Which Graphics Card Upgrade

Gerb68

Is the ATI Radeon HD4890-2 GB DDR5 the best single-GPU Graphics card around at the moment. I badly need an upgrade after my own failed but I see on bit-tech.net that DirectX 11 cards are expected before Christmas. Should I wait?
Will the HD4890-2 GB DDR5 play Crysis comfortably at a high resolution.

Any help would be appreciated coz I'm not sure what to do buy or wait.

dreamers75

I am waiting, i have a 4870 and assumed the 4890 was only a stop gap.

Gonna hold out and see how the new ATIs work out before i buy, hopefully the price range is comparable to the 4870s and in around the 220 mark.

Gerb68

Thanks for that dreamers75, I think I'll wait.
The only thing is that I waited for the HD2900 XT and that involved a long wait coz its release kept on being put back and it turned out to be a crap card with far better cards being released shortly after like the 3000 and the 4000 series. Its price wasn't cheap either.

Solitaire

On average the GTX285 is the strongest single-GPU card at stock speeds, but with a little luck the HD4890 can be overclocked past it. This is very relevant as the price differential is crazy; the HD4890 can be had for €145-155 in a good few places now which is utterly barmy for a high-end single-GPU card. Until recently you'd be hard-pressed to find a GTX285 south of twice that, and even though the prices are now falling both it and its smaller cousin, the GTX275, are badly overpriced in comparison.

The HD4890 is in some ways a stop gap, but its still not to be sniffed at. The GPU used on it is a heavily reworked RV770 (from the HD48*0). While the RV770 is practically crying blood at 750MHz (HD4870) the RV790 is merrily cruising along at 850MHz (stock HD4890) and uses less juice than a stock HD4870 at that speed. But unlike the HD4870 and GTX285 the HD4890 isn't stressed to the limits at that speed; there are variants out there running at 880MHz, 900MHz, 950MHz and in one case even over 1GHz (!) at which point the GTX285 is looking distinctly weakened. Such variants carry a price premium, but most cheapo stock HD4890s still have quite a bit of scope for quick OCing in Catalyst.

And one final pointer: the HD4890 is good, but even past stock speeds and at 2560*1600 there's very little benefit to be had from a 2GB card. Waste of money, plain and simple. 1GB is more than enough for almost any conceivable use of a current single-GPU system.

Gerb68

Thanx for that brilliant piece of advice Solitaire.
Is it not true then that Games love more memory?
The prices you quoted €145-155, Have you seen these anywhere?

Solitaire

Gerb68 wrote: »

Is it not true then that Games love more memory?

In terms of video memory a game can only really utilize what it needs; these needs tend to increase with resolution and raw GPU power more than anything. A powerful GPU can take advantage of a larger cache of textures held in local memory, while a weak GPU with the same amount and speed of memory can only perform fewer operations with the game's texture data so much of the memory is left empty as the GPU has its hands full working with a smaller quantity of textures. There are plenty of other influences at work but its the real-world results that bear these simplified theories out; if you overspecify a card with tons of useless memory people will pay the premium for the shiny factor, which is plain thick as the average improvement they bring is usually on the order of well under 1%. Oops...

There are thresholds, though; try running a HD4870 at or above 1080p resolution and it can use more than the usual 512MB to run at optimal speed, as the GPU has enough raw grunt to take advantage of the extra memory at higher resolutions. That's why the 1GB version of said card became so popular.

The prices you quoted €145-155, Have you seen these anywhere?

Off the top of my head HWVS had them toward the lower end of that bracket (useful for full or pricey partial builds/upgrades) and Pixmania toward the top (useful if you only need the card). Of course with the gauntlet now thrown down Komplett might eventually drop their price too...

Effluo

Just some info i was reading on the new ati's... They're releasing one card at around the 220 and one at the 280 mark.

Sounds pretty kewl to moi

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?&groupid=701&catid=56&subid=1502&utm_source=newsletter20090923&utm_medium=email&sortby=priceAsc

just got these in an email.
I'd say they're actually a wee bit pricey to start with! See how the reviews go and then if they're good get one quick as you'll not be the only one speculating, good results= higher price

Solitaire

Maybe. More likely €250 and €320 though HD5850 should hopefully come down a bit before/during initial stock runs as its just not good enough to cost more than a cheap GTX285 :P

dreamers75

In fairness 320 isnt bad, once others start making the card the price will come down with different specs.

