Should I upgrade from a 4870 512 to a 4890?

[BroadbandGamer]

I think I need a little more horsepower. What do you guys think? I could probably get $100 for my 4870 so it would cost me that much to upgrade.

 

[error8]

I just upgraded from a 4870 512 to a 4870 1gb. And even if it sounds like a silly upgrade, the extra ram makes a lot of difference in some particular titles and I don't even have a large monitor. I had no idea how many games where vram limited before, on my old 4870. For example, Fallout 3 is totally smooth on the open areas with 8X AA. It used to stutter when I was playing it with 2X-4X AA before. GTA 4 seems smoother and I can increase the image quality settings now and even Prince of Persia, runs faster on 8X AA then it did with the old card at 4xAA.

I would say, that if you use lots of AA and 1920X1200 resolution, this upgrade really does pay off, big time, not because of the higher clocks 4890 has over 4870, but because of those extra 512mb of vram.

 

[Jacen]

Assuming you play at your native resolution and like your AA then it wouldn't be a bad option. If you can bear with it it may make sense to wait for next gen so you aren't feeling "behind" in a matter of a few months. The 4890 is solid and some places have them as low as $185.

 

[biostud]

if it's an 1gb 4870, then put in another for CF, otherwise I wouldn't do the upgrade.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: biostud
if it's an 1gb 4870, then put in another for CF, otherwise I wouldn't do the upgrade.

Topic Title: Should I upgrade from a 4870 512 to a 4890?

 

[nyker96]

maybe the 512 version to 4890. but not the 1gb version. however, I heard the difference is under 10% more like 7% compare to the 1gb version so you think you will notice a huge difference? and also if you play lower rez, your 512 might be good enough.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: nyker96
maybe the 512 version to 4890. but not the 1gb version. however, I heard the difference is under 10% more like 7% compare to the 1gb version so you think you will notice a huge difference? and also if you play lower rez, your 512 might be good enough.

you cant really define a jump from a 512mb card to a 1gb card in percentages. if a 512mb isnt cutting it then the game will stutter and hitch and at times will not be playable at those settings. the average overall fps advantage is irrelevant if it helps you play the games you want to play better at the settings you wish to use.

 

[Golgatha]

I'd get a 4850 X2 2GB and sell the 4870 512MB you already have if your case (and budget) can accommodate it. Now if you can get a 4890 for less than $200, it would probably be worth the upgrade IMO.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: toyota


you cant really define a jump from a 512mb card to a 1gb card in percentages. if a 512mb isnt cutting it then the game will stutter and hitch and at times will not be playable at those settings. the average overall fps advantage is irrelevant if it helps you play the games you want to play better at the settings you wish to use.

:thumbsup:

 

[BroadbandGamer]

Yeah, I think I'm getting stutter while playing WoW at 1920x1200 with max video settings. So I think the extra memory would help.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys!

 

[Pelu]

from a 4870 to a 285 will be a better deal....

 

[Kraeoss]

oddly my 8800GT cant handle nfs carbon @ high settings lol... lots of stutter and that's @ 1024*768 ? any suggestioons? ?

 

[TC91]

Grab a GTX 285 or even a GTX 275.

 

[cbn]

Originally posted by: BroadbandGamer
I think I need a little more horsepower. What do you guys think? I could probably get $100 for my 4870 so it would cost me that much to upgrade.

Why not just wait 6 months for the DX11 cards? Isn't that when HD58xx comes out?

Since that will be 40 nm I bet those will have at least 1280 SP and more likely 1600 stream processors right?

At the moment I am thinking HD4770 will be like the 4670 of the 40nm generation of ATI GPUs.

 

[MrK6]

Originally posted by: BroadbandGamer
I think I need a little more horsepower. What do you guys think? I could probably get $100 for my 4870 so it would cost me that much to upgrade.

Well, you might be able to get a little more for your 4870, lowest I see on newegg is $135 AR brand new. Also, this is a pretty sick deal for a 4890 - http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/...p?ProductCode=10010282

That said, it'll probably only cost ~$70 to upgrade. However, only really you can decide if it's worth and if your 4870 512MB isn't giving you the enjoyment out of your games you want. Personally, I'd just do it to tinker around with something new . I think it'll definitely give you a performance bump though, especially with twice the vRAM and if you get a card that can get to 1GHz when overclocking

 

[mauri]

I'm in the same boat as the OP. I've been so close of pulling the trigger more than once to get 4890 to replace my 4870 512. As all ready pointed out in this thread it's the extra 512 of VRAM that makes the biggest difference, since my problem is the occasional stuttering I get in certain games. the extra performance is just bonus in my eyes.

But then I changed my mind after reading this post/rumor/speculation in X-bit labs. Best case scenario is that there will be (hopefully) a bigger upgrade in just 3 months, worst case that it's going to be 6 months+.

But anyway i decided to wait and save the difference (I would have to pay around 100-140 euros to upgrade to 4890) to buy something better than 4890 later this year. I'm still itchy for 4890 but if ATI really pulls out the next chip in July, I couldn't justify the upgrade to 4890 now or later when the next lineups from ATI and Nvidia start to show up.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: mauri
I'm in the same boat as the OP. I've been so close of pulling the trigger more than once to get 4890 to replace my 4870 512. As all ready pointed out in this thread it's the extra 512 of VRAM that makes the biggest difference, since my problem is the occasional stuttering I get in certain games. the extra performance is just bonus in my eyes.

But then I changed my mind after reading this post/rumor/speculation in X-bit labs. Best case scenario is that there will be (hopefully) a bigger upgrade in just 3 months, worst case that it's going to be 6 months+.

