HD4850 CF vs PNY 9800 GX2

[Tatty_Two]

how did you get 4 cables ? they only have 1 pcie 6pin connector

and £200ish is what 2 4850's can be grabbed for if you look. hes already stated he has the 4850s anyway so forking out for them isnt the issue.

i think theres nothing in it performance wise (afterall what games cant you play maxxed with either card setup?) unless you bench and even then im not too sure what would be the best setup

yeah it was pointed out on post 28 And yes you can get two for a hundred quid "ish" each but they tend to be mostly the lesser models with the lesser cooling, I actually ordered two Powercolour 1GB PCS+ cards this morning then cancelled it and got the 9800GX2, I forgot I had a coupon for the XFX GX2 for £179 (the shop only sells XFX therefore no ATi cards), the 2 powercolours would have cost me £276 for equal or similar performance, plus on my P45 board, in XFire I would only be getting 8x from each slot although I appreciate there is very little hit there, this way i get 2 GPU's at 16x

 

[Jeffredo]

Seriously if you have both setups ready, test both and post your results, then you know you made the best choice too.

I wish he would FRAPS a few games just to give us an idea of how they perform.

 

[{JNT}Raptor]

I have the 9800GX2 and couldn't be happier with it.....Tatty not that you need to hear this at all...but with your Quad at 4+gig.....It'll scream.....my E8500 at 4gig makes me weep for joy when playing with my GX2.....so your Quad should be absolutely awesome.

Just my 2c's.

 

[Tatty_Two]

I have the 9800GX2 and couldn't be happier with it.....Tatty not that you need to hear this at all...but with your Quad at 4+gig.....It'll scream.....my E8500 at 4gig makes me weep for joy when playing with my GX2.....so your Quad should be absolutely awesome.

Just my 2c's.

Thanks, sadly, I treated myself, I cancelled the GX2 and re-ordered the two powercolour 1GB PCS+ cards, just felt like a change in the end, I have not had an ATI card since my old 1800XT, went for the 1gig cards purely for my 19xx resolution plus in the unlikely event that i have a game that aint Crossfire compatible, the single 1GB card should do a little better, plus they overclock well

Edit: cancel....they are out of stock! damn site does not have live update of stock levels so half an hour ago it showed 4 cards, ordered two and just got an e mail saying none in stock, card not debited looks like it's the GX2 after all.....never mind.

 

[steve258]

4 each 4850 only uses one 6 pin, so he only needs two

Yeah, and not to mention the GX2 requires an eight-pin PCI-E so if you don't already have the cable or adapter it can be a ***** to find one - I had to make one myself when I had my GX2.

I would go with the GX2 if it suits your needs. It draws less power + less heat + single card solution = the winner to me.

Single card only in the sense that it requires 1 PCI-E slot. It still uses internal SLI so the usual SLI compatibility applies.

Also the GX2 ran HOT - had to switch fan to 100% most of the time and that's after I took it apart to reaply AS5 and left the metal casing off. The side and back panels of my Lian-Li alu case were uncomfortable to touch after half an hour of gaming.

Had to say though performance wise it was pretty staggering, in most games it's still up there with the GTX280/260 so I'm sure OP won't be dissapointed.

 

[Tatty_Two]

I have ended up ordering two Palit 1GB HD4850 Sonic's and they each come with an 8 pin PCI-E connector at least they include the adaptors in the box and my PSU comes with one fitted in anycase. At the end of the day, with UK prices I have got GTX280 beating performance for £80 less than a 280.

 

[mullered07]

congrats tatty, im sure you wont be dissapointed, i love the perf of my 4850's im actually surprised how well they scale in most games giving a noticeable boost

 

[Tatty_Two]

congrats tatty, im sure you wont be dissapointed, i love the perf of my 4850's im actually surprised how well they scale in most games giving a noticeable boost

Thanks, they will be here Monday, I only really went for these because.........

1. They are palit's
2. The coolers are excellent and actually blow the air outta the back
3. I wanted the 1GB's to ensure performance at 19XX res.
4. They were actually cheap in comparison to ANY other 1GB cards (I found a nice little etailer)
5. Some reviews overclock them to 790mhz!!!!!!!
6. They are Palits (again!)

 

[mullered07]

am gonna have to get me an aftermarket cooler for my powercolor 4850, that biatch gets damn hot, its not too bad with fan control but then you have to factor in the noise, my other is an msi r4850 t2d512 with a damn nice custom cooler on it that keeps it around 44c idle and 55c load and its quiet

its this one i believe

 

[Tatty_Two]

Looks nice and similar in some ways to the palit, this is their cooler albeit this is on the 512mb model.

 

[mullered07]

do the 1gb versions come with that smaller non reference pcb ?

 

[Tatty_Two]

do the 1gb versions come with that smaller non reference pcb ?

