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4890 vs. 5850 - SOS!

music4mybumhole

music4mybumhole

music4mybumhole

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Joined
10 Aug 2009
Posts
113
Location
Banbridge, N.Ire
Hi , thanks for looking and thanks in advance for any help.

I'm currently looking for a graphics card and have whittled it down to an Asus HD 4890 Formula (£170) and a Sapphire HD 5850 (best price I can see is £180).

I was just wondering what the performance differance would be at the min, as I'm finding it hard to get a straight answer. Some say very little, and it would just be more economical to run.

I'm mainly playing Aion at the min, and my integrated HD4200 is struggling in the busy areas. I want to stick with ATI to run hybrid crossfire as I've got 128MB sideport memory on the mobo, is that hard to set up?

Finally, I just have a Thermaltake Purepower RX 450w PSU, would that be OK or am I looking an upgrade too?

Thanks again.
 
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I believe 450w should be fine for a 5850, it is definately more powerful than the 4890 by a fair amount and is worth the tenner more.
 
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/faq.php?faq=vb_read_and_post#faq_vb_special_codes

Cut it out m8 before you get warned ;)

I personally don't think that sticking to Hybrid CrossFire would make any difference to you when getting 4890 or more likely - 5850. Worth try but you know, don't expect too much.

As 5850 overwhelms 285GTX and 4890 is likely to be somewhere around 275GTX, go for the first one - if you have enough funds. Be aware though that you may get 4890 for around 150 with non-reference cooling (such as Sapphire Vapor-X). Depends on your needs anyway.

EDIT: PSU will be just fine with 4890 Vapor-X. I wouldn't recommend getting anything over that as your CPU is quiet limited in performance.
 
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Apologies, never read the rules!

Think my signature jobbie has the rest of my rig, so I'm just trying to confirm with Thermaltake if I can squeeze one of these badboys in. I reckon it should go about a cm or 2 past the drive bay enclosure. :)

Was also looking at Sapphire's website, which recommends 500w. Now I have a fair few LED fans, and LED cooler and an Akasa fan control Pro. Do you reckon I would get away with the current 450w?

Cheers
 
Are you planning to buy a new rig soon? X2 5000+ even after a decent OC will be overpowered by 4890. 5850 would possibly kill it :D Save your money and get 4890 or GeForce 260GTX if you're not a fanboy ;)

The fans often work at 5V line so no worries about that. It is only few Watts btw. You have a decent PSU for OC and a midrange card. Producers always recommend sth not relevant.
 
So you reckon new CPU if I want 5850?

Flip me, it's never easy this lark.

I may just go for the Asus 4890 Formula then if you reckon that would be ok with my CPU.

From what I can see it gets very good reviews, beating the Sapphire equivelant. Whats your thoughts?
 
Figure out your real budget first. What future upgrades are you planning to do? Your CPU would definitely need to be upgraded if you want to see a real performance boost from any card above HD4850/250GTS.

For 22" monitor (1680x1050) I would look at Phenom II X3 720 - £98 or Phenom II X2 550 - £78 with one of these cards:

Radeon 4870 with a decent AC cooler - £113

Gainward GeForce GTX 260 - £135

Radeon 4890 Vapor-X - £150

If you think like going for DirectX 11 then you may choose between Radeon 5770 (which is slightly worse than 4870 in performance but has new features) £125 ATM and Radeon 5850 for £200.

Performance:
5770<4870<GTX 260<4890<5850

Still consider your budget first.

Your current CPU is worth about £55 new.
 
I personally don't think that sticking to Hybrid CrossFire would make any difference to you when getting 4890 or more likely - 5850. Worth try but you know, don't expect too much.
Click to expand...

I'm sure Hybrid Crossfire only works with low end cards. We're talking 3450 level, so no you wouldn't derive any benefit from it.

I believe 450w should be fine for a 5850
Click to expand...

I would be looking to upgrade that as wel., I am not sure of the amp requirement of the new cards, I'm still stuck in rebranded 8000 series land, but I guess it going to be more than 29A.
 
Cheers guys, i had no idea simply getting a graphics card would require so much other work.
I won't worry about the Hybrid stuff then, just saw that my mobo supported it and thought all Radeon's would benefit/work with it.

I was thinking of around £250, but that was for card and monitor (looking at the Viewsonic VX2260WM.
I think I will stick with the Asus 4890 Formula, as it runs cooler than most other 4890's, which is a must with the Lanbox.
So just CPU and possibly PSU to go, lol. I like the look of the Phenom II X2 for £78. I take it that is actually a quad core, with 2 cores disabled? Does anyone know if I can unlock the cores OK with this mobo?

Thanks again for info and advice.
 
Do you really need FullHD resolution? If not, you may consider Samsung T220 - £133, GeForce GTX260 - £135 and this Phenom II - £78. It is less than £350 in total but you may also find cheaper parts. And yes, these Phenoms were quad cores but two cores are disabled and there are some issues. I think that your MOBO won't let you unlock them though. Just google it ;) Your PSU should be fine anyway.
 
Ok, so I guess upgrading the CPU is a given now but I still dont really feel that I've got to the bottom of the original post topic.
From what I've seen from reviews and other discusisons there isn't a great deal of performance difference, and thinking about it, I'm not too bothered about DX11.
The last thing, which does have a lot of impact, is temps and power useage.
I'm not sure which of the 5850 / 4890 Formula would be most economical, and most importantly with the Lanbox, cool. That was the big attraction to the 4890 Formuula, the cool operating temp.
How does the 5850 fair on temp in comparison to this card, and which is the most econimical.

Thanks as ever for help/advice.
 
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