ATI 4870 for gaming on 1920 x 1080

[Blackfirevatsal]

Guys i want to know is 4870 a good card for gaming on 1920 x 1080 res with or without AA & how much time will it last on that resolution (i mean futureproof) i generally play FPS & RTS games.

 

[QuixoticOne]

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2226115&enterthread=y

Short story -- a FEW current games don't play that well in that resolution with full eye candy / AA / AF / HQ textures et. al. Crysis is the poster child for poor performance. Soon you can see if Crysis Warhammer is better or not. Maybe the game is just bloated and poorly optimized. Maybe it is cutting edge. Whatever the case, there are some games that even a 4870 struggles on now in that res. Turn off AA and compromise on some IQ settings and it will be playable / fine.

So as for the future... I'd say MOST games will play fine with basically full AA / IQ at that res on a 1470 for about 18-24 months. There will probably be 4 or so major new ones every year that will push it to the limits and you'd have to turn off AA and make significant IQ compromises to keep above 30FPS in that res. After about 24 months a lot of the most popular games may have borderline performance on that card even with most settings on "medium high" so maybe then it will be time to look at an upgrade.

FPS games seem to be about the most demanding. If you're into RTS or other types of games you can probably keep going on a 4870 a lot longer.

512MB is starting to be a limitation in some of the very top IQ games in high resolutions as well. You can squeak by with 512, but if you want to keep this for 18-36 months, consider 1GB.

 

[QuixoticOne]

This will tell you a lot about the current situation, 4870 512MB vs 1GB vs AA:
http://www.hardwarezone.com/ar...php?id=2684&cid=3&pg=8
http://www.hardwarezone.com/ar...php?cid=3&id=2684&pg=6
Crysis + Vista + AA = worst case; XP, No AA, lower IQ, lower res = better.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Blackfirevatsal
Guys i want to know is 4870 a good card for gaming on 1920 x 1080 res with or without AA & how much time will it last on that resolution (i mean futureproof) i generally play FPS & RTS games.

it is "fair" imo

and not at all future proof

unless you are planning for a 2nd one

i play at 19x12 and i find a GTX280 or HD4870-x2 - when it scales - to be just about right

But then i like max details and 4xAA/16xAF, if at all possible
and the 4870/512MB version may start to run out of framebuffer. i also have a 4870/512 and i didn't like it for 19x12 - not at all; that is why i upgraded and i am currently running crossfire-x3