Video card upgrade advise

[Reece]

I had shelved SH5 because my computer system is getting a little "old"! I recently purchased Trainz 2010 (2009 release) and even setting video options way down still jerks around, I would have thought it would run this!! however I am not flush with funds but I think the best move would be to upgrade my old ATI HD4850 512, though I still use WinXP Pro so updating to a newer card will change this to 1024mb taking a further chunk out of the 3gb XP works with, I questioned this before here way back but it is getting more urgent. If I do upgrade it would be to a later ATI card as the Asus AMD motherboard is optimized for this.
Advise please!


Specs:
Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe with 4 PCIe X16 slots.
Processor: AMD Phenom II dual core running at 3.7ghz
Ram: 4gb Kingston HyperX 1060mhz
Video ATI HD4850 512 HIS Turbo running at 685mhz
Windows: XP Pro

[FIREWALL]

Hi Reece

A buddy has this card for 3 mo's and loves it. This card for the low price exceeded his expectations big time.

Lots of features and runs real cool with dual fans.

AND... Lifetime warranty to boot.

Amazon thru SubSim : http://www.amazon.com/XFX-Radeon-Min...9999407&sr=1-2


TigerDirect : http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...997&CatId=7005

With all the Specs and Info and Reviews also to compare with Amazon Reviews.

[Reece]

Interesting, I just checked and can get it locally for the same price, I wonder how it compares to a 6870, ($40 more)?

Edit: Just did a compare and the 6870 is way ahead:
http://www.hwcompare.com/9994/radeon...adeon-hd-6870/
I might do a compare between my 4850 and the 6870 just for fun!
http://www.hwcompare.com/6044/radeon...adeon-hd-6870/
Only a little faster!!
So far this seems the way to go! the 1024mb with XP pro is a worry though, I also better check to see if it will run ok in a PCIe X16 slot!

Thanks for starting the ball rolling FIREWALL.

[FIREWALL]

Here's 2 examples of 6870 Reece.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...407&CatId=7005

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...408&CatId=7005 Black Edition

I could be but, besides some small difference in specs you get a game for Black Edition.

Both factory OverClocked and still Lifetime Warranty.

[FIREWALL]

Originally Posted by Reece

Interesting, I just checked and can get it locally for the same price, I wonder how it compares to a 6870, ($40 more)?

Edit: Just did a compare and the 6870 is way ahead:
http://www.hwcompare.com/9994/radeon...adeon-hd-6870/
I might do a compare between my 4850 and the 6870 just for fun!
http://www.hwcompare.com/6044/radeon...adeon-hd-6870/
Only a little faster!!
So far this seems the way to go! the 1024mb with XP pro is a worry though, I also better check to see if it will run ok in a PCIe X16 slot!

Thanks for starting the ball rolling FIREWALL.

Always willing to help a friend and, you've always been one.

[Arclight]

6870 or 6850 sounds good. 6790 is not worth it at $150,-.

[Reece]

Yes there is not much between the 6850 and the 6870:
http://www.hwcompare.com/5999/radeon...adeon-hd-6870/
but the price difference is quite a bit, I prefer to buy locally because it is easier to return if something goes wrong, I also prefer the Gigabyte range, there cooling fans are open for easier cleaning.
The 6850 here is $173

The 6870 is $215

At this stage the 6850 might be the best move since money is scarce of late!! This way I save $42, I will see what my better half thinks, she controls the funds!
Thanks again.

[Arclight]

Got a Gigabyte 460. Lovely cooler on there. Barely audible and hasn't gone past 65C on the heaviset load.

Though normally I'd advice Sapphire for Radeon. Don't think the 6850 would disapoint in any case: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3987/a...idrange-market

...

Without the EVGA card in the picture though, the 6870 is clearly sitting at a sweet spot in terms of price, performance, and noise. It's faster than the 5850 while drawing only as much power and yet it's still slightly quieter. Meanwhile it completely clobbers the reference clocked GTX 460 1GB in gaming performance, although with NVIDIA's new prices and the $30 premium we would hope that this is the case. If nothing else the 6870 wins by default - NVIDIA doesn't have a real product to put against it.

