ATI Radeon HD 4870 and Radeon HD 4850 Price Cuts This Week

[Gzero]

But I posted in the post you quoted another review lol. It was good for comparison for showing the difference in performance between the 4 cards (4870/4850 and gtx/gtx+).

Anyway, to clarify my final point: when you spend £140 / $150, you are not paying enough to be future proofing for the highest resolutions. You guys already know this, look how much both of you spent on your own cards. You can't argue to those that spend less that they shouldn't buy a 512mb card, when just over a year and a half ago (let's assume that's when they made their bargain purchase) they probably got a 256mb cut down card x1900xt 256mb for instance?

I think a 4870 512mb at that price is still a good card to consider, when upgrading or buying in that budget for a new pc today.

 

[Wile E]

But I posted in the post you quoted another review lol. It was good for comparison for showing the difference in performance between the 4 cards (4870/4850 and gtx/gtx+).

Anyway, to clarify my final point: when you spend £140 / $150, you are not paying enough to be future proofing for the highest resolutions. You guys already know this, look how much both of you spent on your own cards. You can't argue to those that spend less that they shouldn't buy a 512mb card, when just over a year and a half ago (let's assume that's when they made their bargain purchase) they probably got a 256mb cut down card x1900xt 256mb for instance?

I think a 4850 512mb at that price is still a good card to consider, when upgrading or buying in that budget for a new pc today.

Note that wolf originally mentioned for high end gaming. People on a budget don't generally have 24" monitors. On a 20" or less monitor, one can get by on a 512MB card, but some of the new games still use more than that 512MB, even at that res. His argument (and mine as well) is that a $20 price difference is worth the extra framebuffer, and that it's silly not to do it, if one can afford it it.

I think this boils down to things being taken out of context a little.

ANd are you referring to the OC Club link? If so, you can't mix and match results like that from 2 different reviews for a direct comparison. You need to find a review with both a GTX+/250 512MB and a 1GB (or more) to be able to compare like that.

 

[Gzero]

Suppose so, sorry.

 

[DaveK]

Pffft, no drop on the 1GB 4870 and my sister is going to the US soon

 

[InnocentCriminal]

I can't help but think that this has to be the best buy I've seen ever. The question is, do I buy it, or shall I hold out till next month?

 

[Gzero]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-120-XF

lol snap depends on your budget, you've waited soo long with your legacy x800 thatmaybe you want to wait till the announcement of the new ati lineup (that should help bring nvidia prices down)?

You could go for a new system or get a better cpu with the gpu to improve your gaming and general pc usage.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

See, the X800 is only a stop gap as it's the only PCIe GFX card I have at hand right now. I've just upgraded from a AthlonX2 build with a 512MB 3850 that was faster than a stock 3870.

I know I should hold out until the new cards arrive, I'm just impatient.

:/

 

[Gzero]

I know how you feel. Just hold back, don't go round to a friends house who happens to have a better gpu than you, and most of all don't look at benchmarks/new games/peoples specs or play any games too demanding for your current config there are plenty of old games that are great fun to play regardless of graphics, psychonauts anyone?

 

[InnocentCriminal]

I won't be playing any games until I get a new GFX card. Actually scrap that, I'll be borrowing my friends X1900XT which will allow me to play a few games. I want to tweak my MOBO, CPU & RAM first - I'm a complete noob when it comes to Core 2 OC'ing.

 

[Wile E]

I won't be playing any games until I get a new GFX card. Actually scrap that, I'll be borrowing my friends X1900XT which will allow me to play a few games. I want to tweak my MOBO, CPU & RAM first - I'm a complete noob when it comes to Core 2 OC'ing.

I'd buy it, but I'm an impatient person. lol. Not only that, the 1GB 4870 is perfect for 20" monitors.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

^^

I'll most likely order it tomorrow or Monday.

 

[Gzero]

Lol solid defence there

 

[spearman914]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161268 It dropped a bit.

 

[ShadowFold]

That HIS card has been fluxing from 180-160$ for the past week

 

[wolf]

Note that wolf originally mentioned for high end gaming. People on a budget don't generally have 24" monitors. On a 20" or less monitor, one can get by on a 512MB card, but some of the new games still use more than that 512MB, even at that res. His argument (and mine as well) is that a $20 price difference is worth the extra framebuffer, and that it's silly not to do it, if one can afford it it.

thanks you hit the nail on the head, really its people that run max settings, 1680x1050+ with lots of AA who need this extra memory, and like i mentioned very few titles can push past the need for 1Gb, but there are lots now that use between 500mb and 1Gb.

And quite correct, my main argument is the price difference, in most cases opting for a 1Gb variant over a 512 should be a minimal difference, around $20 USD, thats generally what ive paid here in Australia for a double frame buffer variant. for example my X1950 pro 512 was $19 AUD more than the 256mb model, and the 9600GT 1Gb was $25 AUD more than the 512mb model.

its a totally negligible difference that buys your card a little more longevity, a little more peice of mind, and a bigger e-peen. not to mention if you get bad performance you can throw the notion of a memory limitation out the window.

 

[trt740]

has the price dropped yet?

 

[Tatty_Two]

i dont think it will beat the GTX 285!GTX 260(216) YES!!

Really? Not so sure, the 1GB 4870 is only around 10% slower in many benches, more in others but also less in a few, it's not unusual to see MORE than a 10% performance increase with a new card, for example, the new NVidia GTS250 is in the main just a re-badged 9800GTX+ but it still manages a 10% performance increase across most things.

Whether it will match or beat the 285 will remain to be seen, but I am sure many people will have already made up their mind before they have even seen a single review

 

[InnocentCriminal]

has the price dropped yet?

I think so... I'm fighting to hold out until the April releases.

 

[trt740]

Really? Not so sure, the 1GB 4870 is only around 10% slower in many benches, more in others but also less in a few, it's not unusual to see MORE than a 10% performance increase with a new card, for example, the new NVidia GTS250 is in the main just a re-badged 9800GTX+ but it still manages a 10% performance increase across most things.

Whether it will match or beat the 285 will remain to be seen, but I am sure many people will have already made up their mind before they have even seen a single review

The 4870 is even 10 percent slower, with the new driver release, it got some significant gains.

 

[AsRock]

That HIS card has been fluxing from 180-160$ for the past week

The 1GB version just gone back up (was $190) lol... $230 now glad i ordered mine already haha.

thanks you hit the nail on the head, really its people that run max settings, 1680x1050+ with lots of AA who need this extra memory, and like i mentioned very few titles can push past the need for 1Gb, but there are lots now that use between 500mb and 1Gb.

And quite correct, my main argument is the price difference, in most cases opting for a 1Gb variant over a 512 should be a minimal difference, around $20 USD, thats generally what ive paid here in Australia for a double frame buffer variant. for example my X1950 pro 512 was $19 AUD more than the 256mb model, and the 9600GT 1Gb was $25 AUD more than the 512mb model.

its a totally negligible difference that buys your card a little more longevity, a little more peice of mind, and a bigger e-peen. not to mention if you get bad performance you can throw the notion of a memory limitation out the window.

It was $10 difference till end of the weekend.

I need a 1GB card a 512MB don't cut it for me even TW08 takes that amount of ram. There's a lot these day that need more than 512MB, people need to check with Riva Tuner to see if they are using all their ram.