GTX 460 or the old 4890

[Lord Sindore]

I have a XFX radeon HD 4890, and just wonted to know if it is worth getting a GTX 460, and if it is, which make should I go for?

If I do end up getting a new GTX 460 how much of a jump is it going to be?

could I use 3D vision and a 3 monitor set up for example, or do I need two of them set up in SLI, and if I do have to go for SLI what is the heat out put going to be like?

have any of you ever made the jump from a 4890 to a GTX 460, and was the performance any better, was it a big leap in fps or just a small jump for the sake of DX11?

can the 460 run on max tessellation, anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, with the other setting maxed out, what fps do you get, is the games you play at max settings playable?

could my corsair TX 650w psu handle the setting on fall, or will I be dropping/crashing games left right and centre?

my spec's:
i7 920 d0 2.6Ghz + cooler master v8
3gb Dominator 1600Mhz + corsair tri cooler
EX58-UD3R
xfx 4890
corsair TX 650w
3 x 120mm fans
vista32/w7-64

thanks in advance

 

[Lord Sindore]

@ Big.Wayne wow thank, this is just what I was looking to find out, looks like I would get a nice jump in fps.

@ opethdisciple the reason why I said the 460, is because I only have 3gb of memory, and if I get any card bigger then 1gb then it will eat into more of my memory, and I'll end up losing more of playability.

@ SirCanealot I agree with you about that, don't get me wrong, I love my 4890, and have done for a year now, I play every game I've got maxed out, with great playability, I just wont to make a jump for DX11, that I can afford, + the option for 3D vision there.

@ opethdisciple I don't want multi monitor set up, not yet at lest, I just would like the option to, if I change me mind latter on.

@ hybrid572 I play all my games at 1920x1080, 8xAA 16xAF ultra high everything else.
I didn't think that a 650w psu could cope with SLI, I thought that it would have to be at lest an 850w.
The only game I have got that I had to down size on the AA with was far cry 2, and then I ran on 4xAA, and after that it ran as smooth as anything.

as for the list of game I run maxed out:
gears of war
dead space
mass effect
star wars the force unleashed
fed faction guerrilla
bioshock
fear
fallout 3
front line fow
ghost busters
UT3
dark void
pray
tcor attack on dark athena
oblivion
universe at war
battle forge

as for the list of game I can't run maxed out, but are close to being maxed:
AVP, but with out AA and tes
mirrors edge, with phyX
dawn of war 2
far cry 2

the rest are to old to count, as are some of the above, but even for there age, one or two, still run slower than I would like, like mirrors edge, the first time I played that was every thing maxed out, and it played like a dream, an till I got to the scene where all the glass started to get shot at, then it was a snails pace, the down side to not having PhyX, that's why I wanted an nvidia card this time around.

thanks for the info every one

 

[Lord Sindore]

if any one can think of any thing else I should take in to account then please let me know.

which make should I go for?

I have never got an nvidia card before, no that's a lie, I have had a nvidia card before, but it was an old one when I get it, and it was not all that good, it was 6600LE by MSI, a friend gave it to me from his rig when he upgraded, I think he was trying to get me back into PC gaming again, it worked a charm. lol

however I have never bought nvidia card before, I have only ever got ATI cards, and I have only ever bought two of them, the first was in 1997/2003 I think, I got it to play Morrowind, but can't remember what it was called, but I think it was an AGP card, and the 2nd was my 4890.

sorry but I had to add this.

Just had a hunt and found the old card, I still have it, I remember it cost me about £60 at the time, had to google it and it is a PowerColor Radeon 9200SE, 128MB DDR 64bit, 200/333 MHz, AGP x8, API Supported - OpenGL, DirectDraw, Direct3D and wow it supported DirectX 8.1, and have just had a hunt, and they are still going for about $40, now that's good for its age, plus last time I check it still worked, if I only had an AGP slot it test it. lol

what do you think the fps would be in cyrsis at max setting? (I think 0/1fps and on fire) ahahaha!...

 

[Lord Sindore]

@ NqR holey s#~t, that's not that much of a jump is it, I think I'm going to have to upgrade the old memory to, now this is getting expensive.

However the fps is a good jump from 4890 to 460 and I'm never going to run on 1920x1200, my monitor can only display at max 1080 any way, and that's only 6 mouths old.

4890 is only 12% faster than the 4870, according to that chart, but I've played on my mates rig at a smiler spec to my system, but with more memory, and he had a 4870 instead, and I could tell the defiance between them when playing the same games, the margin was small though I'll give you that.

However you are right, there's not much in it, but I'm going to make the jump to DX11 sooner then latter, and if I could have found a dedicated PhysX card then I probable would have got one, as I do physics programming from time to time with PhyX anyway.

I would like to have a new GPU anyway, as I can sell my 4890 and still get back 2/3 of its value even 2nd hand, and that will pay for most of my new card, so it pays to play the right type of game.

so what do I go for 470, and lose more memory? I won't have the cash to get more memory for some time.

 

[Lord Sindore]

@ reiyushin I have a dual OS, 32bit vista prem, and 64bit w7 ult, thanks for the advice, I may wait till the end of the mouth.

@ Freddie1980 had thought about crossfireing 4890's, but then I have to shell out for a new PSU, and would only be left with 1gb of system memory.

@ errata I don't have an traditional LCD, I have an LED and have seen what 3D is like on them, which is a lot nicer and is a lot more smooth like the cinema versions, only down side is that its 60Hz, it would be better at 120Hz, how ever it makes you feel a lot less motion sick. lol

I think he means what memory the OS will make use of i.e. 32 vs 64 bit

@ Stanners yes I did mean that. lol

Arrr - missed that. I'll get my coat.

@ hallmeister Legend!... lol

Just for every one who dose not know this, that the cards eats from your system memory, have a go at running msinfo32 on the start menu, and you will see that the graphics card eats what ever memory it needs, so if its a 1gb card and you have 4gb of system memory, than in msinfo32 you will see that you now have 3gb system memory left for the OS, if its 1.5gb card then you would be left with 2.5gb and so on.

if you only have 4gb of system memory don't what ever you do get a 4gb graphics card, you will not have any system memory at all left. lol
I'm not 100% on this, but I don't think that you will even be able to boot in to windows, I could be wrong.

@ every one else, I think that you are all right, I should go for the bigger end card like the 470, if I had the money I would get a 480, and a 6gb kit of memory to, but for price and power the 470 would be the one to go for, at my price range of about £200.

I think I could cope with 1.75gb of memory in vista, don't know if w7 would be so great after, but it has only bin running on 2gb anyway, and could upgrade memory at a latter date.

I have bin thinking about upgrading some other parts anyway, was waiting for the old 6gb dominator kits prices to drop, as I have the 3gb dominator kit.

that's just made me have a thought, can you run on a 9gb system, 3x1gb and 3x2gb, I know I would have to change my mobo out, but would it work, and would it work well?

last one what make of 470 do I go for?
I had thought about MSI GeForce GTX 470 however it is a bit more pricey, and I would have to save for longer, but then again I could go for this one Gigabyte GeForce GTX 470 OC, and put what's left over in the kitty toward a TV card, what do you all think?

thanks again.