New system - 5770 or 4890?

[Frostmourne]

I'm looking to build a new decent system for gaming seeing as my old vista system's gpu has died. Should I go for a 5770 or a 4890? The system as it stands is:

CPU: AMD Phenom II 550 Black Edition @ 3.1GHz

RAM: G-Skill Ripjaws 4GB (2x2GB) 1333MHz

HARD DRIVE: Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA II 7200.12

GPU: Gigabyte ATI Radeon 5770 1GB GDDR5

MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte MA 785GT-UD3H

OPTICAL DRIVE: Pioneer DVR-218 SATA

CHASSIS: Antec Two Hundred

PSU: Antec True Power New 650w

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 OEM

 

[SlackerITGuy]

Performance-wise: HD 4890 > HD 5770.

But since the HD 5770's based on a 40nm chip, it'll consume less power and produce less heat.

The HD 5770's basically a 40nm HD 4870 with DirectX11 support.

 

[Frostmourne]

Thought so. Drivers should improve so I'll go for the newer card.

 

[smarteyeball]

Yeah, the 5770 is a better choice overall.

 

[ThePizzaMan]

Yeah, the 5770 is a better choice overall.

agreed

 

[Frostmourne]

Done - any last changes before this is built?

 

[SlackerITGuy]

Everything looks spot on.

Although, If you plan on overclocking, I'd suggest going for the slightly older but much cheaper MSI 770-C45 (770 NB/ 710 SB). I've heard it overclocks like a champion.

 

[Frostmourne]

No. Its a system just for games and I can't be bothered overclocking - it has enough power for any games @ 1680x1050, High for Crysis, Very High for mostly anything else. Good upgrade options too.

 

[pat247]

I was faced with the same delima, 4890 or 5770, for me the 4890 was the better choice. The 4890 kicks the snot out of the 5770 in every category except dx11, and dx11 brings all the 5000 series to their knees. It will be another year before dx11 is widely implemented so you might as well wait for the next generation card to get excited about dx11. Besides that the 4890 costs half as much as a 5870.

 

[thefabe]

Looks like an awesome AMD build to me. It must run cool cause I would expect to see a little more cooling on the chipsets. But that's just my opinion. I think it will definitely serve your needs. I'm also trying to decide on my next build. So I welcome your opinions when I get ready.

 

[Frostmourne]

Well this is more expensive here in Australia but the key points - performance and upgrade options are covered. The AM3 socket should have no problems with upgrades if AMD continues with providing updates to its problems and SATA II is enough for the price. As for performance its perfect for the price.

 

[SlackerITGuy]

@ pat247

The HD 4890 is one of the best cards around, there's no getting around it. But the difference from a HD 4890 to a HD 5770 is roughly ~8% (talking about gaming performance), that's not worth the extra ~$30 in my opinion. Not to mention that the HD 4890 is significantly louder, hotter and more power hungry than the HD 5770. I mean, the HD 5770 idles/peaks at never-before-seen power levels/temps in this performance bracket. See it for yourself:

 

[Frostmourne]

The 5770 for me is $30 cheaper. I'm going for the new card.

 

[mushko]

I would think twice before choosing the HD5770.
I recently built a PC for a friend who is running Win7 64bit and he has had all sort of issues with that card. It seems to freeze for no apparent reason leaving artefacts all over the screen at times and other times just locking up the system.

Have a look at this post:
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=260&threadid=121063&enterthread=y&STARTPAGE=3
there seems to be a lot of people having issues with this card while playing games. The latest drivers make no difference and i've had confirmation that the fault isn't due to hardware issues, heat, or lack of power.

If you're really keen on the HD series from ATi I would go for the 5800 series if you can spare the extra cash or the 4800 series if not.

 

[pat247]

@ pat247

The HD 4890 is one of the best cards around, there's no getting around it. But the difference from a HD 4890 to a HD 5770 is roughly ~8% (talking about gaming performance), that's not worth the extra ~$30 in my opinion. Not to mention that the HD 4890 is significantly louder, hotter and more power hungry than the HD 5770. I mean, the HD 5770 idles/peaks at never-before-seen power levels/temps in this performance bracket. See it for yourself:

I totally agree with the power consumption and the heat generation of the 4890, cause it is a beast. Just means you need good air flow and an adaquate cooler on the card. As far as the gaming comparison goes I think the margin is far greater than 8%, that is the margin for the 4870. Also the price difference when I purchased was only $15. Don`t get me wrong, I like the 5770 and debated long and hard about what card to get. In the end it came down to raw power that swayed me, I`ve never been satisfied with a mid stream card. If power consumption and heat are your main concerns then the 5770 is the better choice.

BTW nice graphs.

 

[SlackerITGuy]

@ pat247

The HD 4890 is one of the best cards around, there's no getting around it. But the difference from a HD 4890 to a HD 5770 is roughly ~8% (talking about gaming performance), that's not worth the extra ~$30 in my opinion. Not to mention that the HD 4890 is significantly louder, hotter and more power hungry than the HD 5770. I mean, the HD 5770 idles/peaks at never-before-seen power levels/temps in this performance bracket. See it for yourself:

I totally agree with the power consumption and the heat generation of the 4890, cause it is a beast. Just means you need good air flow and an adaquate cooler on the card. As far as the gaming comparison goes I think the margin is far greater than 8%, that is the margin for the 4870. Also the price difference when I purchased was only $15. Don`t get me wrong, I like the 5770 and debated long and hard about what card to get. In the end it came down to raw power that swayed me, I`ve never been satisfied with a mid stream card. If power consumption and heat are your main concerns then the 5770 is the better choice.

BTW nice graphs.

I got that number off Tom's Hardware... or Driver Heaven, I can't really remember now.

It adds up though, the HD 4890, as we all know, is 10% faster than the HD 4870, and according to recent reviews, the HD 5770 is, in most cases, slightly faster than the HD 4870.

Thanks BTW.

EDIT: You know what?, scratch that.

I just finished looking at a slew of reviews, and most of them had the HD 5770 on par with the HD 4870 (some even slightly slower).

 

[ThePizzaMan]

hmmm.... well could you pull a 5850? otherwise 5770......
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[LiquidBronze]

I have had no real issues with my crossfired 5770's, they are great cards. I am new to crossfire, so I had some questions pertaining to that function, other then that I am very happy with performance. I also started to OC them and have gotten them stable at 900/1400. Any higher my system begins to lock, but when I need more power I know I can squeeze it out.

nice build btw!

 

[Frostmourne]

Updated specs - it seems some parts are out of stock so:

CPU: AMD Phenom II 550 Black Edition @ 3.1GHz

RAM: Kingston ValueRAM 4GB (2x2GB) 1333MHz (KVR1333D3N9K2/4G)

HARD DRIVE: Hitachi 7K1000.C SATA II 7200RPM

GPU: XFX ATI Radeon 5770 1GB GDDR5 (XFX HD-577A-ZHFC)

MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte MA 785GT-UD3H

OPTICAL DRIVE: Pioneer DVR-218 SATA II

CHASSIS: Antec Two Hundred

PSU: Xigmatek NRP-MC651 650w

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 OEM

This if I can't get the other build. Just different brands. Still considering for the card.

 

[Etihtsarom]

Performance-wise: HD 4890 > HD 5770.

But since the HD 5770's based on a 40nm chip, it'll consume less power and produce less heat.

The HD 5770's basically a 40nm HD 4870 with DirectX11 support.

Couldn't have said it better.