We are discussing the OP's card, not HD4550/4650. If you want to argue how you are upset there is little W10 support for HD4000 cards, you so far provided 0, and I mean 0 rebuttal why Kepler bombs compared to GCN. So in essence you are criticizing AMD for not supporting an ancient 6-7 year old GPU but not saying a word about how more modern NV architecture got destroyed in modern games in the last 12 months? That's the whole point here that you are not seeing how both companies made their decisions on which cards to support based on priorities. AMD prioritized much better in this regard because it provided better driver support for cards made since December 2011 than NV did.
I guess you never took economics or finance in college/university? If a more modern videocard provides more features, long-term driver support and pays for itself with idle electricity alone over the useful life of the OP's Windows 10 installation, it's better to upgrade, period. Not upgrading is a worse decision long-term. This is a pure finance/capital budgeting decision.
Ok no offense but you aren't making sense at this point if you keep ignoring this point because his GPU will use 75W of power at idle every hour and my math already shows that even with 2 hours of basic use, any $50 modern card is a "free" upgrade in 5 years. Not to mention, a GTX750 will beat his HD4870 in gaming too, provide 5-6 years of driver support too. If the OP uses his card for more than 2 hours a day, the newer GTX750 will pay for itself even quicker. Considering the OP used his HD4870 for so long, it sounds like upgrading is the best decision.
Another point you ignored - GeForce 8, 9 or 200 or 300 or 405 are all obsolete driver-wise April 1, 2016 anyway since NV will drop official support for all of these series. You aren't considering things in the proper context by totally ignoring the idle power usage of OP's card. Not to mention you also ignored the entire history of HD4800 series vs. NV cards by focusing only on what's happening in 2015 with Windows 10. That's not how people bought GPUs in 2008-2009. Like I already said, the OP probably got a great deal on his HD4870 vs. anything NV had at the time so he should be more than satisfied that this card even lasted that long considering an NV alternative cost $100 more and was slower. All you are doing is using hindsight 20-20 to bash AMD here while not at all penalizing NV for much higher prices during GTX200 generation, worse perf/watt, worse features for HTPC and for anyone who has used HD4800 vs. GTX200 series in an objective matter inferior NV 2D IQ for that generation.
You also continue to be ignorant to the fact that during HD4870 era, Tesla couldn't pass multi-channel sound via HDMI to a receiver which means your bashing of HD4800 AMD drivers for W10 is absurd because had the OP gone NV back then he would have compromised on his HTPC usage, while paying more for a GTX260! Notice how in none of your posts in this thread you discuss the pros and cons of choosing AMD vs. NV during that generation? Cuz you are thinking in a vacuum aka hindsight 20-20.
What matters is the OP's situation, not your laptop or my laptop or my desktop or your desktop. Fact is if he continues using his HD4870, it costs him $ in power usage and he would be better off getting a budget card like the $50 GTX750 I linked regardless if GeForce 8/9/200 or anything has support until April 1, 2016. Why? Because of economic reasons, getting another 5+ years of guaranteed driver support and more modern features like a much updated video decoder, etc. - that's why it's really irrelevant if 8400GS or 9800GTX+ or GTX260 will have driver support until April 1, 2016 cuz it's not helping the OP.
You are making a mountain out of a mole hill how HD4800 series doesn't have proper drivers in Windows 10 but ignoring the very fact that it's better for the OP to upgrade regardless if he had NV or AMD because anything he bought on the desktop that was equivalent to HD4870 for gaming back then used a lot of power in idle anyway. In addition to that, a card like a GTX750 would allow the OP to stream multiple 4K videos if he wanted to while something like an HD4870 would choke doing that with a slow CPU.
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