4850 w/GDDR5

[abbadaba]

I recently purchased this card, I'm interested in benchmarking it to see where if falls between a standard 4850 and a 4870. Can anybody suggest a benchmark that isn't CPU limited and can give me an apples to apples comparison? and/or let me know what type of scores I should be looking for? Furmark seems like a good option but the results posted on its webpage are all over the place even with similar specs.

 

[Termie]

I thought the heaven benchmark was pretty consistent in demonstrating the differences between GPUs regardless of CPU power: http://unigine.com/products/heaven/. It gave me near perfect scaling with GPU overclocking. The scores I generated also matched those of reviewers, suggesting it's quite accurate.

 

[abbadaba]

Thanks for the tip. After running the benchmark and some googling I was able to find comparable results. Looks like my 4850 512 with GDDR5 @ stock speeds (625/750) equals a standard 4850 512 GDDR3 with a decent overclock (700/1000). Not too bad, I'll have to try overclocking it and see if I can get close to a 4870.

 

[Avalon]

Didn't even know they made a GDDR5 version, pretty cool.

 

[evolucion8]

Just overclock the GPU to 750MHz, and you will have a standard HD 4870 512MB.

 

[OCGuy]

4850 wasnt just an underclocked 4870.........at least I dont remember that being the case?

 

[superccs]

So if you OC a 4850 you should be able to get to or surpass 4870 performance?

Great card, lots of folks xfired them. Meaning there should be a bunch available on ebay soon.

 

[Termie]

major difference between 4850 vs 4870 is the number of stream processors as well as the ddr5 memory.. SO you are still down on functioning silicon.
I have a gigabyte 4850 oc 1g that clocks to 750/1025, that gets close to a stock 4870 in gaming performance, but its still a little behind. Great card though, lots of folks xfired them. Meaning there should be a bunch available on ebay soon.

Actually, stream processors were both 800, it was memory subsystem and likely core voltage which were different. Hence GPU would only get to 750 (stock 4870) if you were lucky, but you could never touch the memory performance, because the 4870 has double the bandwidth in its GDDR5.

A 4850 with GDDR5 would be almost exactly like a 4870, except it's likely lower voltage, so won't hit the same speeds. It has all the same hardware, however.

 

[happy medium]

use this to up the core voltage and you will get 4870 perfomance easy.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles//overclocking/vidcard/154/5

 

[abbadaba]

Been messing around with this new card for most of the day.

After some tinkering 750/900 doesn't seem possible by just playing with the sliders in the catalyst control center. May be possible by upping the voltage suggested by the post above with a more detailed overclocking tool. Something like 700/845 seems stable in torture test benchmarks like furmark + OCCT, so not quite a 4870, but close.

In any case it beats a stock 4850 512 in most things i've tried and I got it for $71, $99 minus a 9 dollar promo code and a 10 dollar mail rebate. 71 dollars for a 4850+ is a ridiculously good deal.

512 is a little low in this day and age but the native res on my screen is only 1440x900 and I can live without AA.

 

[Termie]

Been messing around with this new card for most of the day.

After some tinkering 750/900 doesn't seem possible by just playing with the sliders in the catalyst control center. May be possible by upping the voltage suggested by the post above with a more detailed overclocking tool. Something like 700/845 seems stable in torture test benchmarks like furmark + OCCT, so not quite a 4870, but close.

In any case it beats a stock 4850 512 in most things i've tried and I got it for $71, $99 minus a 9 dollar promo code and a 10 dollar mail rebate. 71 dollars for a 4850+ is a ridiculously good deal.

512 is a little low in this day and age but the native res on my screen is only 1440x900 and I can live without AA.

ATI's CCC will limit the overclock range to a conservative top end. It doesn't account for overvolting. You can use MSI Afterburner to adjust both clocks and voltage, but you have to look up how to override the CCC limits in the Afterburner settings file. By default, it imports the limits from CCC.

Even if you don't bother with any of this, you got a great card at a great price. Congrats!

 

[happy medium]

Been messing around with this new card for most of the day.

After some tinkering 750/900 doesn't seem possible by just playing with the sliders in the catalyst control center. May be possible by upping the voltage suggested by the post above with a more detailed overclocking tool. Something like 700/845 seems stable in torture test benchmarks like furmark + OCCT, so not quite a 4870, but close.

In any case it beats a stock 4850 512 in most things i've tried and I got it for $71, $99 minus a 9 dollar promo code and a 10 dollar mail rebate. 71 dollars for a 4850+ is a ridiculously good deal.

512 is a little low in this day and age but the native res on my screen is only 1440x900 and I can live without AA.

Hey man, thats a great deal,great bang for the buck.