4870 on way back...

[Diggsy]

As title, picked up a 4870 from an e-tailer.

Received it yesterday, and was really looking forward to a nice performance boost.

To be perfectly honest, I was really disappointed. In fact, so much so that I have returned the card already and am sticking with my trusty GTX.

Before making the decision to return it, I made sure that the old drivers were properly cleaned by running the standard removal, then Driver Sweeper in Safe Mode.

I also tried the Hotfix drivers, which are supposed to be the best available for the 4870 right now, but I just didn't see the gains I expected.

I ran Crysis, COD 4, Stalker and GRID and didn't really see gains that were worth the outlay (would work out around £70 to upgrade when my GTX is sold).

To be perfectly honest though, it's likely my own fault as I like to have vsync enabled, thus limiting the FPS to 60, which is more than enough for any game.

What I didn't really notice before is that almost all of the games I currently play sync perfectly at 60FPS with 4x AA and full AF enabled at my default 1680 x 1050 resolution (except Crysis of course), so the 4870 didn't really have a chance to stretch it's muscles I guess.

I did notice on the Crysis bench that at my default resolution and all settings at high, the 4870 wasn't all that...

GTX scored as follows with no AA.... Min FPS: 20.88, Max FPS: 41.41, Overall Average FPS: 35.315

4870 scored as follows with no AA.... Min FPS: 20.91, Max FPS: 53.25, Overall Average FPS: 44.485

GTX scored as follows with 4x AA.... Min FPS: 17.74, Max FPS: 33.76, Overall Average FPS: 28.29

4870 scored as follows with 4x AA.... Min FPS: 18.22, Max FPS: 40.75, Overall Average FPS: 30.585

Now, 3dMark 06 at 1680 x 1050....

GTX - 12,869, 4870 - 13,760

Now i'm no expert, but those gains are a little disappointing. Look at the minimum FPS on both cards, there is almost no difference at all.

What I also noticed is that the 4870 is shockingly loud on startup, both at the bios screen and once in Windows. Now whilst idle it is no louder than the GTX, and when stressed pretty much the same too. In fact it might even be a little quieter than the GTX, but the pitch is a little more annoying.

So, the card is going back tomorrow. Some of you may think i've gone mad, but this has been my experience, YMMV.

Hope this helps some of you considering changing from a superclocked GTX. IMHO it's not worth it, or at least at 1680 x 1050 it's not.

 

[RavenXXX2]

Sorry the card didn't work out for you, i have an 4870 and its a great card for me, going from an 8800GT was a massive boost in IQ and performance.

 

[psychas]

if you could overclock your cpu higher u would have seen more diferences

 

[Diggsy]

if you could overclock your cpu higher u would have seen more diferences

Yeah, probably, but i'm stuck at 3ghz with this lousy 680i chipset. Still, not worth upgrading just to get a small boost. Or at least not yet anyway.

 

[Duke]

Strange decision but if it is what you found then can't say much really. As above, overclock the CPU and remember the ATI can be overclocked a fair amount too - mine sits at 825 (default 750) which gives a nice boost.

 

[Ezyryder]

As title, picked up a 4870 from an e-tailer.

Received it yesterday, and was really looking forward to a nice performance boost.

To be perfectly honest, I was really disappointed. In fact, so much so that I have returned the card already and am sticking with my trusty GTX.

Before making the decision to return it, I made sure that the old drivers were properly cleaned by running the standard removal, then Driver Sweeper in Safe Mode.

I also tried the Hotfix drivers, which are supposed to be the best available for the 4870 right now, but I just didn't see the gains I expected.

I ran Crysis, COD 4, Stalker and GRID and didn't really see gains that were worth the outlay (would work out around £70 to upgrade when my GTX is sold).

To be perfectly honest though, it's likely my own fault as I like to have vsync enabled, thus limiting the FPS to 60, which is more than enough for any game.

What I didn't really notice before is that almost all of the games I currently play sync perfectly at 60FPS with 4x AA and full AF enabled at my default 1680 x 1050 resolution (except Crysis of course), so the 4870 didn't really have a chance to stretch it's muscles I guess.

I did notice on the Crysis bench that at my default resolution and all settings at high, the 4870 wasn't all that...

GTX scored as follows with no AA.... Min FPS: 20.88, Max FPS: 41.41, Overall Average FPS: 35.315

4870 scored as follows with no AA.... Min FPS: 20.91, Max FPS: 53.25, Overall Average FPS: 44.485

GTX scored as follows with 4x AA.... Min FPS: 17.74, Max FPS: 33.76, Overall Average FPS: 28.29

4870 scored as follows with 4x AA.... Min FPS: 18.22, Max FPS: 40.75, Overall Average FPS: 30.585

Now, 3dMark 06 at 1680 x 1050....

GTX - 12,869, 4870 - 13,760

Now i'm no expert, but those gains are a little disappointing. Look at the minimum FPS on both cards, there is almost no difference at all.

What I also noticed is that the 4870 is shockingly loud on startup, both at the bios screen and once in Windows. Now whilst idle it is no louder than the GTX, and when stressed pretty much the same too. In fact it might even be a little quieter than the GTX, but the pitch is a little more annoying.

So, the card is going back tomorrow. Some of you may think i've gone mad, but this has been my experience, YMMV.

