I jumped on the 4850 Bandwagon

[Robert-The-Rambler]

Well, I got 3 Radeon 4850s and slapped them in a MSI K9A2 Platinum motherboard with a watercooled X2 5600 and so far I am really impressed with the goods. I'm using an Antec True Power 1000 watt power supply with 4 18 AMP 12 volt rails. Running 2560 * 1600 is finally possible without drastic hiccups and needing a nuclear power center. Anyhow my first run of the FEAR benchmark in triple crossfire went like this with everything on included Soft Shadows and 4X FSAA at 2560 * 1600 without Vsync.

Min FPS 14

Average FPS 93

Maximum Framerate 376

FPS Distribution:

1% below 25 FPS

1% between 25 and 40 FPS

98% above 40 FPS

Those of us considering upgrades should strongly consider a crossfire motherboard, preferably one with a crazy fast Intel processor. There are Intel chipsets compatible with Crossfire and SLI. I'm finally getting 8800 GTX SLI type performance or better. DirectX 9 performance is crazy. I will see how DirectX 10 goes.

Find out more here.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3338

P.S Am I CPU limited? I am now for sure.

[G07H1C]

Jesus RTR, the CPU is the only thing holding you back right now, if you want to call:

Min FPS 14

Average FPS 93

Maximum Framerate 376

FPS Distribution:

1% below 25 FPS

1% between 25 and 40 FPS

98% above 40 FPS

holding you back!!!

[Mochan]

I'd buy a 4850... if I didn't already have an 8800GT. While the 4850 is probably the best budget performance card we have seen in a long time, it isn't good enough to warrant me replacing my 8800GT, especially since my CPU can't even power out my 8800GT yet.

It's great to see ATI back in the running and trouncing its competition, now if only AMD could also get back in the game and tear the C2Duos a new one. Right now Radeon + C2D is still ideal.

You'll never catch me with a SLI or Xfire rig, I just don't like having 2 GPUs in my box along with the power draw that goes with it. If I ever need something with more power than the 4850 I will just look for the next stronger single GPU.

My next purchase though will be a C2D mobo, procie and RAM.

[G07H1C]

The 8800GT is a solid card, I don't care what anyone says!

As for the SLI rig, this I can honestly say & I'm not packing RTR's 1000 watt PS, that the 2 cards I'm running is using some serious power!

AMD says they have some great new ideas coming at us, I guess we'll see!

[Mochan]

Let's hope AMD can release a chipset and procie that can give some oomph to the CPU market, it's getting boring seeing C2Ds raping everything in sight.

[BaneNWN]

Well, I got 3 Radeon 4850s and slapped them in a MSI K9A2 Platinum motherboard with a watercooled X2 5600 and so far I am really impressed with the goods. I'm using an Antec True Power 1000 watt power supply with 4 18 AMP 12 volt rails. Running 2560 * 1600 is finally possible without drastic hiccups and needing a nuclear power center. Anyhow my first run of the FEAR benchmark in triple crossfire went like this with everything on included Soft Shadows and 4X FSAA at 2560 * 1600 without Vsync.

Min FPS 14

Average FPS 93

Maximum Framerate 376

FPS Distribution:

1% below 25 FPS

1% between 25 and 40 FPS

98% above 40 FPS

Those of us considering upgrades should strongly consider a crossfire motherboard, preferably one with a crazy fast Intel processor. There are Intel chipsets compatible with Crossfire and SLI. I'm finally getting 8800 GTX SLI type performance or better. DirectX 9 performance is crazy. I will see how DirectX 10 goes.

Find out more here.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3338

P.S Am I CPU limited? I am now for sure.
damn man are you like the president of some huge corporation or something?i never new someone that could sling so much cash at upgrading there pc's constantley.i got a weird feeling you have more graphics cards on hand then ive owned in my entire pc gaming life lol

[Mochan]

LOL you are right on that Bane, so RtR are you hiring? I'm in the mood for a career change. How much do the janitorial positions pay at your company?

[PapaSmurf]

hell I'd be willing to intern without pay.

