.
 
Just because it's drawing 340w from the wall doesn't mean your system is using that. If the PSU is 80% efficient the PSU is only having to provide 272w to the system, if it's stable then it's fine.

PSUs are designed to be used near or at their max capacity for long periods of time, as long as it's a decent quality one there's little to worry about.
 
You could always undervolt/underclock the card if you're worried about the card using too much power. But yeah, as it stands I think the PSU is getting a bit overworked!"
 
Raikiri said:
Just because it's drawing 340w from the wall doesn't mean your system is using that. If the PSU is 80% efficient the PSU is only having to provide 272w to the system, if it's stable then it's fine.

PSUs are designed to be used near or at their max capacity for long periods of time, as long as it's a decent quality one there's little to worry about.
Click to expand...
Sense! Furmark isn't a game and playing Crysis is making the PSU draw from the wall 100W less than it is rated at. If your computer is stable, then keep the PSU. No point upgrading until you have to.
 
If its not broke dont fix it, wait until it shows you symptoms then that new case and PSU will be more worthwhile.
 
Gonna pop thr Catalyst 9.5 drivers on tonight and give this a whirl.

So far I'm not amazingly impressed with the speed improvement.

Grrrrrr decisions decisions.....
 
matt_fsr said:
Gonna pop thr Catalyst 9.5 drivers on tonight and give this a whirl.

So far I'm not amazingly impressed with the speed improvement.

Grrrrrr decisions decisions.....
Click to expand...

Well I dunno what speed improvements you would have been expecting mate but at 1440x900 an 8800GT is still plenty to eat through most games including Crysis.

The 4870 will still only display 60fps on your screen which Im sure the GT would have been getting easily on some games, so visually there would be zero increase in some areas.

I made the jump to a 4870 1gb from a GT a while back and the improvements were massive but I game at 1920x1200.
 
ManCuBuS said:
Well I dunno what speed improvements you would have been expecting mate but at 1440x900 an 8800GT is still plenty to eat through most games including Crysis.

The 4870 will still only display 60fps on your screen which Im sure the GT would have been getting easily on some games, so visually there would be zero increase in some areas.
Click to expand...

Hoping for just more FPS across the board really - yeah it was a bit of an impulse buy at that price though, it definitely has smoothed Crysis out much better, just about to test it on the section that crippled my 8800GT - defending Prophet from the flying alien machines. Will do that tonight. Not worth having it just to make Crysis a bit better though, its not *THAT* good a game.

Other than that, suppose it was just the thought of "new Gfx card, old one is now 18 months old"
 
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