Reasonable upgrade from a 4890?

[Bartokomus]

Hi there,

I've put together my new machine:

i5 2500k
GA-Z68XP-UD3
Seasonic 430W PSU
16gb GSKill Ripjaws
Intel 180GB SSD
WD 500gb
Monitor @ 1680x1050

I still have my Radeon 4890 and it's definitely long in the tooth; i've noticed in the last year that on my old C2D rig that the card runs the fan at high speed at all times and the card was running very hot. I would like to keep the replacement purchase under $250 and for it to give me a few years of service until another upgrade. I play the Total War series, Civ 5, Combat Mission, and a few FPS's (though i don't need a card purchased for the sole benefit of a FPS). I noticed that the 'Egg has this GTX 480:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130759

for $209 but i have had a hard time finding any detailed comparison between the 4890 and the 480 due to the age of the 4890. Would a GTX 480 serve me for a few years at the resolution above with high quality graphics settings? Does anyone have a recommendation/practical experience for this upgrade path with the hardware above?

thank you in advance.

 

[Powermoloch]

At that resolution. I can recommend the AMD HD 6870 at $100-120 or a 2GB HD 6950 just $30-40 more ($160-170 ~). Once you up the ante with the 480GTX, I would start thinking what kind of a PSU to provide enough juice for the rig as a whole (just to make ya sleep good at night lol).


Then again, the HD 6870 is the best choice since it's newer tech, use less juice, cheap and more than just enough for the res.

 

[YBS1]

That GTX480 will the best performing part you can get for that price, both the GTX 570 and Radeon 7850 will perform similar to the 480 for closer to the $250 mark you set. Those three are very close in performance depending upon the application.

 

[lopri]

Can't imagine a situation where 480 is reasonable, to be blunt. I wouldn't put one in my system if it came with $200.

 

[YBS1]

Once you up the ante with the 480GTX, I would start thinking what kind of a PSU to provide enough juice for the rig as a whole (just to make ya sleep good at night lol).

Yeah, didn't notice that PSU. Not sure about that and the 480. Officially a 600 watt with a minimum of 42 amps on the +12 volt rail is recommended.

 

[Powermoloch]

Yeah, didn't notice that PSU. Not sure about that and the 480. Officially a 600 watt with a minimum of 42 amps on the +12 volt rail is recommended.

Yup, the 480 GTX is a performer, but for the OP to take advantage of that...he'll need cough up extra cash (selling the PSU+4890) to cover a reliable PSU.

 

[YBS1]

Truth be told though, nothing we have recommended officially is supposed to be ran with anything less than a 500 watt minimum psu. It would probably be advisable for him to upgrade that regardless of what he does. You need at least a little bit of breathing room.

 

[YBS1]

Well...In terms of completely staying under your $250 limit, you could do that with that 480 and the Antec 620 watt psu listed below. It's 69.99 minus 15% using the coupon code on the page and has a $20 rebate. So, $249.48 for the psu and 480.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371031

There are probably some better deals on there for psu's, but I figured my best bet for finding an actual decent quality supply that was also rated for over 600 watts and near $50 was probably just searching Antec stock as they have an extensive catalog of products.

 

[AtenRa]

I wouldn't recommend the GTX480 unless you really want to have NVIDIA PhysX.

For $250 you can get the HD7850 and have the same or better performance (when OCed) than GTX480 with lower power consumption and without the need for a new PSU.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_7850_PCS_Plus/1.html

 

[YBS1]

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/7000/7850/Pages/radeon-7850.aspx#2

Not to say he couldn't chance it, but like I said above, nothing recommended so far according to spec should be ran with less than 500 watts. Officially though the 4890 recommends 500 watts as well so....Who knows, it is all new stuff for him though. I've never had a psu bite me but you hear stories.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

At least a 7850

 

[Dark Shroud]

I'm going to second a 7850. Specifically one of the OC models from MSI, Asus, or Sapphire.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102984
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127663
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121623

 

[bononos]

Hi there,

I've put together my new machine:

i5 2500k
GA-Z68XP-UD3
Seasonic 430W PSU
16gb GSKill Ripjaws
Intel 180GB SSD
WD 500gb
Monitor @ 1680x1050

.....
.....I noticed that the 'Egg has this GTX 480:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130759

for $209 but i have had a hard time finding any detailed comparison between the 4890 and the 480 due to the age of the 4890. Would a GTX 480 serve me for a few years at the resolution above with high quality graphics settings? Does anyone have a recommendation/practical experience for this upgrade path with the hardware above?

thank you in advance.

I'll be blunt because the others seem to be dithering about the psu requirements. The 480 will not work with your current psu, its a hot power hungry card. Better to get a $250(msrp before rebates etc) 7850 which you can use with your current psu.

 

[Bartokomus]

thanks all for your thoughts; i can return the psu if it's that much of a problem. with that not an issue, it looks like the 480 and the 7850 are the competitors, and from the graph of the games i play above the performance difference seems negligible.

thank you all again for your thoughts.

 

[Smartazz]

7850 with that power supply should work great. Seasonic makes great PSUs and the 7850 is very efficient if you don't overclock like crazy.

 

[jacktesterson]

7850

 

[lehtv]

+1 to 7850, it's the fastest card your PSU will take without the use of adapters, at least until GTX 660 comes along. And excellent bang for buck as well. Should be about twice as fast as 4890.

 

[Mars999]

return PS get a 600watt Corsair or Seasonic and that 480GTX

IMO

 

[RussianSensation]

I can't recommend GTX480 for $210. You can get a much quieter card in the HIS HD7850 for $230 with free Dirt Showdown that you can sell if you don't want it. HD7850 with a slight overclock should match an overclocked GTX480 minus the power consumption or noise levels. Also, HD7850 has 2GB of VRAM which is probably not that important for your resolution right now but given how long you have had your 4890, it might come into play later.

If you are going to spend $250, might as well step up a bit to the HD7950 for $320. The performance increase is very large.

You'll be playing ballpark with HD7970/GTX670 level of performance once that 7950 is overclocked to 1050mhz+:

In fact for games, HD7950 @ 7970 clocks is just 5% within a stock 7970.