Passively cooled 4850?

[Proteusza]

I'm thinking of upgrading my GPU. I have an 8800GTS 640MB, and am thinking about either the 4850 or a 9800GTX+.

The thing is.... I'd like to get a 4850 because on average it seems to be slightly faster, but I'm worried about its heat output. For this reason, I'd like to avoid using the stock cooler, which, although quiet, does a terrible job of dealing with the card's heat (so I hear from reviews).

Now, Gigabyte has recently released its passively cooled 4850 with 1GB of memory. It uses the same cooler that they recently used on the Nvidia 9600GT. I cant find any reviews of it - does anyone have it?

Also, does anyone think that a passively cooled 4850 sounds like a bad idea in general? My case is a CoolerMaster Wavemaster, it has 2 80mm fans in the front, just in front of my HDDs, and 1 80mm fan at the back, behind the CPU (ie just below the PSU, normal position). I was thinking of maybe adding a fan either to the passively cooled Gigabyte card, or at the bottom of the case, blowing air upwards towards it. They say passive cooling solutions like that work better with negative case pressure, ie with more outtake fans thatn intake fans. Thats not an option for me unfortunately, unless I disable one of my intake fans.

Just to clarify, I dont especially want passive cooling and nothing else. I just want something that does the job better than the stock 4850 cooler. There is the IceQ4 by HIS that is a dual slot cooler, that would be fine, except that its a little harder to get hold of in the UK, and by the time I buy (next month probably), its price will probably have risen (the only shop that has it in the UK has it at about a £10 discount). The other thing is that, since 4850 prices start at £115 here in the UK, the Gigabyte for £135 is not a bad deal. I'm under no illusions that the 1GB memory will massively increase performance, but it cant hurt.

I am thinking about buying an Arctic Accelero S1 R2, but I'm not so keen on modding my 4850. Just for reasons like warranty and the high probability that I will screw it up and waste about £130.

The other option that I mentioned, the 9800GTX+, may not be quite as fast, but it does have a better stock cooler and does support Physx (not that any games I play use it).

Any advice?

TIA

 

[error8]

1 gb of memory on 4850 doesn't add any performance over the normal 512 mb card. Only just a couple of frames per second at more then 1920X1200.

The passive cooler sounds like a very bad idea. Transferring 110W with a passive heatsink seems unreal on a video card. I think it can hit 100 C easy, even in a well ventilated case like yours. I would just get a normal 4850, if the IceQ4 it's hard to find and pay the rest of the money on an S1 cooler. That will give you the best performance since you'll be able to overclock the card better, keeping it extremely cool and quiet at the same time .

 

[Proteusza]

Thanks.

Yeah, I didnt expect the 1GB of memory to do anything. I just mentioned it because extra memory cant hurt performance (except if it is higher latency memory substituted in place of less but better quality memory).

I'm actually thinking about not upgrading my graphics card anyway. To be honest, the only game that my computer struggles with is Crysis, which I dont even enjoy anymore (never even finished it). I play at 1680x1050, mostly medium, some high settings. The good things about upgrading now are that any future games will run better, and that I might be able to get something like £70 for my card. The downside is that I wont benefit from an upgrade as much as if I waited for ATI/Nvidia to release the next batch, but if I do that my card will have next to no resale value (I would probably be able to get £30 to £50 for it).

I guess I dont like being stuck with old kit I cant sell, so maybe I will upgrade now. If reviews of the passively cooled Gigabyte card show it to cool well, then I'll consider that. If not, I'll either pick up a standard 4850 and mod it with an Accelero or just buy an IceQ4 card. I'm leaning toward the IceQ4 card. Oh, or I could just get a standard 9800GTX+.

Oh, it is possible to run the 4850 passively: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com...cs-card-review-24.html

 

[MarcVenice]

I'm holding of with upgrading, and I have a 8800gts 320mb and play at 1680*1050. I searched the internet, and many benchmarks seem to agree, the HD4850 isn't THAT much faster then a 8800gts 320mb, so I don't feel that it's worth junking my 280 euro 8800gts 320mb, and buying a 135 euro HD4850. If I were you, and the only game your card struggles with is Crysis, then just keep your 8800gts 640mb.

 

[MadAd]

All i know is that the 4850 is insanely HOT, i thought it was joking when i saw a little touch warning sticker on the HS so of course I had to try touching it when it was running....owwwwchhhh Hothothot. Damn fine card in all other respects tho.

