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50 or 70?

Soldato
Joined
2 Jun 2007
Posts
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Location
Mornington Crescent
Probably a question thats asked a lot here, but shush!

I'm about to go buy a new graphics cards, but I'm not sure which is the best. Well, obviously the 4870 is, but is it worth the price increase from the 4850? I can afford the 4870, so it it worth going for it?
Also, I'm not sure what power cables either of them need. Will 2x 6-pin cables do it, or do either of them need an 8-pin? And would it be possible to run them just off a 6-pin one? Just its a modular psu, and the cable's somewhere at home, and it'd be hard explaining to mum where it is.
As for the different brands, it seems to me that the only difference between them is the cooler on the card, and the warranty. Is this the case, and if so which should I be looking for?

Anyway, lastly, would any of my specs be holding it back, or be worth replacing at the same time?

E6600 @ 3.4Ghz
Asus P5B
4Gb PC6400 ram
X1950XT 512Mb
Enermax Liberty 620W
X-fi gamer
Vista x64
Also, just running a 19" 1440x900 monitor.

Thanks in advance.
 
Last edited:
4850 will be very nice with that rig and for your current res.

Yep youre right re warranty and cooler being main difference between cards (plus box contents).


The Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail This Week Only Offer £117.49 inc VAt apart from being cheap has 3 year warranty.

or the HIS ATI Radeon HD 4850 IceQ 4 Turbo 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail for £140.99

would be my two choice. The HIS because it has a very nice / quiet cooler.
 
If i was buying now I would get one of the Gigabyte 1GB versions. they are clocked to 700core out of the box and you can get them for around £130. Reviews the them overclocking the core over 800 so i suspect it has a higher vGpu than vanilla models.
 
I don't see a gigabyte 1Gb on OcUK, but would this be good enough? Weird looking cooler compared to the normal ones, though.
And what would you recommend for overclocking graphics cards? I tried doing it through the CCC a couple of times, but for a reason I can't remember, put them back to defaults. I think some games were causing the driver to stop responding, which I'm assuming was because of overheating.

Also, any idea on what power cables it needs?
Thanks!
 
tbh, I'd spend the money on a better monitor first.. I'd be suprised if your X1950XT struggles with anything at just 1440x900.

A 4850/70 would be overkill on your current monitor imo :)
 
Well, I had been considering a second monitor, though I was dissapointed to hear you could't fullscreen a game on one, while using the other to chat with people. But still, it would be nice, so I could at least see if someone was trying to MSN me.

So, what sort of size monitor is good value these days? I don't do too much with the PC besides game and watch high res anime.
How about This? Better resolution, and £15 off. That and a 4850?
 
Im not great on monitors but that looks good.

And the Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4850 PCS Extreme 1024MB is well priced too.

and 1 x 6pin pcie connector for the 4850.

or 2 x 6pin pcie connector for the 4870.
 
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