Help me decide!

[2Xtreme21]

Right now I have an 8600GT that is doing relatively fine with the games I play. Just picked up Left 4 Dead a little while ago and I'm playing at 1680x1050 with a lot of the settings at Medium (no AA / AF) and it's smooth (for the most part). I also just bought a 42" 1080p HDTV that I'm not sure what I want to do with, aside from watching TV, but I know the 8600GT will struggle at 1080 at anything but 2D. I don't know if I'm looking to play Left 4 Dead on everything high on my TV, but it might be nice to watch BluRay movies, etc. on it and have them look really nice.

Would a 4830 be a substantial upgrade for me? I have an E6300 Core2Duo with 2GB RAM and would probably be able to justify the purchase if it would future-proof my machine for a little while. Otherwise, if I'm too CPU-limited, I might have to decide between keeping my current machine the way it is for a little bit and then building a whole new one when I have more cash flowing in OR picking up the 9600GSO for $40.

Is the 4830 a steal at $65? All the reviews say it's one of the best (if not the best) mid-level card out there at the moment for the price. Sorry for the convoluted thread question-- trying to sort stuff out in my head while asking questions usually doesn't work out too well.

 

[SunnyD]

The 4830 would be a HELL of an upgrade. $65 is a great price for the 4830.

On the other hand, for what you do and play, the 9600GSO 768 would be an excellent choice as well. I have a 384MB GSO, and it played everything I play just fine at 1920x1200 - particularly TF2, EVE and a few other titles. The GSO should have a decent amount of overclocking headroom as well.

All in all, I personally would get the 4830 - a bit more horsepower. If you prefer doing distributed computing or want PhysX, the GSO would be a better choice.

 

[error8]

+1 for what SunnyD said.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

The 4830 would be a substantial upgrade. Plus there are so many different version of the 9600GSO that we'd have to know the exact card you're getting to even conclude if it would be a good upgrade.

Although, I still think your 8600GT will handle L4D and other Source games fine at 1080p, especially if you're already playing at 1680x1050.

 

[SickBeast]

How much of an upgrade is a 4830 over an 8800GTS 320mb? How do they compare in terms of power usage as well? TIA. :beer:

 

[Vedikur]

The 4830 will be a moderate upgrade from the 8800GTS 320mb.

I say moderate because the 320mb version of the 8800GTS uses the older, less powerful G80 GPU, as opposed to the G92 GPU used in the later 512mb version of the card. Because of this, the 8800GT is actually a better card the the GTS version, and the 8800GT is comparable to the 4830, with the 4830 being slightly better by most people's reckoning. So all things considered, it's an upgrade, but not a huge one.

As to the power question, the 8800GTS has a max power draw of 147W, as opposed to the 4830's max power draw of 110W. This details are coming from here, in case you want to check the source.

Hope this helps.

Vedikur - Lanslide Gaming PCs:
The Gaming Computer Built For LAN Parties

 

[SickBeast]

Thanks Vedikur.

I'm going to hold on to my 8800GTS for awhile longer then.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

I'll chime in. I have both a Radeon 4830 and a Zotac 8800GTS 320MB that i picked up for $79.99 last year, and truth be told, unless its a Goldsrc/Source game you will see a difference. If you were to pick up a 4830 you would notice how much cooler (WAY COOLER) it runs and how overclockable it is.

Keep in mind, I side graded from the 8800GTS 320mb to a Radeon 3850 512mb and those benefits were worth it alone. The 4830 just blows the 3850 out of the water.

 

[ExcaliburMM]

If you're going to get the HD4830, I suggest waiting for the 4770, it ain't far away.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: ExcaliburMM
If you're going to get the HD4830, I suggest waiting for the 4770, it ain't far away.

Seconded.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: ExcaliburMM
If you're going to get the HD4830, I suggest waiting for the 4770, it ain't far away.

At the price the 4830 is - it's a better value than the 4770 will be at release + 2 months. If you're shopping now, the 4830 is a better value than the 4770 hands down.

 

[2Xtreme21]

I swung for the 4830. Do all the models have the extra PCI-E power adapter on the cards? I couldn't find my PSU box so I had to order a cable from Antec.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: 2Xtreme21
I swung for the 4830. Do all the models have the extra PCI-E power adapter on the cards? I couldn't find my PSU box so I had to order a cable from Antec.

Yeah, they all use the PCIe connector. Which card did you order? A lot of times they'll include a molex-to-PCIe connector with the card.

 

[nyker96]

4830 if now, 4770 if you can wait a few months time.

 

[SickBeast]

How much faster will the 4770 be compared with the 4830?

Shouldn't a lower model number denote lower performance?

 

[Tempered81]

Get two 4830's if you have a crossfire mobo. GTX280 performance.

Originally posted by: SickBeast
How much faster will the 4770 be compared with the 4830?

Shouldn't a lower model number denote lower performance?

It's between a 4830 & 4850

 

[2Xtreme21]

Originally posted by: SunnyD

Originally posted by: 2Xtreme21
I swung for the 4830. Do all the models have the extra PCI-E power adapter on the cards? I couldn't find my PSU box so I had to order a cable from Antec.

Yeah, they all use the PCIe connector. Which card did you order? A lot of times they'll include a molex-to-PCIe connector with the card.

MSI. Even if they did include a molex-to-PCI-E, I'd still be screwed, as I don't have a molex connector either. I shouldn't have just completely misplaced my PSU box.

 

[nyker96]

too late, RV740 is here! $99//good performance, just 80W at load. I think the 4830s will look old quickly now.

 

[Face2Face]

+ 1 4770

 

[kmmatney]

The 4770 will be about halfway in between the performance of the HD4830 and the HD4850. For $65, it a great deal, and they have a lot of overclocking headroom. My HD4830 easily overclocked well past HD4850 speed (with about the same performance taking the number of processors into account). For $65 it's agreat deal no matter how you look at it. There are some HD4830s out with 800 shaders (up from 640) as well. It's also a very quiet card.

The RV740 has limited memory bandwidth (128-bit) but makes up for it by using fast GDDR5 memory and a faster core clock. because of the faster clock it mioght not overclock so much, so may be slower than the HD4830 after all overclocking is taken into account. We'll have to wait for the reviews...

Edit: I see you went for the HD4830. Good card. I settled at 790 Mhz for the final overclock on mine. It never went above 54C at load, even overclocked.

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: SickBeast
How much faster will the 4770 be compared with the 4830?

Shouldn't a lower model number denote lower performance?

Video cards are notorious for having what I find to be retardly confusing numbers for the models. I had an x800, a year later my friend bought an x1600. If I wasn't savy I would assume the x1600 was twice as fast due to the number being 2x. Also due to the fact it came out well after the x800, but it was a lot slower in everything. These newer cards are even more confusing

The numers are even more confusing now, it use just be x800-x850, xx1650. Now we have 4730, 4750, 4770, 4830 etc. While I am very tech savvy, unless I see some specs I still might have to guess which is faster. And my mind is telling me a 4770 shouldn't be much faster than a 4750, but it could be quite a bit. Or maybe it's slower? haha ATI & Nvidia suck, I wish they kept things more simple.

I mean logically an x1600 should be better than a x800. If you're going to put a card out a year after one and have it still be slower, make the number lower. I have same card as OP and I'm about to upgrade, I think the card he got will be mine. Basically though at this point, I don't think I could buy a new card slower than my 8600gt, not without really trying any ways lol.