ATI Radeon HD 4800 Replacement Advice

[czarnybaran5150]

Hey Guys,

Been a while since I've been here so it's good to be back. And I'm in dire need of some advice because my graphics card has finally decided to give me the middle finger and take a dirt nap (yellow squares onscreen, overheating, continually giving me blue screen).

Here are my specs and any advice would be really appreciated!


XFX HD-489A-ZDDC Radeon HD 4890 XXX Edition 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card
• Radeon HD 4890
• 1GB GDDR5
• PCI Express 2.0 x16

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150368

Antec CP-850 850W Continuous Power CPX SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC "compatible with Core i7" Power Supply
• CPX
• 100 - 240 V
• 80 PLUS Certified
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371024

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128358

G.SKILL 8 GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1100 (PC2 8800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8800CL5D-4GBPI

• DDR2 1100 (PC2 8800)
• Timing 5-5-5-15
• Cas Latency 5
• Voltage 1.8V - 1.9V

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231194

Processor: Intel Lab Specimen: x4 Intel Core 2 Extreme X9750 3.16 Ghz

 

[Techhog]

We can't give you any advice without a budget and knowing what games you'll play. Also, are you planning a CPU, motherboard, and RAM upgrade in the near future? You'll need those. Your CPU will struggle in some games, and 4GB just flat-out won't be enough going forward. DDR2 in a gaming machine in 2014 isn't exactly ideal either.

 

[czarnybaran5150]

Techhog,

Thank you very much for the prompt reply.

The other reason I'm looking to upgrade the video card in my current computer is because I'm just not in the market right now to build another PC (The one I have here was actually built purely from recommendations made here at anandtech, which is why I'm always grateful for the community here).

As far as gaming I know I'm not going to be able to run Watch Dogs on this computer, but I had no problem playing games like Fallout New Vegas, Dishonored, Crysis 2, Far Cry 2, Xcom at decent settings with this computer (even though these are older games).

I also do a fair amount of video editing and rendering on this computer with Adobe Premiere and while its not blazing, it gets the job done for the time being.

As far as a budget, I'd probably like to not spend more than $200 for a replacement video card. But I'm figuring for a system that 5 years old, I should be able to get an upgrade at a decent price, yes?

Oh, and my computer has 8 gigs of RAM.

I just got off the phone with a tech from Fry's and he recommended this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-491-_-Product

 

[Techhog]

Techhog,

Thank you very much for the prompt reply.

The other reason I'm looking to upgrade the video card in my current computer is because I'm just not in the market right now to build another PC (The one I have here was actually built purely from recommendations made here at anandtech, which is why I'm always grateful for the community here).

As far as gaming I know I'm not going to be able to run Watch Dogs on this computer, but I had no problem playing games like Fallout New Vegas, Dishonored, Crysis 2, Far Cry 2, Xcom at decent settings with this computer (even though these are older games).

I also do a fair amount of video editing and rendering on this computer with Adobe Premiere and while its not blazing, it gets the job done for the time being.

As far as a budget, I'd probably like to not spend more than $200 for a replacement video card. But I'm figuring for a system that 5 years old, I should be able to get an upgrade at a decent price, yes?

Oh, and my computer has 8 gigs of RAM.

I just got off the phone with a tech from Fry's and he recommended this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-491-_-Product

Yeah, that's the card I was planning to recommend. That said, I definitely insist on saving up for a platform upgrade after you get the card if you do rendering often. Even a Haswell i3 should beat that C2Q most of the time, let along an i5. You should overclock that CPU a bit at the very least. Upgrading the GPU first sounds good though.

 

[czarnybaran5150]

Thanks again for the prompt reply, I really appreciate it.

Yeah, I really wish I could swing a platform upgrade now, but I can't, however, I can't be without a PC at this point so the GPU is the only upgrade I can make.

2 more questions:

1.) What after market heatsink would you recommend for this card? The only thing that scares me a bit about this card is that people complain the fan blows (not in a good way).

2.) Any other cards you could recommend?

Thanks!

 

[toyota]

I have hard time believing you could not run Dishonored, Far Cry 2 and Fallout New Vegas on decent settings with a 4890. that level of gpu could max those games out and get around 60 fps at 1080. only concession would be using little to no AA.

 

[SPBHM]

after market heatsink?
it's hardly worth it for VGAs, just choose a model with better cooling...

anything like a 260x/650 Ti and faster should be a good upgrade from your 4890,

 

[crazzy.heartz]

AMD 7790 would provide you excellent performance with lower power consumption. No bottlenecks either.

[Best would be a 7850 ;-]

 

[toyota]

a 650 ti or 7790 would only be about 30% faster and a 260x only 40% so I would not consider any of those to be an impressive upgrade from the old 4890.

 

[czarnybaran5150]

Toyota, I was saying that I didn't think I could play a newer game like Watch Dogs on my current system, but said I had "no problem" playing all of those other games

 

[SPBHM]

a 650 ti would only be about 30% faster and a 260x only 40% so I would not consider either of those much of an upgrade from the old 4890.

newer games would show the biggest improvements, even newer/faster VLIW cards are looking pretty slow compared to the 260x in some games.

not to mention the 4890 doesn't even support DX11 or have the same level of drivers support.

example

6850 is faster than a 4890 and supports DX11/current drivers, look at the gap for the 260x (and it could be bigger if you enable Mantle), it's definitely a good upgrade

 

[crazzy.heartz]

a 650 ti or 7790 would only be about 30% faster and a 260x only 40% so I would not consider any of those to be an impressive upgrade from the old 4890.

