Anyone feeling like trying XFX again?

[Pob255]

Using that example is like searching for medical problems on the NHS forums

Great response Paul
EDIT: and a sneaky edit

and as to what Cat said, yes the 4830 is faster than the 9800gt in some games, but the 9800gt is faster in others. and often faster is little more than a couple of fps which is not enough to make any real difference.

Saying it can be overclocked is empty as the 9800gt can be as well, how much any card can be overclocked by is dependent on the card not just the gpu, esp when it's not a stock card/pcb.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

and as to what Cat said, yes the 4830 is faster than the 9800gt in some games, but the 9800gt is faster in others. and often faster is little more than a couple of fps which is not enough to make any real difference.

Actually the HD4830 is faster in a lot of games than a 9800GT TBH:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/15752/4

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid...e=expert&pid=6

Both reviews do not use the standard in-game benchmarks as far as I know and use actual framerates during gameplay.

Saying it can be overclocked is empty as the 9800gt can be as well, how much any card can be overclocked by is dependent on the card not just the gpu, esp when it's not a stock card/pcb.

Actually in my experience and the experience of almost all people in forums I have looked at(before buying an HD4830) the HD4830 can be overclocked to 650mhz to 700mhz quite easily and my PowerColor card is known to one of the worst for overclocking too. I have it clocked at 700mhz. At the same GPU clocks as the HD4850(625mhz) the HD4830 is only around 10% slower too.

[scaryjim]

The fact that a 4850 can beat a 9800GT is kinda moot, since you can get a 9800GTX+ (or a GTS250 ) for the same price, which Hexus's reviews showed as beating the 4850 in all games except GRID.

My personal experience of XFX is: a GeForce 4 MX which worked absolutely fine, and an FX5200 which crashed when you put *any* 3D load onto it. That turned out to be the fault of their shoddy, insufficient passive cooler (I solved the problem by sticking a PCI exhaust blower right under the card's heatsink ). Given that the 4850 XXX's cooler worked so well in the Hexus review, I'd be tempted to try it again at that price. Otherwise, I'll stick with other brands

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The fact that a 4850 can beat a 9800GT is kinda moot, since you can get a 9800GTX+ (or a GTS250 ) for the same price, which Hexus's reviews showed as beating the 4850 in all games except GRID.

My personal experience of XFX is: a GeForce 4 MX which worked absolutely fine, and an FX5200 which crashed when you put *any* 3D load onto it. That turned out to be the fault of their shoddy, insufficient passive cooler (I solved the problem by sticking a PCI exhaust blower right under the card's heatsink ). Given that the 4850 XXX's cooler worked so well in the Hexus review, I'd be tempted to try it again at that price. Otherwise, I'll stick with other brands

???? We are talking about the HD4830 NOT the HD4850. The XFX HD4830 costs around £80.

[scaryjim]

???? We are talking about the HD4830 NOT the HD4850. The XFX HD4830 costs around £80.

Huh? Sorry, I think I was in another thread earlier about 4850 and must've got confused. I blame it on trying to get my head round the inconsistent implentation of usemap when applied to an input of type image

[Powderhound]

This deal looks good too:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB...VI-XXX-EDITION

[Pob255]

Actually the HD4830 is faster in a lot of games than a 9800GT TBH:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/15752/4

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid...e=expert&pid=6

Both reviews do not use the standard in-game benchmarks as far as I know and use actual framerates during gameplay.

Actual frame rates, unless off an ingame recorded demo can wildly very, even with recorded demo's things can change slightly changeing the resaults

But I would trust thoes number is terms of vs and most of them are within 5% which is too little to make a damb of difference.
Also both of thoes are from release date, so changes in drivers will of had an inpact on thoes numbers.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I really do doubt that any more performance can be had out of the 9800GT as it is basically a rebadged 8800GT from late 2007. If anything the HD4830 has the most room for driver improvements considering that many games seem to more Nvidia optimised at launch.

