ATI HD ???? card...

Hey ho chaps, I've decided its time to move on from my X1950's and get a new ATI card. I've read around on whats available and their reviews, but i can't make my mind up - do i go for the best value for money - 4850? Or do I go 1 higher - 4870? Or even the 4870 x2. OR, since i DO have a crossfire specific mobo, 2 cards is possible...(and before it gets pointed out, yes, my ram will be getting an upgrade before any of this happens. As will my processor....maybe. I do love the Phenom 2 Black.) Anyways, any thoughts from you chaps would be much appreciated!

I don't know, I was reading a review that said the 4870 was better than the GTX 260, so you might go there. Also, the 4850 is about the equivalent to the GeForce 8800, and that's not very bad. It depends, what do you want to do? 3D CAD? Gaming? If so, what games?

I think the HD 4850 or CrossFire 4770s is a good deal, provided you have a sufficiently large screen to make use of the latter (21"+).

Since you are running Crossfire it looks safe to assume you have a PCIe motherboard... some x1950's were AGP so that's good to know.

The 4870 you mean? I would agree, the 4850/4870 is probably a good upgrade option right now.

Predominantly gaming/work. Work being illustration/animation so basically, Gaming requirements again. My whole set up is geared towards AMD/ATI hardware so Intel/Nvidia is a no no.

And as for what titles, im waiting for Modern Warfare 2, currently playing TF2, L4D, and Prototype (my god is prototype fun).

Im on a 20" wide right now, am gunna get a 22" wide when i get a PS3.






My god, im going on a technology spending spree this summer. And in the wake of a global recession lol.

No, I mean 4770. 2x 4770 is faster than a 4870 for less money, and because of the fill rate limitations on these cards, performance scales very well even on small displays.

Whoops sorry i missed that first bit - yes, I'm using an Abit AX78.

The HD 4770 has a memory bandwidth limitation to 128mb, which means hi res = no no.
Even crossfired i don't reckon it would keep up, especially with better cards dropping in price...sortof. Once the 4890 comes out I'd expect everything to drop rather nicely...

Actually, high res = yes. I don't make suggestions without knowing they are educated:

http://en.expreview.com/2009/04/28/f...nchmark.html/4
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/966/3/
http://www.madshrimps.be/vbulletin/f...ompared-63320/

And so on. The Crossfire 4770s have the best price/performance ratio of any current GPU subsystem.

The 4890 is also already available at retail, and has been for several weeks.