new cards vs. 4800

[j-slo]

Hey everyone, I've been way out of the hardware scene for probably two years. I have a ATI 4800 with 512 of ram. I'm wondering how the current cards compare to it and if I were to spend $150 to $200 would that card be that much faster than the 4800 that I have now? Thank you!

Oh I have a AMD 9550 Quad Core 2.20 ghz and 5 gigs of ram. Not the best but don't want a new computer yet lol. Thanks!

 

[fourdegrees11]

I'm about to find out, as I got a really good deal on a 6850 and didnt want to wait till possibly Feb for the new cards.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Gotta be more specific. 4870 - great. 4830 - not so great.

 

[toyota]

at what resolution do you want to game at? TBH, I would not even bother getting a $150-$200 gpu with your old cpu.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Save up money until around June of next year(it's not as long as it seems, trust me). By then, the new GPU series will be out and the #/$ will be a lot better.

 

[nanaki333]

a 4850 is probably right around a 5770 performance

 

[angry hampster]

at what resolution do you want to game at? TBH, I would not even bother getting a $150-$200 gpu with your old cpu.

Gonna echo this. Also, if you have a 4870, it's probably not worth upgrading unless you are gaming on a 30" screen. My 4870 512mb handles modern games just fine.

 

[apoppin]

a 4850 is probably right around a 5770 performance

Take a look - a HD 4870-1GB compared with a HD 6770 (identical to HD 5770; same settings are used - HD 6770 run on DX11/HD 4870 run on DX10.1). Of course, i benched with an i7-920 at 3.8GHz. The OP would need a good OC on his CPU and we don't know what 4800 series GPU he has other than it is 512MB vRAM

 

[nanaki333]

Take a look - a HD 4870-1GB compared with a HD 6770 (identical to HD 5770; same settings are used - HD 6770 run on DX11/HD 4870 run on DX10.1). Of course, i benched with an i7-920 at 3.8GHz. The OP would need a good OC on his CPU and we don't know what 4800 series GPU he has other than it is 512MB vRAM

yeah. that's what i meant to put originally and realized i hit 5. same card so i didn't bother editing. thanks for the chart. i did not confirm what i said until after the fact too

 

[PrayForDeath]

What games do you want to play? And at what resolution??

 

[happy medium]

Oh I have a AMD 9550 Quad Core 2.20 ghz and 5 gigs of ram. Not the best but don't want a new computer yet lol. Thanks!

I would guess this cpu would equal the performance of a Althon x4 @ 2.2 or at best a little slower than a q6600?
Mabe someone can help me....

If you have a 4850/4870 series gpu, I dont think a gpu upgrade will help you.

 

[Wuzup101]

I would guess this cpu would equal the performance of a Althon x4 @ 2.2 or at best a little slower than a q6600?
Mabe someone can help me....

If you have a 4850/4870 series gpu, I dont think a gpu upgrade will help you.

Edit 2: take the below w/ a grain of salt... as apparently my reading skills are off today... did not realize that we were talking about an AMD 9550... my bad!

Something in his OP is wrong. A Q9550 is clocked @ 2.83Ghz from the factory. It is a faster part than a Q6600 at stock speeds and also has an extra 4mb of cache (12mb vs 8mb on the q6600). I also don't know how he got 5gb of memory (it can be done but very unlikely).

EDIT: should have looked at your sig (obviously you know what I said already). I assumed that his OP was just a typo... not that he had underclocked the part).

To the OP: I would stick with the 4870 (if that is what you have) for right now. Probably would give you the same advice for the 4850. Perhaps an upgrade would be worth it from a 4830 (given your price range).

I would say that an aftermarket cooler and some overclocking of that q9550 is in order if you haven't tried that yet (and your motherboard is OC friendly). You can push them well beyond their stock speed.

 

[happy medium]

A Q9550 is clocked @ 2.83Ghz from the factory

Its not a q9550 its a Phenom 1 @ 2.2 .

 

[Wuzup101]

Its not a q9550 its a Phenom 1 @ 2.2 .

OMG... haha okay I can't read! Thanks for pointing that out!

 

[swilli89]

Yeah pull the trigger. I just got a 6970 2gb for 193.99 shipped. Its an awesome upgrade!

 

[nanaki333]

yikes! that's a pretty crappy cpu... no offense.

do you have an AM2+/AM3 mobo at all? you can get a phenom x4 830 for $49 at microcenter.

 

[j-slo]

How do I tell which card I have? If I run catalyst all it says is 4800 series. If i run GPU-Z it says the same. Here is what it says:
4800 series
GPU- RV770
Tech: 55nm
Transistors: 956m
ROPs: 16
Shaders: 800
Pixel Fillrate: 10 GPixles/s
Texture Fillrate: 25 GTexel/s
Bus Width 256bit
Memory: 512
Bandwidth 63.6 GB/s
GPU Clock: 625
Memory Clock: 993

 

[happy medium]

How do I tell which card I have? If I run catalyst all it says is 4800 series. If i run GPU-Z it says the same. Here is what it says:
4800 series
GPU- RV770
Tech: 55nm
Transistors: 956m
ROPs: 16
Shaders: 800
Pixel Fillrate: 10 GPixles/s
Texture Fillrate: 25 GTexel/s
Bus Width 256bit
Memory: 512
Bandwidth 63.6 GB/s
GPU Clock: 625
Memory Clock: 993

Thats a 4870 512mb

What motherboard is it?

 

[Gikaseixas]

OP i think that a cpu upgrade would serve you better right now. Take a look at X4's, they're cheap these days.

 

[j-slo]

dumb question but how do i tell what model my card is? Catalyst and G-PUZ both just say 4800 series.
I know memory is clocked at 993 (or 933) and core is 625. Its 512 megabits with a bandwith of 63.6 gb/sec. Other than that, it just says 4800 series.

 

[j-slo]

SOrry for the double reply crap! Computer was acting up. I have no clue how to check which motherboard I have. How do I do that? I added 3 gigs of ram a year back to bring me up to five.

To the person who talked about my CPU, no offense taking. Would a $50 CPU upgrade be worth it? Also, is it hard to do and how do I tell what motherboard I have if the upgrade would work? Thank you!

 

[fourdegrees11]

How do I tell which card I have? If I run catalyst all it says is 4800 series. If i run GPU-Z it says the same. Here is what it says:
4800 series
GPU- RV770
Tech: 55nm
Transistors: 956m
ROPs: 16
Shaders: 800
Pixel Fillrate: 10 GPixles/s
Texture Fillrate: 25 GTexel/s
Bus Width 256bit
Memory: 512
Bandwidth 63.6 GB/s
GPU Clock: 625
Memory Clock: 993

GPU clock at 625 is a 4850

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2556

 

[happy medium]

GPU clock at 625 is a 4850

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2556

You are right, but that changes nothing really.
Thanks for the correction.

 

[happy medium]

how do I tell what motherboard I have if the upgrade would work? Thank you!

try this.
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

I will tell you if you can upgrade your cpu, once you tell me what it says under the motherboard tab..

 

[nemesismk2]

GPU clock at 625 is a 4850

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2556

I have a Powercolor Radeon HD 4850 1GB which is still a good video card and yes 625 is the clock speed of a 4850.