pigdog

I am thinking of moving from a Gainward 8800gtx to an Xpertvision 4870 1gb Sonic edition, but I can't find much info on the internerd about the latter. So here I am.

Question 1 - Would I see much of an improvement overall (not just framerates) by going to the 4870, or should I not bother and just stick with the 8800?

Question 2 - Is the Xpertvision card any good? It's been offered to me for $380aud.

Cheers
pd

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BlueMak

I guess it depends on the resolutions you play your games at.
I don't know how much faster the 4870 is to the 8800gtx, but my guess is at lower resolutions, below 1680x1050, it shouldn't make much difference if at all, at least for games that are already out.

You can always check the reviews here at driverheaven.

I have a 4870x2 and it is hell of a lot faster than my 8800GTS 640, but I guess that isn't the exact configuration you are asking about.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

pigdog

Still pertinent though, because a question I should have asked but didn't is: How are the ATI drivers dealing with games like Fallout 3, Far Cry 2 and The Withcher EE etc?

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Dyre Straits

There are Hotfix Drivers out for FC2. Not positive about F3. As for The Witcher EE, I've played the game to death. The only problem I've seen is if you enable AA. Then the windows on buildings become invisible and a few other things. Disabling AA takes care of it.

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BlueMak

The The Witcher EE, with AA disabled, no problems at all. With Far Cry 2 I don't know, I don't have the game. Fallout 3 looks and plays great or at least as good as Oblivion plays/feels with a slightly jerky-like movement. But that is peculiarity of the engine than the card or the drivers.

The above under Vista 64.

I don't know, but it feels their drivers are good enough and at least as good as Nvidia's.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

sammorris

Far Cry 2 runs maxed at 2560x1600 with AA on a 4870X2, so a single 4870 as long as it's the 1GB version should do fine at 1920x1200. From what I read, I would probably place the 4870 1GB as being around 40-50% faster than the 8800GTX.

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kris23

just to let you know, a GTX 260 with 216 stream processors is faster than the 4870 1GB

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pigdog

Thanks. And to you BlueMak. So it sounds like the drivers are mature enough. That's always a good start.

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pigdog

Nearly every bench test based review I've read rates the 4870 over the 260. Particularly when taking into account bang for buck.

Performance-wise it's certainly competitive, and even though I've had a brilliant experience with my 8800gtx, I think ATI/AMD is the way I want go for now.

Thanks for the thought though.

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Judas

i bit the bullet.... sold my hd3870 i had been using for a year and currently using my 2 x1900xtx's (crossfire edittion and an xtx) in crossfire while i wait for my HD4870

i didn't want to get a new card until ati released thier R800

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kris23

and those are all 192 stream processor GTX 260s youre looking at man......

the 216 variants are A LOT better.... superclocked cards are close to GTX280 speeds but not quite....

excellent for 300 USD though

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drperry

But how playable is "runs" at that resolution? lol

Mine stays above 30 FPS @ 1680x1050 with everything maxed, and no AA with Far Cry 2...

Turning on AA makes it drop into the 20s. Not playable.

Using the new hotfix driver, though, the game is a lot smoother, and spends more time above the 40s and 50s, than it used to.

BlueMak

So, you are not considering the 4870x2? I have it for few days now and I am VERY impressed with it.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

pigdog

Having had a quick look at some reviews on the 216 variants, I agree with you totally. But it still comes down to cost. Here in Australia, with the exchange rate etc, it would cost me nealy $200 more to go that way.

But I will give it some more thought before deciding, so thanks for the help.

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pigdog

I'd love to be able to even just be able to dream of thinking about considering maybe planning on getting an x2.

But my wife would kill me if she suspected I'd even looked at a review of one.

She say's it all comes back down to the budget thingy. Whatever that means

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drperry

Get a 1GB 4870 for now, then a second one later... Crossfire time!

pigdog

mmmmm.............. and it just so happens that I do have a crossfire ready mobo.

Actually, how good is Crossfire compared to SLI nowadays?

Because that could be the clincher regards whether I go ATI or nVidia.

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kris23

its difficult to say whether or not one technology is better, since both have crappy driver times......

what kind of motherboard do you have? if you have an intel board that supports crossfire, get that

if you have a nvidia board with SLI, get that

if you have neither, just buy one card now and get the other when you buy a new board....

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Chaos

anyone have any time with the Sapphire 4870 Toxic, I just ordered one and was curious

blibbax

Woah how did that happen? We think we get ripped off here in the UK, but the difference is only £10 or £20 (less than $40 US).

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A Desire to Game

Crossfire definitely shows better scaling in ALMOST all games. There are always those games that nVidia runs better on and those may be the deal breaker. You honestly need to look at which games you like to play and what resolution. That should be the determining factor.

The 4870 1GB is a great card. According to benchmarks such as AnandTech: The Radeon HD 4870 1GB: The Card to Get the 4870 1GB is the better card in almost every benchmark.

Hope this helps.

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Three is my new favorite number. (SATA III, USB 3.0, and triple channel memory)

Judas

got my hd4870 which replaced my hd3870... although unfortunately it's made by HIS.. which hasn't produced a bad card or anything.... the only part the kinda sucks it the fan on it..

the fan that is on the HD3870 i had never got clogged with dirt and dust.. where as the style of fan this one has will definitely show problems .

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pigdog

Well, after taking all things into account I've decided on the Palit 4870 sonic (1GB) edition. The Crossfire potential was the decicing factor. Oh, and price as well.

FYI, Palit has gone with a self-designed dual fan cooling system. From the reviews this seems to be a double edged sword.

On the side of good: The 4870's run a tad on the warm side - Palit's cooling solution does a great job on dealing with the heat.

On the side of evil: The fans expel the exaust inside, rather than out the back of the case. And by all accounts, the fans make quite a racket at load.

Anyway, I should recieve the beast tomorrow. I'll post my impressions once I've given it a bit of Fallout3 loving.

PS Thanks to everyone for the help and advice

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BlueMak

I have to say, after owning a X2 for a few weeks now, I am a bit confused. Yes, it is true that the temperature could reach very high degrees, BUT, that is only if you let the fan speed at default levels and let the (what I would call broken) auto settings for it. If say you're going to play something very demanding for a long time, you should set the fan speed manualy at say 70% and you will not see a high temperature out of it.
For me it is not a matter of the X2 being so hot, but that the fans are so noisy.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

drperry

At least at 70% the fan isn't that bad... It's still loud, but nothing like it is when it's at 100%.

I think the only reason my case doesn't hover is because it's in the 40 - 50lb range, lol.

A Desire to Game

50lbs!!! You should send that thing over to Iraq to help shield our troops!

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Three is my new favorite number. (SATA III, USB 3.0, and triple channel memory)

sterben

It's a good car for a enthusiast, if you game a lot then go for it.