would a 4850 be a good 3nough upgrade from an 8800gt?

I am going to do some research myself but just wanted to what you guys think. If not then I might just wait a little and get a 4870. Thanks.

I want to say no here. You have a pci express 2.0 card, it has 65 nm process so it can OC decently well, and its a solid card the dominated the market sales for a good 10 months. I say stick with the 8800GT until the 4870 comes down a little more (lilke nov-dec.) or wait for the 4870 X2. The 4850 is so tempting to grab, because it will do better with AA and all that in higher resolution DX10 Games (Besides Lost Planet) than a lot of cards. I saw it for the 140 price as some people and there is a good chance I will pick it up to replace my "aging" 8800GTX that uses more power. I'm in a similar dilemma......I say wait, I'm going to try to. Our cards are supposed to get an update on Aug. 5th to enable physX on our 8 series cards. Makes me want to keep it longer since I found that out.

I'd agree, hang on to the 8800GT until the 4870 comes down more in price. Thats my plan I think...

I've never owned an ATI card before... I am scared to have all that red inside my case =p

I've never owned an ATI card before... I am scared to have all that red inside my case =p

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What about black?
The X2 looks amazing.

Its a toss up. It can have little improvement or alot. I haven't done many strict tests to say that yes my 4850 can do better than my 8800GT since my 8800GT clocked very well, and I don't have the proper cooling to give my 4850 a fair chance at the same tests.

AA and Heavily Shader intensive games the 4850 will shine. As well any game that will chew up more than 512Megs of ram on the 8800GT, the 4850 will do better as well due to the fact that the memory management is much better on ATI cards.

Got anything in particular that you want to test against? But in general even if you could clock that CPU of yours higher you will make the 8800GT shine a little more. The 4850 will be semi bottlenecked at that speed with the CPU.

Wait for the 4870s and GTX260s to come down, the 4850 isn't really much of an upgrade.

i say no also.

i just went from a 8800gt to a 4870 last night

Q6600 quad stock

3dmark06 just for reference

8800gt: 12115
hd4870: 12913

4850 just in general, not worth the $ to upgrade

placenta said:

i say no also.

i just went from a 8800gt to a 4870 last night

Q6600 quad stock

3dmark06 just for reference

8800gt: 12115
hd4870: 12913

4850 just in general, not worth the $ to upgrade

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Congrats tahts a benchmark. Show game tests. Benchmarks are not the way to show the performance of the card, they are there to show off the number game. I could say the same thing with mine, 8800GT with a 13.5k score to my 4850 with a 14.4k score to CF mode with a 18k score.

If you want to compare BM's do it with vantage, at least that BM gives a better comparison of actual video hardware not overall system.

deathman20 said:

Congrats tahts a benchmark. Show game tests. Benchmarks are not the way to show the performance of the card, they are there to show off the number game. I could say the same thing with mine, 8800GT with a 13.5k score to my 4850 with a 14.4k score to CF mode with a 18k score.

If you want to compare BM's do it with vantage, at least that BM gives a better comparison of actual video hardware not overall system.

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Just to add to what he said I think the Vantage 'P' test is a little weak as well. To make more valid comparisons to actual gaming performance I recommend you run the 'H' or 'X' test.

deathman20 said:

Congrats tahts a benchmark. Show game tests. Benchmarks are not the way to show the performance of the card, they are there to show off the number game. I could say the same thing with mine, 8800GT with a 13.5k score to my 4850 with a 14.4k score to CF mode with a 18k score.

If you want to compare BM's do it with vantage, at least that BM gives a better comparison of actual video hardware not overall system.

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He clearly stated his scores for `reference` and you didn`t have to state yours if this isn`t a thing to brag about. Saying that you could do the same thing was sufficient. As for synthetic benchmarks, sadly they still mean alot to people. I remember when Tri-Sli GTX 280 score were out before its release and people were going crazy over it. In every other review thread here the first thing to post are the 3dmark scores, even people in signatures are showing off their numbers.

Like stated here before, its not worth the upgrade...if you plan to CF them, then thats another story. 4850 CF has impressed me by far more than any other ATI setup. Wait for the prices to go down, and grab a 4870 or GTX 260.

deathman20 said:

Congrats tahts a benchmark. Show game tests. Benchmarks are not the way to show the performance of the card, they are there to show off the number game. I could say the same thing with mine, 8800GT with a 13.5k score to my 4850 with a 14.4k score to CF mode with a 18k score.

If you want to compare BM's do it with vantage, at least that BM gives a better comparison of actual video hardware not overall system.

Click to expand...

is the 3dmark vantage also free? I thought it said one use only.

placenta said:

is the 3dmark vantage also free? I thought it said one use only.

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Not really sure never used the free version. While there is or at least though there was a way around this. More or less a pain in the butt, is to uninstall and reinstall. I forgot what the free version doesn't include but to conclude that the 4850 isn't much more powerful than a 8800GT using a more powerful card is silly from an 06 test

Sorry when I said it, came out wrong was a long day at work

necrokiller said:

He clearly stated his scores for `reference` and you didn`t have to state yours if this isn`t a thing to brag about. Saying that you could do the same thing was sufficient. As for synthetic benchmarks, sadly they still mean alot to people. I remember when Tri-Sli GTX 280 score were out before its release and people were going crazy over it. In every other review thread here the first thing to post are the 3dmark scores, even people in signatures are showing off their numbers.

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I know my score isnt to brag about, I know its roughly 1k points lower than it should be. But that doesn't mean I can't still use it. I put it out there because I bench as well, and if people want to know what these cards can do for there benching scores I'll glady post it. Its just the nature of things in the OC area, if you OC, and you got a score you'll share it. I've been benching for a while, more or less on the side here and there when I get new gear or reach a new speed, but my only GPU I could brag about for OCing goodness was my HD 1800XL that I had, which was for a long time sitting in 3rd place on HWBot, and I know its still up there for its scores somewhere.


Overall thought the 4870 is a very nice upgrade over a 8800GT, 4850 is right there but with OC included on the 4850 the performance gap will widen up nicely. But what will be holding the newer cards back at lower res's, think 1280x1024 and even some higher ones 1680x1050, is CPU power. While it might not be a lot, the CPU can make a difference between playable FPS and not with some games.

Crysis is a perfect example of me getting 5FPS+ more on a single card moving from 3Ghz to 4Ghz. While I know thats basically in the realm of impossible with a E6420, might be benificial if you haven't exhausted your options for OCing the CPU to get the most out of it. Even though yes even fi the CPU stays the same speed, you know if or when you upgrade the rest of the system and keep the card, you'll beable to get more benifits from it.

The basic version of vantage is 6.95...not exactly hard to cough up.

placenta said:

i say no also.

i just went from a 8800gt to a 4870 last night

Q6600 quad stock

3dmark06 just for reference

8800gt: 12115
hd4870: 12913

4850 just in general, not worth the $ to upgrade

Click to expand...

It's been said that the 4870 shines in games not 3dmark. If you want high high 3dmark scores get a pair of 2900pros/xts or 3870x2.

That's also kind of low for a Q6600 even at stock, what resolution did u run that test on?