HD 4770 or HD 4850 in Crossfire?

[El_Mayo]

They are the same price (surprisingly) on novatech
i hear the 4850 performs only SLIGHTLY better than the HD4770
but the 4770 cools better and uses less power.
which should i get?

 

[erocker]

4770 is pretty much neck and neck with the 4850 when slightly overclocked, uses GDDR5, has better power consumption and is cheaper. Get 4770's.

 

[El_Mayo]

oh okay man thanx
when you say over clocked... can i do this with the catalyst control panel?

 

[El_Mayo]

what does it mean if a motherboard has only "ATI Hybrid CrossFireX support"
and not "AMD Hybrid CrossFireX and DX10 Support "?

 

[erocker]

Yes you can! You have a link to the 4770's for sale? Is it the cheaper cooler or the dual slot rear exhaust cooler? Personally I think this one looks the best: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10010472

Whenever they go on sale, I'd like to pick up two of them, or a 4890 atomic whatever comes first.

 

[El_Mayo]

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?SAP-4770
HD 4770
will this motherboard work with it?
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?ASU-M4A78P

 

[Darren]

In crossfire mode two 4770 is faster than two 4850 according to the numerous independent reviews by TPU members. Do a search and you'll see this has been discussed before and favoured the 4770s.

 

[El_Mayo]

i just have
will be getting that
does the above motherboard seem like a good choice though?

 

[erocker]

That isn't a CrossFire motherboard, there's only 1 PCI-E slot. It's a very good motherboard though, I believe that's the same one that cdawall uses and it overclocks great.

Without spending too much more money on a 790FX Asus, this one does support crossfire: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?ASU-M4A78E

 

[El_Mayo]

that's the exact one i was looking at instead
thanks for confirming =]

 

[El_Mayo]

but where on that page did it say anything about the number of PCIe slots?

 

[erocker]

Look at the picture. It also says right in there that it supports CrossFire.

 

[El_Mayo]

i can't tell from the picture lol
it said hybrid crossfire on the first one
but i have no idea what that is

 

[erocker]

Hybrid CrossFire is for combining the onboard graphics with a 3650 graphics card. Pretty much useless unless you have an urge to have CrossFire in an accounting computer.

 

[El_Mayo]

lmfao.
okay mate
thanks a lot =]
i just edited my build list thanks to you
it now reads:


AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 940BE

HD 4770 x2

Asus M4A78-E AMD 790GX


Any CD/DVD Rewriter

22" monitor - any decent one

Logitech MX518 Gaming Grade Optical Mouse

[Corsair/OCZ/Crucial] 4GB DDR2 800/1066 Mhz - Not fussed with the memory

brand..
Coolermaster HAF 932

1TB Hard Drive

OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W

 

[Darren]

780G chipset is one of the best for AMD, expensive but good nether the less very good.

Bear in mind £80 on a motherboard with crossfire and £160 on the 4770, that is £240 in total.

You could easily find a Nforce 8 based board or equivalent for say £50-60 (without crossfire) and £115 on a single ATI 4870 512 MB that is £175 in total for a solution that almost as fast as your crossfire solution whilst being £65 cheaper.

Even if you went for a GTX 260 or 1 GB 4870 you'll still save around £40.

The crossfire 4770 is only worth while financially if you already have a crossfire board!


Edit:
XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 512 MB £114.99 inc VAT
http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-137-XF

PowerColor HD 4870 1GB GDDR5
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164557 £142.98inc vat

PowerColor HD 4870 1GB GDDR5 £142.98inc vat
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164557

XFX GTX 260 896MB DDR3 216Core £142.14inc vat
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/160987

Gainward GeForce GTX 260 Golden Sample £134.99 inc VAT
http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-104-GW

 

[El_Mayo]

ahh yes.. but i'm building a computer i won't have to upgrade for 2-4 years
in the future games should be "GPU multi threaded" (i think i just made that up)
besides.. i'm gettin the pc for an incredibly low price (friend's "discount")
so it won't matter

 

[Darren]

ahh yes.. but i'm building a computer i won't have to upgrade for 2-4 years
in the future games should be "GPU multi threaded" (i think i just made that up)
besides.. i'm gettin the pc for an incredibly low price (friend's "discount")
so it won't matter

2-4 years? the solution I recommended will last just as long as your crossfire solution as performance is similar, the only difference is my solution saves you money, does your friends mate rate only extend to novatech.co.uk?

When crossfire in games has full support your 4770 will be too slow to play games regardless of it being in crossfire, quadfire or octofire...


octofire, that sounds gangsta. lol

Edit:

From a financial standpoint, if you are content with picking up a crossfire board you can still do so whilst benefiting from a financial saving.