[DanceswithUnix]

It's a full (although process-shrunk) discrete 2400, ACTUALLY

Hexus reckon it's OK for gaming at 1024 x 768, so those of still running 15" CRTs will find it acceptable... anything over that and you're looking at discrete though. I've trawled the old hexus reviews which strongly suggest that moving to a 780G motherboard's onboard graphics from a 6600GT 128MB AGP would pretty much *half* your framerates at 1024 x 768. Your real problem with upgrading, though, is that AGP slot. To get a genuine upgrade to that you're probably looking to at least a X1650Pro (£40), and maybe a 3650 (£55 - £60) or 3850 (£95)!

If it is going to halve your frame rate, perhaps you need to crossfire it with one of these 9 quid monsters

[scaryjim]

If it is going to halve your frame rate, perhaps you need to crossfire it with one of these 9 quid monsters

Awwwwwww!! That is so damn cute! I just might have to get one of those now!

Actually, I was moping around in old reviews earlier today and noticed a significant discrepancy in hd3200 performance figures. In the 780G review it's coupled with low cost components: a 4850e and 2GB ram. In the 790GX review, the same mobo is coupled with a Phenom 9850 and 4GB, and suddenly the frame rates leap (relatively speaking ) by 20 - 25% (at 1024x768, that is). Given that in the 780G review they managed to push the GPU core to 850MHz for a further 30% framerate gain, I'm starting to think that an OCed 780G with a Phenom II X3 and 4GB might *actually* push some decent framerates. Hybrid Crossfiring (3450 256MB) at stock speeds gave a 50 - 60% boost on top of that, so if you could clock the discrete graphics card to 800 / 850 MHz as well, I'm thinking you could actually get decent performance at 1280 x 1024.

Anyone want to fund an experiment

EDIT: it occured to me last night after posting that one reason for the improved performance with a Phenom is probably the HT bandwidth: Phenoms using the 2.5x faster HT3, rather than HT1. It had never occurred to me before that HT1 could actually bottleneck a system - anyone else think that's possible?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The XFX HD4830 is now £76 on Novatech. Almost makes me want to get one but my PowerColor HD4830 for around £50 was still cheaper!!

[DanceswithUnix]

EDIT: it occured to me last night after posting that one reason for the improved performance with a Phenom is probably the HT bandwidth: Phenoms using the 2.5x faster HT3, rather than HT1. It had never occurred to me before that HT1 could actually bottleneck a system - anyone else think that's possible?

I'm sure I read something to that effect about blu-ray decoding in integrated graphics being better with the faster HT3 so you are probably spot on there.

[scaryjim]

I'm sure I read something to that effect about blu-ray decoding in integrated graphics being better with the faster HT3 so you are probably spot on there.

Hmmm, gonna have to seriously rethink my next HTPC now. Wonder when the AM3 Athlon's are coming out...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Hmmm, gonna have to seriously rethink my next HTPC now. Wonder when the AM3 Athlon's are coming out...

???? They are already out!! The Phenom II 710,720 and 805 are all AM3 processors!!

Edit!!

You are talking about the dual cores right!! Sorry!! I think that they are coming out in the next few months:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...icroprocessors

The X3 710 can be had for £100 so it maybe worth watching BTW!!

[DanceswithUnix]

You really want AM3?

My wife's new Shuttle uses an X2 7750 dual core which I believe is HT3, air out the back seems cold enough so I guess it could be used on an HTPC despite the official 95W rating. Seemed a bargain at 57 quid.

[scaryjim]

I was just looking at the 7750 today - I'd forgotten there was an Athlon based on the Phenom I (doh!). Certainly the ebuyer reviews are all very positive, including that it overclocks quite well. It's a tricky choice between that @ £57, a Phenom X3 @ £75 (probably my least favoured), or a Phenom II x3 @ £100, without any future releases...

CAT: not necessarily the dual cores - doesn't the roadmap show 2, 3 and 4 core Athlons? - basically Phenom IIs with the L3 cache choppped off! If a 4 Core Athlon was ~ £100 it'd be an attractive proposition...
EDIT: I hadn't read the roadmap for a while: dual core Phenom IIs with L3 Cache?!? Want one!