ATI Radeon 4850x2

[jamello]

I am trying to build a computer for the first time and was considering the ATI radeon 4850x2.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102809



I would like to keep my old case a lian li
http://www.tomshardware.com/re...ower-round,821-36.html

Will this case be sufficient size for this video card? or should get a full tower?

Is this card overkill for me? I am an amatuer photographer and will use CS4 and vista 64 and maybe play some games.

thanks
James

 

[dguy6789]

The 4850x2 should fit in that case just fine. The card itself is really powerful, if you don't intend to play some serious games often, it would probably be a waste of cash and be extra heat and electricity usage. What kind of games do you intend to play? What kind of resolution do you want to play your games at? The Radeon HD4670 is a great card when it comes to performance vs power consumption at a low cost.

 

[jamello]

My buddy is trying to get me to play Wow which I dont think it requires a whole lot. Farcry and COD. Also, Diablo 3 whenever comes out.


But the main use of this build is for photoshop.

Is the resolution dependant on the monitor?

 

[stepone]

+1 for ATI 4850 512mb if you're looking to run at 1680*1050 resolution, but we need to know ALL of your PC's specs to be more precise inc your monitor size/native resolution.

 

[dguy6789]

The video card doesn't matter much at all for Photoshop, your video card choice is almost exclusively dictated by the games you intend to play and your monitor resolution. If you get an LCD, you will want to always run at its native resolution. 22" LCDs generally run at 1680x1050, 24" at 1920x1200, and 30" at 2560x1600. If you have a CRT, your resolution is flexible. If you intend to use an LCD, then your choice of monitor will impact which video card you should get.

Unfortunately, the latest expansion pack for Wow is pretty demanding on the video card. I assume you mean Farcry 2 and COD4 or 5, all of which like a pretty beefy video card. Diablo 3 isn't out yet but it's not terribly hard to make a decent guesstimate as to how demanding it will be.

With all of this considered, I'd say get a 4850x2 2GB(do not get the 1GB version) if you intend to get a 24" or larger LCD. A 4870 512MB or 1GB or a 4850 512MB are solid choices for a 22" or smaller monitor that runs at 1680x1050 or less. These will definitely let you play all of the games you listed just fine.

 

[Raider1284]

Originally posted by: dguy6789

With all of this considered, I'd say get a 4850x2 2GB(do not get the 1GB version) if you intend to get a 24" or larger LCD.

care to back this up? From all the reviews I have seen the difference is a few fps at the most.. completely worthless since there is ~$50 price difference between the 1gig and 2gig versions.

 

[dguy6789]

Originally posted by: Raider1284

Originally posted by: dguy6789

With all of this considered, I'd say get a 4850x2 2GB(do not get the 1GB version) if you intend to get a 24" or larger LCD.

care to back this up? From all the reviews I have seen the difference is a few fps at the most.. completely worthless since there is ~$50 price difference between the 1gig and 2gig versions.

4850 X2 in this is 2GB, the 4850 Crossfire is two 512MB cards:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517&p=9

56FPS vs 19.1FPS at 2560x1600 4xAA/16xAF

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517&p=10

35.2FPS vs 11.2FPS at 2560x1600 4xAA

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517&p=12

70.7FPS vs 6.8FPS at 2560x1600 4xAA

 

[geoffry]

Originally posted by: dguy6789

Originally posted by: Raider1284

Originally posted by: dguy6789

With all of this considered, I'd say get a 4850x2 2GB(do not get the 1GB version) if you intend to get a 24" or larger LCD.

care to back this up? From all the reviews I have seen the difference is a few fps at the most.. completely worthless since there is ~$50 price difference between the 1gig and 2gig versions.

4850 X2 in this is 2GB, the 4850 Crossfire is two 512MB cards:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517&p=9

56FPS vs 19.1FPS at 2560x1600 4xAA/16xAF

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517&p=10

35.2FPS vs 11.2FPS at 2560x1600 4xAA

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517&p=12

70.7FPS vs 6.8FPS at 2560x1600 4xAA

He is not playing at that resolution though.

 

[jamello]

The build so far

1 x intel i7 2.66 ghz $ 288.99

1 x ASUS P6T deluxe V2 1366 intel Atx $289.99

Sapphire radeon HD 4850 X2 2Gb 512 bit GDDR3 $299.99

OZC gold 6 GB (3 x 2GB) 240 pin DDR3 1600 $114.99



WD Raptor 74 GB 10000rpm $99.99

WD black caviar 1TB 7200 RPM $119.99

LG 22x dvd burner $ 22.99

Vista home premium $99.99


Not sure on power supply or Monitor yet.

Probably over 24"
1920 x 1200


Everyone has been recommending IPS monitors if you do photo editing. But as I found out they are expensive, So i might have to wait on a monitor for a little while.

 

[speedfreak]

better get a higher wattage psu so you wont be having problems when it comes to overclocking.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Processing power, disk speed and RAM are far more important than the video card for Photoshop. A 9600GT or 4850 would be completely sufficient. A 4850x2 would be a complete waste unless you did plan to do some gaming; in which case it's a fantastic choice.

If you're going to use Photoshop CS4, get a NVidia card instead. You can use the Nvidia GPU to accelerate heavy Photoshop modifications through NVidia's CUDA support, which is in CS4. In such a case, a 260 216 is the card I'd be getting.

 

[Schmide]

My opinion for CS4. Drop the raptor, get 3 1gb drives raid 2 of them as a work disk.

