Today's Lesson: GTX 970 >> HD4850

[oleguy]

And no, that wasn't a typo.

I rebuilt my five year-old machine around Christmas, but nothing really caught my eye when it came to GPUs and there seemed to a lot of bated breath over AMD's next generation part.

So I waited.

Then the AMD parts landed, and I was not really impressed. I also had some other life events that pulled me away from gaming so I didn't really notice how much my 4850 was bogging down my 4670K.

Maxwell started to bubble to the surface, and it had hints of great performance in a cooler and quieter package, so I waited. And waited.

Then I got bored and then busy.

Then the GTX 970 landed and all seemed good. With a new job in hand at much better pay and much less stress, I was ready to make my decision. Except inventory levels weren't kind.

Yesterday on a whim, I checked the Micro Center near me and they had 4 MSI Gaming 4Gs in stock. I quickly grabbed one, got it plugged in... then had to go to bed.

I was able to play with it today, and benchmarked it using the FFXIV-ARR tool. My old card on max settings in the otherwise new build had a score of 3832 and avg FPS of 32.6. The new card did slightly better.... 17579 with an avg FPS of 173.3.

And the best part was that the entire system didn't rise above a whisper the entire time.

 

[tviceman]

That is some serious staying power holding out to upgrade for so long. But you definitely got your money's worth!

 

[gradoman]

Wow, that was a long time coming. I'm sure the FPS boost and smoother gameplay makes your eyes cry with joy. Congratulations!

 

[oleguy]

There were two things that put off my total system upgrade after about Year 3:

• A whirlwind of life events that kept me from having the time or the funds to keep up with the new releases between 2010 and 2013. Getting married, buying a home, changing jobs, and other such things seemed to divert my focus

• In late 2010, I upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7 and got my first SSD along with it. The change in user experience, especially with the SSD, made it seem like a whole new computer, even though it was the same AMD Phenom II 550 BE under the hood

And when I was finally rebuilding around the 4670K at Christmas, I was unimpressed with the monitor options, so I stuck with my old 1280 x 1024 display, meaning that I didn't have even 1080p to push. The 4850, for the games from 2011 I was still playing, seemed to be up to the task. But now I'm getting back into newer games and the 4850 was just struggling even at 1280 x 1024.

While I'm still using the same monitor, I really wanted to buy a new toy to celebrate a new job, and I'm still unimpressed with the monitor offerings today. I'm slowly realizing that my dream monitor (1600p with 120Hz refresh) is probably never coming, but I still hold out hope a really nice 1440p 21:9 display with higher refresh rate will show up, though with a lack of product launches this close to Christmas, it's probably not happening this year...

 

[netxzero64]

This upgrade was long due. Good timing!

 

[monkeydelmagico]

While I'm still using the same monitor, I really wanted to buy a new toy to celebrate a new job, and I'm still unimpressed with the monitor offerings today. I'm slowly realizing that my dream monitor (1600p with 120Hz refresh) is probably never coming, but I still hold out hope a really nice 1440p 21:9 display with higher refresh rate will show up, though with a lack of product launches this close to Christmas, it's probably not happening this year...

Nice upgrade! 970 is drool worthy. I'm with you on the monitor offerings. Holding firm with my low tech 1080p 60hz for the moment. When I can get a 30 inch 1600p 120Hz with Gsync for around $400.- will be my purchase moment.

 

[Spjut]

Nice. And yeah, I too am disappointed with the monitors available today.

GPUs last a long time if you move down to 1280x1024, but more and more games won't run on the HD 4850 due to requiring actual DX11.0 hardware

 

[*kjm]

Nice upgrade I just got the Gigabyte 970 gaming myself yesterday to replace my 5870. It was the last thing I needed for my system but with playing D3 and LOTRO I was not in a hurry and waited till somthing made it worth while and the power savings of the 970 did it for me.

Have to admit that 5870 hung in for a long time @ 1920x1200

 

[VirtualLarry]

Very nice. I don't game much, but I have a pair of HD4850s still crunching away at MW@Home (BOINC). They still have pretty capable double-precious FP power.

 

[ocre]

wow

now its time to look at how far monitors have advanced

 

[smakme7757]

I have the Dell Ultrasharp U2711. Fantastic monitor.

I just got a GTX 980 so I'm quite a happy citizen.

I would urge you to look at putting some $$$ into a new moniyor it though.

GTX 970 with only 1280x1024 is a bit lacklustre.

 

[h9826790]

Haha, I think that I upgrade from 4870 to 7950 is already quite a huge jump. You are even more ridiculous than me ^^!