Time to retire my 4850 1GB

[jhh979s]

It's tax time and I think I may treat myself to a new GPU. The 4850 1GB has served me well. Plays many games at high settings but lately I've been experiencing a good number of BSODs while gaming; Just Cause 2, Dead Space, Lotro, and Fallout all occasionally crash with the same result. The video goes all screwy like each horizontal line of pixel has shifted opposite the one below it, repeating sound, and a BSOD of IRQ less than or equal or page fault. I've tested everything and have come to the conclusion that the GPU is the culprit.
That said, I'm wondering if a HD6870 would be a decent upgrade from my 4850. I can only find benchmark comparisons to 512MB versions of the 4850. Newegg has the Asus one on sale right now and I think I may want to jump on it before it goes back to regular price.

I game on a 40" 1080p LCD and try to turn as many settings to high as I can while staying in the 30-60 FPS range.

Thanks

C2Q 9550 @3.4 GHz
8 GB HyperX @800
Asus P5Q Pro Turbo
OCZ Vertex 60GB

 

[Castiel]

There's a 470 on newegg right now for 179.99 that puts a beating on the 6870 for less money

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=GTX%20470

Comparo

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/290?vs=311

 

[mnewsham]

There's a 470 on newegg right now for 179.99 that puts a beating on the 6870 for less money

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=GTX%20470

Comparo

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/290?vs=311

And with the GTX 470 you can heat your house too!


All kidding aside the 470 looks to be at a nice price spot for what you want.

 

[jhh979s]

That card you linked to is recertified. While it may work fine I don't really like buying used or refurbished electronics. And only a 90 day warranty to boot.

 

[badb0y]

There's a 470 on newegg right now for 179.99 that puts a beating on the 6870 for less money

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=GTX%20470

Comparo

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/290?vs=311

Even though I agree with the recommendation of a GTX 470, saying it puts a "beating" on a 6870 is far fetched:

It's a whopping 1% slower around his resolution while running cooler, quieter, and consuming less power.

EDIT: OP, the 6870 should be twice as fast as your 4850.

 

[jhh979s]

Even though I agree with the recommendation of a GTX 470, saying it puts a "beating" on a 6870 is far fetched:

It's a whopping 1% slower around his resolution while running cooler, quieter, and consuming less power.

EDIT: OP, the 6870 should be twice as fast as your 4850.

Thanks for the input, and the chart. Helps put things into perspective.

 

[mnewsham]

Thanks for the input, and the chart. Helps put things into perspective.

the GPU's trade back and forth between the games so look at benchmarks and then think of the games YOU play the most and see which performs best for YOUR games.

 

[Castiel]

Comparo between a 470 and a 6870

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/290?vs=311

 

[BD231]

You have a pretty big monitor with a high resolution so a high end card might suite you better than the bargain cards.

nVidia has really bad GPU usage issues at the moment so you might be disappointed switching to nVidia from ATI. For whatever reason there are a ton of games that you'll find only using 30% to 60% of your GPU with the new nVidia cards which leaves some people running games even slower than the cards they replaced.

Stay away from nVidia for now.

 

[BFG10K]

Fermi also sucks for OpenGL performance. I play a lot of source ports using OpenGL and my GTX480 chokes on elementary rendering such as smoke and other particle effects.

 

[Dark Shroud]

HD 6870 or the HD 6950 1GB if you can swing it.

These 6870s are pretty good deals.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102913
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121418

 

[RussianSensation]

HD6870 for $180. Alternatively, you can grab an HD5870 for ~ $210. There are plenty of options depending on your budget.

 

[jhh979s]

Thanks for all your input. 6870 seems to be the best option for me as far as budget is concerned and if it is twice as fast as my current card I will be more than happy as I thought my 4850 handled most games pretty well.