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5850 or 4870x2

Rambo2683

Rambo2683

Rambo2683

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Joined
1 Oct 2006
Posts
234
Hi,
just wondering whether it would be foolish of me to be considering a 4870x2 2gb now.
I have seen one for 210 quid which is only slightly more than the 5850 I was planning to get. But a lot of the benchmarks show the 4870x2 to be pretty much up there with the newest 5870 still.

Bearing in mind I have never even seen directx 10, I'm on windows XP, so directx 11 doesn't appeal in the slightest to me. And power consumption isn't much of an issue to me either.

What would be my best bet?

My PC only has 1 pci-e slot as well so i can't get another 5850 further down the line to use CF.

Any input appreciated :)
 
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My vote is for the 4870X2. Its a very fast card and as you say - as fast as a 5870. If you can get a 4870X2 2GB new with a decent warranty for £210 - then you will be getting a great deal and it sounds like it will fill your requirements well.
 
well i guess if you have a psu that a 4870x2 will need then go for it considering its only £10 more than a 5850 , but i dont now that much about gfx cards so wait for a more techical response lol
 
The card comes with 1 year warranty.
Rest of my specs include a soon to be q9450, 4gb of DDR800 RAM and the PSU i will have to check, I think it's 700w.

Is this sufficient?
I'm going to be powering my new 120hz Viewsonic 22"...so 1680x1050 resolution :)
 
I'm no Nvidia fanboy, but you may want to consider a GTX 285 with that monitor.

I say this because, by all accounts, Nvidia 3D vision is pretty good. The only problem is that you need a 120Hz monitor to make it work. If you already have that, then that's the biggest hurdle sorted.

I just though it was worth considering, if you aren't interested in 3D then the 4870X2 is the way to go.
 
Guys, I think you're mixing up the 5870 with the 5850 - the OP clearly asked about the 5850. Based on several reviews, I'd certainly go for it on power draw alone. 29W at idle is a massive power + heat saving boon.
 
cmndr_andi said:
I'm no Nvidia fanboy, but you may want to consider a GTX 285 with that monitor.

I say this because, by all accounts, Nvidia 3D vision is pretty good. The only problem is that you need a 120Hz monitor to make it work. If you already have that, then that's the biggest hurdle sorted.

I just though it was worth considering, if you aren't interested in 3D then the 4870X2 is the way to go.
Click to expand...

Yeah I had considered 3d vision. But the main reason for my wanting the monitor was to transfer from my CRT to a nice high refresh rate LCD. So playing at 60hz in 3D doesn't appeal right now. Not to say I won't give it a go in the future if I should get another Nvidia card and the glasses aren't so expensive.

I'm thinking I might get the 4870x2 now :) Looks like it'll be a nice jump from my 8800GT!
 
The x2 is as fast as the 5870 so you can be sure the x2 will out perform a 5850.The new cards are dx11 but dx11 games will a year away or more before they become the norm.There's also a ? on reliability with new tech.If you laid all 3 cards infront of me and said pick one id go for the x2 at that low price.Price no object id take the 5870 but imo its not worth £100 more than a x2.
 
Call me a fool but I just ordered it :)
£220 delivered.

Sold my xbox yesterday for £120, hoping to sell my 8800gt for £40-50...so overall money out of my wallet isn't bad at all for what I'm getting!
 
I like how for months ATI owners have been telling people to buy 48xx with one of the primary reasons being DX10.1 support and yet now that 58xx is out they're saying get a 4870x2 without any mention of DX11. :p

You should have gone with 5850 in my opinion for all the reasons StevenRaith mentioned.
 
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DX10.1 still has uses and can do some GPGPU stuff - I think Photoshop CS4 supports some GPGPU post processing effects IIRC, and it's not the only program - but DX11 will basically make it look like the stop gap it always was.

I honestly have no idea why anyone would buy a 4870x2 right now - it's now officially the ginger stepchild of the high end ATI family - yes it's as quick as the 5870, but it's immensely power hungry, has compatability issues [to the same degree as any crossfire setup] and doesn't support DX 11 which is the next big thing in terms of computer utilisation.
 
I chose it because it's 90 quid cheaper :) and virtually the same price as the slower card.
DX11 means nothing to me i'm afraid :p
IF it's really as good as people think it is (just like they said directx 10 would be), I'll get a second gen dx 11 card in 12 months time when it's actually being used :)
 
The OP made the right choice imo.He got 5870 performance for £90 less money.Why the fuss over dx11 when we dont have dx11 games yet.If we are lucky there will be 4 or 5 dx11 titles in the next 6 months and out of them how many of them are any good and worth buying ?.Why would anyone want to pay a extra £90 for same frame rates and a dx that no games even use is beyond me.
 
Little update, the price actually dropped to £198 delivered.
I had to cancel my original order and re-order at the new price.

I'm happy with the choice i made :)
 
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