Nvidia 9800GT or ATI HD4850? Upgrading

[Nirkon]

Now, you might think that I would choose the HD4850 right off the bat because it eats the 9800 (basically 8800) in performance.

But I'm afraid of moving to ATI... I owned 1 ATI card before this, and it kept crashing, even after I replaced it (this was on my old comp), then... my uncle's ATI 9800 also crashed a lot.. so I don't know what to tell you guys.

This is what im afraid of, maybe someone can clear my concerns:

1. Heard that IDLE temps are absolutely awful, worse than 60C on idle like most of the 8800s, I don't want the card to melt while im playing...
2. Heard that on load the card reaches 80C... -my 8800GTS 320 right now doesn't reach that.
3. Lifetime - with those temps I don't think this card will last 1-2 years.
4. Some people say that ATI drivers are inferior to Nvidia's drivers in terms of performance and especially stability --?

thanks in advance

also,
will my power supply hold this?

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

The HD 4850 is the superior choice. It only runs hot because the default fan speed is low. Crank that up a bit and it runs cool. And FYI, 89-90C is the normal operating temp for the RV700 GPU.
As far as drivers are concerned, ATI's drivers are fantastic and their Vista drivers worked perfectly from the start (and still do), unlike NVIDIA's BSOD-causing ones. Your PSU's sufficient too, so no problem there. You're good to go.

 

[chrissof]

I would go for the 4850(in fact already have gone for it...)
never had any driver issues with ati.
and yes;the 4850 gets HOT,on idle and on load - but it performs fantastically.

 

[Obi-Wan Jerkobi]

The ATi Radeon 9 series was a problematic bunch, but ATi's HD series is nothing like it. Much better drivers than the incompatible ones that were assigned to the 9 series. The Catalyst Drivers are great today.

And I agree with Rage_3k, crank up the fan speed on your card to keep it cool and it will last. Programs like Rivatuner and ATITool will help with that.

 

[Nirkon]

Thanks for the great replies guys!

I do have another question,
I have the option of this or this:

Stay with my comp and upgrade to HD4850-
E6600 2.4GHZ 4MB Cache 1066FSB
2x1024 OCZ 800MHZ CL4
Upgrade 8800GTS 320 to HD4850 512mb
Enermax Liberty 400W<--

OR

Sell my computer (I have a buyer), and add the same money as I would for the HD4850 upgrade (even less), but instead, get this:

E8200 2.66GHZ 6MB Cache 1333FSB
2X1024 G.Skill 800MHZ
Nvidia Geforce 9800GT 512MB
Cooler Master eXtreme power 460W


What do you guys think?

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Staying with your current system will be the better option. You would have a better video card and since you already have an E6600, you wouldn't see much difference in performance in the vast majority of games with an E8200 since they'll stress the GPU far more than the CPU. The HD 4850 with the E6600 will still give faster performance than a 9800GT with an E8200 (which is a very poor overclocker from the reviews I've read). Also, your Enermax unit is far more superior to that Cooler Master one.

 

[Nirkon]

will it handle an hd4850 properly?
400W and 30Amps combined rails is enough?

edit:
change of plans

I'm going to sell my current computer for ~$600 (got a buyer), add ~$185 dollars from my savings and this is what i'll end up getting (stuff costs more expensive in my country):

My current computer:
E6600 2.4GHZ 4MB Cache 1066FSB
2x1024 OCZ 800MHZ CL4
160GB Western Digital SATAII 16MB Cache
LG 18X DVD Burner
Enermax Liberty 400W
EVGA 8800GTS 320MB

What im getting:
E8200 2.66GHZ 6MB Cache 1333FSB
2X1024MB G.skill 800MHZ CL4
320GB Western Digital SATAII 16MB Cache
Enermax Noisetaker 485W (32Amps combined rails)
Club3d ATI Radeon HD4850 512MB
(No DVD burner, which I don't really need... I will use a 4X old DVD drive just to read DVDs)

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Nice build. Try to get a Seagate drive for their larger warranty period. Otherwise, everything looks good.

 

[dustin_ds3000]

what about a motherboard, you don't have one listed

 

[Nirkon]

Yeah.. they're all connected wirelessly, no mobo needed...






right...
well I currently have Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3

and im getting (one that's not as good as my current one. but still more than enough)
Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L
As I don't need any more than that, I don't plan to upgrade ever to 4GB ram, and I don't have any other PCI hardware that I need (although there are 2 slots there).

 

[radnam]

Hey Rage can you tell me if what kind of performance laptop i go for.

Guess your knowledge is good here

 

[Gflo]

how much are those HD cards? i bought the 9800gtx and it eats Crysis for breakfast.

 

[Nirkon]

I think nvidia might offer better performance in Crysis... but other than that, the hd4850 beats the crap out of the 9800gtx (even the 9800gtx+), its up there with the GTX 260.