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Replacement for 4850

Macky

Macky

Macky

Soldato
Joined
5 Apr 2009
Posts
6,179
Location
West Midlands
So my mum and dad have finally decided that the 10 year old server PC, is now, too old. So I offered to build them one and they said yeah. So I can probably scrounge a new graphics card out of this. Give them my 4850 and I get a replacement for my E8400 build. Now I was thinking about a 4890, as OcUK are going some fantastic deals on them at the moment. What do you guys think. I would like it to be Below £160 please.

Cheers.
 
Nope. Asus P5Q SE. :(
Edit - Would a Gainward GTX 260 Golden Sample be a better bet? I've heard fantastic reviews from those cards, + would it be faster in Photoshop etc? I also want the card to be quiet, I am not going to be overclocking it.
 
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Macky said:
Looking at most of the Benchmarks the 260 seems on par with the 4890 and in some cases, better. I'd prefer the 260 as it will have better drivers, run quieter, and I'm guessing, have less problems.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-104-GW&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=927

I was looking at that. Playing on a 22" sreen, 1680x1050. Alongside with E8400 at 3.4GHZ, 2X2GB of RAM.
Click to expand...

If you an push your budget a little - possilbly chuck in £20-30 of your own money if you can get them to agree to £160 - then yolu start to look at 275s - which is a more interesting choice:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2009/04/03/radeon-hd-4890-vs-geforce-gtx-275/17

Have a look at those overclocking results, reference 275s look to be pretty conservatively set up and kick the 4890 into the middle of next week in the [admittedly few] tests they did once they had turned the wick up.

The 260 is about 'on par' with the 4890, but the 275 seems to be slightly ahead of it in most respects - wish I had done more research and spent a bit more money myself, the 4850 I have seems a bit limp compared to either card, frankly - especially with prices seemingly falling through the floor for both the 4890 and the 275.

Also, if you are concerned about noise, it might be worth thinking about tearing up the warranty - I know I always mention this, but I have a TRad2 on my 4850 with a 120mm Noctua NF-P12 fan, and it's bloody quiet at full speed - with slower fan speeds, effectivly silent to all intents and purposes. PLenty of people have similar things to say about the Arctic Cooling VGA coolers too, and while i was a bit shaky about trying it at first, now I have done it, I can't recommend 3rd party VGA cooling enough - it makes an utter mockery of standard cooling in terms of heat shifting capability and noise output in almost every single case- with [very] rare exceptions.

Some food for thought for you there.
 
Macky said:
I'd prefer the 260 as it will have better drivers, run quieter, and I'm guessing, have less problems.
Click to expand...

It will not necessarily have better driver's, run quieter or have less problems, ATi and nVidia both have there fair share of problems, ask any ATi owner if they've have many problems with drivers, I'm sure they haven't had a lot, I know I haven't, =]
 
nor have i :)

I still wanna try Nvida out again through, just put off them cos of price and a rubbish FX
 
Come on guys, whad'ya think?

XFX 4890 XT.

Gainward Golden Sample GTX 260 Core 216.

XFX GTX 275.

I would like to go with the 275 as it gives similar performance to a GTX 280, has anybody tried the XFX 275?
 
I have the Gainward - it's a pretty good card - but personally I'd get a 275.

Nvidia cards make no difference in Photoshop btw.
 
I don't see the point in factory clocked cards in ATI form as noramlly you can get stock onces runining at the same speed, particauly of the "XT"

okay its up to you but be prepared to pay the extra
 
Got XfX 4890 XT in the week

Loving it honestly

I came from a 4870 512 and previous to that was nvidia 8800gts 640, previous to that ati 9800 pro (think that's card) previous to that a long line of nvidias

So i can honestly say i'm unbiased as i swap for best bang for buck :P

The XT is on special now :) So ordered another one that will be here monday

For the overclocking i can get mine to 1gig 1.1gig on mem

Lovely card i highly recommend it and it's great in arma2 etc

But it's up to you in the end really
 
Macky said:
Yeah I'd like it. I wonder if OcUK will drop its price a bit more. I'd say £150 and that would be a steal. Are we talking like 5-10 more FPS in games than my 4850?

Cool - According to this http://xtreview.com/images/GeForce GTX 275 and Radeon HD 4890 01.png it actually performs better than a 280.
Click to expand...

Yeah, @ 1280x1024 because it has higher clocks than a 280. But it has less memory and a narrower bus, so expect it to perform worse at higher resolutions.
 
Starting to see GTX 275 on offer for around your price, but a GTX 260 should overclock well and be plenty for a 1680x1050 screen if you want to save a few quid. Nvidia cards seem to have better minimum frame rates in Warhead and Company of Heroes which really cane graphics cards.
 
Crap. I forgot about my PSU. It is a 500 Watt Antec Earthwatts. Would this be enough to powe a 4890 or 275? The 275 draws less power apparently.
 
It's not the quietest card in the world, but it's a darn site quieter than an ATi 4890 for example. Bear in mind the cards ship with a borked BIOS that has no 2D clock speeds, but Gainward have a fixed bios you can download from their site.

I have mine running a custom bios with 200/100 2D clocks and 675/2300 3D clocks, and run the fan at 25% idle and 45% load. At 25% it's barely audible.
 
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