From 8800gts 320mb to HD4850

[MarcVenice]

The HD4850 sells for 140 euro's in Holland. I bet I can sell my 8800gts 320mb for 50-75 euro's to my dad, with some luck. Or I can sell it on the internet for 50 euro's, meaning the HD4850 costs me 100 euro's.

So what do you think? Go for it? The HD4870 will be around 210 euro's, so that's kinda to much for me. I'd LOVE to see some benchmarks DIRECTLY between the HD4850 and the 8800gts 320mb at 1680*1050, that should convince me, to either go ahead, or not.

I play a LOT of games, right now AoC is killing my rig ( x2 3800+ @ 2.6ghz and 2gb of ram ) but other games could use a little boost as well. Often I find myself turning down a few settings to run at 1680*1050. I just need to be reassured that my 100 euro's will be well spend. I paid 280 euro's for my 8800gts 12 months ago, so it kind of hurts me that I will have to sell it for 50-75 euro's. And back then I also sold a 140 euro videocard for 40 euro's. Big losses

 

[Magusigne]

Hi again Marc!

Sorry to burst your bubble, but using an 8800GTS playing at those resolutions with the rig in the sig (which is pretty decent) still kills my video card...and I'm upgrading to the 4870 soon.

This I think is because AoC has horrible video coding at moment..even 9800gx2's are having issues of course. 4850=9800GTX for the most part So I'm sure that money was well spent..the g80 version of the 8800GTS's are old tech

 

[badnewcastle]

After jumping on the 8800GT when it came out, I think I can speak from experience when I say just wait and see what Nvidia releases in competition for the 4870.

I don't feel like it was a mistake in buying the 8800GT but what I did notice was the price dropping. The 4870 will likely drop soon and who knows, by then maybe Nv team will have a less expensive equally performing card or ATI could do the same.

The lesson I learned was wait for a card to be out for a couple of months before buying.

 

[Magusigne]

Well I think 4850 then is a good upgrade.

Nvidia is going to respond by dropping gt260 and gtx280 methinks

 

[Rhino2]

Waiting a couple of months after a card is released isn't a bad policy, but the 4800 series is already such a huge price/performance winner that even if the prices do settle a little bit in a couple of months, it won't invalidate the deal that they are right now.

And with the size and production costs of the GTX200 cards, and the apparently upcoming SuperRV770s, I don't know if nVidia will be able to drop prices enough on them to make them the more logical purchase. This round has goes squarely to the red team, and I'm thankful for it, keeping high-performance GPUs under $400 makes me a happy camper.

 

[JimiP]

I voted for waiting a little while longer. The HD4850 is a great card for the money and buying it now would not be a mistake. However, as others have said, waiting only a little longer could bring you an even greater deal. Whether the prices go down on the 4850/4870 or NVIDIA drops prices on their GPU's, waiting is a good game.

 

[Magusigne]

Waiting is also a losers game too
(at least thats what impulsive people like to tell themselves) you could keep waiting forever. I also voted to wait it out a little though. I don't think ATI will need to drop there prices, I think the new nvidia's will come down to 100 off there current prices.

 

[taltamir]

i don't think it is a big enough improvement from what you have to the 4850 (or the 9800GTX+).
I'd go with a 4870 or something better in the future. Otherwise it is a rather expensive upgrade for a relatively small performance increase.

 

[Piano Man]

I have the same setup. 8800 GTS 320 and a 22" at 1680x1050, and I am definitely going to buy the 4850, but not until a 3rd party cooler comes out that outputs air directly out the back of the case.

 

[sthaznpride17]

I have the same setup also, 320MB with the same res monitor and I just bought an Asus HD4850 yesterday. It is 165 shipped on Newegg which imo is a killer deal. In my case I was unwilling to spend more than 200 anyways, and the 260 isn't going to drop to 200 or below for a very long time so it made sense for me to go for the 4850.

 

[MarcVenice]

Heh, 9 votes say yes, 8 say wait a little longer. There's two things pulling at me, first of all, the 8800gts 320mb isn't exactly a shitty videocard, it still runs most games pretty well. Then again, if the HD4850 doesn't come down in price, I could be enjoying it right now, instead of over a couple of months. The fact that I don't know the exact performance increase between a 8800gts 320mb and a HD4850 makes this difficult.

Sthaznpride17, you wouldn't perhaps be able to run a few benchmarks, would you? Crysis, CoD4, GRID, Age of Conan, BioShock, World in Conflict, The Witcher, Gears of War, or any other games you might own ?

 

[Sentry2]

With everything maxed in AoC @ 1920x1080 8x MSAA 16x AF:

50's to sometimes over 100fps outside towns...

