I'm torn between these 2 video cards.

S

Strike xX

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Ok, so I'm about to place my order for the rest of my Gaming PC parts and i'm torn between two Video card of almost the same price. Let me just post up my specs of the computer first.

Specs:
Case: NZXT Apollo with 1 Extra 120MM Fan (Extra Fan greatly recommended)
PSU: Corsair VX 550W
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q-E Intel P45
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz
Memory: G.Skill 4GB
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit
Drivers: WD Caviar Black 640GB 7200RPM
Keyboard/Mouse: Normal Standard ones at the moment
Display: Hanns-G 19" Widescreen

Those are going to be the specs of my PC.

Now the two video cards I'm torn between are a HIS Radeon HD 4850 and a Nivida GTS 250 both 512mb running on a 19" monitor at 1440x900. Which one should I get?

The reason of the question is because my board is Intel and it says "Supported CrossfireX". I'm only running one card not two so would either one do just fine?

Thanks
Strike
 
Am not sure about these information but a motherboard that say crossfire ready/supported , only ati card can be put in this board. same with sli motherboard.

Its all about driver , ati is 7 and nvidia is 8. need someone to confirm this.
 
konig1 said:
Am not sure about these information but a motherboard that say crossfire ready/supported , only ati card can be put in this board. same with sli motherboard.
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Im sorry, but im going to have to say this is false.

Now, if your board says crossfire supported, this means that ONLY ati cards will work in your motherboard IF you have 2 cards. Now if you just running a single card solution, either card will work just fine.

Now as for the card to buy, i would personally go with a ATI Radeon 4850, because i have had experience with it (currently running one right now) and paired with my 3.0 GHz dual core, it runs anything i throw at it. Thats why i say this, although i have no experience with the GTS 250.

Arn0t
 
Arn0t said:
Im sorry, but im going to have to say this is false.

Now, if your board says crossfire supported, this means that ONLY ati cards will work in your motherboard IF you have 2 cards. Now if you just running a single card solution, either card will work just fine.

Now as for the card to buy, i would personally go with a ATI Radeon 4850, because i have had experience with it (currently running one right now) and paired with my 3.0 GHz dual core, it runs anything i throw at it. Thats why i say this, although i have no experience with the GTS 250.

Arn0t
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What's the make of your 4850 (XFX, Sapphire, HIS, etc.)? That was going to be my first choice but hearing it from a user of it is nice. So I have an idea of what I'm getting.
 
Not an expert at video cards or anything, I just updated mine to the HD 4650 by XFX, gotta it pretty cheap from Best Buy. Its not the best in the line of Radeon's, but much better than the 2400 Pro that my computer came with. This one is also a 1GB also, so far is doing me greater things when it comes to COD4. Anyone looking to get better and have a longer scoring streak, update your card.

But just from what I have heard with the CrossFire on your motherboard, I would go with the ATI because even though you do not have another card right now, say you have some spare money in another couple months or so, you could easily upgrade to two video cards with CrossFire capabilities. Two is always better than one.

Also from what I have read in PC MAgs lately, ATI has been making better cards for a cheaper price. Updates are not to bad either. I decided to stick with ATI for overall capabilities and customer service.............

All up to U
 
MJBrouwer23 said:
Not an expert at video cards or anything, I just updated mine to the HD 4650 by XFX, gotta it pretty cheap from Best Buy. Its not the best in the line of Radeon's, but much better than the 2400 Pro that my computer came with. This one is also a 1GB also, so far is doing me greater things when it comes to COD4. Anyone looking to get better and have a longer scoring streak, update your card.

But just from what I have heard with the CrossFire on your motherboard, I would go with the ATI because even though you do not have another card right now, say you have some spare money in another couple months or so, you could easily upgrade to two video cards with CrossFire capabilities. Two is always better than one.

Also from what I have read in PC MAgs lately, ATI has been making better cards for a cheaper price. Updates are not to bad either. I decided to stick with ATI for overall capabilities and customer service.............

All up to U
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You do make a huge point! I can always get another card later on and use Crossfire. I mean for a resolution of 1440x900 should I run 1GB of memory on the card or 512mb?
 
I haven't kept up with graphics cards as much as I should have, but ATI was always known for D3D capabilities over nvidia's openGL. If you have a cross-fire supported board, you should stick with ATI cuz it is built for that chipset and will probably run better.
 
If you want to use higher resolutions, you probably should get the ones with more memory. Using large resolutions means the video card has to store more information which more memory will help.

However, you might consider shelling out the extra 30 or so dollars and getting a 4870. Its faster memory will greatly increase performance. The 4850 still uses gddr3 like the 250, however, its memory bus is much narrower, which results in less performance for the clock cycles. The 4870 uses gddr5 which is fast enough to easily offset the narrower data bus. If you want to get a Nvidia graphics card, I would probably recommend going up to the 260 core 216. The 250 does not have spectacularly better performance than several other Nvidia cards while costing significantly more.

Whichever card you choose to get, I would recommend getting one with a fan arraingement that vents the hot air out of the case. All of these cards consume enough power they could cause serious cooling issues.