Gerb68

WOW! Look at this price
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=498317&view=links

StopNotWorking

Gerb68 wrote: »

WOW! Look at this price
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=498317&view=links

Yikes, they must have gotten something wrong there..

Gerb68

Just so I'm not missing anything Isn't hardwareversand €30 for shipping and you have to pay by CC or Bank Transfer with which they are a bit impatient with.

Solitaire

Yep, the price differential makes it worthwhile for big purchases. If you're only looking for a couple of bits Komplett/Elara/Pixmania/Dabs/MemoryC are usually handier. Pix tends to have good prices on some things too, particularly graphics cards.

dreamers75

Im holding out till xmas hopefully a 2nd gen card out by then.

Gerb68

What do you mean by 2nd gen? Do you mean a better more updated version of the present HD 5800 series or do you mean a HD 5890?

dreamers75

Whats out now is the 1st gen, always plagued with problems usually to do with heat.


not 2nd gen but more version 1.1 rather than 1.0 which is out now.

Also if you hang on a while someone always makes like a 4gb OCed version which comes in at top price and pushes the standard one down a wee bit in price.

im a cheap ****

Solitaire

Heat may not be the biggest issue this time around as the die shrink has balanced the transistor growth nicely - a 50% reduction in area versus twice the processing power. Result is cards that stick pretty close to the last gen for overall heat and power consumption despite the jump in raw power

dreamers75

Solitaire wrote: »

Heat may not be the biggest issue this time around as the die shrink has balanced the transistor growth nicely - a 50% reduction in area versus twice the processing power. Result is cards that stick pretty close to the last gen for overall heat and power consumption despite the jump in raw power

Yup but patience is virtue, no matter is out now with this GPU in 6 months time someone have the definitive version of it out.


I am patient and cheap, my 4870 with my 1600x1200 monitor is pretty much perfect.

i find using a monitor with limited res a godsend in this mad mad world of framerates:D

StopNotWorking

I dont even play games anymore yet I want this card. I think my hobby has switched from games to hardware

I'm 'this' close to buying one and I have absolutely no valid reason to justify it

Rezident

Gerb68 wrote: »

Is the ATI Radeon HD4890-2 GB DDR5 the best single-GPU Graphics card around at the moment. I badly need an upgrade after my own failed but I see on bit-tech.net that DirectX 11 cards are expected before Christmas. Should I wait?
Will the HD4890-2 GB DDR5 play Crysis comfortably at a high resolution.

Any help would be appreciated coz I'm not sure what to do buy or wait.

I have one, no it's not the fastest single-gpu, that's the newer 5870.

4890 2Gig plays Crysis on High at 1680 x 1050 but I think you'd need a 5870 for 1920 x and above.

5xxx cards looks excellent but very expensive at the moment, 4xxx cards are much better value but obviously not quite as future-proof.

Rezident

Solitaire wrote: »

And one final pointer: the HD4890 is good, but even past stock speeds and at 2560*1600 there's very little benefit to be had from a 2GB card. Waste of money, plain and simple. 1GB is more than enough for almost any conceivable use of a current single-GPU system.

This is true, I think the only game I play now that uses up the 1 gig VRAM is GTA IV but I presume future games and maybe ARMA II etc. may go over one gig. I got the 2 gig card for £20 more than the 1 gig card was so I thought £20 for one gig of GDDR5 was some cheap future-proofing.

TerrorFirmer

Rezident wrote: »

This is true, I think the only game I play now that uses up the 1 gig VRAM is GTA IV but I presume future games and maybe ARMA II etc. may go over one gig. I got the 2 gig card for £20 more than the 1 gig card was so I thought £20 for one gig of GDDR5 was some cheap future-proofing.

But its not future proofing, because the 4890 doesn't really gain anything from 2GB other than the odd single frame or two, and when games do demand 1gb+ of memory, the core won't be fast enough to utilize it anyway. What you'll end up with in a very short time is a 2GB card that's slower then a 1GB card with newer arch. It's like putting one good wheel on a bicycle with 2 flat tires....