Should i keep my 4890?

teejay73 · 8 Dec 2010 at 19:13

Hi to all @ OCUK!

Been contemplating replacing my 4890 for something with a bit more power, I have seen that the 5870 seems to be dropping down and am very tempted to go for the vtx on offer or a xfx version, question is, will i notice a big improvement over my much loved 4890? At the moment i game @ 1920 x 1080 res.

I have also noticed a 6870 for £169 delivered, is this worth getting over the 5870? I am a budget gamer and always look for the best bang for buck. My cpu is the phenom 2 555 @ 3.6 ghz, will any of these gfx cards be bottlenecked by the cpu? Thanks in advance!

Buckster · 8 Dec 2010 at 20:23

I've a 4890 and been considering upgrading too ...

I was looking at the 5870 and GTX 470 ... but now the GTX 570 is out - and the new ATI cards are around the corner - going to wait till the new year

I'm hoping for - say Feb time GTX 570s <240 or so - at which point I'll upgrade

teejay73 · 8 Dec 2010 at 20:41

Yeah tbh my 4890 has been great and it copes well with the games i own but i can sell my 4890 for £80ish which means a 5870 would cost me a £100 or the 6870 for £90 but if i leave it later the value of the 4890 will drop and the 5870 prob wont go down that much more!

So at my res will either of these two cards be a bigger improvment over my 4890?

Buckster · 8 Dec 2010 at 20:42

I think the 5870 is faster at 1900 than the 6870 - but check with others

teejay73 · 8 Dec 2010 at 20:53

Cheers Buckster! from what i have read, the 6870 is just behind the 5870 but i was also thinking about dx11 and if the 6870 can do tessallation well as i read that amd lacks behind nvidia when it comes to tessallation, though not sure of this.

mysticsniper · 8 Dec 2010 at 20:53

Are you struggling to play games with your 4890?

You know, you could just get another 4890, and wait till the next gen of cards are available

danceforfreedom · 8 Dec 2010 at 20:53

Its definately worth it. I upgraded from my 4890 to a 5850 just about a month ago.

You guys seem to be aiming higher than the 5850 aswell. I picked up mine for £160 when they had the MSI Twin Frozr on offer, before you could get the 5870 for £180. Sold the 4890 on an auction site and got £80 for it aswell, so it was a £70 upgrade.

Definately noticed a huge difference especially with the overclocking potential, and with the newer direct x 11 games (like dirt 2) it definately looked nicer. Its always sweet when it arrives too and you've got new tech in your machine.

Personally unless you were looking to play 3D movies or games, I would go with the 5870 over the 6870. Consumes a little more power, but then again is slightly faster.

Definately worth the upgrade if you ask me, but like Mr Buckster said, the new radeon's are around the corner, but there shaping up to be quite expensive.

Bang for buck right now its the 5850 and 5870's that are to me the best option. They've had a drastic price reduction to make the 68**'s look more attractive, don't think the 6800's will go down in price believe the 6900's will be more expensive.

teejay73 · 8 Dec 2010 at 21:02

mysticsniper said:
Are you struggling to play games with your 4890?

You know, you could just get another 4890, and wait till the next gen of cards are available

Not with the games i have but i want to invest in some new games soon and want to be able to play dx11 titles and i dont want to xfire the 4890 with another as i would be running pretty tight on my psu. Cheers

teejay73 · 8 Dec 2010 at 21:10

@ danceforfreedom, i didnt think the 5850 would be that much of a step-up from a 4890? for me the 5870 looks good for the money and def not looking at 3d gaming so it does get a thumbs up for me but i can get a powercolor 6870 for £169 delivered is the 5870 worth £20 more including shipping?

Si105 · 8 Dec 2010 at 21:25

Wait till the new year, possibility of some nice price-cuts. Also you don't need to upgrade, so wait until you can maximise your money for the best performance.

teejay73 · 8 Dec 2010 at 21:37

Si105 said:
Wait till the new year, possibility of some nice price-cuts. Also you don't need to upgrade, so wait until you can maximise your money for the best performance.

Ha ,Ha "dont need to" and "want to" is the problem all of us face when upgrades are available so cheaply (vtx 5870 £179.99)

danceforfreedom · 8 Dec 2010 at 22:05

I got around a 40% boost if FPS in most games with the 5850 overclocked compared to the overclocked 4890 I had, with added direct x 11.

