MobAttack

I am getting ready to start buying parts to build a new computer. I am a thrifty person; see my sig computer tells you how long I hold onto stuff.

My question is: Should I get one 4850 now, and think about possibly adding a second one in the future? Or should I find $60 more bucks and get a 4870 1GB card now? I assume that two 4850s will out perform a single 4870, but they do cost $80-100 more to do it.

What's your guys thoughts?

Either way, I will be getting an 8400 with a GA-EP45-UD3P board and 4GB of memory. My monitor runs at 1680x1050

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meticadpa

Two 4850's will smash a 4870 1GB but crossfire isn't always awesome and your board will be running them at 16x and 8x speeds. Personally, I'd get the 4870 1gb now and add a 4830 or something later to smash the crap out of the 4850 CF

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linskingdom

Based on what you described, 4870 1GB is the way to go. Make sure you budget some money for a solid 550w psu for this. 4850 is 105w and 4870 is 150w.

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MobAttack

I did not know you could do CF with a lesser card like that. I mean, I knew you could, but I thought one card would drop in performance to the lesser. If I can just boost the 4870 with the 4830, that sounds awesome.

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Prong

Quite correct. You don't really wanna cf a 4870 w/4830. No way. Go for 4870 1 gb and if you can afford one more 4870 in near future you will have a nice 4870x2 performance there. Only one 4870 1GB alone can kill any game out there and is more than enough anyways. Specially at 1680x1050.

Ricdeau

You can Crossfire any card from the same series. However, think about the lowering costs of this generation of cards. I'd get a single 4870 for now and then when the prices go down some more get a second 4870. That's probably what I'm going to do to tide me over until I build a whole new rig.

Just know that your board will Crossfire in 8x and a solo card will run at 16x. However, contrary to some reviews there's quite a number of people that said there's no real visible difference in running 8x Crossfire and 16x Crossfire on any cards outside of 4870X2 quadfire. I take a pretty decent grain of salt with reviews and I'd much rather read various accounts from actual users that do more than just a couple tests to try to make a clear conclusion. Robilar has tried pretty much every setup there is with 4870's (including 4870+4850) and said the 4870 crossfire performed pretty much the same in 8x and 16x modes. Take that for what you will and good luck!

PS - Definitely get the 4870 and think about getting a second 4870 for crossfire later on.

-iceblade^

4870 1gb

with the card you'll be able to do well in most games and wait for price drops after the next round of cards. not to mention for the moment at least you won't have to deal with a reduced vram amount and crossfire issues.

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MobAttack

Thanks all for the information. Seems that 4870 is the way to go for me. (Now I just have to tell my wife I am spending $60 more bucks)

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