Video Card Upgrade

[Scull]

So I have an ATI 4890 being offered to me for $185. Anyone know where I can get a better price, or a better card for the same-ish price?

I'm upgrading from a GeForce 7800, so it is a significant jump, and I'm pretty sure my current card is having some over heating issues, so this is a hard to pass deal unless someone can help me do better. Naturally this is a limited time offer and I have until about 8 tonight to bite.

[Goronmon]

If it's a brand new card, I would say that's a pretty decent price.

[Ghostbear]

Agreed, not too shabby for a great card.

[Grifter]

They sell new for about $220 so that's not bad if it's unopened.

EDIT: These cards are very big and very hot so make sure there is enough room in your case and it has plenty of air flow.

[CappinCanuck]

They sell new for about $220 so that's not bad if it's unopened.

EDIT: These cards are very big and very hot so make sure there is enough room in your case and it has plenty of air flow.

Exactly. This a 15% discount. It's good if it's brand new and comes with a warranty/return option. If it doesn't come with or have these, then I would pass on the deal. If it's used, without warranty, then you're better off buying it new. And 15% off for a used card is a very weak deal, in fact, I would say it's a downright hustle.

[nabokovfan87]

So I have an ATI 4890 being offered to me for $185. Anyone know where I can get a better price, or a better card for the same-ish price?

I'm upgrading from a GeForce 7800, so it is a significant jump, and I'm pretty sure my current card is having some over heating issues, so this is a hard to pass deal unless someone can help me do better. Naturally this is a limited time offer and I have until about 8 tonight to bite.

I would grab a dx11 card honestly, but here is what i would choose (xfx because of warranty):

also, 5xxx cards have ddr5

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150464

or this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150463

only difference is the clock speeds.

[Scull]

So I have a large case and from what I've see, in should fit ok. Airflow may be an issue, but I think not as there are no other add in cards sitting next to it. If it really is new and in the box I'm going to buy it tonight.

I went back and forth on this or a 5xxx card, but I don't think DX11 and GDDR5 are enough of a justification in the price jump for me. I'm a frugal gamer and as long as I can play Dragon Age at a decently high setting I'll be satisfied for a few more years. It also helps that my mobo is Crossfire capable, so when upgrade time rolls around a second 4890 should be pretty cheap to come by :)

EDIT: Well hell, in doing a touch more research it looks like that 5770 pretty closely matches the 4890 in most tests that I care about. And for the same price new...dangit.

DOUBLE EDIT: How's the overclocking on the 5770? I know the XFX 4890 can be OC'd pretty well, and that may make a difference.

[Grifter]

So I have a large case and from what I've see, in should fit ok. Airflow may be an issue, but I think not as there are no other add in cards sitting next to it. If it really is new and in the box I'm going to buy it tonight.

I went back and forth on this or a 5xxx card, but I don't think DX11 and GDDR5 are enough of a justification in the price jump for me. I'm a frugal gamer and as long as I can play Dragon Age at a decently high setting I'll be satisfied for a few more years. It also helps that my mobo is Crossfire capable, so when upgrade time rolls around a second 4890 should be pretty cheap to come by :)

A brand new 5770 is cheaper than the 4890 you will be purchasing and unless you will be playing above 1920x1080 resolutions I think you would be much happier with a 5770. 5770 will also be easier to find cheaply in 8-12 months, probably cheaper than a 4890.

EDIT 1: A 5770 will run 99% of the games out there above 30FPS (far above in most cases) at a resolution of 1920x1080 or below with everything maxed and you get DX11 which is taking off better than 10/10.1.

As far as GDDR5 goes it is most definitely worth it, the extra bandwidth GDDR5 gives you over GDDR3 is pretty significant and is translated into noticeable frame rate gains.

EDIT 2: Never waste money on extreme or overclocked editions of video cards when it's something you can download a simple program for and do it yourself in 10min... 20 if you need to do a little research first. In most cases inless the OC is quite significant (which it rarely is with manufacturer OC'd cards) you're spending an extra $20 to $40 for an average of a 3 frames per second gane.

Here is a link to the card you should get and I strongly believe you will be much happier with it than the 4890. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150447 plus you'll get a lifetime warranty and save $15.

[cp#]

What kind of processor do you have? A 4890 will be limited by a slower/older CPU (Older Cores, Athlon X2, what have you)

Point being you could possibly buy a cheaper card that would have less horsepower but be more balanced with your processor

[Scull]

EDIT 2: Never waste money on extreme or overclocked editions of video cards when it's something you can download a simple program for and do it yourself in 10min... 20 if you need to do a little research first. In most cases inless the OC is quite significant (which it rarely is with manufacturer OC'd cards) you're spending an extra $20 to $40 for an average of a 3 frames per second gane.

