best bang for playing 1680x1050?

AmineD

Member
Jul 22, 2008
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Im having a real tough time deciding on what friggin card to get for my new intel based rig im building. E8500, 4-8gigs G skill ram, not sure on mobo yet as I dont know what vid card to get, but I want to try to spend 150 and under on a mobo. Can anyone please help? im going insane lol
 

octopus41092

Golden Member
Feb 23, 2008
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I'd get an HD4850. Runs everything at 1680x1050 and you can even squeeze in AA in most games. You could probably find one on newegg for $150 AR
 

OCGuy

Lifer
Jul 12, 2000
27,227
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Originally posted by: faxon
yea 4850 is your card of choice right now.


Unless you want dual-slot cooling, nice oc, and step-up possibilities. Then its 9800GTX+.
 

faxon

Platinum Member
May 23, 2008
2,109
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Originally posted by: Ocguy31
Originally posted by: faxon
yea 4850 is your card of choice right now.


Unless you want dual-slot cooling, nice oc, and step-up possibilities. Then its 9800GTX+.

if he is spending less than $150 on a mobo i doubt he will be wanting to step up any time soon. as for dual slot cooling, that's a fair point, espescially considering the die shrink on the GTX+ will mean it will be cooler, and it might OC better if you want to OC your video card some
 

bunnyfubbles

Lifer
Sep 3, 2001
12,248
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Originally posted by: faxon
Originally posted by: Ocguy31
Originally posted by: faxon
yea 4850 is your card of choice right now.


Unless you want dual-slot cooling, nice oc, and step-up possibilities. Then its 9800GTX+.

if he is spending less than $150 on a mobo i doubt he will be wanting to step up any time soon. as for dual slot cooling, that's a fair point, espescially considering the die shrink on the GTX+ will mean it will be cooler, and it might OC better if you want to OC your video card some

overclocking video cards often gains you very little, and it isn't like the 4850 can't have dual slot cooling and then be overclocked just as much as any 9800...

when it comes down to it, the 4850 is generally going to be cheaper after discounts and rebates so as to more than justify upgrading the cooling to your own 3rd party solution that will be even better than the stock reference dual slot cooling on a 9800...

the only realistic advantage GTX+ currently has is a potential stepup program, and maybe PhysX, but this is no more legit than the 4850 having DX10.1 support and the GTX+ only DX10...
 

cusideabelincoln

Diamond Member
Aug 3, 2008
3,268
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The HD4850 is considerably cheaper than the 9800GTX+ and performs admirably. It definitely offers the best bang for your buck, but the next best sub-$200 card would be the 9800 GTX.
 

AmineD

Member
Jul 22, 2008
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Thanks for the input all, as for a mobo im prob going to get an asus P5Q, just not sure which one. Pro, or E.
 

dakels

Platinum Member
Nov 20, 2002
2,809
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I love my new Asus P5Q Pro. So much flexibility and a solid board for $150 (Got $30 off combo deal with Radeon 4850). With decent quality SLI/Xfire video cards being so cheap now, I'd spend a little extra ($20-30) for the 2nd PCIe 16x slot for futureproofing.

The Radeon 4850 is currently around $130-140 AR. 9800GTX+ about $180-190 AR and slightly better then the 4850 in most benchmarks. The 4850 is the better deal at the moment.
 

winnar111

Banned
Mar 10, 2008
2,847
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I was going to get a 4850, but the $225 GTX260 deal convinced me to cough up the extra $70.

I'd rather have EVGA's support system, and you get a free copy of 3dmark vantage.

The card has really bad coil whine so I am RMA'ing it, but it does work, and I am currently running at 650/1404/1269 clocks. 680/1458/1296 is easily possible without artifacting but I'd need to boost the fan to avoid overheating.
 

dakels

Platinum Member
Nov 20, 2002
2,809
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If the GTX260 was $225 when I got my 4850 a month ago for $150, I'd probably get the 260. I didn't want an SLI system though. The crossfireX seems more flexible and I kept hearing problems about data corruption with SLI. I didn't research it too heavily though. The 4850 seemed fine for my needs and it still is atm. I can run everything at max with no problems so I can't complain about anything other then the horrible HSF.
 