As for the Radeon HD 6850 however, things are much more lopsided in AMD's favor. It's give and take depending on the benchmark, but ultimately it's just as fast as the GTX 460 1GB on average, even though it's officially $20 cheaper. And at the same time it draws less power and produces less noise than the GTX 460 1GB. In fact unless the GTX 460 1GB was cheaper than the 6850, we really can't come up with a reason to buy it. For all the advantage of an overclock when going up against the 6870, the stock clocked card has nothing on the 6850. Even the GTX 460 768MB, while $10-$20 cheaper than the 6850, still has to contend with the fact that the 6850 is almost 10% faster and only marginally louder.

...

[Reece]

Good stuff Arclight and another reason the 6850 is more attractive is that it has a substantially lower power consumption so my old PSU will probably handle it without any problems, as it is the PSU runs cool to warm even though it is only 650watts!!

[FIREWALL]

Originally Posted by Reece

Good stuff Arclight and another reason the 6850 is more attractive is that it has a substantially lower power consumption so my old PSU will probably handle it without any problems, as it is the PSU runs cool to warm even though it is only 650watts!!

Who makes it Reece ?

[FIREWALL]

Well I still say my friends card is better. You better compare the specs.

XFX 6790 Core Clock 800 just for starters And most important LIFETIME Warranty. $149.00


Sapphire 6850 Core Clock 775 1yr Warranty $165.00 on up.


There's enough Specs on both cards at the TigerDirect link if you just compare the numbers "like Core Clock"

to figure out the way to go. Don't go by the model number and think it has to be better because it's higher.

Fell free to ask me any questions. ...

[Arclight]

Hmm clock rates are misleading. The 6850 has a fair amount of more hardware to work with. Double the ROPs and 960 stream processor compared to 800 on the 6790. Just more core to do the heavy lifting, you'd need a pretty hefty overclock on a 6790 to close the gap. Considering it's already running higher clocks and is still slower I doubt it could even do it.

[Reece]

The only 6790 available locally here is a HIS for $154, the HIS 6850 is $168 but prefer the Gigabyte for $173, in the comparison test it is very close but I think the 6850 is a bit better:
http://www.hwcompare.com/9995/radeon...adeon-hd-6850/
What do you think Arclight?

Who makes it Reece ?

The video card is Gigabyte the PSU is Vantec.

[Arclight]

I'd say if you can spare it, go for the 6850. We're just arguing over $20,- right?

At the end of our 5830 review last year, we said the issue came down to $20: the 5830 was $20 too expensive for what it offered. It’s fitting then that this seems to be the same problem with the 6790. If it were a $130 card it would fit in well between AMD’s other cards; it would beat the GTX 550 Ti, and it would make NVIDIA think long and hard about what to do with the GTX 460 768MB. Instead AMD is committing the same mistake as the 5830 and as the GTX 550 Ti by launching it at $150. $150 is quickly becoming a great place to mislaunch cards.

Long term I’m a bit worried that the $150 price will stick, giving AMD a price floor to bring up 6800 series prices. The 6790 is solidly ahead of the GTX 550 Ti, so if that’s the only thing AMD bases all of their pricing around they can charge more than the GTX 550 Ti, and more for the 6800 series on top of that. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but we have seen video card prices creep up before.

For the time being there’s not much going for the 6790 to recommend it. Throw some rebates on the Radeon HD 6790 to get it down to $130 and we can talk. Until then the GeForce GTX 460 768MB or the Radeon HD 6850 are both much better products.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4260/a...hort-at-150/15

[Reece]

That is right Arclight, the 6850 for the $20 more is a better buy and I can get it locally so I think this is what I will do, if I had the extra money I would go for the 6870 but then I may have to get a new PSU that would raise the price considerably!
Thanks guys, that is what I love about Subsim, always get the best advise from good friends!