Here is a link to the card you should get and I strongly believe you will be much happier with it than the 4890. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150447 plus you'll get a lifetime warranty and save $15.
Oh, no, I would certainly do the OC myself. Factory OC isn't worth it. I was just wondering about how well the cards handle OCing. But further research, and some of you fine folks are swaying me strongly towards a 5770. And the fact that I can snag one from Tiger Direct with an additional 15% off has pretty much sealed the deal at this point.

You guys are the bestest! Thanks everyone.

EDIT: Just a heads up, if you use Bing and search for "tigerdirect" you can get a 15% on anything in the store. This card (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=5316156&sku=P450-5770&srkey=XFX%20HD577AZNFC) totals out to a whopping $144.49 after discount. I can't say no to that.

DOUBLE EDIT: Done deal. I'll let you all know how the new card works out for me.

[H.Bogard]

I bought an iCoolerx4 HD4890 a few months ago for $200. Best value ever.

Though I do miss PhysX.

[nabokovfan87]

What kind of processor do you have? A 4890 will be limited by a slower/older CPU (Older Cores, Athlon X2, what have you)

Point being you could possibly buy a cheaper card that would have less horsepower but be more balanced with your processor

Even if there is a bottleneck, buy the higher end card so that when you do upgrade parts you won't need to swap out video cards.

I have a 4850 and went from an AMD 4000+ single core in a PCI-E x16 v1.0 slot to a Phenom II x4 965 and a PCI-E x16 v2.0 slot and I run things at twice the fps with the same card (from 60-90 up to 300 or so fps in CS:S).

So, essentially, same card is a brand new one because the bottleneck is lifted.

[Karak]

A brand new 5770 is cheaper than the 4890 you will be purchasing and unless you will be playing above 1920x1080 resolutions I think you would be much happier with a 5770. 5770 will also be easier to find cheaply in 8-12 months, probably cheaper than a 4890.

EDIT 1: A 5770 will run 99% of the games out there above 30FPS (far above in most cases) at a resolution of 1920x1080 or below with everything maxed and you get DX11 which is taking off better than 10/10.1.

As far as GDDR5 goes it is most definitely worth it, the extra bandwidth GDDR5 gives you over GDDR3 is pretty significant and is translated into noticeable frame rate gains.

EDIT 2: Never waste money on extreme or overclocked editions of video cards when it's something you can download a simple program for and do it yourself in 10min... 20 if you need to do a little research first. In most cases inless the OC is quite significant (which it rarely is with manufacturer OC'd cards) you're spending an extra $20 to $40 for an average of a 3 frames per second gane.

Here is a link to the card you should get and I strongly believe you will be much happier with it than the 4890. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150447 plus you'll get a lifetime warranty and save $15.

Do you have a 5770? I would like some personal opinion on it. Two of our lan group recently got them and are incredibly upset at their speed and ability. Its a shit card(their words). Games played were Crysis, Fear 2, Saints Row 2, Oblivion, Fallout 3.
Or is there another driver issue. Basically they got 10-25 FPS slower than the 3 people who have 4890's. I thought the 5770 was supposed to be equal.

EDIT: Christ I just saw the resolution these need to be run at. OUCH. Ya they wanted good res. I bet that's what the issue was. Ignore my question sorry.

[Karak]

I bought an iCoolerx4 HD4890 a few months ago for $200. Best value ever.

Though I do miss PhysX.

Agreed.
I was as happy with my 4890 as I have ever been with a card. It was a demon. But it doesn't like water:(

[Lance Uppercut]

Do you have a 5770? I would like some personal opinion on it. Two of our lan group recently got them and are incredibly upset at their speed and ability. Its a shit card(their words). Games played were Crysis, Fear 2, Saints Row 2, Oblivion, Fallout 3.
Or is there another driver issue. Basically they got 10-25 FPS slower than the 3 people who have 4890's. I thought the 5770 was supposed to be equal.

EDIT: Christ I just saw the resolution these need to be run at. OUCH. Ya they wanted good res. I bet that's what the issue was. Ignore my question sorry.

I don't know much about any other video cards, but I have a 5770 in my new rig, and it runs Bad Company 2 at 1920x1080 at near max with stable framerates.

[Karak]

I don't know much about any other video cards, but I have a 5770 in my new rig, and it runs Bad Company 2 at 1920x1080 at near max with stable framerates.

Gotcha. That game seems to also be a bit more optimized and well written than the others to be honest. As even 8800gt's do wonders in that game.
But after seeing the res comments and looking it up online I am thinking its just a weakness of the card(5770) on most games, or ones that arn't as optimized at a higher res. I wouldn't be comfortable offering it as a choice compared to a 4890 for example but I wouldn't complain as much as some if I did have it.

