HELP! ATI HD3870 or 4850???

[SUPERREDDEVIL]

Hi guys!
I need your opinions about shopping a new videocard.
i´m between 2 choices.

the MSI ATI Radeon HD3870 OC Edition (RX3870-T2D512E-OC) GDDR4

or

the MSI ATI Radeon HD4850 (R4850-T2D512) GDDR3

Wich one of these would be a great choice? (dont worry about the money)

any ideas? any preferences?
please help me!
(and excuse my bad english)


another question: DO YOU THINK ANY OF THESE TWO VIDEOCARDS SHOULD WORK FINE WITH MY ACTUAL HARDWARE? AND WITH A THERMALTAKE PURE POWER 500W PSU? THNX!!

[Fitseries3]

4850 is better but you could save some money and get my 3870 for $95 shipped.

[oli_ramsay]

The 4850 is probably twice as fast as the 3870

You PSU should also be fine too.

[niko084]

Either way is a decent card..

But how fast do you want it to be, if you are happy with medium/high settings in some of the newest games, then the 3870 is a great card, if you want something that's pretty blistering fast then the 4850 is good to go.

[SUPERREDDEVIL]

Originally Posted by oli_ramsay

The 4850 is probably twice as fast as the 3870

You PSU should also be fine too.

THnx! i keep it in mind!

[niko084]

Originally Posted by oli_ramsay

The 4850 is probably twice as fast as the 3870

You PSU should also be fine too.

No its not... It's a bit closer to about 30-40% at stock clocks.

Originally Posted by fitseries3

4850 is better but you could save some money and get my 3870 for $95 shipped.

he is in colombia, so the shipping will be more than that,

other than that

go for 4850

[SUPERREDDEVIL]

Originally Posted by niko084

No its not... It's a bit closer to about 30-40% at stock clocks.

hey NIKO, if i want to run farcry 2 at max settings, wich one of ths two did you prefer?

Originally Posted by SUPERREDDEVIL

hey NIKO, if i want to run farcry 2 at max settings, wich one of ths two did you prefer?

hd4850.

[TRIPTEX_CAN]

Originally Posted by niko084

No its not... It's a bit closer to about 30-40% at stock clocks.

Without high quality AA and AF maybe 30% faster. With AA and AF turned on it is about twice as fast.

COD4 for example. Max settings 4xAA and max texture my 3870 (860/2400) would get 45FPS one of my 4850s gets 80+ FPS at the same settings.

3DMark with default settings is the only place they can remotely keep up IMO.

[SUPERREDDEVIL]

Originally Posted by wolf2009

hd4850.

ok, but WATH HAPPENS WITH THE GDDR4 memory???
isn´t enough for the 3870?

Originally Posted by SUPERREDDEVIL

ok, but WATH HAPPENS WITH THE GDDR4 memory???
isn´t enough for the 3870?

type of memory cannot compensate for the performance an architecture can provide. HD4850 is a more refined architecture than HD3870 and thus it is about 2 times fasted with AA and AF than HD3870 as said in above post

[SUPERREDDEVIL]

Originally Posted by wolf2009

type of memory cannot compensate for the performance an architecture can provide. HD4850 is a more refined architecture than HD3870 and thus it is about 2 times fasted with AA and AF than HD3870 as said in above post

ok, i got it, you mean that no matter the memory, the important thing it´s the manufacturing? no worries between GDDR3 or 4?

[VuurVOS]

Originally Posted by SUPERREDDEVIL

ok, i got it, you mean that no matter the memory, the important thing it´s the manufacturing? no worries between GDDR3 or 4?

GDDR3 or GDDR4 doesn't realy matter. GDDR4 must be clocked higher to give the same bandwidth as a lower clocked GDDR3 memory.

[SUPERREDDEVIL]

ok, let me ask everyone something.

the 3870 is Overclocked from factory and the 4850 dont.
that also doesn´t make any difference?

(3870 - GDDR4 Overclocked memory)
(4850 - GDDR3 Stock - clocked memory)

[niko084]

Originally Posted by TRIPTEX_MTL

Without high quality AA and AF maybe 30% faster. With AA and AF turned on it is about twice as fast.

COD4 for example. Max settings 4xAA and max texture my 3870 (860/2400) would get 45FPS one of my 4850s gets 80+ FPS at the same settings.

3DMark with default settings is the only place they can remotely keep up IMO.

In very few games will you see a 100% increase, and only in fairly specific settings.
In general terms its not twice as fast.

Originally Posted by VuurVOS

GDDR4 must be clocked higher to give the same bandwidth as a lower clocked GDDR3 memory.

its the other way around .

[johnnyfiive]

4850 for sure.

[Evo85]

4850. Wouldnt think twice about it either....

Originally Posted by SUPERREDDEVIL

ok, let me ask everyone something.

the 3870 is Overclocked from factory and the 4850 dont.
that also doesn´t make any difference?

(3870 - GDDR4 Overclocked memory)
(4850 - GDDR3 Stock - clocked memory)

not at all.

overclocking doesn't really have noticeable gains. Plus you can overclock HD4850 yourself

[niko084]

Originally Posted by wolf2009

not at all.

overclocking doesn't really have noticeable gains. Plus you can overclock HD4850 yourself

Ya the factory overclock doesn't do jack...

I would honestly go 4850 all day long, the price difference is so little and you really get so much.

[TRIPTEX_CAN]

Originally Posted by niko084

In very few games will you see a 100% increase, and only in fairly specific settings.
In general terms its not twice as fast.

The 3870 fails at almost any game when AA is used with a resolution above 1280x1024. I guess 100% is rare but 60%+ is guaranteed.

[SUPERREDDEVIL]

Wich one of this two probably gets more temp.?
(i think the 3870 gets more better cooling than the 4850...) correct me if i´m wrong...

[TRIPTEX_CAN]

It all depends on the cooler provided from the manufacturer, some 3870s shipped with a dual slot cooler that exhausts out of the case and some shipped with crappy single slot cooler that exhaust inside the case. The story is the same for the 4850. if you post pics to the card you are considering we can tell you if the coolers are good or not.

edit:

sorry I just looked at the model numbers you listed in your first post. Yes the 3870 will be much cooler.

[HTC]

Originally Posted by SUPERREDDEVIL

Wich one of this two probably gets more temp.?
(i think the 3870 gets more better cooling than the 4850...) correct me if i´m wrong...

The problems with the 48x0 line of cards were that the fan kept sticking @ under 25% which meant it would run @ like 90º under load. However, if you increase the fan's speed to like 40%, the temps drop to like 65º-70º under load which is about the same as a 3870, give or take.

You can increase the fan's speed further and get like high 40ºies under load but it comes @ a cost: the noise. However, if you stick a 3rd party cooler like Zalman's VF1000 LED, for example, you can get about as much widh much less noise.

Being a former owner of both a 3870 and a 4850, i can tell you that the 4850 packs a much more serious punch then the 3870, specially with AA/AF enabled, as many have said in previous posts.