Passive cooling is one thing but that still leaves the need to dump that heat out of the case, its given my previously silent box conniption fits since fitting it which is why im going with a vortexx neo, rather than the accellero. Dont get me wrong, the accelero looks a great cooler, just doesnt exhaust it out of the back.

 

[nevbie]

In your situation I would stay with the 8800GTS with no doubt.. don't waste money, work and time for such a tiny improvement.

4850 is ideal with S1 + slow fan. I have 4850+S1 and little airflow (less than typical "passive" however), 50C idle/80C load, which seems to be among the worst results, but I'll reseat/mod it more later. 44C now when idling with cooler room temperatures and 160/500 underclock.

 

[Proteusza]

Thanks for the advice. Looking at another thread, I thought of something else.

What if I were to upgrade my mobo and CPU to a quad core? Either Intel or AMD (price vs performance would determine which).

Wouldnt going from a Athlon X2 5600+ to either a Q6600 or a 9850/9950 give me a bigger boost than a new GPU?

More expensive unfortunately, and I'd also need to find something to do with my old kit. My brother is looking for a new PC though...

 

[betasub]

Originally posted by: Proteusza
Wouldnt going from a Athlon X2 5600+ to either a Q6600 or a 9850/9950 give me a bigger boost than a new GPU?

A bigger boost for what? Playing Crysis? You didn't mention your screen res, but you probably should go back to considering a GPU upgrade first, then CPU/mobo later.

 

[Proteusza]

Its in one of the previous posts, but anyway its 1680x1050 on a 22inch.

Meh, I'll think about upgrading the GPU next month, then I'll probably wait for Nehalem and Shanghai to come out. I bought this 5600+ stupidly thinking I would be able to upgrade to a Phenom when they came out, as AMD promised I would be able to. Of course, I didnt read the fine print - that individual mobo manufacturers can decide whether or not to add support for AM2+ cpus for their mobos. Had I bought the Asus, I would have been fine, but no, I bought the MSI. Nforce 570 SLI chipset btw.

Anyway, long story short I thought about buying an AM2+ board because AM3 chips should be compatible, but I think being burned once is enough for me.

 

[ComputerDude67]

I upgraded from a EVGA 8800GTS 640 96SP to a 4850 Toxic and it blows the 8800 out of the water. From the benchmarks I have done and game play it is about 50% faster. Also I played Crysis with my old card at 1280*1024 no AA all High settings and it sucked. On my 4850 I can play at 1680*1050 w 2AA and all Very High and while there is slow down it run pretty fast and has made Crysis very enjoyable. The 4850 Toxic runs default at 675\2200 and has a Zalman 900CU cooler.

 

[octopus41092]

I put an Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 on it and it does great. With passive it does the job fine as long as you don't OC. If you strap a 120mm fan to it, it does wonders. Keeps it at around 40C when overclocked at 700MHz.

 

[coolpurplefan]

Look at the Zalman VF1000 reviews on newegg.

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: nevbie
In your situation I would stay with the 8800GTS with no doubt.. don't waste money, work and time for such a tiny improvement.

I think going from the 640mb GTS to the 4850 is more than a "tiny improvement". Even going from the 640mb GTS I had previously to my current 8800GT 512 gave a noticeable performance improvement. And the 4850 is faster than the GT.

 

[gramboh]

I honestly wouldn't bother upgrading unless it was to at least a 4870. I went from an 8800GTS 640 at 610-1900 to this GTX280 OC'd. It was a big improvment for sure but not earth shattering. Slightly under double FPS. Unless you are going to OC the 4850/GTX+ really hard I'd wait for the next NV refresh to come out and push prices down on the 4870/GTX280.

 

[Denithor]

At 1680x1050 there's not much reason to go above a 4850. Find one with aftermarket cooling that fits your budget and you're gtg.

And upgrading to quadcore won't make much difference in most games.

But you should sell your rig to your brother then build a faster dualcore (e8400 FTW) system instead if that's seriously an option.

 

[Proteusza]

Yeah, I could really use a faster CPU I think. My current one is holding my graphics card back.

I might upgrade my graphics card next month, then upgrade mobo and CPU end of this year or January. Think I may as well wait for both Nehalem and Shanghai to come out and see which is better.