Get 4870 1gb now for cheap, or wait for 5830 & DX11?

[poohbear]

Hey all, here's my dilemma, i want to upgrade from my 8800gt which has served me faitfully for 2 over years.:0 That's longest period without upgrading my vid card, but the 8800gt has handled everything i threw at it till now. My favorite games now show some stuttering w/ all details maxed:

Dawn of War 2
Empire Total War
Fallout3 w/ texture packs

So, its time to upgrade, and a cheap 4870 1gb would give me almost double the framerates from the benchmarks i'm seeing, but the 5830 is just around the corner. Thing is if the 5830 is ~$250 i simply will not buy it, $150-$190 is my limit for video cards as they've come a looooong way in terms of how much that price range can get u.

Should i wait for the 5830? the ONLY reason i'd be buying that over the 4870 is for DX11, NOT the fps increase because the 4870 is more than enough for the aforementioned games that i play @ 1680x1050. I'm not a big fps guy, only rpgs & strategy games, so dont need the latest & greatest.

so, buy the 4870 now for cheap & forget about DX11 or wait for the 5830 and pay maybe $100 more for a little better performance and DX11 (which i wouldn't see any games using in the genres i like till probably the end of 2010, if that). Even the extra performance might not be as noticeable because as i said the 4870 is more than enough for the aforementioned games. Anything im overlooking?

Edit: hmmm i'm reading the quality settings of the 5xxx series are more superior to the 4xxx series (AA & AF). maybe that's one reason to hold out?

 

[happy medium]

You can get a 5770 for 150$. If the 4870 is any more then 130$, I'd say get the 5770.

 

[cbn]

Search the FS threads here at Anandtech.

I bought a new-in-box XFX HD4870 1GB for $120 shipped.

I'm sure used HD4870 1GB in used condition would be a lot cheaper.

 

[poohbear]

You can get a 5770 for 150$. If the 4870 is any more then 130$, I'd say get the 5770.

yea i forgot about that, i was just looking at reviews and noticed the 5770 performs almost on par w/ the 4870 but has DX11! its $15 more expensive where i'm living (Japan), so its a no brainer i take it? 5770 FTW?

 

[crisium]

Well you can get a 4890 in the upper end of that price range. It's quite fast - should at least be as fast as a 5830. Beats a 4870 100% of the time, 5770 virtually all the time, GTX 260 more often than not.

 

[poohbear]

that's always the dilemma w/ upgrading, for $15-$20 more u can get the next level up video card, until u reach the 4890, and then the jump to 5850 is a nasty $100-$110.

so will it be a 4870 @ $150, 5770 @ $160, or 4890 @ $180. *sigh* I'm guessing if i overclock the 5770 it'll bring me closer to the 4890, and w/ the improved AF & AA image quality features of the 5770 it'll be better to go that route yea?

 

[evolucion8]

Well you can get a 4890 in the upper end of that price range. It's quite fast - should at least be as fast as a 5830. Beats a 4870 100% of the time, 5770 virtually all the time, GTX 260 more often than not.

I doubt that the HD 4890 is faster than the HD 5830, the former has 800 stream and the latter will have 1280 stream processors. If you multiplicate the GPU clocks with the amount of stream processors, it may give you a glimpse in performance thanks that both architectures are similar.

HD 5830: 1280x625MHz = 800K

HD 4890: 800x850MHz = 680K

Definitively the HD 5830 isn't much faster, but if its priced accordingly, it will be a hit.

 

[dguy6789]

You can get a 5770 for 150$. If the 4870 is any more then 130$, I'd say get the 5770.

But the 4870 is a superior card to the 5770. People were recommending against the 5770 even when the 5770 could be found for the same price as the 4870 let alone the 4870 being cheaper. The main reason people buy the 5770 now is because it's difficult to find a 4870 and 4890 right now, which are both better cards.

 

[Qbah]

But the 4870 is a superior card to the 5770. People were recommending against the 5770 even when the 5770 could be found for the same price as the 4870 let alone the 4870 being cheaper. The main reason people buy the 5770 now is because it's difficult to find a 4870 and 4890 right now, which are both better cards.

This.

A HD4870 is faster than a HD5770. If you can find a HD4870 cheaper, there's no point in buying the HD5770. DX11 is not worth it imo, as there are no games out to enjoy the extra eye-candy. And once they're out, a HD5770 will not be strong enough to show you those DX11 things.

