8800gs, HD4830, HD3870, 9600GSO, HD4670

[RichM499]

Ok as the title says, im looking at an upgrade ... again..

I was jsut about to click buy for the HD4850 the other day, but then i realised i need to buy my nephews something for xmas, They are 12 and 10, so im giving them my old computer (x2 3800+, 2gig corsair xms ddr400, geforce 7600gs)


And i had to buy a case/psu to fit this stuff in, so that left me 60 dollars light!


My budget is 119$ TOPS, (which is the price of the Sapphire HD4830)

I've done my research, and from what i read, the cards should fall in this order.

From fastest to slowest.

HD4830
8800GS
HD3870
HD4670
9600GSO

Please correct me if im wrong, but dont use opinions, link a review or something so i can look at it if your going to tell me 'this one is the best'

The main reason for including that was to ask--- i know which one is FASTEST, but i dont know which one is the Fastest 'for the money'


Here is my problem---

I use a foxconn a7vmx-k

I had a friend bring over a 4870X2 just to make sure my system was going to work with a decent card installed, and it worked flawlessly.


However, i dont know if this AMD 780g chipset is going to play nicely with Nvidia cards.

(if i knew for a fact it would work, i would buy the recertified 8800gs for 60$, cause thats a **** of a deal)


I need to know if the geforce cards will work in my system, but for some reason i cant read the GPU support page on the Foxconn website, im not sure why but it wont work.

I wont be playing crysis or farcry 2,

(all of these cards should be able to do it at 1024x768 with no aa/af, and thats fine with me)



So to sum it up and make it short and sweet:



Which card is the best bang for the buck 'in your opinion'?
Which card is the best bang for the buck 'in online review'?

What is your personal recommendation?
Why do you pick this particular card?


Thanks guys!

 

[Hussein19891]

HD4830
8800 GS/9600 GSO
HD3870
HD4670

For the resolution your playing it would be wiser to go with the 3870. It has 256bit bus width along with GDDR4. While the 4670 will be outperformed by the 3870 hands down. Go with the 4830 if you can afford it Rich.

It beats all the cards you listed.

 

[saltynay]

This is your best source for card comparisons
Charts, benchmarks Gaming Graphics Charts Q3/2008, 3DMark06 v1.1.0 3DMark Score
slick on the cards your considering then compare and it will give you loads of statistics

I am unsure how much of a gamer you are?
What games do you like?
What resolution do you play at? surely not 1024x768 thats lower then most mainstream monitors

The 4830 can be flashed to make it a 4850 so if you do that its easily the most powerful and best bang for buck card.
If your only a light gamer then a $60 8800gs would be best

 

[RichM499]

Right i know, i guess i will get the 4830.... i cant find any difinitive reviews 3870 vs 4830.


I know its possible to unlock the shader units in the 4830 and overclock it, effectively giving you a 4850 at a fraction of the price, but thats not what i plan on doing.

the 4670 outperforms the 3850 in all of the reviews i read, thats why i listed it.

i didnt think there would be that much difference in 3850 and 3870, so the 3870 and 4670 should be pretty close....

BTW

Hussein, nice superpi time, i cant match it.

My motherboard doesnt work well with 265 FSB (i tried to duplicate your settings)

=( bummer.. i'll get another motherboard in a month, (a 790gx from XFX)

i guess thats another difference between 790gx and 780g motherboards

Oh well... im still torn.

I am still stuck between 4830 and 3870....

(im not an ATI fanboy, but i dont know for sure if the Geforce cards are going to work with my AMD chipset)






**** EDIT****

I am a light gamer.

I play Counterstrike:source, Bioshock, Far Cry, TF2, Doom3, Quake4, and ... other ... unmentionable games that i'll get in trouble for talking about=)


the unmentionable games arent GPU limited, so just forget i ...didnt mention it..


I play at 1280x1024 MAX (i dont like higher resolutions, personal preference)

1024x768 is my prefered resolution for Crysis, Bioshock, and Far cry 2.. because it runs so much more smoothly.

 

[Hussein19891]

My motherboard doesnt work well with 265 FSB (i tried to duplicate your settings)

=( bummer.. i'll get another motherboard in a month, (a 790gx from XFX)

Lets hope for my sake I don't loose the title. Cause I m in love with the Burger King crown nagasama has given me

By the way the 4830 can NOT be flashed to the 4850. ATI has physically handicapped the card so it is impossible to flash it to the 4850.

But overclocking the core to 700mhz allows the 4830 to perform on par with the 4850.

 

[BongWizard]

the 4830 will carve the rest of those up... its just a 4850 with some shaders cut out (laser cut, so it cant be flashed up... haven't been able to do that for years, although a big OC on both the core and memory will get you around the performance of a stock 4850)... but if you're really keen on an nv card, i can tell you that yes, they will work just fine with your board... you won't be able to do SLI tho, but CF is possible, so personally i'd have to grab the 4830

 

[Puddle Jumper]

I would get the 4830 but for the record the 8800gs and 9600gso are the same card so they have identical performance.

 

[RichM499]

OMG i just figured out your name, i never really payed attention to it!

ITS A FREAKIN STARGATE SHIP OMG

i love stargate atlantis, (stargate sg1 was awesome to, to bad they had to cancel it)


I guess i will go by budget, if i have 130ish i'll get the 4830 (gotta count shipping....)

and the 3870 has free shipping at 94.99, so if i only have 100 i'll get that one


thanks for the input-- and also i didnt know about the 8800 and 9600 being virtually identical

 

[1337_JohnN]

lol.. Get a 4850, it's only like $20 more.

Newegg.com - MSI R4850-512M Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

 

[RichM499]

the whole point is i have a 100-130$ budget.

130% includes shipping for the 4830,

the 4850 you linked is 189 BEFORE shipping.


(i dont count rebates, because the rebate isnt going to change the ammount of cash coming out of my bank account.)



next friday-- if i have 130~ dollars, i will buy the 4830.

if i have 100 i will get the 3870.

And if somehow miraculously i end up with 200 dollars after my bills, i will get a 4850.