[BaneNWN]

I looked at reviews for the 4850 im kinda pissed i didnt know about these before slinging 160 at an 8800 GT however im not sure i like the 71 C idle temps thats pretty freakin hot.I might almost think about selling my 8800 GT for what i paid and spend the 40 extra for this.

[Mochan]

LOL Bane it's a neverending cycle. I remember Ilnadmy kicking himself in the nuts for getting an 8800GTS when the 8800GT came out.

I don't think it's that bad. The 8800GT is dirt cheap and yet can push incredible levels of performance for today's games, at $160 it's not a bad buy at all.

The problem with ATI has always been there hot hardware (literally), the4850 apparently part of the reason it is so hot is because the built in fans are dead silent but really slow and weak in the CFM department. I think if I bought one I would get an aftermarket cooler and strap on a jet engine to it.

[BaneNWN]

Ya its getting to hard to keep up with everything.8800 GT will be yesterdays news in a few months,but i guess bottom line is smooth gameplay.I have been extremely happy with the x1900xt.The only game the card had problems running was r6 vegas it must not like the ati cards or something because i should have been able to crank that game even on my 5600+.to be honest the gpu i got is even good enough to crank any game today accept crisis so why i bought an 8800 gt to begin with is beyond me i didnt really need it as nothing ive run across accept crisis has forced me to turn any settings down.if anything i should upgrade my 667 memory to 800 mhz or better yet 1066,but for me to use 1066 id have to get another mobo this one supports up to 800

[Robert-The-Rambler]

damn man are you like the president of some huge corporation or something?i never new someone that could sling so much cash at upgrading there pc's constantley.i got a weird feeling you have more graphics cards on hand then ive owned in my entire pc gaming life lol

4 Radeon 3850s
1 8800 GT
1 8800 GTX

Performance was just so stuttery with my 3870s and my 3850 project was a total disaster that I financed the video cards for 24 month 0% financing at Bestbuy. So this is it until then. I could not stand idle with performance that was impacting gameplay drastically. When you have a 30" monitor you need to have the horsepower to not dip below 30 frames. For whatever reason the 3800 series seems to be a broken chip. Much of the time the average frame rate might be respectable but often times the FPS will drop into the single digits and for me that is totally ridiculous. FSAA was broken on the 3800 series, too.(It is fixed for the 4800s) I can play a game like COD4 smooth with just two 3870s at 1920 * 1200 but when you enable 4X FSAA it just stutters.

Another problem with the 3800 series is that 3 and 4 card performance seemed worse than 2 cards with more lag.

P.S I'm not quite President yet.

[Robert-The-Rambler]

Let's hope AMD can release a chipset and procie that can give some oomph to the CPU market, it's getting boring seeing C2Ds raping everything in sight.

Only then would I describe the performance as phenominal.

[Robert-The-Rambler]

The 8800GT is a solid card, I don't care what anyone says!

As for the SLI rig, this I can honestly say & I'm not packing RTR's 1000 watt PS, that the 2 cards I'm running is using some serious power!

AMD says they have some great new ideas coming at us, I guess we'll see!

All you need is a 600 watt power supply or so that at Newegg could be had for less than $100.

P.S That is 2 card crossfire.

[G07H1C]

True, my 700w PS is enough, but it's also ready for the old power supply graveyard. I am soon to be in the market for another!

Your new 3.5 Ghz Quad Core, I'm assuming that would be GDDR5? By the way, you have some pretty nice GPU's just laying around!

[BaneNWN]

4 Radeon 3850s
1 8800 GT
1 8800 GTX

Performance was just so stuttery with my 3870s and my 3850 project was a total disaster that I financed the video cards for 24 month 0% financing at Bestbuy. So this is it until then. I could not stand idle with performance that was impacting gameplay drastically. When you have a 30" monitor you need to have the horsepower to not dip below 30 frames. For whatever reason the 3800 series seems to be a broken chip. Much of the time the average frame rate might be respectable but often times the FPS will drop into the single digits and for me that is totally ridiculous. FSAA was broken on the 3800 series, too.(It is fixed for the 4800s) I can play a game like COD4 smooth with just two 3870s at 1920 * 1200 but when you enable 4X FSAA it just stutters.