If you want a card for now and the immediate future, grab that HD4870 for $150.

However, personally, a 8800GT -> HD4870 is not a jump I consider good. You will probably get something around ~40% more speed. Definitely not double. Two 8800GTs are known as 9800GX2, which handily beats a GTX280 (and this one is quite a bit faster than a HD4870 to begin with). I personally would go with a higher card (but, again, that's my approach).

 

[dguy6789]

Agree that 8800GT to 4870 isn't worth it.

I don't like going from one generation high end to the next generation high end, you usually get less than a 100% performance increase. I prefer to skip one generation. You get more bang for your buck and have a much bigger wow factor when you try it out. I went from a Geforce 7900GT to my Radeon HD 4870 for my last video card upgrade and it was a night and day difference. I would have been less impressed(and more broke) if I bought an 8800 card in between.

Stick with the 8800GT until you can afford a 5870 class card, it will be worth it. The 8800 is still a fine card even to this day, you should be able to manage, just turn a couple settings to medium-high instead of max.

 

[poohbear]

thanks for the feedback guys.

My 8800gt is already over 2 years old, its been the best vid card purchase ever (right up there w/ my ancient 9700pro radeon), but the games i play the most are starting to stutter when the action picks up. From all the benchmarks i've seen, a 4890 DOUBLES the fps of my 8800gt, i.e. DoW2 goes from 25fps to 50fps, fallout 3 w/ texture packs from 30fps to 60fps etc. so it's usually a 100% increase in performance, whereas the 4870 is an ~85%, and the 5770 a ~75% (again, i've been looking at benchmark after benchmark and that's the general trend).

Tell me, 1 reason i'm actually considering the 5770 over the 48xx series cards is the improved image quality of AF & Supersampling AA in the 5xxx series cards (i always turn them on), is that any reason to ignore a 4890 and settle for a 5770? Thanks again for any feedback.

 

[dguy6789]

The image quality difference for settings the 5770 would be able to run compared to the 4800s are minor. The really high quality setting that the 5000 cards can do is super sampling anti aliasing and the 5770 would not be able to run demanding modern games at max settings with that enabled.

4890 is a much better choice than the 5770. The only reason to not get a 4890 or 4870 over the 5770 is if you simply can't get one. If you insist on getting a new video card now, then I'd suggest a 4890.

 

[poohbear]

thanks dguy, that's what i was thinking. 4890 it'll be then. The thing about waiting is there is no date for the 5830, and when its released it'll be overpriced IF u can find any in stock. So im just gonna call it a day and go w/ the 4890. Besides all the games in 2010 that have DX11 support im not really interested in except AvP, but im sure DX 10.1 will look just as good.

 

[Imp]

Good choice performance wise with the 4890.

However, if you care, it's a lot more power hungry than the 5xxx series.

 

[bisterz]

Agree that 8800GT to 4870 isn't worth it.

I don't like going from one generation high end to the next generation high end, you usually get less than a 100% performance increase. I prefer to skip one generation. You get more bang for your buck and have a much bigger wow factor when you try it out. I went from a Geforce 7900GT to my Radeon HD 4870 for my last video card upgrade and it was a night and day difference. I would have been less impressed(and more broke) if I bought an 8800 card in between.

Stick with the 8800GT until you can afford a 5870 class card, it will be worth it. The 8800 is still a fine card even to this day, you should be able to manage, just turn a couple settings to medium-high instead of max.

Sorry to bring up an old topic but came across this looking for something else, I have to say I'm surprised no one else commented on this though.

The 8800GT to 4870 is sooo worth it. I went from a 9800GT to a GTS 250 for a marginal difference, maybe 10%, then from the GTS 250 to my 4870 and the difference is amazing, whilst not 100% as some claim is what you would want, its the AA and Aniso ability that I notice the most. For instance, NFS Shift was creeping along with AA and Aniso off at 1280 x1024, details on low to medium, however, with the 4870 I run at 16x12 with everything maxed, 8xAA and 8 x Aniso and high textures in ATT, no comparison, along with a 30+ FPS gain and all the eye candy to me it was a 100% gain.

COD4, also now maxed with 8AA and 16aniso, and 100% more FPS to boot. rFactor FPS nearly tripled with maxed everything and 8XAA and Aniso too.

Basically, now everything I can max out and play with a serious amount of AA instead of tickling 2 or 4x.