Ati 4850

[Rishwin]

As i stated in my thread in Post-A-Holics, I've finally fixed my motherboard. It's my birthday in just under 2 weeks so i decided to add a few more upgrades to my PC. Will be getting an E8500 to replace my E6600 (which is going into a 4th PC along with my previous motherboard) and a new GFX card to replace my 8800GT.

Was going to get a 9800GTX but thought if instead getting a dual 4850 setup. I very much suck at working out energy consumptions ect, so i just want to know if anyone here knows how much power that would require. I have a 620W cooler Master Real Power PSU atm (with 2 PCI-e connectors), so i hope that is good enough - i just paid $205 for this 3 months ago.

 

[themasher]

ATI Radeon HD 4850 System Requirements
o PCI Express

 

[Rishwin]

So it requires only 550W then i presume for 2 of them? Just wanted to be sure. Also would you mind looking up for me the requirements for 2 4870's? Cos they are actually only about $20 each more than the 4850's.

I assume you are getting this from their website, but it is for some reason loading EXTREMELY slow for me...

 

[Ramuthra]

i dont now about 4850 but the 4870 requires 2x pcie power leads, so you may need 4 of those for a dual 4850 setup, might be worth checking out some of the benchmarking setups for crossfire systems

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4850-and--4870-crossfirex-performance/3 there ya go, actual usage should be around 421 watt for dual 4850 but they do use a 1000w psu

edit:
it seems 4850 only has one power slot, so you should be alright with 2 leads

 

[themasher]

ATI Radeon HD 4870 System Requirements

* PCI Express

 

[Pfa]

So if I get 650W, it should be more than enough for 4870?

Tested it out with this: http://extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp
And it seems fine.

 

[Ramuthra]

im running a 4870 on a 550w, as long as you've got a good brand it should run anything over 500w

 

[Pfa]

If I try to run it on Crossfire... how much power would that take?

 

[Ramuthra]

the 650w was for a crossfire setup

 

[Rishwin]

I am actually re-considering this...

1. my case is too small and although it has great cooling it already runs hot with alot of stuff in the case, so i do not think 2 cards is wise
2. my PC is on about 18/7 and the ATI's use alot of power especially while idle.
3. I use a 19" LCD and do not plan to upgrade anytime within the next 1 or 2 years.
4. just bought my PSU and love it, it's only 620W so 2x 4870's is out of the question.

Now i am currently using an 8800GT, is it really worth me upgrading or not? I am tossing up between either the 4870 or the GTX260. So i'm willing to pay around $400 AUD, if it's not worth upgrading i will just stick with the 8800GT for now and upgrade my E6600 to an E8500 and my 2Gb TWINX PC6400 5-5-5-12 to 4GB TWINX PC6400 4-4-4-12.

Help me decide -.-

FYI, the most GFX intensive games i play are things like... well nothing really, i would play Crysis but never tried cos i just assumed my 8800GT would die if it tried. Would love to play Bioshock and London Hellgate with DX10 on vista once i get my 4GB of ram.

 

[Ramuthra]

4870 is a big card i'll admit, but your 8800 still has some life in it yet, i'd leave it a while and see what happens if you're not gonna be playing many games it'd be a bad idea to spend all that money imo, although i have been having fun just going through all my games and changing everything to high

 

[Rishwin]

4870 is a big card i'll admit, but your 8800 still has some life in it yet, i'd leave it a while and see what happens if you're not gonna be playing many games it'd be a bad idea to spend all that money imo, although i have been having fun just going through all my games and changing everything to high

That's what i thought, then i started FPS lagging in London Hellgate today... All settings are on high, its on 1280x1024, and AA is turned off but it still lags... and London Hellgate aint even a GFX intensive game compared to others :S