graphic cards for beginners.lol

[chelseaman]

  Thought I would share this one to show there is still bargains out there. I am presently running two ATI 4870`s in crossfire. @4.1GHz (stock 2.67GHz)
I purchased two brand new cards from reliable sellers on E-bay.
Friday--- XFX HD 4890 1GB 850MHz  for £87
Saturday---HIS 4890 ATI Radeon Turbo Graphic Card 1GB 900MHz 4Gbps for £107

Both still in the box,crossfire-x enabled DDR5,plenty of room to install both. fans may be a bit louder. Will be here mon/tue.
Will I notice much difference.
tks

[Synbios]

I'm not too familiar with the ATI/AMD line of cards but I wouldn't expect much of an improvement, especially since the 5 series of cards is out now. The thing about crossfire/SLI is that usually a single latest card is better than two of the best older generation in duo.

[chelseaman]

Anyway, the Radeon HD 4890 CrossFire has proved to be a worthy opponent to the GeForce GTX 285 SLI configuration. The latter is generally faster at low resolutions, but ATI’s configuration secures a draw at 1920x1200 and higher resolutions. Therefore, we can expect it to be faster than the GeForce GTX 285 SLI tandem from the same price category. We will check this out practically in an upcoming review.

As for practical recommendations for gamers, it would not be wise for us to make them basing on our list of 15 games only, especially as you should take into account the display resolution you are going to play at. Still, we can note that if you want maximum performance in Crysis Warhead or Far Cry 2, you should consider building a GeForce GTX 285 SLI, but a Radeon HD 4890 CrossFireX configuration would be better for F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin or Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.

On par with GTX285 and even touching the 295 on some points.(http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=3&id=2903&pg=1) Considering the price of these single cards you will nearly always come out ahead with two cheaper cards in SLI/Crossfire.Remember the GTX285 was running in Sli for these tests, .Also tests were run with HD4890 at stock 850MHz, They will be comfortable at 950MHz
Will keep you posted.
tks

[Synbios]

Kind of irrelevent, the 285 and 295 are very old and are about the same generation as the 4xxx ati series so whats your point? Of course crossfire 4890's are going to be faster than a single 295, as a 295 is only 260's in SLI. Of course the 4890 is going to be up to par with 285's in SLI.

I'm saying a really good single 5xxx series ATI is probably better than two 4xxx series in crossfire. The argument with nvidia is erroneous because they have not release a 5xxx contender yet. This has been the longest gap nvidia has ever had in a long time without a new release of a card, the new nvidia cards are coming out this spring though, they would be up to par with the 5xxx series and probably a little faster.

One of the "best" nvidia setups RIGHT NOW is dual 285's (lets forget about triple SLI for the moment), but I gurantee the new nvidia card will be faster than dual 285's, and dual 285's will be cheaper than the new nvidia card. That's always how it is. Dual of the older gen is always cheaper but still slower than a single of the newer generation.

[chelseaman]

I'm saying a really good single 5xxx series ATI is probably better than two 4xxx series in crossfire. .

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd5850.html
If you check out the tests on this link you will see that even my present rig  2xHD4870 can easily match the HD5850. The HD5850 was highly overclocked,whereas the hd4870 was only running at 750MHz. Both my cards run at 780/790 core and 1080/1100. , THE 2 HD4890 are 1GB and will run 950MHz. So when you look at the price of one single high end card(even the HD5870) and my purchase of 2 cards at £197 there will not be an advantage. My present rig is achieving 23,000+ cpu marks in Vantage.
regards

[Synbios]

When I say "really good" 5 series i'm referring to top of the line 5 series, 5850 is middle of the road as there is a 5970 which would blow it out of the water. From an economical perspective, yes crossfire/SLI will always be cheaper than buying a single high-end card, but the performance will be lower as well.

Again I'm not too familiar with ATI/AMD's video card lineup, but that's how it works in the nvidia world. Also with nvidia, a higher number does not imply better performance, it simply refers to newer generation. For example an 8800 card could be faster than a 9600.

You get what you pay for is true, but the cost/performance ratio does go down as you get into the higher end cards (you pay exponentially more for linearly more performance). For the people who just jump on the brand new, absolute best graphics cards are always making a poor economical decision. SLI/crossfire can be a feasible option for people who want more performance for a cheaper price, it all depends on the models in question. It looks like you've made the proper research involved with the models you're looking at it, so you got a pretty good deal.

[chelseaman]

Hello again,  Everything up and running.Brilliant !!
Ran both cards at basically stock settings 900core/1000 mem for over 24hrs to check out. An immediate 15% increase  for vantage marks. Excellent cooling fans on cards,and I like the way the warm air is blown out of back of case directly from card.
Tests on the cards in forums show they good OCer`s.  max 971/1150 (which I will not try)
One member posted that his 2x HD4890 in crossfire would make the HD5870 eat dirt. lol

Anyway will have some fun these next few days adjusting etc
tks

[MinLo]

for beginners??? all this info known between OP TEX, made me feel like I've never had a graphics card....

either way ignore my spam, I'll shut up and maybe learn a thing or 10....

[billyfridge]

for beginners??? all this info known between OP TEX, made me feel like I've never had a graphics card....

either way ignore my spam, I'll shut up and maybe learn a thing or 10....

yeah you should get yer 'head' round it MinLo.....lol

[chelseaman]

  Stop picking on MinLo ,Billy. He will have to learn as I do. Probably quicker since he is just out of diapers (or was that his young ones. ).
Anyway to bring you up to date I started testing the 2xHD4890 cards. The XFX is a stock 870/975MHz  core/mem. whereas the HIS Turbo is a factory overclocked to 900/1000. So why not start both at 900/1000. No problems,temps were minimal. I used one graphic test from 3D MARK Vantage namely New Calico for all. checking with Temp 300 and Core temp plus a few others. During the test the FPS were very reasonable 50-60-70-80 with peaks at 88fps. Remember this is cpu running at 3.7GHz (stock 2.67GHz). I upped everthing to 930/1045 MHz (after several 5-10 MHz variations) with frame rates increasing into the 80`s and peaking at 94fps. Happy enough, but something was not quite right. Should have done much better,and then realised that my old ACER 22 inch monitor at 1680x 1050 resolution does not excite the HD4890 . need a new monitor, 24 inch with higher resolution 1920 etc. So thats whats holding me back at present, If Billy would only send me that money for the Chelsea support fund,I might make it.
Will follow up shortly.
tks

[chelseaman]

  bump
Upgrading to 50MB broadband next Wed afternoon. Virgin Media will have 100MB  before end of 2010 ,and are presentlly running 200MB  in Kent and Coventry on a pilot scheme.
tks