Best PCIe Card: $200 To $300
Best PCIe Card For ~$200:
2x Radeon HD 4770 in CrossFire Configuration (Check Prices)
Good 1920x1200 performance
| 2x Radeon HD 4770 in CrossFire Configuration | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | RV740 |
| Process: | 40 nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 1280 (2 x 640) |
| Texture Units: | 64 (2 x 32) |
| ROPs: | 32 (2 x 16) |
| Memory Bus: | 128-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 750 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 800 GDDR5 (3,200 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10.1/SM 4.1 |
Two Radeon HD 4770s in CrossFire are a deadly combination for the price, besting much more expensive and powerful cards like the Radeon HD 4890, the GeForce GTX 275, and probably coming close to the GeForce GTX 285 (we saw the pair matching wits with a GTX 280 in our review). This level of performance has never before been seen at the $200 price point, so it makes for an easy recommendation, as long as your motherboard supports CrossFire.
Best PCIe Card For ~$235: None
Honorable Mention: Radeon HD 4890 (Check Prices)
Good 1920x1200 performance
| Radeon HD 4890 | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | RV790 |
| Process: | 55 nm |
| Universal Shaders: | 800 |
| Texture Units: | 40 |
| ROPs: | 16 |
| Memory Bus: | 256-bit |
| Core Speed MHz: | 850 |
| Memory Speed MHz: | 975 (3,750 effective) |
| DirectX/Shader Model: | DX 10.1/SM 4.1 |
The Radeon HD 4890 was a little overpriced on release, and frankly it's bested by a $200 Radeon HD 4770 CrossFire setup. Why are we recommending it as an honorable mention? For those of you who don't have a CrossFire motherboard available, the Radeon HD 4890 is a fast single card with a reputation for providing stellar overclocks for tweakers who are inclined to coax them out of the card. Now that prices are down a little, the Radeon HD 4890 is looking a bit better, especially compared to the GeForce GTX 275, which offers similar performance but at a higher price.
Best PCIe Card For ~$260: Radeon HD 4850 X2 2 GB (Check Prices)
Good 1920x1200 performance, 2560x1600 in most titles with some lowered detail
| Radeon HD 4850 X2 2 GB | |
|---|---|
| Codename: | 2 x RV770 |
| Process: | 55 nm |
| 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 |
The Radeon HD 4850 X2 is essentially two Radeon HD 4850s in CrossFire mode on a single card, and it will beat the more expensive GeForce GTX 280 hands-down. It will even put the hurt on the new, more expensive GeForce GTX 285.
We're still pleased that the Radeon HD 4850 X2 can now be found on Newegg for $260. At this price, it's cheaper than two Radeon HD 4850 cards, but is more accessible in that it will work with any PCIe motherboard (rather than just those supporting CrossFire connectivity). In either case, that's a lot of performance for the admission price.
I currently have a Radeon 3850 512mb, anyone have any opinion on whether its worth crossfiring it up with another or going for a new card completely?
What would SLI or Crossfire do with the cards in the tier system? Push them up 1 or 2 tiers? I have 2 8800 GTX OC2's from BFG which are MUCH closer to the Ultra than they are to the vanilla GTX although they were over £100 cheaper than the Ultra (which is why I bought the first one at the time, the second cost me £100 with an accelero xtreme already bolted on 8 weeks ago). Would me setup be in tier 1, 2 or 3?
maisere from looking at the charts it would be worth spending the extra bit of cash and get either a gtx 260 or the 4870. then you could always claw back some of your cash by selling the 3850
In case anyone was unaware, overclockers.co.uk and novatech are both selling ASUS Radeon 4890's for 165 and 172 Pounds respectively after an ATI distributor offloaded a crapload at below market value! If I didn't have a gaming laptop, I would be straight in there to pick up two!
This Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart is great i use it a lot.What would be even better if a chart or table could be made comparing GPU CPU and RAM
so could find where to spend my money to get maximum performance.
As i recently replaced a 7600gt with a 4670 and used this chart as a simple guide but think my Athlon X2 BE-2350 2.1 GHz may now be a drag
so the chart i mention would be a real asset.
What do you think Don Woligroski
I wanna put my 8800gt in SLI (which would still be a formidable system), but nvidia phooked me over by changing them to 9800gt which are exactly the same card but just got a name change for marketing reasons but now won't work in SLI without flashing the 9800gt's bios and hence voiding your warranty. Im gonna buy ATI from now on I think. Atleast you don't see them changing the names of their products and making them incompatible for the craic.
good review.
Just for anyone in Australia reading this and thinking of getting 2x 4770's just bear in mind that they are sold out with the next shipment (anywhere) not expected until the 24th of June.
I've found that the price of the 4850 has come down to reflect this (between $10 and $30), and I picked up 2 of them yesterday for $189 each.
looking around the best i've found is overclockers.co.uk they are selling 4850's for around £78 which works out to be about $124 I bought one a while back but at the price they are now i'm thinking of getting another to crossfire them. should be a pretty good setup