Hope this helps some of you considering changing from a superclocked GTX. IMHO it's not worth it, or at least at 1680 x 1050 it's not.

You tried Crysis and 3D MArk 2006. Are those 2 the only "games" you play?

 

[Diggsy]

You tried Crysis and 3D MArk 2006. Are those 2 the only "games" you play?

I just knew someone had to throw that in!! Look at the OP, I also ran GRID, COD 4 and Stalker

 

[eyetrip]

Well, to be honest, it kind of seems you were just setting yourself up to be disappointed.

You cap your FPS by enabling vsync, and most games already run fine on the GTX anyway at 1680x1050.

And if you had looked at benches you would know that the diff in Crysis and 3D06 wouldn't be much, if anything.

You were silly to purchase it, and not sure why you are sharing this with everyone.

Edit: I don't mean to come across as rude, I just don't get it

 

[Final8y]

We are more interested in seeing game bench results that scale properly with GPU power as crysis does not.
And you should no that by now.
There would have been nothing wrong with including the crysis results with the others, but crysis results by them self mean one thing & that a gfx card can run that game better than another and nothing else about general gaming performance.

 

[Big.Wayne]

Should have bought a HD4850!

 

[Cyber-Mav]

shoudl have gone from the 8800gtx to a gtx280 or waited for 4870x2. going from the 8800gtx to a 4870 is more of a side step than an upgrade, seeing as how the 8800gtx is still a damn good card.

 

[Diggsy]

Well, to be honest, it kind of seems you were just setting yourself up to be disappointed.

You cap your FPS by enabling vsync, and most games already run fine on the GTX anyway at 1680x1050.

And if you had looked at benches you would know that the diff in Crysis and 3D06 wouldn't be much, if anything.

You were silly to purchase it, and not sure why you are sharing this with everyone.

Edit: I don't mean to come across as rude, I just don't get it

Not rude at all to be honest, and I agree 100%, I shouldn't have purchased it at all. I just didn't realise everything ran so well beforehand to be fair.

So, yeah it was a bit of a silly purchase. I guess I just got caught up in the 'look how good my 4870 is' ramblings

 

[Diggsy]

shoudl have gone from the 8800gtx to a gtx280 or waited for 4870x2. going from the 8800gtx to a 4870 is more of a side step than an upgrade, seeing as how the 8800gtx is still a damn good card.

Indeed. I think you hit the nail on the head there! Now that I have confirmed this first hand (silly boy!!) I am gonna sit and see what happens...

 

[BubbySoup]

Or perhaps buy a 24" monitor

As to how well it still holds up in today's games is a real testament to the 8800GTX considering it's age - an eternity in "graphics card years".

 

[Diggsy]

Or perhaps buy a 24" monitor

As to how well it still holds up in today's games is a real testament to the 8800GTX considering it's age - an eternity in "graphics card years".

Indeed, the GTX really is still an awesome card. Perhaps I didn't realise just how well it held it's own

 

[AWPC]

You must have had config issues as I found both the 4850 & 4870 to be a lot faster than my old 8800GTX. Crysis is not a good game to test as my 4850 gets a solid 20-21FPS @ 1920x1200 under Vista DX10. 3DMark 06 as well is not a good performance guide at all.

Assassins Creed allows butter smooth panning whereas the 8800 would crawl or stutter.

Bioshock + COD4 are a lot better on the 4800 series as are all UT3 engine games.

Others have GRID @ 2560x1600 on a 4850 playable.

Rather than lose more money you should try and do a fresh OS build before selling.

 

[Greebo]

shoudl have gone from the 8800gtx to a gtx280 or waited for 4870x2. going from the 8800gtx to a 4870 is more of a side step than an upgrade, seeing as how the 8800gtx is still a damn good card.

Would be same result though and cost even more money. As the OP has stated his GTX plays all the games he wants at 60fps with vsync on. How would a GTX280 give anything different except maybe to enable more AA?

 

[PhoenixUK]

So you compare best version overclocked GTX to cheapest version 4870 running on stock with stock crap cooler in 1 game at low resolution and low settings ....

Not sure what did you expect but your old card will run all of these on those settings at it's best.

Now if you popped 1920x1200 (or at least 1680x1050 with everything maxed out), Max AA and max AF. then there will be difference.

Still there is no point in blaming the card to be honest, it's like buying ferrari enzo to get a ride to a corner shop and saying " Damn I expected to drive 400KMH on this small local road but I can only go 90 due to restrictions! bah, my old fiat can do that as well "

 

[Final8y]

Spot on ! ^

 

[Rroff]

So you compare best version overclocked GTX to cheapest version 4870 running on stock with stock crap cooler in 1 game at low resolution and low settings ....

Not sure what did you expect but your old card will run all of these on those settings at it's best.

Now if you popped 1920x1200 (or at least 1680x1050 with everything maxed out), Max AA and max AF. then there will be difference.

Still there is no point in blaming the card to be honest, it's like buying ferrari enzo to get a ride to a corner shop and saying " Damn I expected to drive 400KMH on this small local road but I can only go 90 due to restrictions! bah, my old fiat can do that as well "

Only... if you read most forums or reviews they hype the 4850/4870 up like the second coming... only in reality its slightly to moderatly faster than whats already out there and if you already have a high end 8800 its just not worth the outlay imo for the slight boost in performance.