Jump to content

Video Card Upgrade


Kingfisher

Recommended Posts

OK, I am going to invest $100 in a new card and sell my current one.

Since I don't game @anything higher than my TV's native res I figured a 4850 or a 4830 would be the best selection.

It has to have native HDMI support so my choices are down to these:

 

Powercolor 4830

or

Powercolor 4850

 

According to our very own review of the 4830 it should come awful close to a 4850 when clocked higher.

I know we are only talking $40 difference between the two but in your expert opinion, is it even necessary to consider anything more than these two cards for my set-up? I may be getting a cheap quad(q8300, q9400) later on.

 

Assuming I can sell my 3870 for $50-$60 is it worth the upgrade to a 4830/4850?

I don't need anyone saying why don't you get nVidia 285 or 260, or a 4870 not interested thanks. My current resolution wouldnt need that kind of power and I am not planning a monitor/HDTV upgrade anytime soon.

 

Please only comment on these two cards I linked please. :thumbs-up:

Thanks.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

  • Replies 25
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

What is your TV's native resolution?

 

And choose the performance you want, HD 4830 overclocked can perform better than the HD4850, but an HD4850 can perform even better.

I would go for the HD4850

 

EDIT: just saw your native resolution. Now that I saw it, go for the HD 4830 instead ;)

Edited by Darkfuneral1337

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'd get whichever is the cheapest since both will serve all of your needs absolutely fine.

 

The sapphire 4830 ($101.64 and $91.64 with rebate) is the cheapest after rebate/tax/shipping, and then the cheapest 4850 after tax/shipping/rebate is also a Sapphire($155.14 and $140.14 after rebate). There is a HIS 4850 ($149.79 and $139.79 after rebate) that actually comes out cheaper after the rebate than the Sapphire by 35 cents but I like the Sapphire better.

 

Also here's a Visiontek 4850 on ebay for $125.00 final price (visiontek also has a lifetime warranty) The only downer with this is that it's the original reference cooler.

 

The bargain hunter has spoken!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

someone on here is selling the 4850 for $100. should buy it off of them.

 

but on the topic most benchmarks show anything under 1920x1200 the 4830 is side by side of the 4850. i guess 640steams is enough for any current game.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

someone on here is selling the 4850 for $100. should buy it off of them.

 

but on the topic most benchmarks show anything under 1920x1200 the 4830 is side by side of the 4850. i guess 640steams is enough for any current game.

ya ati really didn't do much with their tons of streams and it seems to be more of a selling point (unlike nvidia's bump from 192 to 216 which made the 260 go from weaker than a 4870 to slightly better). I really hope ATI/AMD can make better use of their hundreds of sp in the next generation, I think they will have more sp's too.

 

Good recommendation with the OCC member selling the 4850, worth looking into as well!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

i might buy that 3870 off of you, i'v been itching to flash a 3870 to a Firegl V7700

ooh cool I have always been interested in doing that. Though I've never had to do any 3d work that required quite that dedicated level of hardware/driver support but always wanted to try it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

yeah i guess it's iffy, either it works or you have a dead card. something about a "efuse" from what google has told me for the last hour of reading.

i think bios flashing can never truly ruin your card as long as you have a secondary one to use to reflash the old bios back on or are able to blindly flash the original bios back on.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

you all know I hate double posting but i had to say that there is a promotion code for $20 off the Sapphire 4850 making it much more worth while! i don't know how long it will last but it just came up on slickdeals.net so I thought I'd share!

code:EMCABCHAH

 

the new total after rebate would be $118.74!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...