What to get?

[tank171]

I have a 7950GT, which is really outdated by now. I am looking to upgrade to the 4850 or 4870. How much of an improvment will I be looking at for these? I know that the 4870 isnt out yet, so there is no reviews/previews to go by, but will I be wowed by the cheaper 4850? Or maybe I should just jump on the 4870 and not worry about upgrading for a few more years?

 

[Sylvanas]

You will certainly not be disappointed by the 4850 it will be a world of difference over you're 7950GT. The 4870 is due to be clocked quite a bit higher than the 4850 not to mention GDDR5 so it will be better again. As it comes down to it, depends on what games/resolution you will be using- if you use high rez+ AA, a 1GB GDDR5 4870 is going to be the better option going forward. But if you find yourself at around 1680x1050 or lower the 4850 will more than suffice.

 

[tachikoma]

Well either way you go you'll see a huge performance increase over the 7 series you have now. I would assume the 4870 isn't going to be a HUGE increase over the 4850. It will most likely just contain higher clock speeds and a better cooler. I think (assuming here) that it will still contain the 800 stream processors along with other similarities to the 4850 card.

They're claiming $299 for the card, but as we saw with the 4850 you'll be able to get some sweet deals so assume between $249-$299 for the price point.

It's really all a matter of how much you're willing to spend.

 

[paladiin]

I went from a 7600GT (oc'd) to a 4850. A world of difference is an understatement. My main game is WoW and although my 7600GT can handle that well, the 4850 can handle everything max'd out at my resolution (which is 1440x900). It looks sharper, crisper, and the frame rate pegs at 60FPS everywhere.

But I've also gotten into other games lately. I finished Bioshock recently, and started playing Mass Effect and Hellgate London just last week. Bioshock is probably my favorite game I've played in the last 2-3 years and I "suffered" through it on my 7600GT. At the time it didn't feel like suffering but after playing the first 10-15 minutes today on my new card the difference is amazing. The game is absolutely stunning on the 4850 compared to a 7600GT.

I went from playing Mass Effect on about the lowest possible settings to everything max'd out at my resolution and I know the 4850 could handle more. I would get really bad visual lag with my 7600GT in the middle of the Citadel (basically the political seat of power for the galactic alliance) as there are huge buildings, pools, water spouts, walkways, and people. My poor little 7600GT just couldn't keep up there and I'd get single digit frames/sec even at the lowest settings. With the 4850 its not even breaking a sweat there.

And while Hellgate London isn't pushing the envelope graphically, it can bring a lower card to its knees on multiplayer in certain areas. I've gone from medium DX9 settings with no shadows and lower textures to max'd settings in DX10 and the game is silky smooth now.

So while you might not see a big improvement if you're playing older games, a 4850 (or 8800GT for that matter) will let you see everything you've been missing out on and let you get "in the game" for today's games.

Was I wowed? Yes, and then some.

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: tank171
I have a 7950GT, which is really outdated by now. I am looking to upgrade to the 4850 or 4870. How much of an improvment will I be looking at for these? I know that the 4870 isnt out yet, so there is no reviews/previews to go by, but will I be wowed by the cheaper 4850? Or maybe I should just jump on the 4870 and not worry about upgrading for a few more years?

The 4870 is going to be a very fast video card, ATI Radeon HD 4870 Results and as this shows it outperforms the Geforce 9800 GX2 :shocked:

GDDR5 really makes a large performance increase for the 4870!

 

[Denithor]

I would say which card you select depends on several factors. If you play at lower resolution (say, 1600x1200 and below) the 4850 will be fine for most everything you can throw at it. If you run higher res you will want the 4870 because it has the much faster GDDR5 for increased bandwidth.

The other real advantage of the 4870 is going to be improved thermal management, it will have a dual-slot cooler that cools better and ejects the hot air out of the case instead of warming up your whole rig.

EDIT: Just noticed you have an SLI board, another possible option would be 2x8800GT (~$275) or 2x8800GTS (~$325) which should skunk a single 4850/4870 in most games (actually, these beat up the GTX 280 in many games).

 

[bryanW1995]

if you've been ok with the 7950gt for this long, then I'd just get the 4850. expect to pay something in the $175 range, or maybe closer to $200 if you have a free game or something else included.