But anyway i decided to wait and save the difference (I would have to pay around 100-140 euros to upgrade to 4890) to buy something better than 4890 later this year. I'm still itchy for 4890 but if ATI really pulls out the next chip in July, I couldn't justify the upgrade to 4890 now or later when the next lineups from ATI and Nvidia start to show up.

The thing is that if you upgrade to 4890 now, it will have more resale value when you'll be upgrading to a dx 11 card. So, it's about the same thing overall. But, if you are satisfied with your current performance level, then there isn't any sense in getting the 4890.

 

[mauri]

Originally posted by: error8

Originally posted by: mauri
I'm in the same boat as the OP. I've been so close of pulling the trigger more than once to get 4890 to replace my 4870 512. As all ready pointed out in this thread it's the extra 512 of VRAM that makes the biggest difference, since my problem is the occasional stuttering I get in certain games. the extra performance is just bonus in my eyes.

But then I changed my mind after reading this post/rumor/speculation in X-bit labs. Best case scenario is that there will be (hopefully) a bigger upgrade in just 3 months, worst case that it's going to be 6 months+.

But anyway i decided to wait and save the difference (I would have to pay around 100-140 euros to upgrade to 4890) to buy something better than 4890 later this year. I'm still itchy for 4890 but if ATI really pulls out the next chip in July, I couldn't justify the upgrade to 4890 now or later when the next lineups from ATI and Nvidia start to show up.

The thing is that if you upgrade to 4890 now, it will have more resale value when you'll be upgrading to a dx 11 card. So, it's about the same thing overall. But, if you are satisfied with your current performance level, then there isn't any sense in getting the 4890.

Yes, the resale value was the one thing that I was also thinking about. But the resale value of 4870 512 have tanked after the release of 4890 and i think it will be the same for for 4890 when ATI releases their next chip. I'm 80% satisfied with the performance of my 4870, but when the stuttering starts I find it extremely frustrating and annoying. I think 4870 should have been released with 1GB of VRAM in the beginning with.

but I'm going to do a bigger overhaul to my system in the end of the year, and at that point I really don't care about the resale value of my 4870 and most likely will keep it as a spare part anyways.

It's the current gaming I'm more worried about, not the resale value. I game around 20-30+ hours a week average playing various games and there a situations daily when the 4870 stutters or slows down (sometimes more, sometimes less and I guess it's because of lack of VRAM) even I game at 1600*1200. That is what I'm hoping to get rid of. Apart from stuttering and slowdowns the performance is fine in almost all cases.

EDIT:

error8, I see your point about the resale value, I just answered a bit aside the point. you might right that the difference between going from 4870 -> 5xxx might be roughly the same as going from 4870 -> 4890 -> 5xxx now. It's also depend if I end up getting a good price for my 4870 now.

 

[error8]

*deleted

 

[ajaidevsingh]

I say go for it i kinda downgraded from a 2x 4850 to a GTX 275 and the first card i got was a DOA had to RMA it... Waiting for the replacement have to say the 4890 really really impressed me a lot with its OC headroom. In India the GTX 275 costs around Rs.18k "$355" and 4890 around Rs.19k "$375". So all in all a $100 tax is there and spending $20 more on the extra OC headroom does not seem bad at all. Also the GTX 275 runs very hot at least the Palit one does non reference my arse. When i first bought the card it was surprised seeing the box which is originally for the GTS250 and not the GTX275 there is only one sticker that says that the box actually contains a GTX275.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I just upgraded from a 22" monitor (1680x1050) to a 25.5" (1980x1200) and have a 4870 512MB video card. I was a bit concerned that I'd be too underpowered, or more accurately under-video-memory'd, but so far I'm pretty suprised to see that everything I've tried runs very well in my opinion. On the 22" monitor I never noticed any real slow down, on the new monitor I do see a bit of skpping in AoC when I'm in a large open area with a lot going on. The frame rate jumps from a low of 25FPS from what I've seen so far. I have all setting maxed and 2xAA on.

So anyway, for me the 512MB hasn't been a real problem. I'm guessing if I had the 1GB version things would be smoother overall and it'd be hard to go back to a 512MB card, but I'm happy with it over all. I think I'll hold out for price drops and wait for some non-reference versions of the 4890 before I'd consider one, or wait for the real next gen cards and see what Nvidia and AMD have to offer than.

 

[Phew]

I did this exact upgrade. With my 512 MB 4870, I couldn't turn on AA in Crysis @1920x1200, with my 4890 1GB, I can run at 2xAA-4xAA and stay above 30 FPS most of the time. In fact, at 4xAA, the 4890 is about 50% faster than my old card.

Considering I think Crysis looks awful without AA, I never even bothered finishing it on my 4870 512MB. I'm currently on the Core level (the most graphically intense level I hear) with my 4890, and everything has run great so far.

This upgrade allowed me to play a game the way I wanted it to be played, so it was absolutely worth it.

 

[Tempered81]

Originally posted by: Phew
This upgrade allowed me to play a game the way I wanted it to be played, so it was absolutely worth it.

Sounds like an nVidia slogan, only done with a 4890. heheh.

 

[Phew]

Originally posted by: jaredpace

Sounds like an nVidia slogan, only done with a 4890. heheh.

Well, I wanted a GTX 285, but the dang things are $100+ more than the 4890 for basically equal performance.

 

[imported_Scoop]

If you make a question like this, money isn't obviously an issue so what's the problem? What are we supposed to tell you? What is it that you want to hear? 'Go for it'? It's an upgrade to your current GPU but I think you already knew that. It also costs you money but you seem willing to spend if we somehow convince you of it. Grow up and make up your own mind damn it

I'm just upping my postcount here.