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Radeon 4870X2, 4850 Xfire, or 6850?

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azuza001

Member
Joined
Nov 27, 2007
So I'm finally looking to put a graphics in my Q6600 system that OC's to 3.4. This is to be my secondary gaming system for friends/girlfriend when they want to play a lan game or come over to hang out, whatever.

Current system has a Nvidia 8400 in it (just so I have SOMETHING in it) so I really need to throw a gaming card in it. It's runnin on 4 gigs of DDR3 ram in a crossfire motherboard.

Now for my concern/issue/questions.

Tiger Direct has the 4870X2 for 150$ (about the max that I want to spend at the moment) and it's a great card even now days compaired to the 6950, just no DX11 or Eyefinity. However my current system has a 550 watt power supply in it and I'm concerned that this would be too much for the power supply.

I could also go with a 6850 and pick a second one up later, I know the 6850 sips power compaired to the 4870X2 and it is still a great mainstream card.

Finally Tiger has 4850's for 60$, I could get one or 2 of these for now and then truly upgrade once the new HD 7000 series makes a showing. The issue with these are they are only 512 meg cards. They are cheaper, require less power than the 4870X2, but really can't handle 1080p with high textures due to the low memory.

So I need your guys's suggestions. Let me know if you need any other information, thanks.
 
I would get the 6850, the 4870x2 is brutal on power supplies and ears.
4850s are great cards, but not all that fast and 1080p is a bit much with any sort of decent detail settings.

Sidenote: What 550w PSU do you have?
 
I will have to double check when I get home, I do not remember the name off the top of my head. Sorry, it being a secondary system it doesn't get the attention that it deserves lol.

So a 6850 even though the 7000 series will be out soon?

EDIT : The power supply is a Raidmax 530 Watt Modular

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152028

Like I said before, I would love the 4870X2, I just don't think my PSU has the power and if thats the case I'd rather get the 6850 I think.
 
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The 4870x2 is easily the fastest card out of all that you listed, but 550 I don't think would cut it. What brand is the PSU?

At one point I ran a 4870x2 + 4850 in triple crossfire with a Q6600 @ 3.6 using an Antec Earthwatts 650 and it worked but I only ran that config for a couple of days.
 
Yea, the PSU is a Raidmax 530 Watt, I really don't want to push this PSU (hate to see it blow and take other things with it) so I guess I'm looking at the 6850 (or a 6870 if I can find one on sale).

Thanks guys.
 
I have the PSU. It's dead.
Keep the load under ~300w and it should live, mine popped at around 370-400w.

Honestly, the first thing you should do is get a better PSU. Spending $30-40 on a Corsair 430-500w Builder Series unit will go a long way towards ensuring the life of your parts.
Alternatively if you have classified access here there are usually some good deals on PSUs in there.

My raidmax 530w was kind enough to not kill anything else when it went down, but I wouldn't rely on that.
 
Which games? I guess that'll decide what is better. If its BF2:BC2 or BF3 ATi, if WoW or similar nVidia honestly is better by in many cases over 20%
 
Sorry for the massively late reply guys, net issues over the last few days.

I'll probably upgrade the PSU at a later date, for now it's enough for the system considering it's just a secondary system that will only get very minor use when a bud comes over to play.

I ended up going with a (go ahead and kill me for this if you want) Geforce 275 GTX that I found on Craigslist for 50$. For 50$ I couldn't pass it up, and it will get the system through until next Feb once all the new ATI stuff comes out. Then I can hopefully pick up some 6850's for a steal.

Thanks again.
 
^^^
The 275 is a decent card. However, I'd replace the PSU as soon as possible, as the 275 has a max power draw of 219W. It will kill the PSU, it's only a matter of when and what the Raidmax will take with it.
 
Take a look at my benchmarks before buying anything. I have HD6850 VS HD4870X2 compared face to face (on 1920X1200 resolution):

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=684245

OP Already Bought a GTX275. He was never considering buying a card in the price range of the 6970. As far as your benchmarks showing a 6850 beating a 4870x2 in a few tests, just about every other set of benchmarks (run by professionals) has the 4870x2 ahead of the 6850, 6870, and the 5870 also. The 6850 in your review is also a pre-overclocked model and probably isn't representing the performance of a stock 6850. Also, how about testing in games people actually care about?
 
I agree with GotNoRice, at what settings did you run your benchmarks/what kind of hardware were you using when you did that? I mean, I'm still planning on getting a new powersupply and picking up the 6850 later but everything that I've read online about the 4870X2 showed that card beating the 6850 down easily.
 
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