Offered a HD 4670 from a friend at work - should I buy it?

[hoorah]

I'm currently in the market for a new card, I have a 7600GT that just isnt cutting it anymore, and I'd like something faster. Was looking at either getting a HD2600XT temporarily and moving it to a media center PC later, or going straight to a 9800GT or 4850 when I found a good deal on one.

So our computer guy at work (and I use that term extremely loosely, as he is a bit of a goof and doesn't know anything about computers) bought a HD 4670 (don't know what brand yet) because he wanted dual monitor support. He called up tigerdirect and asked for a dual monitor card, and they sold him a 1GB HD 4670.

So, he said he tried to put the card in his PC, but apparently it interferes with something (I didn't ask for an explanation). He went to some PC shop that sold him another card that fits. So, rather than send the 4670 back, he wants to sell it to me.

He offered me $50 off what he just paid for it last week. Assuming he paid about $120, I'd get it for $70, but he gets ripped off alot, so he may have paid closer to 150.

I mostly play Zombie Panic! Source, which I run at some odd resolution (1280x 720 I think) because the 7600GT can't handle the 1680x1050 native res with decent details in that game if there are a lot of players. I've been holding off until getting a new video card to play L4D, FarCry 2, and Crysis. If I can play ZPS at 1680x1050 with full details, that will be good for me temporarily, say, until a year from now.

So, would you buy a 4670 1GB for $70 with no rebate hassles? Is the 1GB version any better than the 512MB version? I only found one review for the 512 version, and none for the 1GB version. The 512 version seemed to be about 30% slower than an 8800GT.

 

[razor2025]

1GB for 4670 is overkill. The card won't have the processing power to utilize all that RAM. The 512MB version regularly goes for $70 shipped on Newegg, so I don't see much of a deal here.

 

[hoorah]

Thats kind of what I figured. Like I said, this guy isn't the savviest computer shopper, so he totally overpaid for not that great of a card.

I found out what type of card it is though - its here:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/app...EdpNo=4148907&csid=_26

Has a dual slot cooler, FWIW. He said he paid $130 for it (plus the extended warranty which I don't care about), so I'd be getting it for $80.

Just last week, Newegg had a 9800GT for $85 after rebate. I passed on it (because I was told I was getting it for my birthday, which I did not). As much as I HATE rebates, its hard to pick this 4670 over a 9800GT for about $100.

It sounds like he really wants to sell it though, because he doesn't want to ship it back. So, he may ask me to make an offer. Realizing that its my friend, but I'm not doing him any favors, how much would you offer for this card to make it a good deal? $50?

 

[krnmastersgt]

Maybe he should try to ebay or craigslist it to an even less computer savvy person? Just a thought if he wants a decent chunk of his money back.

 

[DMF]

A 4670 competes very well with a 9800GT. Plus it is smaller, uses less power (a lot less), therefore is cooler, therefore quieter. And it needs no power connector. I prefer it over the 9800GT. It really doesn't need a dual-slot cooler or 1GB, but wth. Offer him $70.

 

[razor2025]

4670 competes against 9600GT, not 9800GT. As far as value goes, it's pretty good card, especially if you have underpowered power supply. If you can get it for $70, it's alright deal. There's definitely merits to that card besides the 1GB RAM, like heatpipe cooler and no need for 6-pin power.

 

[JPB]

Review

 

[hoorah]

Thanks for all the help guys. I think I might offer him $70, but I'm still torn.

As for the power supply, I already checked that, and I have an Antec Truepower 430 (I think), but I know for sure it has the PCI express power connector, so thats not really a concern.

Lower heat and power consumption would be nice from an energy savings view.

The other problem I have with the card is that with such a big fan, it would probably be too noisy for my HTPC. I usually hand-down my current video cards to the HTPC when I upgrade, but with such a big noisy fan I may not want to.

I'd really like to hop on that HD2600XT (about 2x as fast as the 7600GT) deal for $25-30 from last week, use that for 6 months, drop the 2600XT in the HTPC, and pick up whatever card I can get for $75-100 then. Choices, choices.

 

[nosfe]

big fans mean lower noise because they don't have to spin as fast, that card is very silent

 

[krnmastersgt]

Originally posted by: nosfe
big fans mean lower noise because they don't have to spin as fast, that card is very silent

+1 to that, it's the small single slot cards with puny fans that give you a nice whining sound.

