2 x 4850 vs GTX460?

[Dent1]

Performance = 4850 in CF
Value for money = 4850 in CF
Convinience and power consumption = GTX 460
Stability = GTX 460

It comes down to what your client wants most.


Bear in mind I think the OP is looking at the 1GB 4850 not the 512MB.

In my opinion, a single GTX 460 is the better option as it will still trade blows with the 4850 in CF without the headache. Get a SLI ready motherboard and stick in a second GTX 460 later!

 

[JATownes]

Performance = 4850 in CF
Value for money = 4850 in CF
Convinience and power consumption = GTX 460
Stability = GTX 460

It comes down to what your client wants most.


Bear in mind I think the OP is looking at the 1GB 4850 not the 512MB.

You think 2 4850s will outperform the GTX460? I would be interested to see benches. I have a pair of 4850s and I love them, but they are getting a little dated (though still VERY powerful).

 

[Tatty_Two]

Performance = 4850 in CF
Value for money = 4850 in CF
Convinience and power consumption = GTX 460
Stability = GTX 460

It comes down to what your client wants most.


Bear in mind I think the OP is looking at the 1GB 4850 not the 512MB.

He wouldnt really need 1GB cards for that resolution though.

 

[Dent1]

You think 2 4850s will outperform the GTX460? I would be interested to see benches. I have a pair of 4850s and I love them, but they are getting a little dated (though still VERY powerful).

Its hard to find a benchmarks of the 1 GB 4850 in crossfire let alone against a GTX 460 on the same graph, so you have to use a little bit of estimation.

In all honesty they'll be about the same performance wise with variations depending on the game, some games will favour the GTX 460 768MB and some will favour the 4850 CF. If you've got the 4850 CF already you'd need a much wider upgrade, you should be looking at a 5850 at least or ideally a 5970.

Here is my justification,

In picture 1 the 4850X2 (the 1 PCB version) when the stats are averaged across all resolutions and games the 4850X2 is 3% faster than the GTX 280. In picture 2 it shows that the GTX 280 is faster than the GTX 460 768MB by 2%. This proves that the 4850X2 is slightly faster than the GTX 460 768MB, unfortunately this isn’t the 4850 in CF but it gives you a idea.

1.) http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Sapphire/HD_4850_X2/images/perfrel.gif
2.) http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Axle/GeForce_GTX_460_768_MB/images/perfrel.gif


In the link below it shows that the 512 MB 4850 CF is on par with the 1 GB GTX 280, they trade blows i.e. one benchmark favours one, in another benchmark the other wins. However notice that when the GTX 280 wins its usually smaller FPS separation, however when the 4850 CF wins its by a wider frame separation. At the highest resolution of 2560x1600 (blue bar) and with the highest detail and 4xAA the 4850 won in: 3D Marks Vantage, 3D Marks 06, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, World in Conflict DX9 (draw), World in Conflict DX10, Unreal Tournament, and Devil May. Crysis and Prey are evenly matches but to the GTX280s favour, again we are talking about highest resolution @ 2560x1600 and highest detail only.

Also the author of the review says:

On the other hand, the HD4850 presents consumers with the perfect Crossfire card since it is relatively cheap even when you buy a pair of them (under $400 in some cases) and they perform amazingly against the similarly priced GTX 280. In our opinion a pair of HD4850 cards really hits a sweet spot in the price / performance category. This combination offers performance which in most cases is equal to or greater than that of a GTX 280 while retailing for less money.

So to sum it up, according to W1zzard's review the GTX 280 is faster than the GTX 460 768MB (but still on par). And according to Hardware Cunucks the CF 4850 512MB is faster than the GTX 280 (but still on par). This means the CF 4850 512MB is faster than the GTX 460 768MB!

Now, considering that this was on the "old" 512MB version of the 4850 it is clear the new 1 GB 4850 in CF is will be even more faster.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...4870-hd4850-crossfire-performance-review.html

I hope that you guys appreciate this as it took me a few hours of research, so I expect a big thank you. lol

 

[phanbuey]

I...rs of research, so I expect a big thank you. lol

thank you!

now considering that a gtx 460 overclocks by ~30% and... we can conclude that it stomps both the 280 and the 4850 CF does it quieter, with less power consumption and dx11, which means soft shadows and tesselation, higher min framerates, and fewer driver glitches. Even if you dont use it now, it is nice to have.

But 30 % is a huge margin of overclock which puts in inline with the 470, which trades blows with a 5850 (look up ocd 460 reviews and it does keep up with 5850/470 in alot of games) Like the KFA2 from galaxy, and thats not even the max oC- with 920MHz on the core, this card is in 5850 territory.

 

[Dent1]

Phanbuey, to be fair the 4850 overclocks pretty as well. Its pretty normal for the 4850 to reach the performance level of a 4870 at stock, its been done numerous times. A 4870X2 is faster than a single 5850 and 5870 - according to W1zzards review, so I would presume that a OC'd CF 4850 would be too especially if its the 1 GB variant there is no reason why it couldnt also surpass the a OC'd 768MB, 5850, and 5870.

But yes, I agree that overall the a single GTX 460 768 is still the better deal opposed to the 4850 CF due to DX11 and power consumption at a similar performance and price range. I would only recommend the CF 4850 in true faith if one had a card already.


Edit:

This image is the relative performance of all the games at all resolutions. The 4870X2 beats out the 5850 and 5870.
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_5970_CrossFire/images/perfrel.gif

 

[phanbuey]

Phanbuey, to be fair the 4850 overclocks pretty as well. Its pretty normal for the 4850 to reach the performance level of a 4870 at stock, its been done numerous times. A 4870X2 is faster than a single 5850 and 5870 - according to Wizzards review, so I would presume that a OC'd CF 4850 would be too especially if its the 1 GB variant there is no reason why it couldnt also surpass the a OC'd 768MB, 5850, and 5870.