For example, you could pick up a £80 crossfire board and pair it with a single 4870 512 MB (£115) or a single 4870 1GB (£140) or GTX 260 (£140)

in either event, you get your crossfire board which allows one to put in an additional card in a year or so whilst benefiting from a financial saving of between £20-45 today whilst also maintaining similar performance to the 4770 crossfire solution.

PS. A few weeks back I saw a few genuine AM3 boards for around £50-60 on ebuyer, I think they were Asrock and Asus Nforce 8200s

 

[El_Mayo]

2-4 years? the solution I recommended will last just as long as your crossfire solution as performance is similar, the only difference is my solution saves you money, does your friends mate rate only extend to novatech.co.uk?

When crossfire in games has full support your 4770 will be too slow to play games regarless of it being in crossfire, quadfire or octofire...


octofire, that sounds gangsta. lol

Good point.. but i just want 2 HD4770 for bragging/epeen rites
no his rate doesn't extend to novatech.. he gets them from.. somewhere else.
octofire DOES sound pretty gangsta
if i purchase the Crossfire board.. future ATi cards can be doubled up.. and if i only want one i believe there is a feature that allows different cards to be used in crossfire?
as for the current... i just want that extra gaming performance.

EDIT: The motherboard is also AM3.. and future AMD CPU's will probably be compatible with it.. as opposed to a 50 pound AM2+ motherboard

 

[El_Mayo]

From a financial standpoint, if you are content with picking up a crossfire board you can still do so whilst benefiting from a financial saving.

For example, you could pick up a £80 crossfire board and pair it with a single 4870 512 MB (£115) or a single 4870 1GB (£140) or GTX 260 (£140)

in either event, you get your crossfire board which allows one to put in an additional card in a year or so whilst benefiting from a financial saving of between £20-45 today whilst also maintaining similar performance to the 4770 crossfire solution.

PS. A few weeks back I saw a few genuine AM3 boards for around £50-60 on ebuyer, I think they were Asrock and Asus Nforce 8200s

but.. HD4770's are better than 1 GTX 260..
i see what you mean however.. that in the future i can pick up ANOTHER GTX 260
but for now.. the low power consumption, high performance and low temps are just to great to pass up 4770's over GTX 260's for only 20 pounds more

 

[Darren]

but.. HD4770's are better than 1 GTX 260..
i see what you mean however.. that in the future i can pick up ANOTHER GTX 260
but for now.. the low power consumption, high performance and low temps are just to great to pass up 4770's over GTX 260's for only 20 pounds more

Indeed two 4770s are faster than one GTX260, but only slightly.


There is only about 10 FPS between the 4770 crossfire solution and the GTX260/4870 1 GB solution on average.

If you were to go with the crossfire board regardless then yes £20 extra is justifiable, but like I said a cheaper £50-60 board non-crossfire will mean at least a £45 saving overall. You have to ask yourself is an extra 10 FPS average worth an extra £45?

Good review which shows around 10 FPS gain on most games:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-4770-crossfire,2288-1.html

Edit:

Also, in that review on some games where crossfire was wasn't heavily supported in games the two 4770s lost to the single card solutions or the performance increase was only only 1-2 FPS ahead.

 

[El_Mayo]

Good review which shows around 10 FPS gain on most games:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-4770-crossfire,2288-1.html

that's the exact article that made me want to buy 4770's
yes.. 10FPS gain in CURRENT games.
who knows whether games will become better scaled/multi threaded?

 

[Darren]

that's the exact article that made me want to buy 4770's
yes.. 10FPS gain in CURRENT games.
who knows whether games will become better scaled/multi threaded?

So effectively you are gambling?

You are willingly paying more for the hope that game developers will get off their lazy asses and implement crossfire as standard. Technology moves so fast planning ahead is a waste of money in this game and you'll end up with a hurt wallet, buy the best and cheapest solution today.

Personally I'm all for crossfire, I would love a 4830X2 but the entire idea of crossfire is to save you money, if money isn't being saved you've defeated the purpose.

Edit:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?XFX-4830
69 pounds
two of those are.. 138 pounds
two 4770's being 160
a saving of 22 pounds.. but for weaker perfomance, higher idle temps/power consumption.

Indeed, but I bought my XFX 4830 when the 4770 didn't exist

 

[El_Mayo]

So effectively you are gambling?

You are willingly paying more for the hope that game developers will get off their lazy asses and implement crossfire as standard. Technology moves so fast planning ahead is a waste of money in this game and you'll end up with a hurt wallet, buy the best and cheapest solution today.

Personally I'm all for crossfire, I would love a 4830X2 but the entire idea of crossfire is to save you money, if money isn't being saved you've defeated the purpose.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?XFX-4830
69 pounds
two of those are.. 138 pounds
two 4770's being 160
a saving of 22 pounds.. but for weaker perfomance, higher idle temps/power consumption.

 

[El_Mayo]

lmao xD
it seems liek.. HD4770's are the way to go =]