4870 vs. 3870

[ZaUcY]

I've compared two cards one is the EAH4870 512Mb gddr5 and the other is a sapphire 100242TXSR 512Mb gddr3. Their not to far off on specs except about 75Mhz less on the core clock 1.4Ghz on the memory clock(which is a little much) and the fact the 4870 is GDDR5 and the 4850 is GDDR3. the price difference is 100 bucks. my question is, is there something im not seeing in the card differences? and if i'm only running a tiny 15" 1024x768 monitor is it worth it to spend another 100 bucks? (i heard 4870's are just really good/made for high res/big monitors.)

thanks

I've compared two cards one is the EAH4870 512Mb gddr5 and the other is a sapphire 100242TXSR 512Mb gddr3. Their not to far off on specs except about 75Mhz less on the core clock 1.4Ghz on the memory clock(which is a little much) and the fact the 4870 is GDDR5 and the 4850 is GDDR3. the price difference is 100 bucks. my question is, is there something im not seeing in the card differences? and if i'm only running a tiny 15" 1024x768 monitor is it worth it to spend another 100 bucks? (i heard 4870's are just really good/made for high res/big monitors.)

thanks

the links are

ASUS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121290R

Sapphire: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102760R

sorry for the multiple posts, but i keep submitting before i know i'm finished on what i'm saying oh and the the title was supposed to be "4870 VS. 4850" sorry about that. my LAST question is other than just buying a new 4870 or 4850 would it be better for me to run another 3870 with the current one i have? i know it would for money but for performace would either a 4870 or 4850 out perform two 3870's? (i've compared the specs and they say "yes" it would outperform it but i still think theres something i haven't taken into consideration.)

thanks again.

 

[dustin_ds3000]

if you have the money to get the 4870 get it, in the future you might buy a bigger monitor

check out this link for a good comparison

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/...tml?prod[2114]=on&prod[2252]=on&prod[2116]=on

 

[ZaUcY]

but i mean the difference is a few FPS with the 4850 and 4870. is there a good noticable difference in the two cards? cause i'm willing to pay for the 4870 i just dont want to wast 100 bucks if i dont have to.

 

[dustin_ds3000]

in the future are you going to buy a bigger monitor

 

[ZaUcY]

not that i plan on... but plans change. i did look at another comarison chart and the 4850 began losing FPS at higher res when the 4870 barely dropped. i guess i will go with 4870 then. thanks.

 

[FoReWoRd]

good luck
make sure you buy one with an aftermarket cooler becuase the stock ati coolers are crap run at like 65c idle

 

[ZaUcY]

thanks for your help guys.... i ordered this card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121290 and instatnly RMA'd it for this card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102815 which has a better cooler because its overclock but i still have my scythe musashi scvms-1000 cooler from the 3870 so im gonna run the stock cooler then my after market one and see which works best.
thanks again.

 

[FoReWoRd]

the cooler looks pretty solid on that one, check gaming and idle before your swap it, coz the new ati ones look abit better than the H3XXX series coolers

 

[ZaUcY]

its not the cooler of my 3870 its an after market one i bought for it that also fits the 4870's. that one does look solid but i like the fact mine has two huge fans blowing on the card as well, but i'm for sure going to run tests and look into the 4870 cooler more before i make a final desicion.

aftermarket cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185081&Tpk=scvms-1000

 

[FoReWoRd]

good luck friend

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

You can just turn up the fan speed in the ATI Catylist control center, that should keep the temperatures fine.

If you didn't notice, the 4870 has almost triple the stream processors as the 3870.

 

[ZaUcY]

thank you for the advice everyone.... much appreciated.

ok..... so i got my 4870 which is wicked awesome! highly recommended if you have the money, and i ran both coolers on it. my aftermarket one did keep it cooler by a degree or two both idle and load but is ALOT quieter than the one it came with. because of this i noticed there is a faint high pitch noise when im running any graphically needed programs most likely cause the card needs to process it, noticed when running crysis. i did stick the stock on back on though due to the fact it has software fan control and heatsink fits better and has a plastic cover so i dont hear it anymore. Is it "normal" to be able to hear the GPU processing or whatever the source of that noise is, or is that out of the norm?

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

That's the fan. It should ramp up when you're gaming or doing anything else to load the GPU. It's a normal phenomenon, nothing to worry about.

 

[ZaUcY]

i can garuntee its not the fans.... my aftermarket fans were connected to 3pin jn and js fan on the mobo and have MANUAL speed controls which are uber quiet at the highest setting and i heard that noise instantaneously when its was graphicaly stressed. and it would instantly stop on loading screens and start right back up when the game started. plus i have the stock fan set at 55% manual control to, ever single fan running in my case is manual control. plus i never heard the noise till this new Vcard so i'm just wondering if thats normal to hear for a Vcard cause i'll bet my life thats the source of the noise.

 

[red1776]

I dont know if this is of any use or not, but ATI has said that thier chips are good to 110c. im not going to run mine that hot, but apparently 85c is no big deal to the 6xx and 770 chips.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

The only other source is capacitor\coil whine. It's no big deal, although it can get annoying.

But that's what headphones are for.

 

[ZaUcY]

I dont know if this is of any use or not, but ATI has said that thier chips are good to 110c. im not going to run mine that hot, but apparently 85c is no big deal to the 6xx and 770 chips.

i dont know if you read all our posts but were talking about a high pitch noise coming form my card now.... yeah my cousin metioned it could be a capacitor. since the stock fans on though i dont hear it it just REALLY concerned me beacause i just spent 250 dollars on this baby and of course havent got an email back from sapphire.
thanks rage... for posting on like all my threads.

 

[red1776]

yes i did, the thread has alot of temp talk in it, i was addressing that portion of the conversation

 

[ZaUcY]

oh ok.... just making sure you knew. yeah the card i just got has a nice cooler on it stock and it stays in 60-70C full load so if they can stand up to 110C i feel quite safe.... i heard GPU's were supposed to withstand more than CPU's but i didnt think that much!!!!!

 

[red1776]

if your still considering a purchase still, or another, I have found that the Sapphire cards have run cool for me. i have three in CF on this thing and they all idle between 33c-38c and load @ under 50c. its this cooler.http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=HD+4850. did you get your high pitched whine figured out? I have heard of that as rather common, fortunately i haven't run into it yet.

 

[ZaUcY]

oh i already purchased my card.... i got the sapphire radeon 4870 1gb toxic! its sweet i'm considering getting another one before this summer to xfire. i dont know what it is i was just looking for "i have heard of that as rather common" thanks a ton for saying that cause i was scared i'd i have to rma it which i dont think i can anymore cause i messed with the plastic cover that blocked out half the exhaust flow, cut out the plastic covering it.