2nd the CUDA card. Sad that ATI hasn't kept up.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Ditch that 74GB Raptor unless you're actually planning to use it for multi-user tasks (such as a file server where it will actually be hit frequently), the 1TB Caviar Black should actually be faster for single user tasks and even be more efficient (power/noise) on top of that...if you want a second drive just double up the caviar black.

also, ditch the 4850x2, it just isn't efficient enough unless you're buying it specifically for a certain game you're really extremely into and it happens to perform really well for that game - you could otherwise easily shave off another $100-200 by going with a single GPU alternative.

Even a single 4850 would be overkill for WoW and most likely a perfect fit for Diablo 3 based on Blizzard's standards (although that game is most likely a long ways off yet). As far as Far Cry and COD, I hope you're talking about Far Cry 2 and COD4 and/or WaW, otherwise you don't need anything significant in terms of the GPU.

 

[SSChevy2001]

Originally posted by: Schmide
2nd the CUDA card. Sad that ATI hasn't kept up.

Last I heard Photoshop GPU support work with Nvidia and ATi cards.
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservic...lId=kb404898#supported

Also Cyberlink PowerDirector 7 also supports ATi stream.
http://www.cyberlink.com/multi.../item_4_6_3_en_US.html

 

[dguy6789]

I recommend getting a 64 bit version of Vista, and if possible, get 12GB of ram. Photoshop CS4 64 bit is fully capable of using tons and tons of memory if you set it to. You really don't even need a fancy hard drive set up if you have all that memory.

 

[jamello]

Originally posted by: speedfreak
better get a higher wattage psu so you wont be having problems when it comes to overclocking.

I am looking at a 750w Corsair or thermaltake

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles
Ditch that 74GB Raptor unless you're actually planning to use it for multi-user tasks (such as a file server where it will actually be hit frequently), the 1TB Caviar Black should actually be faster for single user tasks and even be more efficient (power/noise) on top of that...if you want a second drive just double up the caviar black.

I thought the 74gb would be faster. I would only use it for OS and Apps

Even a single 4850 would be overkill for WoW and most likely a perfect fit for Diablo 3 based on Blizzard's standards (although that game is most likely a long ways off yet). As far as Far Cry and COD, I hope you're talking about Far Cry 2 and COD4 and/or WaW, otherwise you don't need anything significant in terms of the GPU.

Yeah Waw and Far cry2

Originally posted by: dguy6789
I recommend getting a 64 bit version of Vista, and if possible, get 12GB of ram. Photoshop CS4 64 bit is fully capable of using tons and tons of memory if you set it to. You really don't even need a fancy hard drive set up if you have all that memory.

I originally had 12gb RAM for this build but I was told in another topic post that 12gb RAm would be overkill for me. I have canon xti and do amateur photos and editing. I do a lot of slide shows and would like to explore Adobe Premiere Pro.

Also it will be 64bit vista.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Originally posted by: Schmide
My opinion for CS4. Drop the raptor, get 3 1gb drives raid 2 of them as a work disk.

2nd the CUDA card. Sad that ATI hasn't kept up.

1 GB drives... heh...

Originally posted by: dguy6789
I recommend getting a 64 bit version of Vista, and if possible, get 12GB of ram. Photoshop CS4 64 bit is fully capable of using tons and tons of memory if you set it to. You really don't even need a fancy hard drive set up if you have all that memory.

+1

Originally posted by: jamello

I originally had 12gb RAM for this build but I was told in another topic post that 12gb RAm would be overkill for me. I have canon xti and do amateur photos and editing. I do a lot of slide shows and would like to explore Adobe Premiere Pro.

Also it will be 64bit vista.

12 GB should enable you to run Photoshop's swap directory in RAM. If so, combining that with CS4's CUDA support means you'd basically have a SCREAMING pro-caliber Photoshop rig. 6 Gig... eh, not so much.

I remember when Macintosh users would boast about how Photoshop was such a superior application for them... not anymore...

 

[jamello]

I will drop the raptor for another TB and get 12GB RAM.
Do I need a sound card?

 

[TidusZ]

Originally posted by: geoffry

Originally posted by: dguy6789

Originally posted by: Raider1284

Originally posted by: dguy6789

With all of this considered, I'd say get a 4850x2 2GB(do not get the 1GB version) if you intend to get a 24" or larger LCD.

care to back this up? From all the reviews I have seen the difference is a few fps at the most.. completely worthless since there is ~$50 price difference between the 1gig and 2gig versions.

4850 X2 in this is 2GB, the 4850 Crossfire is two 512MB cards:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517&p=9

56FPS vs 19.1FPS at 2560x1600 4xAA/16xAF

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517&p=10

35.2FPS vs 11.2FPS at 2560x1600 4xAA

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517&p=12

70.7FPS vs 6.8FPS at 2560x1600 4xAA

He is not playing at that resolution though.

Those results all show no speed difference at 1680x1050 and 1920x1200, and large differences at 2560x1600 with max settings and aa. If anything I think they show that the x2 isn't a good match for him and his 22" monitor.

You don't need a soundcard, onboard sound is plenty good enough.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Originally posted by: jamello
I will drop the raptor for another TB and get 12GB RAM.
Do I need a sound card?

I'm pretty sure your mobo has a perfectly good one. I'm too lazy to check myself.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: TidusZ

You don't need a soundcard, onboard sound is plenty good enough.

It really depends of your speakers and what you do with your computer. I have a pretty crappy 5.1 system from Hercules, 90W, but I'm able to make a difference between onboard sound, which is quite good on this mobo from what I've heard and ( I'm not kidding) my Audigy SE.

In my opinion, if you like to listen to music and play games on a good 5.1 sound system, the onboard will just not cut it. You need a good Asus Xonar or some X-fi sound card at least.

If the OP has the money to throw on 12 gb of ddr3, then he must get a sound card as well.