[repilce]

Okay.. my ultra got wounded by me like an idiot.. so i'm gonna need a new card.. need to keep it sub to 200$ range.. wanna buy new so i have a warrenty and possibly step up.. or whatever "phrase" applies to the company.


I mainly game.. i dont do a whole lot of DX10 stuff. but i want it to be suited to play most things at aleast 16x12 very well for now and hold up till next year or better..

I play (currently)

TF2, ETQW(demo right now but like alot..),WoW(in winter) and some other source stuff, and GRID.

let the flames begin

[Shiggity]

ATI HD4850

/end thread

[dicko555]

Originally Posted by Shiggity

ATI HD4850

/end thread

Have to agree with that. Looks by far the best value for around the $200 from what I have seen.

[micamica1217]

I could not disagree more with the two above replys....

first off, it looks like you have an SLI mobo.
it also looks like you have a water cooled rig.

with the less then optimal cooling from the 4850, and the fact that you might not have the best air cooled case, getting the 4850 seems like the worst choice sofar.
add on top of that, that you have an SLI mobo, adding an ATI card is a dead end upgrade path.

why not look at the 9800GTX+ cards from EVGA, BFG, and XFX?
at $179.00 after MIR, you'll have a card just as good as the 4850.
it has far better cooling on the card.
great performance as well.
let's also not forget that you can always go SLI with a second card at a later time.

EVGA, BFG, and XFX, also have the best warentys and step up programs for video cards...all the ATI distributers can't say that.

mica

[necrokiller]

+1 for the 9800GTX+ for your setup.

[bda1967]

+1 for the 9800GTX+ with his mobo setup.

[moocow]

If you want two cards. Get a Diamond 4850. They have xDNA which allows them to run xfire on a SLI motherboard.

[Audioaficionado]

Originally Posted by micamica1217

I could not disagree more with the two above replys....

first off, it looks like you have an SLI mobo.
it also looks like you have a water cooled rig.

with the less then optimal cooling from the 4850, and the fact that you might not have the best air cooled case, getting the 4850 seems like the worst choice sofar.
add on top of that, that you have an SLI mobo, adding an ATI card is a dead end upgrade path.

why not look at the 9800GTX+ cards from EVGA, BFG, and XFX?
at $179.00 after MIR, you'll have a card just as good as the 4850.
it has far better cooling on the card.
great performance as well.
let's also not forget that you can always go SLI with a second card at a later time.

EVGA, BFG, and XFX, also have the best warentys and step up programs for video cards...all the ATI distributers can't say that.

mica

Originally Posted by necrokiller

+1 for the 9800GTX+ for your setup.

Originally Posted by bda1967

+1 for the 9800GTX+ with his mobo setup.

+4 for EVGA 9800GTX+

[glock19owner]

I am going to be the black sheep

I vote to check around and find a good 3870 X2...I was able to buy one for less the 200.00 last month and with the 4870 X2's out...the 3870 X2's will be dropping...

For around 300.00 you could easily find a 3870 X2 and a 3870 and run them in tri-fire...which will stomp any 4850 CF...

[HousERaT]

4850, especially if you like all the eye candy.

[repilce]

well something to consider.. i'm get'n different ram/mobo/proc and vid
not set on sli/xfire.. sellin mobo/ram/proc and WC setup for either nice core 2 or nilla quad setup..

[glock19owner]

3870 X2 would be just perfect for your new setup then ...

[micamica1217]

Originally Posted by moocow

If you want two cards. Get a Diamond 4850. They have xDNA which allows them to run xfire on a SLI motherboard.

big question.....WHY?

mica

[IWasHungry]

Since you said you wanted a good card distributor with good warranties, etc, your best choices are either a BFG 9800GTX+ or a Visiontek 4850. The 9800GTX+ is probably the better choice if you plan on going the multi-GPU route in the future and because you get the 100 day step-up, whereas the 4850 is better if you just want a single card and stick with it for a while.

Originally Posted by moocow

If you want two cards. Get a Diamond 4850. They have xDNA which allows them to run xfire on a SLI motherboard.

That has never been confirmed unless you can point us somewhere where it has been proven to work.

Originally Posted by micamica1217

big question.....WHY?

If it did work, why not? Stop being a blatant Nvidia fanboy.