Another problem with the 3800 series is that 3 and 4 card performance seemed worse than 2 cards with more lag.

P.S I'm not quite President yet.

e8400 8800 GTX in Sli problem solved

[Mochan]

LOL to be honest RtR I sometimes wonder why you try these weird crossfire combos to get your gaming fix, I guess I can understand because I like to build systems and experiment with configurations myself, it's just that lately I do not have the time or the finances to do so.

But as Bane said if you really wanted to get a gaming platform that will take care of the games easy just go with the tried and tested 8400 + 8800GTX sli config and it will probably take care of everything!

[Robert-The-Rambler]

LOL to be honest RtR I sometimes wonder why you try these weird crossfire combos to get your gaming fix, I guess I can understand because I like to build systems and experiment with configurations myself, it's just that lately I do not have the time or the finances to do so.

But as Bane said if you really wanted to get a gaming platform that will take care of the games easy just go with the tried and tested 8400 + 8800GTX sli config and it will probably take care of everything!

Hey, read the review of the 4850 at Anandtech. In crossfire these are incredible. Even when crossfire doesn't work a single card is great. Cooling is the greatest caveat with my crazy crossfire setups. That is why I look at watercooling your CPU as a good way to indirectly cool your GPUs especially with more than 2 GPUs. Without the heat from the CPU in the case it is possible to stay stable even with a lot of heat from the video cards.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341

I already have 2 PCs with the AMD 790FX chipset. So I won't be doing the SLI thing.

[G07H1C]

Good read! For the money, it does seem as though ATI has come up with a couple of winners, and not lose any performance, or very little performance.

I kinda like the looks of the 4870, I know its another $100.00, but 3.6Gbps (GDDR5)! Nvidia is soon to release their GDDR5 cards, but there is no way they are going to be able to keep it at $300.00???

[BaneNWN]

I might actually go the 4870 route.seen some for 284.00 on ebay might just keep my 8800 GT for backup and pick me up one of these puppies

[G07H1C]

If I hadn't seen the actual benchmarks, I wouldn't have believed it. AMD/ATI looks like the winner! If you found one for under $300.00, and you have the money - seems like a no brainer. Not to mention, it isn't bad at all to have an 8800GT as a spare!

[Mochan]

Yeah, ATI finally came up with a card to stick it to Nvidia after what? 2-3 years? I mean while the x1950xt was the king of its generation, it wasn't that much more powerful than the 7800GTX Ultra cards and Nvidia pulled out its 8800 series a little too quickly just a month later.

I can see the same scenario happening here. I see Nvidia stealing the 4800's thunder with an ace up their sleeve that they've been keeping to trump whatever ATi had to put forth. I wouldn't be surprised to see a new card come out next month in the same class as the 4850 and 4870 with better performance.

The 280 series is currently more powerful, but is in another class and is far more expensive. I expect another GPU class to come out to take the wind out of the 4800 series' sails. Perhaps it will be called the "Tegra" and of course with physics acceleration.

Regardless it's great to see ATI come out with a card that had the same manic-inducing appeal as Nvidia's 8800GT. This is price/performance for your soul!

[PapaSmurf]

Yeah, ATI finally came up with a card to stick it to Nvidia after what? 2-3 years? I mean while the x1950xt was the king of its generation, it wasn't that much more powerful than the 7800GTX Ultra cards and Nvidia pulled out its 8800 series a little too quickly just a month later.

I can see the same scenario happening here. I see Nvidia stealing the 4800's thunder with an ace up their sleeve that they've been keeping to trump whatever ATi had to put forth. I wouldn't be surprised to see a new card come out next month in the same class as the 4850 and 4870 with better performance.

The 280 series is currently more powerful, but is in another class and is far more expensive. I expect another GPU class to come out to take the wind out of the 4800 series' sails. Perhaps it will be called the "Tegra" and of course with physics acceleration.

