Should I sell my 4890 and get a 5xxx series?

[Marvin]

I'll explain my situation. I am going off to university soon, and would like to upgrade my system before I go, as when I'm there, I'll have no money for upgrades. So, theoretically the new hardware needs to last around 4 years.

I've currently got a 4890, and am planning on doing a complete system overhaul (so a new processor, RAM and motherboard are on the cards). Should I sell my 4890 now, and get say 2 5770s, or a 5850, so I can support DX11, where games will shift to in the coming years. I understand that a 5770 is not as good as a 4890, and two are perhaps on par if not better than a 5850.

Or, should I just get the second 4890, and not worry about DX11, as DX10 will probably be supported for a good number of years to come (DX9 certainly was).

Overall budget is whatever I get for my 4890 + £150ish.

Or should I just wait for Fermi? I've had good success with ATI, and I think that they tend to be better value than nVidia, but that's just opinion. Of course, the decision to go ATI or nVidia will affect my new motherboard choice, so it's important I get it right.

 

[Shakeel]

if i was you i would wait. if the 4890 can do the job then just keep it and wait for a price drop

 

[twist3d0n3]

you know you want DX11 goodness

but if the 4890 does everything you throw at it well, why not stick with it?

 

[Andric]

bite the bullet and upgrade it to the 5850 if your looking at 4+-years

 

[gurusan]

keep the 4890 for now.

 

[thebandit]

in a month or so the prices of the 5850 should be entering back into the realms of reality and be well with in your reach selling a 4890 + £150. That's what I would do and who knows, your 2nd year student loan should cover a 2nd 5850 to give your system a little pep up to last you till you finish.

 

[AgedIdiot]

Overall I think your probably best to wait and see

Will Fermi be as good as some think ?
When is Fermi actually coming to market?
Will the prices of the 5800/5900 series ever drop or is it the case that Fermi will never actually appear and with Vat going to 17.5% followed by the increase to pay for ............... (debts,students, ..ankers etc- fill in as wished!) to 40% the sky's the limit ?
Will DX11 actually take of or is it dx10 again?
And even if DX 11 does take of will the games coded for it be any good?
" " " " " " " " " " " " is good will any of the current new cards be any good ?

Obviously it may be some time before a definiative answer is available and you might take my actual approach which was 'b..ger' it I want a new toy so bought a 5870 BUT cannot,logically, recommend this approach !

Logic would suggest to me that apart from 'money' the most important ? is where do you expect to be gaming 'resolution wise' when you've completed your upgrade ? Obviously the more pixels the more powerful the card needed - so what are you thinking ?

 

[Marvin]

Resolution-wise, I'd be looking at around 1980x1080. At the moment, I can run any game I want (apart from Crysis+related) at full settings, though I'm only running 1600x900, and 1920x1080 is a lot more pixels to render.

I had also considered getting another identical monitor, and going with an eyefinity set-up. Which of course is ATI only.

I will be waiting until the new year anyway, to see if/when ATI's prices fall, due to the reported increase in availability expected. Hopefully there'll be some nice January sale bargains, though if not, I'll wait until nVidia's response is released, and for the competition (read price war) to begin.

I'd like to see some more viewpoints though - it certainly gets me thinking.

A 5850 certainly would be nice, and theoretically, within budget (when factoring in the sale of my 4890 - they still seem to go for good amounts on that auction site, at least £100).

 

[hyperst]

I'll wait until nVidia's response is released, and for the competition (read price war) to begin.QUOTE]

This sounds the best idea, if you can resist the urge then good on ya, as i think when nvidia do eventually release ati will be in a strong position to drop their prices to fend them off

 

[AMG]

I would wait, for Nv I don't mean to see how good they are cos they will be bloody expensive if anything, but I m thinking tehy will knock ATIs prices down a bit

Also their availability might creep up...

 

[rolypolyman]

I would wait for prices to drop, its already happening as supply increases and demand drops.

 

[Andric]

well ya if you can wait could be good (or wasted time) but if you need now go for it. 50£ could be saved? can you stay in a couple nights playing with the new hardare instead of going out? thats £50+. The fact your asking makes me think you should go for it.

[edit] basically even with better availabilty not much reason for prices to crash, and no guarantee nvidia will have price/performance to force a lowering of price. Maybe they will but thats a judgement call. overall in life I have found far fewer regrets going for what I want when I need it as opposed to waiting on a promise.

 

[RavenXXX2]

Sell sell sell.

 

[Dboy500]

That 4890 is just as good as two 5770 or the 5850. How many games out now using DX11 2..3? With that budget I would wait.

 

[forest4]

You said you want "a complete system overhaul," what is your current CPU? Are you going to upgrade a Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad to a Core i7? Because that in itself would give a major graphical improvement. Of course, you would need a new x58 mobo and DDR3 RAM. But you could put your current 4890 into it. The video card is not the only graphics-intensive part of a PC, sometimes people forget that.

 

[gurusan]

That 4890 is just as good as two 5770 or the 5850.

 

[BeeP]

Confuzzled at that statement.

I would wait for a while though.

 

[rolypolyman]

That 4890 is just as good as two 5770 or the 5850. How many games out now using DX11 2..3? With that budget I would wait.

I think you probably mean as good at playing current games with the exception of DX11. Both the 2 X 5770 and the 5850 will produce higher fps but anything over 60fps does'nt really matter and therefore no need to upgrade just yet.

 

[jms198]

Keep the 4890; the depreciation on it will be the same or less than buying the 5850.

As stated earlier the 5 series will drop in price and more so when fermi finally appears.

DX10 is going to be supported as only a minority will have teh 5 series cards for a while now.

 

[Marvin]

Current system spec is:
CPU: E8400 @ 4.05GHz
Motherboard: ASRock P45XE
Memory: Crucial DDR2 @ 890MHz

I'm going to be upgrading to either the higher end of the AMD AM3 range (955 or 965 Black Editions) or an i5/i7 set-up. So I will be going high end with the CPU/Motherboard combo, meaning that I guess that the GPU will be the main limiting factor.

Only thing that concerns me about keeping the 4890 is that this system needs to last (probably) about 4 years, I never know what I might need to get at short notice at Uni, so don't really want to suddenly be broke after a PC upgrade. If DX11 has many graphical advantages, I'd like to buy into it now (ish) rather than later. Two 4890s would be very nice though.

I think I may be able to borrow a 9800GT, so could sell my 4890 before Jan sale prices kick in.

Oh, so much to think about.