Upgrade from Radeon HD 4890

Nossmayo · 3 Nov 2015 at 15:30

Hi all,

Which card(s) should I be looking at to replace my old 4890 please? (Budget up to £150).

I have an old system built around 2008-9. Spec as follows (minus the 8800 gtx).

Thanks.

arc@css · 3 Nov 2015 at 15:33

You might be better off replacing the cpu and mobo first.

WYNIR0 · 3 Nov 2015 at 15:35

R9 380s are about that new and worth consideration. You saving to upgrade the rest later?

humbug · 3 Nov 2015 at 15:37

What do you use it for?

KelDG · 3 Nov 2015 at 15:47

380 would be seriously bottlenecked by the processor, my [email protected] bottlenecked my 5850 massivley.

Nossmayo · 3 Nov 2015 at 16:25

Cheers all. Yeah I realise other components are also well out of date now and could do with an upgrade but I'm still generally satisfied with the performance but I'd just like to be able to play Directx 11 games e.g. Dirt Rally.

Marine-RX179 · 3 Nov 2015 at 16:32

Nossmayo said:
Cheers all. Yeah I realise other components are also well out of date now and could do with an upgrade but I'm still generally satisfied with the performance but I'd just like to be able to play Directx 11 games e.g. Dirt Rally.

I think Abit is not around anymore and you wouldn't have up-to-date motherboard bios that is may be/likely required for using with modern cards.

So yea as other people mention, you should probably look into upgrading your platform first.

humbug · 3 Nov 2015 at 17:09

It wouldn't be that expensive.

HyperX Savage Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz £35
Core i3-4150 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 £98
Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 £62

£195

And then save up for Radeon R9 380 "DD Dual Fan" 4096MB GDDR5 £150

Or find something similar on the used market.

Mei · 3 Nov 2015 at 17:11

i mean i know its old but is a q6600 rly so bad?

arc@css · 3 Nov 2015 at 17:13

Is it running at stock clocks?

Marine-RX179 · 3 Nov 2015 at 18:37

Mei said:
i mean i know its old but is a q6600 rly so bad?

My old Q6600 overclocked to 3.60GHz would somewhat bottleneck even my 5850...but that's isn't the main concern here...my worry for OP would be that Abit motherboard may not be compatable with dx11 gens cards (no display), and there won't be update bios available since the company has folded for years.

humbug · 3 Nov 2015 at 18:50

Marine-RX179 said:
My old Q6600 overclocked to 3.60GHz would somewhat bottleneck even my 5850...but that's isn't the main concern here...my worry for OP would be that Abit motherboard may not be compatable with dx11 gens cards (no display), then the company has folded for years.

This^^^, modern UEFI GPU's on ancient boards, it can be problematic.

He's also running 4GB of DDR2, if he wants to run DX11 games like Dirt Rally he will need 8GB of RAM.

He will find it very difficult if not impossible to find 8GB of DDR2, he will probably need to try and find a DDR3 Board for that CPU so he can run 8GB of DDR3, again, good luck with that....

Even if he manages that its running at 2.4Ghz, it will bottleneck the crap out of a 380 so he will have to get some after market cooling to overclock the crap out of that CPU and it will still bottleneck the 380 into oblivion.

By the time he's done getting his system DX11 ready it will have cost him nearly as much in ancient used parts, what he will get for that is a machine that is DX11 ready but only just.

Bite the bullet, beg, borrow, save..... upgrade the core of the system.

elmuzzy66. · 3 Nov 2015 at 19:01

Dam that was a classic setup!

arc@css · 3 Nov 2015 at 19:16

humbug said:
This^^^, modern UEFI GPU's on ancient boards, it can be problematic.

He's also running 4GB of DDR2, if he wants to run DX11 games like Dirt Rally he will need 8GB of RAM.

He will find it very difficult if not impossible to find 8GB of DDR2, he will probably need to try and find a DDR3 Board for that CPU so he can run 8GB of DDR3, again, good luck with that....

Even if he manages that its running at 2.4Ghz, it will bottleneck the crap out of a 380 so he will have to get some after market cooling to overclock the crap out of that CPU and it will still bottleneck the 380 into oblivion.

By the time he's done getting his system DX11 ready it will have cost him nearly as much in ancient used parts, what he will get for that is a machine that is DX11 ready but only just.

Bite the bullet, beg, borrow, save..... upgrade the core of the system.

+1

ALXAndy · 3 Nov 2015 at 20:39

humbug said:
What do you use it for?

Not much looking at the specs

Nossmayo · 3 Nov 2015 at 21:31

ALXAndy said:
Not much looking at the specs

Not too far wrong there but it served me well at the time and indeed for a number of years after. It still does practically everything I want it to do (except play DX11 games!).

Thanks for all your replies. I'll have to weigh up if I think it's worth reinvesting in a rebuild. Doubtful tbh but we'll see.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 3 Nov 2015 at 23:51

I know an HD5850 or HD6870 should be fine with that setup. What about something like the R9 370 which is based on the old HD7850??

FixupSellon · 4 Nov 2015 at 12:36

windows 7 + 560ti/660ti + a trip to c*x for 2-4gb ram(your board takes 8gb) and boom it be better

nashathedog · 4 Nov 2015 at 12:49

What resolution are you running? Something secondhand from the 5000 or 6000 range would get you running DX11 games on the cheap but it doesn't sound like it will be worth spending much on a gpu for that build.

Nossmayo · 4 Nov 2015 at 21:50

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
I know an HD5850 or HD6870 should be fine with that setup. What about something like the R9 370 which is based on the old HD7850??

nashathedog said:
What resolution are you running? Something secondhand from the 5000 or 6000 range would get you running DX11 games on the cheap but it doesn't sound like it will be worth spending much on a gpu for that build.

Do you think it'd be worth picking up a second hand 5850 or 6870 for say £50 on ebay or am I just gonna be wasting my time/ money?!