Upgrade to a 4870 from 9600gt?

[SantiClaws]

Running an AMD 7850 cpu. Res is 1680x1050, play COD, Bioshock, Crysis. It seems moving to the 4850 would not be worth it, but is the upgrade to a 4870 worth the $120-$150? Should I wait until fall when the new cards hit the market and the 4870 and similar drop in price?

 

[TheMeanestGuest]

I have a similar system to you (X2 5200 @3.15 + HD 4670, 2 GB DDR2 800) and I thought about it for awhile, since I think I definitely need a new video ever since I got my new monitor. It chokes after a bit on highest on CoH at my new res, didn't do that before.

Normally I wouldn't wait, but with a DX jump just around the corner I've decided to. Even if the 5xxx series isn't worth buying, prices on 4870s and 90s will only go down. All in all I'd advise waiting.

 

[Denithor]

Is performance acceptable at your resolution in those games or do you have turn down the eye candy to get decent fps? If you don't need it - don't buy it. Conversely - if your gameplay experience is limited by GPU - buy a new one. Yeah, prices will fall in a few months - but they always do. Waiting really doesn't make a lot of sense.

 

[Arglebargle]

I made this jump recently. Getting in for a $120 4870 helped, of course. When going to a new video card, I put a personal requirement of at least a 1/3rd boost in performance, which this would do on my present system. Your requirements might vary. I expect you will see the price going down to $100 or so in the next 2-6 months. Your choice as to whether waiting would be worth the difference.

At 16X10, consensus is that the 4870 is in the 'right spot' for real good performance vs price. No telling about the upcoming cards or where they will slot in in value. There have been some deals on 4890s hitting in at the $150-170 range AR etc, so that might be something you could look at as well....

 

[nemesismk2]

I went from a 3870 (faster than a 9600GT) to a 4870 and it gave me much more performance.