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For your money... HD 4770 Crossfire, or single 4870?

W

WAZ

Golden Member
So I've been able to discern that 4770 <= 4850 < 4870. The 4770 looks like the best "bang for the buck" at $100, just barely slower than the 4850 (at least at 1680 or lower resolutions)... but my understanding is the 4870 may be needed for my 24" monitor at 1920x1200.

So for my money (less than $200), I'm looking at one of these 4870's:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...2801%2CN82E16814102825

versus a 4770:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814150366

If I want to play FPS at 1920x1200, will the $109 HD 4770 stand a chance (I'd only be buying ONE now, then possibly adding a 2nd card later for Crossfire)? Or do I just need to bite the bullet and pay closer to $200 for one of those 4870s?
 
I'm pretty sure 4770 xFire should beat out a 4870.

However, if you look under hot deals (2nd page) you may be able to get a 4890 for $170-180 shipped from ewiz after coupon, MIR and cashback, which should be equal to a 4770 xfire if not better. And here you get the 1gb of memory to compensate for your high resolution.

Also, ewiz you can also do a Gigabyte 4870 for $130 + shipping after coupon, MIR and cashback.
 
After more research I think I'm really liking the Sapphire 4870 Toxic. Main advantages over 4770 X-fire would be cost, noise, and heat. I'm guessing it's also quieter and cooler than a 4890. But right now I'm only seeing $210 at ewiz, minus 5% MS Live cashback.
 
I stuck two 4770's in my HTPC because a 4890 wouldn't fit. Crysis at 1440 x 900 with almost all settings at Ultra = suprisingly playable... at least until windows 7 decided Crysis shouldn't run anymore 🙁
 
What about heat + noise? The Sapphire 4870 Toxic (or Vapor-X) sound like they stay very cool and quiet. Can two 4770's compete with that?

And I'm a little concerned about the 512MB limit -- even in X-fire it's still 512 MB -- whereas the 4870 would be 1GB of DDR5 video memory.

I'm also having trouble finding 4770's... Newegg is out of stock entirely. D'oh.
 
Yeah, looks like that is the case; really good performance now but could be held back by the 512 for AA and future games.

So could I Crossfire a 512 MB and a 1 GB card, and get 1 GB of video memory?

I see that XFX is coming out with a 1 GB version of the 4770... so if I could get a 512 MB XFX 4770 NOW, and then add on a 1 GB version in x-fire down the line, I'd be happy with that.
 
Originally posted by: WAZ
Yeah, looks like that is the case; really good performance now but could be held back by the 512 for AA and future games.

So could I Crossfire a 512 MB and a 1 GB card, and get 1 GB of video memory?

I see that XFX is coming out with a 1 GB version of the 4770... so if I could get a 512 MB XFX 4770 NOW, and then add on a 1 GB version in x-fire down the line, I'd be happy with that.
Click to expand...

Nope, you'll only be able to use only 512mg of memory.
You could get a single 4870 1 gig now and later another one in crossfire.

I was running crossfire 4870 originally but for the games I play, single card works just as well and no crossfire issues so I put the second one into my lan comp. I use 1900 * 1080 reso. Games are Fallout 3, GTA4 and mass effect... so not really gpu intensive like crysis.
 
Originally posted by: WAZ
So I've been able to discern that 4770 <= 4850 < 4870. The 4770 looks like the best "bang for the buck" at $100, just barely slower than the 4850 (at least at 1680 or lower resolutions)... but my understanding is the 4870 may be needed for my 24" monitor at 1920x1200.

So for my money (less than $200), I'm looking at one of these 4870's:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...2801%2CN82E16814102825

versus a 4770:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814150366

If I want to play FPS at 1920x1200, will the $109 HD 4770 stand a chance (I'd only be buying ONE now, then possibly adding a 2nd card later for Crossfire)? Or do I just need to bite the bullet and pay closer to $200 for one of those 4870s?
Click to expand...

At those prices for the 4870 1 GB I would seriously be thinking of the 4890 also. Places like Ewiz are routinely selling them for under $200.
 
Yeah, I've been keeping an eye on those as well... but I was really hoping for more of a big MIR that would drop a $200 card (like the cool & quiet Sapphire Toxic) to the $160-170 range. It's tricky... where do I draw the line? The budget I told my wife and the budget I'm actually spending are growing further apart by the day. 😉 With the video cards on the table already going from a planned $100 4770 to a $200 4870/4890, at some point here I need to draw a line before I make the jump to a $500 card. 😱

That sucks about the 512MB X-fire... thought I had a solution. Ah well, I think I will keep waiting for a great 4870 deal. As said before, I'd really like a 1GB Toxic for the temps and noise... but if another reference 1GB 4870 has a great sale, I could always jump on that and then grab one of these Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo coolers:

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/twin_turbo
 
4870 1gb is 160-170, vs 2x4770 512mb for about $220. i'd take the former. the extra processing performance isn't worth the extra money or halving of memory.
 
4890, it runs faster and cooler than the 4870, without any crossfire driver issues.

I'm seeing 4890s for under $200 at least once a week in Hot Deals.
 
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
4890, it runs faster and cooler than the 4870, without any crossfire driver issues.

I'm seeing 4890s for under $200 at least once a week in Hot Deals.
Click to expand...

This. Skip the 4870 and focus on either 4770 crossfire or the 4890. The later should be hitting 199.99 eventually here, all the time. Or you can just try holding out for one on sale/rebate which happens almost every week.
 
How about 4870 1GB or 4890 single now, and then in a year you can buy a 2nd one to crossfire and keep up with the latest games?
 
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