Yes they do, however unlike the powercolor 1GB cards, the memory is all on the front side so gets cooled by the fan, I have bought some Thermaltake copper ramsinks for the VRM's and mosfet to add some additional cooling although the palits are 3 phase which hopeful means they will run cooler and more stabily. Like yours, the cooler has two heatppes also and the angle of the mounted fan blows the air outta the back.

 

[mullered07]

i suppose thats the good thing about them and obviousley there smaller so take up less room, but they dont look like beastly cards lol

id have to keep telling myself yes they are 4850's, not 4650's

 

[Tatty_Two]

i suppose thats the good thing about them and obviousley there smaller so take up less room, but they dont look like beastly cards lol

id have to keep telling myself yes they are 4850's, not 4650's

Yeah, i just hope they perform like 4850's! I like the smaller design however, my GTX260 was a real tight squeeze, I have a pretty clean Antec P182 and when a card is a real squeeze you have lless options for cabling etc.

 

[mullered07]

tell me about it, im thinking of opening her up today, maybe re-applying as5 and popping some on my reference 4850 to see if that helps with temps and getting back on top of my cabling

seriousley though i know its going to take at least an hour for the cabling alone as it means pulling things out and putting them back in again

 

[DarkMatter]

About "matture" drivers:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3462

The AMD approach spreads the driver team too thin and concentrates efforts on getting the next driver out rather than on making the next driver good. Consider what AMD went through from 8.10 to 8.11, with the transition to X58 and the release of Far Cry 2. From 8.10, after multiple different hotfix revisions we still didn't have a driver that was really complete. When 8.11 came out, we still had no joy. This week finally saw the release of a hotfix that addresses our issues, but the majority of gamers won't see the changes integrated until 8.12. Essentially, the 8.11 driver release is just a placebo and a waste of time and money. It serves only a marketing purpose to make end users feel all warm and squishy inside.

I agree 100% with that and I have agreed since the very first day Ati started with the monthly drivers. As long as you only play the newest and most notable games everything is OK, but you are always bound to lose stability for older games in a certain Cat driver, just to get support again in the next, just to loose it with the next one once again. The result was me having to use the latest working driver until I found a new one that worked with my setup, and ultimately dual booting windows just to not screw up my OS with so many installing and reinstalling.

On the other hand, I have never had an issue with the Nvidia drivers, even complete betas. Incomplete hotfix beta drivers (which are usually meant for a certain game) do have some compatibility/stability issues with older games, but you can avoid them. The worst thing it can happen if you don't use them is that you won't get some extra performance. Of course the same goes for Cat drivers, but what's the point of having a new driver every month if everybody is going to skip some of them??

What was true for me with the X19xx series is still true to my friends. Most of my Ati owner friends, which are not enthusiast gamers (1-2 new games per year) have to stick to one driver, until they find one that also support their old games, which usually happens to be 3-6 months. In the end a complete driver release every 3-6 months would be simply so much better for them.

 

[CDdude55]

I would buy a 9800 GX2.

But thats only because i have a 680i board and i could get another one later and go Quad SLI!.

 

[eidairaman1]

Your system would get away with a 9800GX2 CD, but id recommend another 100 watts if you will overclock your machine.

 

[CDdude55]

Your system would get away with a 9800GX2 CD, but id recommend another 100 watts if you will overclock your machine.

True, and probably and bigger monitor.19''(widescreen)

 

[eidairaman1]

just to let you know that was at 100 % load and that is the worst case scenario, i did a Wild Config of 2x 2500M oc to 2343 MHz, and a 3850 512, 3 120 mm fans, 2 SATA HDs, and 4 gigs DDR (Dual Socket Mobo) with Cap load a little higher and it winds up using 540 vs 572 at max load.

 

[CDdude55]

I would get a GX2(my current 8600 GTS paired with my QX6700 CPU is depressing).

But they don't sell them on Newegg anymore, i think i saw one there thats always out of order.

Maybe TigerDirect.

 

[CDdude55]

Dam, its not on Newegg or Tigerdirect anymore.wtf.

 

[eidairaman1]

probably being phased out for the 9800GTX+, and GTX 260+

 

[Solaris17]

I would buy a 9800 GX2.

But thats only because i have a 680i board and i could get another one later and go Quad SLI!.

running an EVGA 608i in quad sli and amazing

Your system would get away with a 9800GX2 CD, but id recommend another 100 watts if you will overclock your machine.

with system in specs

<------ i draw 750w load idle atm is 473

Dam, its not on Newegg or Tigerdirect anymore.wtf.

i just looked son of a bi$%^ theve been deactivated hurry and try to find one before you cant!!!!

http://www.pcconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail.htm?sku=8443797&oext=1010A&srccode=cii_5784816&cpncode=17-23815320-2


as for micro stuttering dont be afraid i was at first when all these people were fire and brimstoning me about it....nope...never experianced it...and the new drivers made operation even better. performance is amazing.

 

[Hayder_Master]

the 2x 4850 in cross fire throw 9800 gx2 away , but 9800gx2 win in single card