Graphics 4870 512mb - 4890 1gb

as aria have the 4890 1gb going for £50, is there any point when i have a 4870 512mb in my machine??

i'm currently running a core 2 duo Q6600 @ 3.2ghz, with 4gb ram driving an apple cinema display running 1680x1050

granted, i'm only running trackmania and wow, but i dont mind dropping £50 for a nice upgrade that lets me use some AA and stuff.

thanks

 

I would!

 

Personally I'd save a bit more and go for one of the newer cards, this for example is one of the options you could go for. Been running two of these for a while now and are very very good value for money.

 

LOL, why??

from most of the benchmarks i can see, i'll be getting maybe 10fps more, is that worth it???

also, is 512mb @ 16x10 going to be hitting the cards limit, so would 1gb allow the card more breathing room?

 

then why ask?

 

1GB is the gold standard for a GPU even at that resolution, so £50 is nothing for a 4890! Once your happy with the 4890 working away you can sell the 4870 for £25 easily. Also be interesting to push the 4890 as far as it can go while keeping an eye on the temperature whilst overclocked and under stress.

 

If you're running only trackmania, there doesn't seem to be much of a point.

 

If you are only running Trackmania and don't have any problems, wait until Q4 for the next gen cards to come out. This should cause lots of prices changes across the board and mean that you will have more choice for your money.

 

If you want some extra niceness now then drop £50 on the 4890!

For the new round of GPU's we're probably talking hundreds of pounds and several months in the future.

 

well at times i'm dropping down to 30fps and below, so i think i might drop the cash on one for a bit of a laugh.

if it isnt any better than i can always try getting hold of a crossfire equipped s775 board, give the wife the 4890 and run 2 4870's in crossfire

 

It's surprising what a difference a few MHz can make. At the default 715MHz my GTX 460 SLI chugs in some of the most recent games. Overclock to 810MHz and it simply flies along in everything. Being an optimised 4870 I'd hope the 4890 offers a similar bump in performance.

Do you plan to overclock the 4890? I've read it can go beyond 1GHz with the right cooling and voltage!

 

i've enough cooling problems at the mo without adding an overclocked GPU into the equation!!

my q6600 @ 3.2 regularly runs way over 60, and my case only has 2x80mm intake fans, and a single 80mm outlet fan (plus the psu) so i just cant get enough cool air into and through it to keep my CPU cool enough without my GPU trying to bake everything!

 

I would seriously consider upgrading the cooling a bit if you want to run a 4890, or even CF 4870. I am gonna run a 4850 and a 4870 come October in my A05NB and I am probably gonna exchange the fans for some Deltas..

 

The 4890 available for under £50 on ARIA is an internal exhaust card so you might want to reconsider in that case!

 

If you are talking about this one...



It is now out of stock, even at the normal price of £51.98

 

hmm my plan for a while has been to try and replace the 2 front fans with either 92mm fans with a higher air flow, or 120mm fans (which would require some serious cutting of the hdd mounts), and then replace the single 80mm rear fan with a couple of 80mm fans (cant fit larger as they would cut into the expansion slots).

BTW, just found bit techs review of my case
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2004/12/13/wave_master/1

 

drat

 

I made the EXACT same upgrade last year. For starters the 512mb 4870s were the first models and consumed quite a bit more power than even the 48701gb, maybe more even than a 4890. They were hot and furious beasts. Secondly the 4890 does a very nice job considering it's age at my screen's native res 1920x1080. It's a fair bit more omph than a gen 1 4870, and the extra ram can't be bad even at your screen res. Big fan of the 4890 in general. £50? why not!

Edit: the XFX 4890? I got that one, no software voltage control, and the cooler is shocking. Pretty loud for some naff temps. :/

 

I wouldnt, not that much faster. You run a fairly low screen resolution so the video memory isnt really a issue.

Id save and pick up a 460 or similar for sub 100. That would be a real upgrade.

 

Honestly don't see it as a worthy upgrade, even for 50... the 1GB wouldn't really make a difference either at that res. CF 4870's would be alot more horsepower, but if you need to swap the mobo for that then it's really not worth it.

Mrbungle's suggestion is on the path I'd take.