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Decisions, decisions!

thesnowdog1971

thesnowdog1971

thesnowdog1971

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Joined
2 Sep 2008
Posts
292
I'm going to be building myself a new machine but am currently undecided about the graphics card I'm going to use. I was originally going to get a 260 because it's a reasonable price and not too far off being as powerful as a 280 but am now thinking about getting a HD 4870 :confused:

I'm going to be using my PC for games mainly, and was wondering if I'm better off getting a 260, a 512Mb HD 4870 or waiting a few weeks to get the 1024Mb HD 4870? How much better will the 1024Mb card be?

I want my new build to be pretty much future-proof but I don't want to spend more than £250 on a new graphics card. I'd want to have a graphics card that along with a Q6600 overclocked to 3.3GHz and 2Gb 8500 RAM will be able to play the likes of Crysis with Very High settings at 1680x1050 resolution on my 24" monitor.

Any advice will be much appreciated, ta! :)
 
If its for future proof then none of these cards are and no cards have ever been. If you want something to last you i would spend the whole 250 on a gtx280 as it has the most memory and bandwidth of the 3 cards. Games are always going to make your card slower and slower due to graphical detail rising so there is no such thing as future proof just something that will last a little longer than others. The only other thing is that the 4870 is dx10.1 and has other features that are meant to be coming in and may make it the faster card of all 3 of them in the future. In games like assasins creed the 3870 using dx10.1 gained 20 percent on performance and this could be the same with dx10.1/11 which i am lead to believe dx10.1 is compatable with.
 
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Well what you can do if you have a crossfire/SLI board, is get 4870/260/280 now and then down the line when they sell for peanuts second hand get another one in. Also if gaming is priority the a Wolfdeale would fit in there nicely.
 
But wouldn't I be better off waiting and getting the 1024Gb 4870 with GDDR5 RAM for £234.99 when it's available rather than spending £270 on a 280..? :confused:

Has anyone any idea how long it'll be before the Powercolor 1024Mb 4870 is available? I'd prefer to get all my bits and pieces from Overclockers butmay have to look elsewhere if it's not available in a few weeks. :eek::mad:
 
4870 512mb for 24", its faster than the 260, and faster than the 1gb 280 with lots of AA, plus its a lot cheaper.
 
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Been where your are right now mate................and still am.
Im waiting till the 4870 1gb comes out, need to see some reviews then i'll decide on a gtx 280 or a 4870 512/1gb.
 
rippling said:
at your res , i was told 1gb is a waste , 512 is more than enough?
Click to expand...

Not so sure anymore especially if you want to apply lots of aa.

In GRID if you try and run at 12xcfaa or 24xcfaa at 1680 x 1050 you get a bizarre slow motion effect which I can only put down to the 512mb of ram.

Framerates are fine, 40 -50 fps, but the slow motion drives you insane therefore I only run GRID at 8xaa.

This is the only game I have found it though but it does concern me about future games.

The 1gb would certainly add some future proofing but to be fair at the price it is, it's almost worth the extra £20 for the GTX280.
 
Have changed my shopping plans regarding my new build as far as the RAM goes, I've decided that I'll move on to Vista x64 Ultimate and get myself 8Gb RAM (4 x 2Gb 6400 rather than 8500). After all, it's a bit pointless getting a DX10 graphics card and playing games using DX9.c :eek:

So now I'm looking at several options:

1) Wait and get the 1024Gb 4870 when it comes out
2) Get a 4870 512Mb and be happy with that for now
3) Crossfire 2 x 8450 512Mb cards
4) Throw caution to the winds and get a bloomin great big 4870 X2 2048Gb

I'm getting an Asus p5Q-E motherboard so Crossfire will only be x8 (I think) rather than x16, but would that only adversely affect Option 3 or will it also adversely affect Option 4 (don't know if Option 4 is like two 4870 1024Mb cards duct taped together or in CrossfireX :D )..? And which is going to be the best bang for buck? I'm going to want to play the likes of Crysis, CoD 4, Mass Effect, Orange Box and Bioshock at Very High/Maximum settings with all bells and whistles, which option would be the best?

I was only planning on spending £900-1000 but Option 4 will leave me around £80 over but from what I can see Option 4 is the best bet for graphics horsepower and future proofing..?

This is driving me mental, I keep on changing my bloody mind lol. At the moment I'm looking at this:

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)
Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ)
Corsair TX 750W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant PSU
Antec Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
Scythe Card Reader & Floppy Drive - Black
2 x Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7200S 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
Asus P5Q-E Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
2 x OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Reaper HPC Enhanced Bandwidth Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2RPR800C44GK)

for around £1080 including VAT and Next Day Delivery. Should be able to handle anything I can throw at it, don't you think..? Or is the 4870 X2 2048 card not worth getting given the other options available? :confused:

Sorry to be a pain in the arse but I don't get redundancy money that often thankfully lol
 
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i run a 4870 on a 24" monitor and its all you need, you can play all games bar crysis at max settings. they're also definitely worth an overclock to get some extra free juice. the 1gb version will not really help at your res, its only worth it for maybe 24" and especially 30" monitors.
 
Okay, thanks mate. Have decided to go with one 4870 and change to an Asus Rampage Formula X48 motherboard; just in case I decide to get another 4870 at a later date so that I can Crossfire them x16/x16. :D
 
I am sending my 4870 Powercolor back cause of noise issue, and can't decide whether to get the saphire 4870 or the 280gtx or wait for the 1Gb 4870 but its powercolor :(

I have a 28" Monitor mind
 
sorry future proofing is a myth. Best you can hope for is surfing the wave the longest time. One card will give you that => 4870x2. Otherwise get a 4870 512mb. And when you need more power you can always get a second for crossfire; however you need a x38 or x48 board for that (I am not convinced with those P45 hybrid crossfire gimmicks). NB 4870 crossfire = 4870x2 and in some games is better. Anyway it's comparable on a whole.

As for the 4870 1024mb - I haven't seen any reviews/benchmarks yet. But at your res the 4870 512 should be more than sufficient for the time being.

PS - if you're gaming and not doing video editing etc... go for a Dual core wolfdale, e8400, e8500 or e8600 with higher stock clocks. you will have better margin for higher clocks. Quad is useless in games (at least for the forseable future, by the time games are optimized for 4 cores or more the q6600 will have no chance anyway). The 2.4hgz on q6600 will not be enough by xmas, they starting to show their age now.

PSS - I will see when Nehalem is out if worth upgrading. if not, I will probably get a e8400 (E0 stepping hoppefully) who knows in the end - will make that call end of the year.
 
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