40's to 60's is usually the norm in towns...sometimes it drops in the low 30's


This is with 2 4850's in crossfire. I also tested one card and it's pretty close to half of the above numbers. CF scaling is actually quite good in this bugged game...and that's with beta drivers. 80 to 100% scaling seems to be the norm for me in AoC.

 

[Sylvanas]

No reason not to get a 4850 now, they are the best deal going round and will be for a while.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: badnewcastle
After jumping on the 8800GT when it came out, I think I can speak from experience when I say just wait and see what Nvidia releases in competition for the 4870.

nVidia JUST released the GTX260 which is consistently outpaced by the 4870, and it has an MSRP $100 higher...

Forced price drops seem inevitable, and expected die shrinks might help prices truly match or even trump, but there's little chance of nVidia offering a superior performing part for the same price of a 4870.

nVidia has shown all there cards and right now AMD's 4870 is simply unbeatable in its niche as the only way nVidia can compete with the 4870 is if they're willing to jeopardize some of their own products.

 

[RallyMaster]

Unless you're coming from a GeForce 6 like I am, there's no reason to upgrade from an 8800GTS in my opinion. Wait a bit longer then upgrade to something even better. I can't wait though...because I've been lagging in games at 800x600 for two years already.

 

[sthaznpride17]

Mine is still in the mail, but once I get it I will post some quick benches.

 

[Munky]

The g80 gts is roughly on par with the 9600gt in performance, and that's assuming it doesn't take a nosedive from a lack of VRAM with 320MB. The 4850 is about 50% faster than a 9600gt, so you'd be looking at a 50% improvement or more. I'm not sure why anyone would wait for a better alternative considering how much performance you get for $200 these days, but anyone waiting for NV to pull a rabbit of the hat will probably be sitting for at least 3 months without a new card before something happens.

 

[dingetje]

don't buy the 4850 with a standardcooler.....wait for the 4850's with better cooling

 

[geoffry]

Originally posted by: dingetje
don't buy the 4850 with a standardcooler.....wait for the 4850's with better cooling

This is my thinking too.

I have a GTS 320 and play at 12X10, I was debating between the 4850 or the 4870 but realized the upgraded 4850s are coming out next week so I'll wait and see how those do, then I'll decide.

 

[themisfit610]

Yeah - the GTS320 is pretty damn slow compared to the 4850. They're so cheap, I think it's a no-brainer to encode.

Sounds like people are concerned with the cooling solution... I wonder why, exactly? Don't you folks have exhaust case fans?

~MiSfit

 

[geoffry]

Originally posted by: themisfit610
Yeah - the GTS320 is pretty damn slow compared to the 4850. They're so cheap, I think it's a no-brainer to encode.

Sounds like people are concerned with the cooling solution... I wonder why, exactly? Don't you folks have exhaust case fans?

~MiSfit

I don't really care about the dual slot cooler either, as the 4870 can't overclock the core much either.

With my small resolution and the OP's, the 4870 is probably overkill for awhile and a slightly upgraded 4850 for a smidge extra might be the sweet spot for both of us.

 

[tallman45]

Originally posted by: dingetje
don't buy the 4850 with a standardcooler.....wait for the 4850's with better cooling

Or just get one of these

Accelero

Add any 120mm fan of your choice and you are in business

 

[geoffry]

Originally posted by: tallman45

Originally posted by: dingetje
don't buy the 4850 with a standardcooler.....wait for the 4850's with better cooling

Or just get one of these

Accelero

Add any 120mm fan of your choice and you are in business

How easy is it to replace the stock cooler? I've always run aftermarket CPU cooling but never made the jump on my vid cards.

The replacing of all the ram heat sinks and the need for tools makes me iffy, lol. How long would the whole process take?

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: geoffry

Originally posted by: tallman45

Originally posted by: dingetje
don't buy the 4850 with a standardcooler.....wait for the 4850's with better cooling

Or just get one of these

Accelero

Add any 120mm fan of your choice and you are in business

How easy is it to replace the stock cooler? I've always run aftermarket CPU cooling but never made the jump on my vid cards.

The replacing of all the ram heat sinks and the need for tools makes me iffy, lol. How long would the whole process take?

You could replace the heatsink and slap some ramsinks on their in about 1hr if its your first time and you take things slow. Once you feel more comfortable messing around with aftermarket coolers it'll probably take you 20-30 minutes. Well worth the effort IMO, especially if you plan on keeping the card for a long while.

 

[themisfit610]

It's really easy. I did it on my 7800gt, it's like a 15-20 minute job.