Best Graphics Card (as of April 08)

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

Well I just ordered a 4850, so that should be here by Saturday. My friend already got his [oem somehow, ****ing bastard] and he runs CoD4 at over 120FPS max AA, AX, and max res.

Wicked! would be interested to know what the rest of the specs of your computer are and how it performs.
I cant wait to get the 4870 its gunna be awesome, should be ordering it the same time as a nice 24/26" monitor aswell...

[{11}O/8|Pvt.madlulz!]

Wicked! would be interested to know what the rest of the specs of your computer are and how it performs.
I cant wait to get the 4870 its gunna be awesome, should be ordering it the same time as a nice 24/26" monitor aswell...

Well I just got a new PC, and it's...

Processor: Intel QX9770
MOBO: (QX9650/9770 Support) MSI X48C Platinum Intel X48 Chipeset CrossFireX FSB1600 DDR3 Motherboard w/GbLAN, USB2.0,IEEE1394,&7.1Audio
RAM: 4GM Corsair XMS DDR3
GFX: Sapphire 4850. [Going to crossfire it when I get another 200quid.]

I'll let you know how it runs on Saturday when I get it.

My friends setup is very similar, but he has DDR2 Ram [3gigs], the 9650QX, and a different mobo.

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

Well I just got a new PC, and it's...

Processor: Intel QX9770
MOBO: (QX9650/9770 Support) MSI X48C Platinum Intel X48 Chipeset CrossFireX FSB1600 DDR3 Motherboard w/GbLAN, USB2.0,IEEE1394,&7.1Audio
RAM: 4GM Corsair XMS DDR3
GFX: Sapphire 4850. [Going to crossfire it when I get another 200quid.]

I'll let you know how it runs on Saturday when I get it.

My friends setup is very similar, but he has DDR2 Ram [3gigs], the 9650QX, and a different mobo.

Nice! Not sure about the whole DDR3 thing at the moment. Think im gunna wait out till Nehalem before i move over to it as i think that architecture will be much more efficiant at utilizing the extra bandwidth and clocks.

a 4850 only costs 125 on ebuyer... why do you need to wait for another 200 to come in to crossfire it?

EDIT: also, it seems you have built an extremely powerful computer to be putting a midrange GPU in there (which it is when you consider its generation)... go for the 4870 and crossfire that

[{11}O/8|Pvt.madlulz!]

Well, as all the 4800's have 800 stream processors, there's no big rush for me to spend the extra money on two 4870s, I'm crossfiring a 4870 and a 4850 both at 512 RAM. That's possible with the new HD series. That' why I need another 200.

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

Well, as all the 4800's have 800 stream processors, there's no big rush for me to spend the extra money on two 4870s, I'm crossfiring a 4870 and a 4850 both at 512 RAM. That's possible with the new HD series. That' why I need another 200.

You can mix and match them really?

[[NS]S/1|Sr.mounty [X]]

you can with crossfire. not using sli though so that's another one up nvidia's arse from ATI lol

[{11}O/8|Pvt.madlulz!]

you can with crossfire. not using sli though so that's another one up nvidia's arse from ATI lol

Well Crossfire is the ATi version of SLi.

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

Wow that really is impressive! <3 ATI

[Tommy[IV]]

Re: Best Graphics Card (as of April 08)

im getting 2 9800GX2's woo

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

Re: Best Graphics Card (as of April 08)

im getting 2 9800GX2's woo

:shock: Why? do you have like a 1200W psu to power it and a 30" monitor?

[Andrew[XI]]

Re: Best Graphics Card (as of April 08)

lol...

:shock: Why? do you have like a 1200W psu to power it and a 30" monitor?

rofl.

[Tommy[IV]]

Re: Best Graphics Card (as of April 08)

i will have one of them and a 17" :P

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

Re: Best Graphics Card (as of April 08)

i will have one of them and a 17" :P

Lol ur a crazy b*stard! :awes

Only reason im upgrading mine in the near future is when i get a new 24-26" display il want to continue running at native resolution.

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

Re: Best Graphics Card (as of April 08)

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Ok everyone here are a load of reviews for the new AMD cards which pitts them against the GTX260 GTX280 and 9800GTX/GTX+(why they didnt call it the ultra il never know)/GX2.

Before i go on i will say that if you have an exsisting 8800GT/GTS (the 512MB variety) and an decent SLI motherboard, buy another card and SLI them up rather than upgrading!

If you want top dog performace then buy the 9800GX2 but be prepared to pay double on your electricity bill.
The GTX280 has quite good power consumption for its speed but the cost of them is far far to high. Personally i would take the GTX280 over the 9800GX2 (once the prices have dropped for the 280). Whilst it may not beat the GX2 in a lot of benchmarks it doesnt run internal SLI so you r are garunteed the performance no matter the game engine.

Top Performance Card Prices

GX2 = £305
GTX280 = £400

The midrange is where the real battle is at the moment. At the lower end of the market there is the 4850, this card comes roughly in at the same performance level as the original 9800GTX and i would say that anyone wanting to build a new computer for as little as possible with as much as possible, you should get this little daemon. The next one up is the 4870, this card competes against the GTX260 and the 9800GTX+. Coming it around the the same cost as the GTX+ (maybe a little more soon as Nvid are cutting costs) it offers better performance in most games. Against the GTX260 is a tough one, the Nvid card is probably faster overall in the benchmarks BUT its £50-70 more expensive for pretty minimal gains. For those of you mainly interested in COD4, the 4870 beats the GTX260 hands down.
Another interesting point worth noting is that the 4870 crossfired is probably the fastest combination around at the moment overall, in some places the GTX280 SLI'd beats it but thats £800 worth of card over the 380ish that the ATI solution is.

Mid-Range Costs

GTX260 = £250
9800GTX = £180 (at the moment but this will drop to around £130 v soon )
9800GTX+ = Unknown for sure atm but likely to be around £180-200
4870 = £190
4850 = £130
(stocks are low at the moment as so many people have snapped them up meaningcompanies put a premium on the remains of their stock, now that ATI know what they are dealing with they will bulk manufacture and distribute which drops costs)

In the lower market, look towards the 8800GT/GTS 9600GT and the 3850/3870. Prices dropping down to 70-120 for some of the cards, if your running on a really old card & cant afford to splash out big at the moment it might be worth checking one of these out.

Things to look out for soon

ATI definately have an internally crossfired version of their 4870 in the pipelines which is worth keeping an eye out for! it should come in at around the same cost as one of the more expensive GX2s (350 - 400) and offer better performance. Nvidia will no doubt retaliate with a GX2 280 but it will also no doubt have an enormous pricetag to boot!
The instant success of the new ATI cards may give them the funding and drive to bring out somethign quite spectacular. I havent read anything anywhere (with the exception of the 4870X2) BUT if the X1*** series is anything to go by then they may bring out a 49** card quite quickly which should be a belter.
Another thing to point out is how will Nvid retaliate overall to the ATI success? they are not going to take it lying down i can be sure, this may be the kick they need to do something genuinly spectular.

[AllFoamNoBeer]

Re: Best Graphics Card (as of April 08)

If you put price vs. performance.

I believe, that the 4870 wins hands down.