Lo chaps! Basically im looking to get a new card sometime soon but im having trouble deciding. I have a few requirements so please keep that in mind. 1)Must be no longer than 24cm in length. 2)Must be able to play most modern-ish games @ 1680x1050 easily/native(with eye candy). 3)Can be powered by a 480w PSU 4)Does not matter if a dual slot. 5)No more expensive than £130-140-ish. 5)Temp sensing fan control or a silent model is a must. If anyone has any suggestions that would be great as most of my ones cant really fathom what is suitable at that rez without being overkill. Thanks!
4870 1GB? Thats 200quid plus! In that price bracket get a GTX260 216, it will outperform the 4870 1GB in games and runs cooler and quieter. For your price bracket I'd go 4850 all the way. The HIS 4850 IceQ4 is sweet. Runs cool and quiet and OC's well + exhausts hot air out the case. Alternative go for the Asus PCS 4850. Don't bother with 1GB versions of the 4850. or get the cheapest 4850 you can find and then stick an Akasa Vortex Neo onit.
Well the Nvidia cards seem out of the question as the idiots over there decided to add the power plugs on the side insted of the back. Since im extremely limited in space i cant got 1cm over the default height of a vid card. Im looking into a 9800Gt or the HIS/Powercolour HD4850's But is a 4850 got enough grunt to play 1680 rez natively? im still lost on that one.
depends completely on the game... in example, Fallout3 is a game i find easier to go on all-high settings then in example crysis. though generally the 4850 will give a nice amount of gaming power(especially the HIS one for its price!), you should not expect to run the newest games on their highest settings, as that would really require a heavier card.
Agreed... get yourself a 4850 with an aftermarket cooler. You might also want to consider an nVidia 9800GTX or the 9800GTX+ - within your budget, and generally beats the 4850 by a few fps. It has a dual slot cooler too, so runs alot cooler than the 4850 which gets quite toasty. Hope that helps! Edit: Oops - just seen your post above. If you need power plugs on the back, then a 4850 is the best way. It does well enough in most games at 1680x1050 - have a look here.
Its what they always say, its the here and now that matters. But at 120-140 price point 4850 is only option.
Yes will be fine at 1680/1050 with any games but not at full graphics glory with AA maxed out. To me 4850 is the perfect card for 1440/900 due to higher FPS.
I have an EVGA 8800 GTS with the power on the back, 640mb not sure on the size thought (would check but its a small project to dig out my PC.)