Is my graphics card good enough?

Its a HD 4870 512MB XFX using a 1440x900 res.

At times it can run games like Crysis ,then others it lags. It may be the conflict with my sound card (possible) but basically am I stressing my card too much? it runs into the 70cs, which is a lot and makes the game lag. I did set a profile with MSI after burner to keep it at about 40-50 during load,and it was fine.

But running high graphical games could reduce its life? Is the card up to it? If it isn't what other card would you suggest, or should I just buy a new aftermarket cooler to keep it at a good temperature?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mikeo01

Its a HD 4870 512MB XFX using a 1440x900 res.

At times it can run games like Crysis ,then others it lags. It may be the conflict with my sound card (possible) but basically am I stressing my card too much? it runs into the 70cs, which is a lot and makes the game lag. I did set a profile with MSI after burner to keep it at about 40-50 during load,and it was fine.

But running high graphical games could reduce its life? Is the card up to it? If it isn't what other card would you suggest, or should I just buy a new aftermarket cooler to keep it at a good temperature?

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70C is not a lot for a 4870. Come back when it hits 95 ;)

Its life won't be meaningfully reduced by playing demanding games. Yes, it will reduce a bit as the fan spins more than it would otherwise not playing games.. but who buys a 3d card just for playing minesweeper?

I have a 4870 512mb myself. I bought it second hand and have subjected it to the most graphically demanding games available, running the temps up to 80C no problem. For years.

It's been absolutely rock solid. I'll probably change only when I buy a replacement card for speed/features reasons, not reliability.

Really, I thought 70c was pretty hot, the fans don't even kick in until it hits 80c.

At 70c though it does seem to lag. I am not sure if its mainly to do with the conflicting creative drivers (definitely causing graphical problems, as the game lags the sound pops and crackles).

I know the HD 4870 is a pretty good card, but didn't no if it really was up to the task.

Thanks, glad someone else experience of the card too :P

Conflicting drivers?
Have you tried moving the sound card to a different PCI socket (if you have one) as it sounds like an interrupt sharing problem. This sort of thing was supposed to have been eliminated years ago with ACPI, but sadly seems to turn up occasionally.

Unfortunately I have only one PCI slot :(

It could be an IRQ problem, because my PCI slot shares the ATA nForce controller.

But I am getting a new motherboard with a different chipset, although has 2 PCI slots the GPU is dual slot.

But yeah because it will be a different chipset (760G) fingers crossed it won't cause problems with the GPU.

Old thread but was wondering, what card could MAX out everything at 1440x900?

My HD 4870 is decent, but I want a card that can purely max out everything, AA, blurr etc.

I was looking at a HD 5830. Really I want a really fast graphics card for my CURRENT resolution.

I don't see myself going higher in resolution years to come. But if I do what card could the HD 5830 do?

I see its an alright card, I don't want to go into the 6/7xxx series until I really get into gaming, but at the moment its BF3 and Crysis that are my top games. But I am the type of person who wants to max out settings :P

What is you budget?? An HD6850 1GB or GTX460 1GB can be had for around £100. I have a slightly faster HD5850 1GB and it seems fine at 1680X1050.

Don't really want to go over £80.

My HD 4870 cost £50 and my HD 4830 cost me £40. So the difference between them was quite big, so obviously want something that is going to be much quicker than a HD 4870 to run at 1440x900 without going too expensive.

Obviously cheaper than £80 is great :P

The HD5830 is comparable to an HD4890 but with DX11 support.

A few weeks ago Novatech was selling HD5830 cards for around £75:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/xfx-...vatech-1118347

I would have a look around for a secondhand HD5850 1GB,HD6850 1GB or a GTX460 1GB.

Yes 2nd hand is the way to go, for that sort of money, new you can pick up a 5770 or 6770 which isn't going to be much better but should run cooler.

that 5830 cat is slightly better, however it was a sale to get rid of old stock so it's very unlikely you'll see it again.

oh and for 1440x900 these cards are plenty of gpu power.

What cards are good enough for 1440x900? HD 5770, 6770 or the HD 5850?

HD 5850 looks my best way to go then. What resolution would you expect this card to fully run at max settings at?

I don't think I will be upgrading my monitor any time soon, but if I would the next up would be 1600x1200. Could a HD 5850 max out at this resolution or would I really need to purchase a better card?

I don't want something too overkill for my current resolution, but I definitely want something that is going to last :D

Thanks!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mikeo01

What cards are good enough for 1440x900? HD 5770, 6770 or the HD 5850?

