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Graphics upgrade from 4870x2

Evil-I

Evil-I

Evil-I

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Joined
20 Apr 2003
Posts
1,316
Location
Gloucestershire
Hi All,

Just wondering what upgrade you'd all reccomend coming from a ATI 4870x2 without breaking the bank?

Farcry 3 is struggling a bit on my 1920x1200 monitor. I also play BF3 etc.

Thanks for any advice,

E-I
 
Thanks for the response!

Ideally I want to spend less than £200, can't really justify much straight after Christmas.

I was initially looking at the 7950's that are on offer but it felt too much to spend, but didn't want to get a lesser card which would have no real performance advantage to what I already have.

I'll check out the 7850's. Is there a gfx card performance list anywhere that includes older cards for comparison?

Thanks,

E-I
 
A 7850 that manages a decent overclock, should sit somewhere between a gtx580 and a 7950. It will have better maximum, and more importantly, considerably higher minimum and average frame rates. It will also run cooler, use less power and deliver smoother performance. In fact, even at stock, I'd wager that the 7850 will perform noticeably better.


You can use this site to roughly compare performance.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU12/372
 
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Thanks all,

So, if the wonders of crossfire really worked, in theory my 4870x2 would be roughly equivalent to a 7850?

I do appreciate that in reality a dual GPU crossfire card almost never gives double the performance of a single GPU, and in some games probably wouldn't give any advantage at all, it's just hard to know what, if any advantage I'd be getting with a 7850 in my current games (Farcry3 and BF3 at the moment)?

Best,

Mike
 
If you can maybe provide the settings of the games you currently play, with the fps you're getting then we can probably give you a comparison in terms of performance increase.

It's difficult to know with crossfire 4870 what their real performance in a game is - if you can tell us, we can tell you :p
 
I went from a 4870X2 to an overclocked gtx480, and although the charts suggested that it wouldn't be much of an upgrade, I found the difference to be very substantial indeed.

You need to bear in mind that FC3 performance has been an issue for people, and I imagine that your experience may have been worsened by reliance on crossfire (FC3 issue), and therefore lower minimum frame rates.

As the 7950 is too much, you could consider these :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-312-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-038-KF&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2379
 
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Well, thanks to everyone for their advice, I decided to go with A gigabyte 7850 as a mid range, decent overclocking card at £150.

I gave up trying to compare my old card with the new and just started looking at average frame rates on the games I play and i think the 7850 with an additional overclock will do for now and I can always chuck in a second card in the future.

I'll let you know how I get on

E-I
 
4870x2 = 5870 = 6950 performance (but the later two have the benefit of no xfire)

A 480, 570, 660, 670, 680 or 6970, 7850, 7870, 7950 and 7970 all offer increased performance.
 
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