Radeon 4770 upgrade advice please

[sonik1]

hi all , new guy here, signed up after searching for info on google and finding this place , i just built myself a new rig, not built a machine for many years so it was great fun ..

asus p5q turbo,
Q9650,
2x2gb ocz, 2x2gb nanya ?.
zalman cnps9700 cpu cooler,
radeon hd4770,
cm storm sniper case,

i bought this card because i wasnt really up to date with the latest cards etc, but now after looking about the net etc, i see everyone is using the gtx 275/285/295 cards , shall i sell my 4770 and get a 275/295 ? i only have 1 pci x16 on my mobo but that can be replaced if need be ..

will i see major improvements from the 4770 to the either of the above cards ?

[Easo]

5870... or 5850

[sonik1]

wow i just had a little peak , didnt know about these cards , thanks for heads up, so i take it your saying dont bother with the gtx's and wait for 4850/70 ? price on amazon is $319.99 for the 5850 thats seems cheap ..

[JrRacinFan]

What's the max res of your display and which games do you play?

[LittleLizard]

Originally Posted by JrRacinFan

What's the max res of your display and which games do you play?

agree, if not u may get overkill videocard.

up to 1440*900 your card is just fine

up to 1080p, gtx 2xx series

from 1080p and up = sli or crossfire

[sonik1]

i just got a benq full hd 1080p 22" screen, i play cod4, battlefield 2 and mods, streetfighter 2 err, batman, and many more to come , only just started with pc gaming after years, ps3 still there aswell

[JrRacinFan]

Originally Posted by LittleLizard

from 1080p and up = sli or crossfire

I am sorry I have to correct you here. From 1920x1200 and up = 4870x2, 58xx, or GTX295.

1080p is ALOT weaker than 1200p, so a GTX275 would work brilliantly with 1080p.

[[Ion]]

In that case you will want something like a GTX 260/275 or a Radeon HD4870/HD5850

[LittleLizard]

Originally Posted by sonik1

i just got a benq full hd 1080p 22" screen, i play cod4, battlefield 2 and mods, streetfighter 2 err, batman, and many more to come , only just started with pc gaming after years, ps3 still there aswell

then i would get a 4870/4890 or a gtx 2xx card if u want to max at that res.

[sonik1]

so a 285 or 295 would be overkill for me ? what about when i connect to my sony 42 inch 1080i/720p.. 1080p was to much when i got the tv..

or is it best to forget about the big screen and concentrate on 22"

[JrRacinFan]

You have the same resolution on both displays.

Purchasing a GTX295 IMO would be ridiculous where the 5870 is cheaper and is faster. Remember guys the 5870 still has immature drivers. A GTX285 would just allow to max out on the AA side of things altho then again so would the 5870.


And to be fair and honest, just as long as you don't add AA to any of your games, your 4770 can respectably play titles max'd on 1080p.

[[Ion]]

Originally Posted by sonik1

so a 285 or 295 would be overkill for me ? what about when i connect to my sony 42 inch 1080i/720p.. 1080p was to much when i got the tv..

or is it best to forget about the big screen and concentrate on 22"

Yep, anything over a GTX 275 or a Radeon HD5850 would be unnecessary and a waste of money unless you plan on upgrading to a 26"+ display (1920x1200) in the near future

[sonik1]

ok i think i'm with you guys lol, aa = anti alias thingy .. so i need a 285 or equal ati card to max settings . what does aa do exactly ? will i be missing out ? sorry noob question i know,

i wont be using any other screens for now 22" mainly and sometimes 42" sony when friends are over for some streetfighter etc,

ps, is it windows 7 or the forums that refreshes auto new posts ? whatever it is its great

[niko084]

Could we simply start with what games do you play?

LOL

Because if the highest end graphical game you play is COD4, you don't need a different video card for even 1920x1080.

Everyone is so quick to jump and start rambling off cards.

From that list you made, I see no reason to upgrade from that 4770 if you already have it.
Clock it up a bit and that card performs pretty darn well, near the 4870/gtx 260 marks.

Personally I wouldn't jump on the 5850/5870 bandwagon quite yet, those prices should be dropping in the nearing months.

A 4890 can be had for well under $200.

[sonik1]

Originally Posted by niko084

Could we simply start with what games do you play?

LOL

Because if the highest end graphical game you play is COD4, you don't need a different video card for even 1920x1080.

Everyone is so quick to jump and start rambling off cards.

From that list you made, I see no reason to upgrade from that 4770 if you already have it.
Clock it up a bit and that card performs pretty darn well, near the 4870/gtx 260 marks.

Personally I wouldn't jump on the 5850/5870 bandwagon quite yet, those prices should be dropping in the nearing months.

A 4890 can be had for well under $200.

lol i change games a lot so i wanted a card that could handle ANY game i throw at it,

you make some good points niko, i just ran cod4 online and i was getting 60/70 fps but not sure if that was constant , as when i'm playing i forget to look at fps. does fraps record fps so we can look back on data ? so i can see the lowest and highest fps etc.

i forgot about overclocking the card, it has its own software to do this, not sure what settings to change ?