By the way, Bad Company 2 is pretty cool. I know its SUPER almost freakishly linear but its fun.

[Scull]

Well I ordered the 5770 based on recommendations here, and because I got a great price on it. It does appear that the 128 bit memory bus hurts it quite a bit compared to the 256 on the 48xx and 58xx series. No matter what, it is a step up in a big way for me coming from a GeForce 7800.

[nabokovfan87]

Or is there another driver issue. Basically they got 10-25 FPS slower than the 3 people who have 4890's. I thought the 5770 was supposed to be equal.

It really is a person's opinion on which is better. Some will look at the specs, some at comparison reviews pointing at graphs and saying look this one has 20 fps while this one has 25. In reality though, depending on how you run the game, shadows on/off, AA on/off, the other shiny settings, windowed/fullscreen, etc. has an impact on how things run, but what really makes the difference is the game.

Sounds insane, but the amd 4000 I mentioned before, there is a youtube clip of it running crysis with a screen of the video card settings. It takes time to get used to running things with a new card, but you get this intuition about which things to turn down and off to keep your fps up.

[Grifter]

Well I ordered the 5770 based on recommendations here, and because I got a great price on it. It does appear that the 128 bit memory bus hurts it quite a bit compared to the 256 on the 48xx and 58xx series. No matter what, it is a step up in a big way for me coming from a GeForce 7800.

Not necessarily, even though it's only using a 128-bit bus the fact that it is running GDDR5 gives you higher memory bandwidth than if you were running GDDR3 on a 256bit memory bus so it all evens out.

[nabokovfan87]

I was going to bring that up as well. the ddr5 makes it all better. Especially 1gb of it.

[Scull]

Except that the 4890 and 4870 both use GDDR5 as well. And for all intents and purposes both those cards perform better in memory intensive scenarios. And that is attributed to the bus. Tom's did a decent write up (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-5770-overclocking,2473.html) where they detailed the memory performance of the 5770.

Mind you this is all academic as I already bought the 5770 and will have it on Tuesday if UPS is on time.

[Scull]

So I got the 5770 installed on Tuesday and finally got around to playing some games with it today. Dawn of War II with all settings maxed runs about 40 FPS at 1920x1200 and looks great! Crysis with all setting to high at 1440x900 runs very well, and I only get the tiniest of visual issues.

Loving the new card, thanks for the advice guys.

[Karak]

It really is a person's opinion on which is better. Some will look at the specs, some at comparison reviews pointing at graphs and saying look this one has 20 fps while this one has 25. In reality though, depending on how you run the game, shadows on/off, AA on/off, the other shiny settings, windowed/fullscreen, etc. has an impact on how things run, but what really makes the difference is the game.

Sounds insane, but the amd 4000 I mentioned before, there is a youtube clip of it running crysis with a screen of the video card settings. It takes time to get used to running things with a new card, but you get this intuition about which things to turn down and off to keep your fps up.

Could be. But this is running at a good res with everything on obviously. It wouldn't make any sense to compare them with...different options:)

[Karak]

Not necessarily, even though it's only using a 128-bit bus the fact that it is running GDDR5 gives you higher memory bandwidth than if you were running GDDR3 on a 256bit memory bus so it all evens out.

That's what I thought as well but it doesn't look like that's occurring in benchmarks and in real tests. Though its a good card it is really hampered by the bus and I think they both run that memory anyway.
But enough said. Looks like he got a good deal and is happy. Always a good end to a story:)

[nabokovfan87]

Could be. But this is running at a good res with everything on obviously. It wouldn't make any sense to compare them with...different options:)

Was just saying you should choose the card based on the game you plan on playing. ATI's used to run hl2 very well, but now everything is more mixed. Things change, but when you see reviews of graphics cards and they turn on something that is nvidia only or made to run very well on the other guys cards, then you get skewed results.

[Karak]

Was just saying you should choose the card based on the game you plan on playing. ATI's used to run hl2 very well, but now everything is more mixed. Things change, but when you see reviews of graphics cards and they turn on something that is nvidia only or made to run very well on the other guys cards, then you get skewed results.

Ya ignore my post. I was all pissy and I was trying to do 5 things and post and the post sounded like I was an ass. Which I was. I apologize.

[nabokovfan87]

Lol. No worries man.

[Scull]

Again, loving the card. It is working beautifully, and I can finally play Crysis (and the Mech Warrior mod, which is the only reason I bought Crysis to begin with)

[nabokovfan87]

coolio, 5770 right? xfx as well? what kind of temps you getting?

[Scull]

Yeah, XFX 5770. I haven't measured the temps yet. Haven't really had a ton of time to work with it.

[Acidpoptart]

I just ordered a 5770 to replace my dying 9800 GT. Looks like its the popular pick around here, so I am feeling a lot better about my order now :P