Thoughts on a new gpu.

[rev1775]

I was hoping to get a little feedback on an upgrade for a new graphics card.

Background,

I am currently running a EVGA 6800GS 256meg 256bit GDDR3 card which is now 5+yrs old.
My old rig ran SLI and I was running 2 of these. I have to admit they are/were great cards ( I felt anyway ).

My new board can use crossfire but not SLI so I suppose its time to get a new card. My budget though is not great at the moment so I'm sort of tied to around 100-125.00.

I've been researching and doing some reading on different types/clock/speed/size and the like and seems the more
one reads and researches the more difficult choosing a card can get, as opposed to say motherboards/memory/cpu and the
like.

I've narrowed down a few choices, see attached, but would like some feedback or other options as well.
I'm not a big time gamer but, if a decent game comes along that looks like fun I would like to be able to perhaps give it a shot without big worries..

1.Newegg.com - XFX HD-477A-YDFC Radeon HD 4770 512MB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

2. Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GV-R485OC-1GH Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Seems the gigabyte card could be the better value, though the XFX has the faster GDDR5 versus GDDR3 though one has the gig of memory versus 512, but the XFX has the better clock.

Sort of seems like trade offs in both directions.

Thanks in advance.

 

[A Guy]

I think a lot will depend on how you intend to use it. There are many reviews/threads on hardware forums comparing the two. There is no general consensus, but rather close opinions. Here is 1 review:

Review

A Guy

 

[kurahk7]

If you are interested in Directx 11 games, then I would recommend a Radeon HD 5750 or 5770 although these cards would be pushing you budget a bit. Of the 2 cards you posted, they pretty much offer the same performance, the 4770 has less stream processors but uses the 40nm processes just like the 5xxx series while the 4850 has 800 stream processors but uses the older 55nm process (not saying that the 55nm is bad). Although the 4770 uses GDDR5, it is limited by the 128bit memory bus width while the 4850 uses the GDDR3 memory with a 256bit memory bus width, so they end up being similar. The 4770 would usually run cooler since it uses the 40nm process as well. Just my $.02.
Edit: The 4770 would also use less power because it uses the 40nm process lol.

 

[rev1775]

I'm not all that interested at this point in the directx11 game side and I kind of looked at so many different cards now including some of the 5 series radeon as well and yes those would be pushing my budget a bit..

I kind of figured that the 2 I listed each have their good and not so good sides and seemingly in the end they are close.

The cooling part shouldn't be a big problem with my case/fan setup at present and I don't suspect I will be overclocking either card nor running huge loads.

I'm not opposed to Nvidia cards either as I was looking at a EVGA 9800GT also but seemed like the 2 ati cards were somewhat better or close since that was 512 GDDR3 256 bit.

A Guy,

I read that review and like some others I read thru, lots of close opinions between cards like these~~

 

[smarteyeball]

I'm not all that interested at this point in the directx11 game side and I kind of looked at so many different cards now including some of the 5 series radeon as well and yes those would be pushing my budget a bit..

It's just as well, as only the 5850> is worth it for DX11 and even then, properly supported DX11 titles are currently few and far between.


Tough call, but out of those two cards linked, I'd choose the 4850 due to it having 1GB vram as opposed to the 4770 with only 512MB.

I would not be to concerned between the GDDR3 vs GDDR5 aspect.

 

[rev1775]

That is what I was thinking as far as DX11 is concerned.. In any case I should see a marked improvement with one of those cards over my 6800GS which will be nice~~