HD 5850 looks my best way to go then. What resolution would you expect this card to fully run at max settings at?

I don't think I will be upgrading my monitor any time soon, but if I would the next up would be 1600x1200. Could a HD 5850 max out at this resolution or would I really need to purchase a better card?

I don't want something too overkill for my current resolution, but I definitely want something that is going to last :D

Thanks!

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The GTX460 1GB and HD6850 1GB have better tessellation performance than an HD5850 1GB but the latter has greater shader power. As a result the HD5850 1GB tends to be ahead when the cards are at stock clockspeeds. All the cards tend to be decent for overclocking,especially the reference HD5850 1GB cards.

The standard HD5850 1GB has a 725MHZ clockspeed for the GPU. My reference one is pre-overclocked model which runs at 765MHZ. I tend to run the GPU at HD5870 1GB clockspeeds(850MHZ) and the same clockspeeds as the HD5870 1GB for the RAM.

Looking at the games I have played:
1.)Metro2033 ran at full settings fine at maximum settings at 1680X1050(DX11)
2.)Crysis2 seems to run fine on the highest setting at 1680X1050(DX11 with custom texture pack). I will try to load one of the more intensive levels to see if the card is fine. With much older drivers,a Q6600,4GB of DDR2 and 32 bit Vista it could be more choppy. However,with my newer computer which has a Core i3 2100,8GB of DDR3 RAM and Windows 7 64 bit gameplay seems much better.
3.)Fallout New Vegas runs fine at maximum settings at 1680X1050
4.)Borderlands runs fine at maximum settings at 1680X1050
5.)Portal 2 runs fine at 1680X1050 at maximum settings
6.)Hard Reset runs fine at 1680X1050 at maximum settings

The first two did give better framerates when the HD5850 1GB was overclocked to HD5870 1GB clockspeeds.

If you are patient,then a second hand HD6870 1GB is worth considering. It has slightly higher stock performance than an HD5850 1GB,better tesselation abilities and worse overclocking potential. However,a cheap HD5850 1GB will probably be easier to get hold off than a cheap HD6870 1GB. OTH,with the new GPUs being launched in the next few months,waiting a while longer might give you more choice.

You don't seem to have a super burning need for better graphics, so I suggest you wait a month.

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news...n-march-6.aspx


As for your monitor resolution, 3D 1080 panels are starting to get very cheap. I wouldn't plan for less pixels than that tbh (and/or 120Hz).

http://www.ebuyer.com/270573-free-ga...itor-d2342p-pn

I would never go with 3D, they look horrible. Rather a standard 17"/19" monitor, nothing to big or fancy.

And why wait a month? So the prices will drop?

I might hand in my HD 4870 and get money off a HD 6850. There is a PowerColor one for £98 on eBuyer.com, but I don't trust the name. It has only one 6-pin connector instead of 2, and it looks bit dodgy. I know they are the cheaper end but are they really that bad? For £98 I might consider it. The Sapphire ones are £110.

I will only consider this if I hand in my HD 4870 for a decent price though :P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mikeo01

I would never go with 3D, they look horrible. Rather a standard 17"/19" monitor, nothing to big or fancy.

And why wait a month? So the prices will drop?

I might hand in my HD 4870 and get money off a HD 6850. There is a PowerColor one for £98 on eBuyer.com, but I don't trust the name. It has only one 6-pin connector instead of 2, and it looks bit dodgy. I know they are the cheaper end but are they really that bad? For £98 I might consider it. The Sapphire ones are £110.

I will only consider this if I hand in my HD 4870 for a decent price though :P

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The HD6850 1GB only requires a single PCI-E connector.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mikeo01

I would never go with 3D, they look horrible. Rather a standard 17"/19" monitor, nothing to big or fancy.

And why wait a month? So the prices will drop?

I might hand in my HD 4870 and get money off a HD 6850. There is a PowerColor one for £98 on eBuyer.com, but I don't trust the name. It has only one 6-pin connector instead of 2, and it looks bit dodgy. I know they are the cheaper end but are they really that bad? For £98 I might consider it. The Sapphire ones are £110.

I will only consider this if I hand in my HD 4870 for a decent price though :P

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If you had read my first link, it gives rumoured dates of the next AMD graphics card releases.

As for the 3D monitor, if you don't use it in 3D you can get 120Hz out of it 2D. Anandtech were raving about that a while back, sounds like the way forward.