Another thought, I would probably recommend either getting windows XP for it or seeing if your copy of windows vista is eligable for free upgrade to windows 7. Windows vista is probably the worst operating system for gaming currently as it uses significantly more resources than either xp or 7. The only benifit it had when it was released was directx 10, which some game designers foolishly solely required. However, 7 also supports directx10, as well as being able to run all of the programs that run in vista. The greatly reduced system load of 7 also leaves you more power for gaming and programming, as opposed to hoarding it for the OS. 7 will have some problems when it is released, however the beta was reasonably stable and they hopefully will have fixed most of the problems before official release.
 
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crazyrockets said:
If you want to use higher resolutions, you probably should get the ones with more memory. Using large resolutions means the video card has to store more information which more memory will help.

However, you might consider shelling out the extra 30 or so dollars and getting a 4870. Its faster memory will greatly increase performance. The 4850 still uses gddr3 like the 250, however, its memory bus is much narrower, which results in less performance for the clock cycles. The 4870 uses gddr5 which is fast enough to easily offset the narrower data bus. If you want to get a Nvidia graphics card, I would probably recommend going up to the 260 core 216. The 250 does not have spectacularly better performance than several other Nvidia cards while costing significantly more.

Whichever card you choose to get, I would recommend getting one with a fan arraingement that vents the hot air out of the case. All of these cards consume enough power they could cause serious cooling issues.

Another thought, I would probably recommend either getting windows XP for it or seeing if your copy of windows vista is eligable for free upgrade to windows 7. Windows vista is probably the worst operating system for gaming currently as it uses significantly more resources than either xp or 7. The only benifit it had when it was released was directx 10, which some game designers foolishly solely required. However, 7 also supports directx10, as well as being able to run all of the programs that run in vista. The greatly reduced system load of 7 also leaves you more power for gaming and programming, as opposed to hoarding it for the OS. 7 will have some problems when it is released, however the beta was reasonably stable and they hopefully will have fixed most of the problems before official release.
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The PC I'm building is a Budget PC and the Sapphire 4870 I'm looking at right now doesn't seem that great(The fan doesnt). People say it would run at high temps and die within 2 months. I might just go with the Radeon 4850 for now. Later on i'll upgrade higher.
 
Strike xX said:
The PC I'm building is a Budget PC and the Sapphire 4870 I'm looking at right now doesn't seem that great(The fan doesnt). People say it would run at high temps and die within 2 months. I might just go with the Radeon 4850 for now. Later on i'll upgrade higher.
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It is a great idea to read into the reviews on whatever product you do decide to get. If you see many (or sometimes any) reviews complaining about extreme overheating, it probably isn't worth the trouble. If it doesn't vent out of the case you will probably see some overheating problems and at the very least higher temps in the case. Also make sure to check the warranty on the card. If its warranty is 90 day, it is not worth wasting the money on as there is likely a reason they have such a short warranty.

Good luck with whatever card you choose.
 
i have a VisionTek 4850, but its from right when the cards came out, so its a single slot cooler on it. Temps are decent. 55C at 55% fan. Although when the fan gets above 75% it sounds almost like a vacuum, but it does help ALOT when the fan goes higher. So its up to you. Although, like i said, its a single slot card unlike most of the other ones out there now.

If i were to buy another card right now, i would actually go with the XFX 4850. I have a buddy who has one, and he says temps stay pretty low (although im not quite sure what they are at) and it looks really nice in the case.

As for your card, i have the 512MB version too, and like i said it runs everything perfectly. Or atleast perfectly for my uses. Resolution is 1680x1050, which is higher than what your looking at too, so the 512 should be fine for you :D

Arn0t
 
Thanks for all the help guys. I just now placed the order for the rest of the parts. I'm going to buy a Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 512MB. Reviews are good on it, saying it's quiet, low temps, etc. Hopefully I'll get lucky and it will be great. I'll upgrade it though at a later date. I'm not a guy that would run Crysis on Ultra High and burn your GFx card. If the FPS is at a speed that is playable and the game still looks ok, then that's for me. Now I pray that all my parts work. I'll be glad to post pictures in the Rig thread.
 
Sapphire is a very reputable brand also. I had a AGP 3850 for about a year, and i didnt have a single problem with it. Still works great too! (for being AGP)

Hope you enjoy you new parts. and any time you have a question about computer parts, feel free to send me a PM or add me on steam :D

Arn0t
 
4870 don't die as quick as you think , only 35% fan speed i got around 46 degrees which is very good.
 
Well as of now. (NOTE. I did not order the stuff because of a problem with my paypal) I'm going to most likely be getting a Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 512mb for 129.99 on newegg along with my other stuff. If the price doesn't change by Tuesday (Then I'll go back to a 4850) then I'll have it for sure. The one thing I'm not sure of is that I have a 550W PSU and the requirements of the card are a 500W PSU, hopefully It'll still work without problems. Which the last sentence is also a question too. Another question from me is, What are the dimensions of the card (How big is it?) I have Mid Tower ATX Case (NZXT Apollo)
 
The 500W power supply requirement basically means you need a few hundred watts for the video card (usually 200-300w) and the rest is to give head room for all of your other system components. If you have a 550w power supply that meets the ~75w per pci-e power connector requirement, you should be fine.
 
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