Dual core processor @ 3.16Ghz is going to bottleneck more powerful cards.. The newer, multi-threaded games would be a pain with any card.


However, the more GPU power one can get, the merrier.. 7850/7870 or the renamed cards would be the best.

 

[toyota]

Toyota, I was saying that I didn't think I could play a newer game like Watch Dogs on my current system, but said I had "no problem" playing all of those other games

oops my bad

 

[Techhog]

Dual core processor @ 3.16Ghz is going to bottleneck more powerful cards.. The newer, multi-threaded games would be a pain with any card.


However, the more GPU power one can get, the merrier.. 7850/7870 or the renamed cards would be the best.

Wait, dual-core!? Oh god, I'm not even sure how much overclocking would help then. lol.

Czarnybaran5150, the 270 isn't a hot card. Just read some reviews and see what works best for you. Most non-reference cards should be just fine.

 

[toyota]

Dual core processor @ 3.16Ghz is going to bottleneck more powerful cards.. The newer, multi-threaded games would be a pain with any card.


However, the more GPU power one can get, the merrier.. 7850/7870 or the renamed cards would be the best.

he has a quad core though not dual core

newer games would show the biggest improvements, even newer/faster VLIW cards are looking pretty slow compared to the 260x in some games.

not to mention the 4890 doesn't even support DX11 or have the same level of drivers support.

example

http://gamegpu.ru/images/remote/htt...n-Battlefield_Hardline_Beta-test-bfh_1920.jpg

6850 is faster than a 4890 and supports DX11/current drivers, look at the gap for the 260x (and it could be bigger if you enable Mantle), it's definitely a good upgrade

I was going by the overall increase and I dont consider 30-40% or even 50% overall to be much of an upgrade from a 5 year old card. after 5 years he should be looking at getting way more than double the overall performance imo.

 

[czarnybaran5150]

First off, thanks to all of you for the feedback, I truly appreciate it.

Crazzy, would you be willing to point me to a few links on New Egg for your recommendations? I'm just a little in the dark here

 

[czarnybaran5150]

Yeah, its a quad core guys

 

[Techhog]

Yeah, its a quad core guys

Okay. It's not listed on Intel's site at all for some reason. Weird.

 

[czarnybaran5150]

TechHog, it's not listed because it was a lab specimen from Intel. A friend who worked their got it for me. It was never on the market.

 

[Techhog]

TechHog, it's not listed because it was a lab specimen from Intel. A friend who worked their got it for me. It was never on the market.

Ah, now I get it. Interesting...

 

[czarnybaran5150]

In any event, if any of you guys have recommendations, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, could you please supply a newegg link to the card? I'm little in the dark when it comes to video cards, and I'm going to go to Fry's probably today to go get the replacement. Thanks!

 

[toyota]

um there is plenty of info from doing a simple google search of that cpu. its been in comparisons and is even on passmark. it appears to have even been on newegg at one time.

 

[czarnybaran5150]

he has a quad core though not dual core

I was going by the overall increase and I dont consider 30-40% or even 50% overall to be much of an upgrade from a 5 year old card. after 5 years he should be looking at getting way more than double the overall performance imo.

I mean this would be ideal. Do you have any recommendations Toyota?

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'm in much the same boat.

I have two nearly-identical rigs:
Q9300 (default 2.5Ghz, mine is OCed to 3.0Ghz)
8GB of DDR2-800
P35-DS3R mobo
240GB SATA2 SSD
3TB Toshiba HDD
Antec VP-450 PSU (3 years old?)

and a HD4850 512MB reference card, by VisionTek

The tiny fan on these cards runs at a high RPM (cards normally run hot too, idle at 90C). Fans are starting to get noisy under heavy load. (I do distributed computing more than gaming. It puts a load on video cards somewhat like mining does.)


Was looking at the MSI Gaming TF R9 270 2GB GDDR5 card at Newegg. Takes a single 6-pin power connector like my current HD4850 does. Some reviews are now coming in that MSI doesn't spec their cards for 24/7 operation, and the fan bearings fail after a year.

Budget is roughly $200 max for each card, and I would be getting two of them.

Also considered NV 660 OC cards, especially with the free Watch Dogs game promo.

 

[Techhog]

I'm in much the same boat.

I have two nearly-identical rigs:
Q9300 (default 2.5Ghz, mine is OCed to 3.0Ghz)
8GB of DDR2-800
P35-DS3R mobo
240GB SATA2 SSD
3TB Toshiba HDD
Antec VP-450 PSU (3 years old?)

and a HD4850 512MB reference card, by VisionTek

The tiny fan on these cards runs at a high RPM (cards normally run hot too, idle at 90C). Fans are starting to get noisy under heavy load. (I do distributed computing more than gaming. It puts a load on video cards somewhat like mining does.)


Was looking at the MSI Gaming TF R9 270 2GB GDDR5 card at Newegg. Takes a single 6-pin power connector like my current HD4850 does. Some reviews are now coming in that MSI doesn't spec their cards for 24/7 operation, and the fan bearings fail after a year.

Budget is roughly $200 max for each card, and I would be getting two of them.

Also considered NV 660 OC cards, especially with the free Watch Dogs game promo.

I swear you're talking about upgrading a different system every other post...