But your right, I got my 5850 just over a month ago for £170, when the cheapest 5870 on here was over £220 so if I was buying now I would definately of got the 5870.

teejay73 · 8 Dec 2010 at 22:24

danceforfreedom said:
I got around a 40% boost if FPS in most games with the 5850 overclocked compared to the overclocked 4890 I had, with added direct x 11.

But your right, I got my 5850 just over a month ago for £170, when the cheapest 5870 on here was over £220 so if I was buying now I would definately of got the 5870.

I am just thinking if the new amd cards come in cheaper than the gtx 570/580, will the 5870 drop more, at the mo i am stalling at the buy button and thinking wait a week and then see............but on the other hand 180 notes for a 5870 might be 200 next week....I hate upgrading....lol

danceforfreedom · 8 Dec 2010 at 23:08

Dont think they will drop anymore. Believe the 5800's are being phased out and left will be the 6800's at their current price and the 6900's at the higher price.

I've noticed a lot of the 5800's go on sale, then out of stock and not be restocked and not just on this site. This site theres only 3 models each of the 5800's.

The 5800's are slightly more powerful than their 6800 brothers so what I believe we will be left with is a slightly less powerful slighty more expensive (than the current prices of the 5800's) 68 series and an expensive top of the range 69 series.

If I was looking for a new card and had no more than £200 I would go for the 5870. But if I was willing to go £250 maybe a little more I would wait to see how the 6950 fairs up.

Tough decisions but its your call!

Edit: Looking around the belief is the 6950's are looking to be around 300ish!

teejay73 · 8 Dec 2010 at 23:30

Cheers Danceforfreedom, you could be right on the money and has made me re-think my idea. I have also noticed this and it was a trend I saw with the 4890 as well. Oh well it is not a must have, i shall wait it out for a week and see. thanks!

angela · 9 Dec 2010 at 13:14

I upgraded from HD4890 to HD5870 yesterday, and played all day on HD5870...
I thought I Would not upgrade for a while, as Hd4890 copes with almost all games on max..but noticed bargain in MM and could not resist it!

I can see big difference- now all settings in CCC maxed- catalist AI/mipmap detail level/triple buffering and I can see difference in image quality (on Hd4890 all settings where default and would not run smoothly on same gpu hungry games).

But...if you still okay with HD4890 don't bother for now. It's great card for a price!
I only could not max medal of honor/bad company/METRO2033/Gothic 4 and maybe couple other games could not be maxed.

So if games you play are playable nicely, don't bother to upgrade, if you feel you need more, maybe get second handed HD4850/HD5870/etc.

trickycurve · 9 Dec 2010 at 14:41

While I didn't exactly struggle to run games with my 4890 (apart from Crysis, which I didn't feel comfortable with playing at 25fps), I decided to upgrade to a GTX470 when they were on offer a few weeks ago. With my GTX470, Crysis runs at 35-40fps with a bit of AA. I played all my other games on max settings before, so the main difference I've found is with my fps count (which is substantially higher) rather than my ability to run at higher graphical settings. The only game I own where I "need" the GTX470 in order to max out is Metro 2033.

So I'd say anything similar to a GTX470 would definitely be a worthwhile upgrade, especially if you manage to sell the 4890 to make the upgrade cheaper.

rolypolyman · 9 Dec 2010 at 14:56

This card while it can be had.

Duke · 9 Dec 2010 at 15:56

The 4890 is a good card but at the resolution you are using, it will start to struggle. I'd go for the 5870 mentioned above, it is a bargain really.

teejay73 · 9 Dec 2010 at 16:03

angela said:
I upgraded from HD4890 to HD5870 yesterday, and played all day on HD5870...
I thought I Would not upgrade for a while, as Hd4890 copes with almost all games on max..but noticed bargain in MM and could not resist it!

I can see big difference- now all settings in CCC maxed- catalist AI/mipmap detail level/triple buffering and I can see difference in image quality (on Hd4890 all settings where default and would not run smoothly on same gpu hungry games).

But...if you still okay with HD4890 don't bother for now. It's great card for a price!
I only could not max medal of honor/bad company/METRO2033/Gothic 4 and maybe couple other games could not be maxed.

So if games you play are playable nicely, don't bother to upgrade, if you feel you need more, maybe get second handed HD4850/HD5870/etc.

I am ok with the 4890 in terms of the games i play, but i want to try dx11 games with tessallation and at the moment i can get the xfx 5870 for £190 or the vtx, if i get £80 for my 4890 then i have a cheap upgrade to better tech, i am also considering the gtx 470 or add a bit more for a gtx 480, still at the should i or dont i scenario! Thanks for your help!