[niko084]

Read up carefully about how to clock video cards, I personally use rivatuner, allows you to control fan speeds as well, or you could use the ATI CCC, there are options in there for it as well, the 4770 clocks really nicely it seems.

Yes fraps will record and display a graph for you also.

Never buy a card just to play "ANY" game, they don't exist, and you will spend thousands of dollars trying to keep up to that standard.

Best off buying a card within your set budget that allows you to play the games you play and/or figure you may play at acceptable settings and frame rates... The rest is simply a very expensive investment that never gains any returns and takes and takes more money, fast.

Should have seen how pissed off people were when they bought the P4 EE right before the C2D release, or the 3870x2 shortly before the 4850/4870.

I mean if you live to game and have the money, go ahead but seeing as you didn't jump for a $300+ card to start with, I'm guessing you were looking for some semblance of balance in cost/performance.

That's my whole opinion on the matter, same reason I have had my 4850 since about 2 days before it was supposed to be released

It plays Crysis Wars 1920x1080 overclocked a bit and not totally cranked on the settings perfectly fine IMO to be competitive and enjoy the same. I am personally waiting for a card that uses less power and will give me 10-20% performance increase to upgrade, also it's going to cost under $200, that's my rule.

[JrRacinFan]

Originally Posted by niko084

I am personally waiting for a card that uses less power and will give me 10-20% performance increase to upgrade, also it's going to cost under $200, that's my rule.

So a possibility of that being the ATi 5600 series or the lowest end of the GT300 maybe ... Hmmmm ....

@sonik1

I still say a GTX275 or bust.

EDIT:

This might help you, 1080p really isn't that much of a bump from 1680x1050 . . .



Source

[niko084]

Originally Posted by JrRacinFan

So a possibility of that being the ATi 5600 series or the lowest end of the GT300 maybe ... Hmmmm ....

I was thinking like a 5770 or something similar, there are rumors of that card.
Kinda wait and see what happens.

@sonik1

I still say a GTX275 or bust.

Indeed I would agree, 4890/gtx275 seem to pretty much hit the nail for price/performance, you get pretty outstanding performance without crossing that line.

[sonik1]

very good advice allround, appreciated greatly , i'll have a look into clocking this 4770 a bit, then i think i'll do like you guys suggest and go for a gtx 275 or 4890 probably the 275 tho cos i like the look of nvidia cards inside the machine i was so close to ordering the 295 last night (3am) lol, that baby almost had me, good thing i held back,

heres a couple of pics i took

[sonik1]

thought i would post the results after running the fraps benchmark,

playing cod4 on max settings,

these are the results :

Frames
735

Time (ms)
16168

Min
45

Max
46

Avg
45.46

if any UK (london) people are reading this and know a good store to get gpu's from let me know
my regular store (yoyotech) only have the 285/295 etc in stock, no 275's

[JrRacinFan]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/896MB...-DL-DVI-I-HDTV



EDIT:
Or found these ....

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1Gb-S...90-1GB-VAPOR-X

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161725

[sonik1]

thanks for the links , i notice the nvidia cards never have hdmi connection but the ati's have 2 dvi's and hdmi . is there a loss of quality using DVI ? or DVI to HDMI connector ?

the 275 in the first link looks REALLY tempting, price is good, batman aswell

[Zubasa]

Originally Posted by sonik1

thanks for the links , i notice the nvidia cards never have hdmi connection but the ati's have 2 dvi's and hdmi . is there a loss of quality using DVI ? or DVI to HDMI connector ?

the 275 in the first link looks REALLY tempting, price is good, batman aswell

Quality wise DVI = HDMI
In fact HDMI comes from DVI to be honest

But really, if you just want to play games at 1440x900 just overclock your HD 4770, they are great clockers. (Some guys manage to get that rv740 to 1Ghz)
If you want to upgrade, wait for the 5770 or wait for the 5850 to drop in price. (or the GT300 if those ever see daylight soon)
Upgrading to GTX/HD4k is just a waste of money if you own a 4770.

[sonik1]

so DVI is all good thanks for clearing that up for me Zubasa,

ive been messing with Rivatuner as nico suggested, and i have the core clock at 820mhz, and memory clock at 930mhz , i ran cod4 with fraps again and my average FPS is 86 ,


so after a few tweaks in riva i went from 45 avg to 86 avg

does that sound right ?

[niko084]

Originally Posted by sonik1

so DVI is all good thanks for clearing that up for me Zubasa,

ive been messing with Rivatuner as nico suggested, and i have the core clock at 820mhz, and memory clock at 930mhz , i ran cod4 with fraps again and my average FPS is 86 ,


so after a few tweaks in riva i went from 45 avg to 86 avg

does that sound right ?

Sounds a bit crazy to me, but I wont say it's false, as long as it's working, maybe ati's wonderful powerplay *read CRAP* was having its havoc on your minimum fps switching clocks. Since using rivatuner you lock your clocks so powerplay can't downclock and upclock your card constantly...

Me = NOT happy with power play, the old 2d/3d clocks worked much better.

So I lock my card at 315gpu/500ram and 30% fan speed for normal use and more basic games, and when I hardcore game it goes to 745gpu/1050ram and 60% fan speed. Saves the electric bill and helps keep down on the heat when I'm not gaming.