AmineD

Member
Jul 22, 2008
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Thanks for all the replies everyone. I always thought that if you were building an Intel based rig that you should go with Nvidia, and if it was AMD then ATI was the way to go. However im building a rig with an E8500 and thinking about getting a 4850 or 4870. If i get one of those would a P5Q-Pro be a good choice for a mobo or should I get a different one?
 

Ike0069

Diamond Member
Apr 28, 2003
4,276
0
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4850 and the ASUS P5Q/Pro/E.

You can save a littel money with the P5Q if you don't need a second PCI-e x16 slot (Pro and E), or optical audio out/second ethernet port/eSata (E).

I am a little biased as that is exactly what i have, but I would recommend this setup to anyone. Very tough to beat for the price.
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
ATI 4850 is a great card for 16x10.

[]q I always thought that if you were building an Intel based rig that you should go with Nvidia, ...[/quote]
My Gigabyte P43, intel E8400, ATI 4870 system has been working perfectly for about 3 weeks. intel CPUs do like intel chipsets but the video card can be ATI or nvidia.
 

AmineD

Member
Jul 22, 2008
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4870 worth the extra cash over a 4850 at 16x10 res? Im looking to hopefully max out warhammer online in full scale sieges.
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
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I haven't seen benchmarks for that game, but the 4850 is fine for almost everything else except Crysis at 16x10. You probably don't need a 4870 unless you might move to a 19x12 monitor.
 

dwarfer

Junior Member
Aug 5, 2008
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With what graphics card I could achieve max settings at 1680x1050 resolution (22" display) ? Will HD4570 do the job or should I go for HD4850 in CrossFire ?

Sry for topic hijack, but imo this fits here and it wouldn't be wise to make new topic for my question :)
 

The Keeper

Senior member
Mar 27, 2007
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Huh? Your question has been pretty much answered to earlier in this topic. In other words a single 4850 should be enough at that resolution. I don't know any Radeon 4570, I suppose you mistyped the model number and meant 4870. 4870 is faster than 4850. Both can be crossfired but its not needed at 1680x1050. By the time 4850/4870 becomes slow, you can buy a new card that blows crossfired 4850's or 4870's away.
 

dwarfer

Junior Member
Aug 5, 2008
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Originally posted by: The Keeper
Huh? Your question has been pretty much answered to earlier in this topic. In other words a single 4850 should be enough at that resolution. I don't know any Radeon 4570, I suppose you mistyped the model number and meant 4870. 4870 is faster than 4850. Both can be crossfired but its not needed at 1680x1050. By the time 4850/4870 becomes slow, you can buy a new card that blows crossfired 4850's or 4870's away.

Ahh.. Yes mistyped it, I meant 4870. And i thought the topic starter was trying to find best graphics card for ~150$. I should have read it better. My mistake :)
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
I'm looking for something similar to the OP and am kind of stuck, because I've been out of the loop on video cards for quite a bit now. Essentially, I think my 8800GTX is buggered and I'm probably going to RMA it. But frankly, I'm thinking about replacing it as well. The 4870 caught my eye and especially ASUS' model, because they have a $30 rebate and I can get it for 239.99 after rebate (only $40-50 off the 4850). Some benchmarks that I've peeked at showed that the 4870 is faster than my 8800GTX and my most rigorous use of my video card is playing two "instances" (note, two applications running at the same time) of World of Warcraft at 1680x1050 with most settings at high (AA and AF are not).

My biggest concern with ATi has always been their driver support overall (this mainly was on peripherals), but how is the CCC these days... pretty rock solid overall?

Any thoughts overall? If you think the 4850 is a better choice even with the somewhat tough beatings I put on my cards, then by all means, let me know :). Also note that the new expansion coming out later this year will be a bit more hard on graphics cards as they're adding in better shadow effects, so taking that into account may be better to.
 

Keysplayr

Elite Member
Jan 16, 2003
21,209
50
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Both the ATI HD4850 and Nvidia 9800GTX(+) would be perfect for 1680x1050. Crysis included.

Cheapest 4850 on newegg is 164.99 after 20.00 mail in rebate.

Cheapest 9800GTX on newegg is 171.99 after 15.00 mail in rebate.

Cheapest 9800GTX+ (55nm) is 199.99 without any rebate offers.

I'm not going into the pros and cons of each of these cards. I'll leave that to the rest of you.