 

[s44]

Nice cooler, but the 4670 runs cool anyway. The larger fan means it'll be *quieter* since it won't need to spin up much, particularly on this GPU. Plus, no PCI-E connector needed.

OTOH is it me or is the memory clocked a bit slower on this one than on the 512mb? It says memclock 1746 (vs 1000 on the standard version), but that seems way too high to be the un-doubled number.

$50 would be a good deal for you on this. I wouldn't pay more than $70.

 

[hoorah]

Bah, he came back and said he wants $100 for it because it cost him $150, and he has to do a rebate or some garbage. I'd rather get a 9800GT for that price.

Oh well. Thanks for the help guys!

 

[hoorah]

The memory is clocked slower on the 1GB version than the 512 MB version (one article said 900 vs 1000, but thats not what newegg shows). Odd.

 

[nosfe]

when adding more memory than needed they usually use slower memory to cut costs; in this case they lowered the frequency, in other cases they raise the latency(which is what they usually do because people don't look at the latency but at the frequency)

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: DMF
A 4670 competes very well with a 9800GT. Plus it is smaller, uses less power (a lot less), therefore is cooler, therefore quieter. And it needs no power connector. I prefer it over the 9800GT. It really doesn't need a dual-slot cooler or 1GB, but wth. Offer him $70.

the 4670 is not even close to the 9800gt.

 

[s44]

Originally posted by: nosfe
when adding more memory than needed they usually use slower memory to cut costs; in this case they lowered the frequency, in other cases they raise the latency(which is what they usually do because people don't look at the latency but at the frequency)

Actually, I wonder now if they didn't lower the speed here to keep it within the power envelope.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: hoorah
Thanks for all the help guys. I think I might offer him $70, but I'm still torn.

As for the power supply, I already checked that, and I have an Antec Truepower 430 (I think), but I know for sure it has the PCI express power connector, so thats not really a concern.

Lower heat and power consumption would be nice from an energy savings view.

The other problem I have with the card is that with such a big fan, it would probably be too noisy for my HTPC. I usually hand-down my current video cards to the HTPC when I upgrade, but with such a big noisy fan I may not want to.

I'd really like to hop on that HD2600XT (about 2x as fast as the 7600GT) deal for $25-30 from last week, use that for 6 months, drop the 2600XT in the HTPC, and pick up whatever card I can get for $75-100 then. Choices, choices.

if youre throwing that 4670 in that pc with 1 gig of ram and a single core cpu then your gaming experience isnt going to change much. you need a modern dual core cpu and 2 gigs of ram for modern games and that 4670 wont change that fact.

 

[hoorah]

Originally posted by: toyota

if youre throwing that 4670 in that pc with 1 gig of ram and a single core cpu then your gaming experience isnt going to change much. you need a modern dual core cpu and 2 gigs of ram for modern games and that 4670 wont change that fact.

I disagree that a 4670 on that setup isn't going to change much. It may be limited by the CPU and ram, but I would still venture to guess that the change would be significant at least.

That said, the details in my sig are outdated. I've already upgraded the CPU to a dual core 4200+ and have 2 gigs of ram.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: hoorah

Originally posted by: toyota

if youre throwing that 4670 in that pc with 1 gig of ram and a single core cpu then your gaming experience isnt going to change much. you need a modern dual core cpu and 2 gigs of ram for modern games and that 4670 wont change that fact.

I disagree that a 4670 on that setup isn't going to change much. It may be limited by the CPU and ram, but I would still venture to guess that the change would be significant at least.

That said, the details in my sig are outdated. I've already upgraded the CPU to a dual core 4200+ and have 2 gigs of ram.

well you would be wrong for most modern games. 1 gig is NOT enough for most modern games and a single cpu would limit even a 4670 card. anyway since you updated that is not really an issue now.

even the 4200 X2 is a relatively weak cpu and in most games you wont even come close to getting the performance that you see in 4670 benchmarks on the web. I owned a 4670, among other cards, and a 5000 X2 so I know first hand. it still will be a huge improvement over the 7600gt though. there certainly isnt much point in going with anything stronger than a 4670 with a 4200 X2. Im not knocking your pc but instead just letting you know my experience.