9800GTX+ or Sapphire 4850

[kalniel]

The ati 4850 has the advantage of being a shorter card, so will have less issues fitting it into a case.
However I don't like thoes ati coolers, they run too hot for my likeing.
The Akasa Vortexx NEO cooler looks to me as the best option for it, so that adds £20 to the price.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=810140

If you're spending 20 quid more then get one of the 4850s with 1gb ram that come with a custom cooler, or get the HIS icethingy version.

[Pob255]

Which ones are thoes? I've not seen any without the stock cooler yet.

[mercyground]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=837911

I did see a gigabyte board with what appeared to be a zalman style orb cooler on it. Cant find it at present.

:edit: Found it on this review. http://www.product-reviews.net/2008/...graphics-card/
:edit2: urm that appears to be a nvidia card its on... I know i've seen a 4850 with a similar cooler on it... /me goes off to trundle web again.

[richieuk]

So what would the benefit of a 1GB board be to a 512MB? Percentage wise...

And would that run cooler? I'd probably invest in that rather than Sapphire if there was noticable difference... Bearing in mind i'll probably go no higher than 1280 res, possible 1440

[Zhaoman]

Lol at that res, 1Gb would make no difference compared to 512Mb. GPUs need memory when doing heavy texturing and anti-aliasing. The bigger the screen the more memory it needs. 1Gb will generally only produce better results on 1920x1200 or above.

[richieuk]

The 3870 vs 4850, whats the difference there? What does the GDDR4 do that the GDDR3 doesnt etc?

[kalniel]

The 3870 vs 4850, whats the difference there? What does the GDDR4 do that the GDDR3 doesnt etc?

GDDR4 is a bit faster, but no point having faster memory when your GPU is many many times slower.

[Zhaoman]

GDDR3 is actually more energy efficient than GDDR4. That's why we're seeing the jump from GDDR3 to GDDR5.

[Pob255]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=837911

I did see a gigabyte board with what appeared to be a zalman style orb cooler on it. Cant find it at present.

:edit: Found it on this review. http://www.product-reviews.net/2008/...graphics-card/
:edit2: urm that appears to be a nvidia card its on... I know i've seen a 4850 with a similar cooler on it... /me goes off to trundle web again.

That's an Asus card not a gigabyte, and the review is for the gigabyte 9800gt with zalman cooler.

It's the standard Asus cooler, they use that on quite a few of there cards.
it's not a flower type, which are made by takeing lots of thin sheets of metal and soildering them together in the middle and bending the edges out.
This cooler is a single solid block with radial fins, like the intel stock cooler.
Intersetingly unlike other of the Asus cards which use this cooler that one doesn't have the heatsink on the PWM chips, eg http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=718682

[Pob255]

GeCube have always done great coolers on there ati cards
Looks like they might have the card you were thinking of
http://www.gecube.com/products-detai...prod_id=383202
No idea where to get it? or how much?

EDIT:
Sapphire also do one, under there Toxic range
http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/produ...gpid=247&grp=3
looks good but again no idea where? or how much?

EDIT2: found the toxic it's £150
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146872

So personally I'd go for a cheap stock 3850 (powercolor for £109) and that Akasa cooler for £130 total.

EDIT3:
Ebuyer have the Akasa cooler for £16.67 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/147765 makeing the total £125.63

[mercyground]

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?...hlbnRodXNpYXN0
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?...50aHVzaWFzdA==

Basically if you are gaming at 1280x1024 then a 4850 will easily cover you and the new CFSA profile will make older games look damn nice.

Once you go above that res (ie having a large flat panel and stupidly highres) then you need more power. X2 4870?

The new 4800 series sucks less power, and is cheaper and better. I'd like an exhaust cooler on a 4850 thou. dumping gfx card heat back into the case isnt a great move. Dumping it externally like they did on dual slot coolers is much better idea.

[richieuk]

Wow, this is alot of info, so like, does the 9800GT not run a similar AA setup then?

[mercyground]

I wouldnt go with the 3800 series. Its underpowered. The 4800 series is a total world apart. Go have a looky at the hardocp review.

Nvidia had to drop the prices of its top end chips cos the 4870 kicked its arse hard. The x2 4870 will crush even the gx280's.

[Pob255]

Sorry thoes reviews are rather skewed, they are pitting the 4850 vs the 8800gt

And even from that review the 4850 can happly cope at 1600x1200 so why would you want two 4870 if you go above 1280x1024? (which in min res these days)

From the verious reports and reviews so far the 4800 series does AA very well, the 4850 vs 9800gtx are pritty much level pegging, turn on AA and the 4850 creeps ahead slightly.

They are both faster than the 9800gt, but you'll not notice it on 1280x1024 when you're over 60fps on any game and exta 10-20fps make no real differnce.

[jam163]

Always worth a try on 9 months finance, then you got jan and april to help too, but tbh, I actually already have finance with V12 mate but they still refused me

What Uni you attending?

I would only get finance if i knew i could get it paid before 6 months and the interest free period. I was at salford now at preston. How about you?

[errata]

Very lilkely the non reference coolers will launch within weeks and ATI drivers will improve a little faster for the 4000 series than the already mature drivers for the 9800 series.

There seems to be no real reason at the moment to suspect anything other than immature bios firmware is making the 4000 series run so hot. The coolers seem capable if the fan speed is up enough or has anyone heard to the contrary?

By the wayHD video decoding and HDMI support on the ATI is way better if thats a factor