Upgrade from HD4890

[Von Ribbentrop]

My system is a little long in the tooth but up till now I've had no problems. I'm not a heavy gamer but I recently started playing Shogun and the battle scenes become choppy in large battles, which is very annoying. Looks like the HD7850 2GB is the current sweet spot but I think it might be over kill. Would a 6850/6870/6950 a better match? I'm probably 18-24 months until I build a new system.

Thanks for your input,
Scott

 

[Termie]

Do you have a budget in mind? Given that you have a card very close in performance to an HD7770, you're going to want a decent step up from that, and an HD7850 is a good bet, but it's not the only card to consider. The GTX650 Ti Boost and GTX660 come to mind, as well as the HD7870 when you can catch a hot deal on one.

The three other cards you mentioned are quite outdated and for the most part aren't available any more, so I wouldn't consider them.

 

[Headfoot]

If you are going to be doing a full system upgrade later, you can buy a graphics card that might be bottlenecked by your current system (since you can carry the graphics over). In this case, you won't have an "overkill" graphics card as the 920 is still a very competent CPU. You have to have a seriously underpowered (think cub 3 ghz C2D) desktop CPU for graphics to be overkill. As shown here on Anandtech, CPU bottleneck is very hard to get to and you need a ton of graphics power before you are no longer graphics limited. In short, by no means is the 7850 2gb overkill. 2x7970 Ghz Edition would be overkill. The 7850 2gb, overclocked, should be a great card and a massive speed up from your 4890.

 

[Von Ribbentrop]

That's the info I was looking for. HD7850 2GB it is. They're are a couple for about $170-180 after rebate.

Thanks,
Scott

 

[p_monks33]

I feel that the tahiti 7870's are the best bang for the buck at around 200 bucks. You are getting more card for the money than a 170 dollar 7850. I7 920 is by no means a slouch. Buy a good cooler and overclock that I7 to 3.6 and with a 7870xt you will be good for a year at least.

 

[Termie]

I feel that the tahiti 7870's are the best bang for the buck at around 200 bucks. You are getting more card for the money than a 170 dollar 7850. I7 920 is by no means a slouch. Buy a good cooler and overclock that I7 to 3.6 and with a 7870xt you will be good for a year at least.

This.

A $170-180 HD7850 is not a particularly hot deal anymore.

 

[RaistlinZ]

7850 is a good bet, especially when overclocked.

PLEASE overclock that CPU while you're at it. You're giving away a good amount of free performance.

 

[Von Ribbentrop]

Currently using a XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle Cooler and have done a little OCing but don't have the time I used too to tweak it, so I've been running it stock. I haven't even upgraded the bios since I built it. Maybe I should take a little time and see what I can ring out of it.

 

[Makaveli]

I had a 4890 in my rig before going to the i7. It was an opteron 170 powering it and there was major cpu bottlenecking. When i switched to the i7 920 that allowed the gpu to stretch it legs more but now I was gpu limited lol.

The 7870 2GB is an excellent choice.

And get that 920 to 3.2-3.6 will certainly give you a nice boost.

Great advice in this thread so far.

 

[parvadomus]

What resolution u game at? I would go with a 7950, it would be a very good match for the 920.