Which 4850?

[SqualidChimp]

Which Radeon HD 4850 should I get?

There are a variety of OC versions (dont really want OC if it makes it more noisy, i.e. by having a gigantor fan strapped on!), and 512mb, 1024mb versions

as well as all the various brands, such as Asus, Gigabyte, Sapphire, etc

Cheap is good. but most prices vary a tenner either way, so not so important.

Helps?

My default res on my monitor is 1400x900 so I know there isn't much of an issue that way, but I can see myself one day playing on 1920x1080. Or maybe even bigger.

 

[SqualidChimp]

cheers... I think I'll go buy the cheapest 1gb version. *runs away to check if wages are paid this week or next...*

If anyone else has an awesome recommendation, I'll check it out when I get back to the computer in a couple of hours.

 

[SqualidChimp]

hmm, yeah... the 1gb 4850's are only about £50 cheaper than a 1gb 4870...

yikes!

temptation.... but it really would be overkill on a 19" monitor (remember I was planning on maybe getting a bigger monitor soon though, or playing through my hdtv)

lastly I heard that powercolor were generally quite noisy with their 48xx series?

 

[SqualidChimp]

Thought that was just with their 4870s as they use a different cooler on those.

It was the 4850s - specifically the play edition and PCS editions of the powercolor range - that I'd heard were loud. It may just be a standard thing with those cards, being uber and all I think they were factory overclocked which means "strap on a bigger fan, lads"...

 

[SqualidChimp]

*sigh* indecision and uncertainty. Infinite money would solve all my problems. Now where did I put those life cheat codes...

ok I think it will probably be between the asus 4850 512mb @ ~120 (the 'basic' choice), a 1gb 4850 @ ~160 (the slightly overclocked, and memoried 'advanced' option), or the one recommended above (the £206 powercolor 4870 1gb 'extreme' option).

If I go for the basic option, it will serve me well for now since I only have a 19" monitor at the mo (though admittedly a 42" hdtv as well...)
If I go for the advanced version, I'll have more gigglebites to play with when I get a bigger monitor.
If I go for the extreme version, I will probably have to upgrade my PSU, currently a fairly 'good' - 30A on 12V rail - generic 600W PSU. Not sure that it would handle a 4870.

on the other hand it may turn out that I need to upgrade my PSU anyway for a 4850 (though I think I can get away with it...)