[repilce]

Well, so far i'm looking at either an E7200 or e8500 i'm thinking (depending on new or classies ), and a p45 chipset.. not sure which board.. the 4850's came in packing nice performance, real nice for the $ and only going to go down.. like i said.. currently i game at 16x12, it will be next year before i get a wide screen.. so for now with what i play currently and with power consumption (starting to look @ that more since broke 500+W usage at wall with x2 windsor and 8800ultra) i think the 4850 is a good choice..

The only thing i'm wondering is how negligible the impact would be of going crossfire later with 8x8 setup vs the 16x16 of the x48's

[dicko555]

IWasHungry It is nice to have your non biased opinion here. I think i have to agree with your logic.
I have been an NVidea user ever since i can remember and am only just about to get my first ATI card as i think $ FOR $ they are the way to go at the moment.

[IWasHungry]

Originally Posted by repilce

The only thing i'm wondering is how negligible the impact would be of going crossfire later with 8x8 setup vs the 16x16 of the x48's

Brollocks made a good thread comparing chipsets: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=571156
In summary, 8x is good enough for current Crossfire cards, so P45 is sufficient.

[Essenar]

I'm going to make things fundamentally harder for you and I'm going to suggest you consider this decision DEEPLY:

I just got a 4850, and I can tell you a few things:
First, I love it. It's a great card, the frame-rates are great and I love being on ATI ship again. You have no idea. The last time I had an ATI card was an X800GTO2 softmodded to X850XT. That's a long time ago haha.

My gripes: The stock cooler is not only crap, but when you increase fan speed, it's loud as hell. The temps are fine and the card over-clocks really well, but the fan loudness sucks.

With a 9800GTX, you get a dual slot cooler and you don't have to create custom profiles for it to work.

Bad thing about the 9800GTX though is that it requires two PCI-Express connectors and it doesn't over-clock as well.

It's also about $30 more (To get a good brand. Zotac is not a very good brand compared to EVGA)

With that price difference you could easily get either an Akasa Vortexx like me, an Accelero S1 with a Yate Loon fan or a Thermaltake Duorb which will alleviate the cooling issues. They're supposedly better coolers than the stock 9800GTX cooler too.

I say, give it some thought. The 4850 can be a monster if you dedicate time to it. (Upgrade cooler, over-clock it and it'll compete with a GTX260)

The 9800GTX out of the box is a simpler and competitive solution. No custom profiles, just over-clock and be done with it. It just won't get AS fast.

[jokers_greg]

Originally Posted by micamica1217

I could not disagree more with the two above replys....

first off, it looks like you have an SLI mobo.
it also looks like you have a water cooled rig.

with the less then optimal cooling from the 4850, and the fact that you might not have the best air cooled case, getting the 4850 seems like the worst choice sofar.
add on top of that, that you have an SLI mobo, adding an ATI card is a dead end upgrade path.

why not look at the 9800GTX+ cards from EVGA, BFG, and XFX?
at $179.00 after MIR, you'll have a card just as good as the 4850.
it has far better cooling on the card.
great performance as well.
let's also not forget that you can always go SLI with a second card at a later time.

EVGA, BFG, and XFX, also have the best warentys and step up programs for video cards...all the ATI distributers can't say that.

mica

as a huge 4850 fan, I have to agree with these statements. In your case the GTX+ would be the best option, since you can get a 2nd in the future. Unless you move to a P or X chipset mobo, you're better off just staying with nvidia. The GTX+ is a great card.

Unless you love running games with lots of AA, you may want to consider a new motherboard too. The 4xxx series of ATi cards does extremely well with eyecandy like AA/AF cranked up.

@ guy with xDNA..Why would you run a couple of 4850s on an SLI board.... lol

[jokers_greg]

Originally Posted by IWasHungry

If it did work, why not? Stop being a blatant Nvidia fanboy.

No but really.. how does that make sense? If you have an nvidia board, and can get the GTX+'s which are just as good as the 4850's, why would you use xDNA? I just don't see how that makes sense. IF you wanna run Xfire, just go to an xfire chipset, but if you really want to just go dual GPUs... might as well run the technology that your motherboard is built for. And I'm sure many of you know, this isn't coming from a fanboy.