HD 4850: OC or replace

[Rhezuss]

Hey all,

Recently I replaced most of my hardware to help me get a little more "future proof" even though I know in the computer world, there's no such thing as "future proof".

So after getting Windows 7 Professionnal 64 bits, an Athlon II X3 435 (OCed @ 3.19GHz), a 4gb of Crucial DDR2-800, an ASUS M4A77D mobo and a Corsair TX750W PSU, I'm still playing with my "old" Sapphire HD 4850 512mb.

Now the plan...most games I play are well above 30 FPS, which is smooth gameplay, almost lagless. Those games are mainly: Risen, Age of Conan, Divinity 2, Dawn of War II, Sacred 2, Fallout 3, maybe Bad Company 2 soon...and the like.

I started looking at graphics cards offers. Replacing my HD 4850 512mb for something significant would be, at least, getting a HD 5770 1gb GDDR5...even though the 128 bits memory bus is not that appealing, the card itself look like it can deliver really nice performances in games. Sure there's the 5830, 5850 and the like, but at nearly 300CAD, it's a big NO for me.

The other option would be to OC the 4850. To do so, buying a new GPU fan would be a great idea.

So...

OPTION 1 - Buy a new card but which one?
OPTION 2 - Buy a new GPU fan, which one would you recommend that would fit on the 5xxx series later on?

again, a big thank you for your advices!

 

[happy medium]

I know you don't want to hear this ,but I would wait 2 months and check prices for a higher end card.

You need 4890/gtx 275/ speed to justify an upgrade, and right now unless you buy used, it's just not cost effective.

I'm barley getting by with my 5750 @ 1600x1200. I'm in the same boat as you.

I'm hoping the gtx 470 drops the 5850 and 5830 in price a bit. $260/$210?

 

[SlowSpyder]

Overclocking a video card typically doesn't give you the types of gains that make an unplayable game suddenly playable. It's usually more along the lines of getting a few more FPS. So, if your 4850 is sufficient, I'd OC just because any extra performance that is free is worth taking if it's not too much trouble.

And while a 5770 is an upgrade over a 4850 (I think) it's not the type of upgrade I'd spend money on. It's not huge jump over your current 4850 unless you are limited by your 512MB. Like the poster above says, I'd stick with what you have for now and let prices settle down after Nvidia's new parts arrive. Chances are a more sizeable upgrade (like a 5850) may come back down to or below the original MSRP. For someone like you who doesn't sound like you're really struggling with your current card, it makes sense to wait.

 

[TheMeanestGuest]

I honestly don't see anything compelling right now at a decent price to replace a 4850 with. I'd thought about it, but since it runs all my games at a level acceptable to me I saw no reason to replace my 4850 this generation.

 

[Jd007]

Just a heads up, if you are running multiple monitors, you cannot OC the 4850. Any change in the clock speed (even by 5 Mhz) will make both of your monitors go crazy.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Thanks for the heads up, I keep wondering why my 4850's mem cannot OC a single mhz beyond stock without GSODing on me. Core OC's to the moon though, no problems there.

 

[Rhezuss]

Thanks for the quick and clear advices.

I know OCing the 4850 won't get me 158 more FPS in games but it can handle more effectively the more GPU hungry games coming out.

Very appreciative of your answers guys!

What GPU cooler would you recommend for a 4850?