But yes, I agree that overall the a single GTX 460 768 is still the better deal opposed to the 4850 CF due to DX11 and power consumption at a similar performance and price range. I would only recommend the CF 4850 in true faith if one had a card already.


Ediit:

This image is the relative performance of all the games at all resolutions. The 4870X2 beats out the 5850 and 5870.
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_5970_CrossFire/images/perfrel.gif

yeah true... i didnt think the 4850 could touch the 4870, but then again my experience with the 4870 was less than stellar.

 

[JATownes]

Many thanks Dent1. Great synopsis. I always wondered but never researched it. Now I don't have to. Many thanks.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Similar to what i said in post 24 And I had both the 280 and CF 1GB 4850 Sonics @880mhz at the same time.

 

[brandonwh64]

also change the CPU from a 440 to a 555BE or something

 

[HossHuge]

joeyck,

If you can give me 24 hours, I'm about to do some game benching cause I want to decide which CPU I should sell, my PII-550BE or AthlonII-425. I'm going to O/C both. That's from rig2 in my spec.

I also plan on benching my 4580 1GB crossfire system from rig 1 as well.

It might help you decide.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Two 4850s are the equivalent of one stock 5850 roughly. So compare the 5850 vs the 460 and you will see what 4850s in crossfire would do.

 

[Triton.se]

I ran two 4850 for a while. They are in fact monsters in a pair. Only reason I upgraded is for DX11. Plus a 5850 is a tad faster but no crossfire problems.

Same here, ran two 4850's in xfire, real "monsters" ...drivers scared me even more... IMO useless combo !

Two 4850s are the equivalent of one stock 5850 roughly. So compare the 5850 vs the 460 and you will see what 4850s in crossfire would do.

LOL ..come on !!! 3 days ago I took my two 4850s out of one rig, replaced with a single GTX260... Crossfire problems, 10.4 are OK'sh.

Xfire and BFBC2 work like this: you can't gain many fps with the 2nd card, instead you can add eye candy, 4xAA etc for similar fps...

atleast with a 3.9GHz Pentium Dual Core, 4GB RAM, 1920x1080 rez..

 

[TheMailMan78]

Same here, ran two 4850's in xfire, real "monsters" ...drivers scared me even more... IMO useless combo !



LOL ..come on !!! 3 days ago I took my two 4850s out of one rig, replaced with a single GTX260... Crossfire problems, 10.4 are OK'sh.

Xfire and BFBC2 work like this: you can't gain many fps with the 2nd card, instead you can add eye candy, 4xAA etc for similar fps...

atleast with a 3.9GHz Pentium Dual Core, 4GB RAM, 1920x1080 rez..

Every bench on TPU says I'm right so I'm going with W1zz and my personal experience on this one.

 

[Flak]

My 4850 CF setup in my system specs is slower then a Galaxy 1gb GTX 460 GC version in the same system and the GTX 460 isn't overclocked over what it comes at (700/1890). Needless to say for now the GTX 460 is in my main rig and the 4850cf has been moved to the spare gaming rig with the 512mb 8800gts moved to a third gaming rig.

And dumping the CF setup has allowed me to overclock my i7 further with lower voltages across the board.....

 

[mdsx1950]

GTX 460!

Will not perform as well as the 2x4850s but you will get DX11, Physx, CUDA, etc

 

[JATownes]

Just out of curiosity, what does the GTX460 bench in Vantage or 3DM06? With my PII 940 @ 3650Mhz and my 4850s at 700Mhz I hit just under P14000 in Vantage and just under 20,000 in 06. So I was just curious.

 

[mawbzee]

Little bit late but....

I have a 4850 x 2 1gb card in my wifes comp. She has an i7 @ 4000Mhz and the card is clocked at 690mhz gpu and 1120mhz memory.

She is getting a 3d mark 06 score of just over 26,000

Hope this helps any one that stubbles across this old thread

 

[wolf]

Just out of curiosity, what does the GTX460 bench in Vantage or 3DM06? With my PII 940 @ 3650Mhz and my 4850s at 700Mhz I hit just under P14000 in Vantage and just under 20,000 in 06. So I was just curious.

My 460 OC is at P20600 with a X6 1090T @ 3.8ghz, GPU score 17,282.

that was a high oc for the card tho... 915mhz core, 1830mhz sp's and 4400mhz effective memory.

EDIT: lol didnt see the dates of the posts... old thread lol.

 

[JATownes]

LOL...yea, I have since upgraded to a pair of MSI Twin Frozr 6870s and a PII965 @ 4.0Ghz, so my question is moot at this point.

This was a major revive of a necro thread...

 

[REDDLINE]

I'd say, go for the GTX 460, i have owned both, well my cousin actually has owned both
he had 2 4850's in his computer, first one gave out, sent it back, and the second one had EXTREME temp problems, i even have a post in the Ghetto Mods about it on how i cooled it.

Currently he has a Galaxy GTX 460, and it runs very well, not too hot, maxes most games at 1680 by 1050, and he also has the high performance GOU H@H running on it which is always good!

If it was up to me, the GTX 460 is a very nice card and very stable compared to the 4850.


P.S. and heres my post in Ghetto Mods on the 4850 if it means anything

Ghetto Mods

 

[REDDLINE]

Oh wow, didn't see how old this was!

:S

 

[yogurt_21]

yay for thread necromancy!

 

[joeyck]

yea.. i went ahead with a gtx 460 and a phenomII for him xD