Best PCIe Card: ~$200 To $300
Best PCIe Card For ~$200:
Two Radeon HD 4850 in CrossFire Configuration (Check Prices)
Exceptional 1920x1200 performance, 2560x1600 in most games with some lowered detail
| Two Radeon HD 4850 in CrossFire Configuration | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | 2 x RV770 |
| Process: | 55nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 1,600 (2 x 800) |
| Texture Units: | 80 (2 x 40) |
| ROPs: | 32 (2 x 16) |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 625 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 993 (1,986 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10.1/SM 4.1 |
With the price of the Radeon HD 4850 at $100, two of these cards in CrossFire are going to deliver great performance.
This setup provides a startlingly powerful solution for such an attractive price point, easily beating out a single Radeon HD 4890 and GeForce GTX 275 at a similar cost. The only drawback: you'll need a CrossFire-compatible motherboard and a decent power supply. Fortunately, CrossFire is now quite prevalent, so finding a compatible board for your platform of choice shouldn't be a problem.
Best PCIe Card For ~$250:
Two Radeon HD 4870 512MB in CrossFire Configuration (Check Prices)
Exceptional 1920x1200 performance, 2560x1600 in most games with some lowered detail
| Two Radeon HD 4870 in CrossFire Configuration | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | 2 x RV770 |
| Process: | 55nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 1,600 (2 x 800) |
| Texture Units: | 80 (2 x 40) |
| ROPs: | 32 (2 x 16) |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 750 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 900 (3,600 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10.1/SM 4.1 |
Do you want the performance of ATI's new Radeon HD 5870, but don't want to pay $390 for the privilege? No problem, just run a couple of Radeon HD 4870s in CrossFire. For $250, your performance will actually come close to that of the new Radeon HD 5870 on average. Just remember, you'll need a CrossFire-compatible motherboard and a decent power supply to take advantage of the savings.
Best PCIe Card For ~$290: None
Honorable Mention: Radeon HD 5850 (Check Prices)
Exceptional 1920x1200 performance, 2560x1600 in most games with some lowered detail
| Radeon HD 5850 | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | Cypress |
| Process: | 40nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 1,440 |
| Texture Units: | 72 |
| ROPs: | 32 |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 725 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 1,000 (4,000 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 11/SM 5.0 |
Two Radeon HD 4870s in CrossFire will school the new Radeon HD 5850 when it comes to raw frame rates, but the new 5850 has some definite advantages. It doesn't need a CrossFire-compatible motherboard, it uses a lot less power thanks to its 40nm manufacturing process, and it sports DirectX 11 capabilities (plus Eyefinity). For this reason, it gets an honorable mention, and to many of you it may be a more attractive purchase than two Radeon HD 4870s in CrossFire.
Read our full review of ATI's Radeon HD 5850 for more information on the card and its accompanying architecture.
That was a while ago though and hopefully they've overcome those problems by now. Plus half the idea of the first 40nm chips being released in the mid-range was because there would be less of a rush on them if I remember correctly.
FYI - in the chart the single Radeon 4850 is down as 485, not terrible but could be irritating if people search the page for it
Can you say how many tiers sli/crossfire of a particular card might bump it up the chart? Would 2 8800 ultra's be the same as a single GTX280 or 285? For example.
$75 = £45
$80-$130 = £48-£78
$140-$200 = £84-£120
$200-$300 = £120-£180
$300-$350 = £180-£210
$360$+ = £216+
Usefull info for people using the british version of THG who dont understand american currency
You seem to have forgotten VAT at 15% on that list. UK prices tend to be pretty much $1 to £1 by the time things get here
Fantastic reviews as usual.
However....
The new 5850 was a little underrated in my opinion for the following reasons:
It easily overclocks to the within a whisker of a 5870
It is almost silent
It looks so cool
It's performance is almost double the 4870
It's idle power consumption is so negligable
It supports DX11
Where the hell has Nvidia gone??????
Tips:
Dirt (original) runs BAD on Vista with 5850 (not sure on Widows 7) but on XP its gotta be seen to be belived!!!!! Just lovely!
Turn off Autogen on Flight simulator X.....it looks beautiful!
I bought a 5850 and agree with the previous post. Low idle noise, power consumption, better power management all round than 48xx and hardware protected against overheating. Overclocked the core from 725 to 850 and memory from 1000 to 1250 without raising the voltage. ATI Tool and Crysis Warhead stable. Raising the voltage will give you even higher core clocks - is this even possible with any other card? Asus card with 3 year warranty and voltage tweak advertised on the retail box - you really should factor this into any performance comparisons.
Please can anyone tell me whats the best video card between these 2?
Video Card ATI Mobility RADEON® HD 4670 – 1GB
NVIDIA GTX 260M 1GB VRAM DDR3 Graphics Card
Another good review Don but I think your being very sympathetic to NVidia considering their availability of some of these cards is far worse than ATI.
The DX 11 factor will also become increasingly important ... pushing the current NVidia cards to the back of the heap.
How well do their cards stack up on frame rates against the new ATI cards on Win7 then?
TNX Tom's Hardware... Big Help!..
^_^
Looks like a 5850 for me then...