Regardless it's great to see ATI come out with a card that had the same manic-inducing appeal as Nvidia's 8800GT. This is price/performance for your soul!

You're damn right the X1950xt was effin king. I proudly rep it in my AGP set up and every game run except Crysis plays at Full settings in playable condition. I love it. I'm hoping another year or two to squeeze out of my current set up, but then it's full on upgrade.

[BaneNWN]

You're damn right the X1950xt was effin king. I proudly rep it in my AGP set up and every game run except Crysis plays at Full settings in playable condition. I love it. I'm hoping another year or two to squeeze out of my current set up, but then it's full on upgrade.

I can attest to this claim.My x1900xt was still playing everything pretty much maxed out and said in another post i didnt really need the upgrade.I could tell the difference in the witcher though the 8800 gt performed much stronger but other then that there was not much difference that i could notice.Im sure if my monitor res went higher then 1680x1050 it would be more apparent that the 8800 GT is stronger

[G07H1C]

Both cards are eye candy, there are very few negative reviews on either, a slight notch advantage for the 8800GT, still, X1950xt is very good card.

nVidia is still on the verge of something soon, will they give AMD the advantage for a while, or release a gem with guns a blazing.

[BaneNWN]

ya ill probably just wait and see what nvidia does next.i dunno if i should go to windows vista or not i would like to see direct x10 myself but i heard alot of problems still persist with vista

[G07H1C]

We have a Vista set up as well, It's ok, some of the visuals are nice - layouts etc. I have not tested it with any serious gaming! There are bugs, microsoft may have pushed this a little to soon! I heard that XP still has about 10 yrs of life remaining, so any hasty decision or judgement now may be early - give you some time to research!

DirectX 10.1 boasts some nice new tech, but I haven't seen anything utilize it, I'm sure someone on these forums has.

[ceevee]

RtR.. just as i was stealing some thunder you go and pinch it all back and more haha!! that i one smoki' mofo PC you got there.. different league to anyone here. and i agree 1900 res with 8xAA is the only way now to game..

[Robert-The-Rambler]

I got a new case and I'm waiting on a new power supply. I returned my recently purchased 8800GT for my 4th 4850 and simply can't resist the curiosity of quad crossfire. Last night I was playing Call of Duty 4 at 2560 * 1600 with 16X Anisotropic filtering and 8X FSAA. Largely it was a smooth experience with the 3 cards working in harmony. There were some slight hiccups from time to time.Anyhow my 1000 watt power supply with only 72 amps on the 12v rails combined is not enough. When I add the 4th video card it just shuts down right after you turn it on. I'm pretty sure it is the problem. I ordered a 1100 watt supply with 110 amps combined on its 4 12v rails from Tigerdirect. When you have water cooling, 3 hard drives, and 4 video cards you need a lot of current. Perhaps when I get Frankenstein together some pictures are in order.

[BaneNWN]

I got a new case and I'm waiting on a new power supply. I returned my recently purchased 8800GT for my 4th 4850 and simply can't resist the curiosity of quad crossfire. Last night I was playing Call of Duty 4 at 2560 * 1600 with 16X Anisotropic filtering and 8X FSAA. Largely it was a smooth experience with the 3 cards working in harmony. There were some slight hiccups from time to time.Anyhow my 1000 watt power supply with only 72 amps on the 12v rails combined is not enough. When I add the 4th video card it just shuts down right after you turn it on. I'm pretty sure it is the problem. I ordered a 1100 watt supply with 110 amps combined on its 4 12v rails from Tigerdirect. When you have water cooling, 3 hard drives, and 4 video cards you need a lot of current. Perhaps when I get Frankenstein together some pictures are in order.

screw the pictures i want bench results.aquamark.3dmark 06 and 03

[BaneNWN]

i might have to have a competition with ya.ill buy a sli board and add another 8800 GT see who wins lol

[PapaSmurf]

I got a new case and I'm waiting on a new power supply. I returned my recently purchased 8800GT for my 4th 4850 and simply can't resist the curiosity of quad crossfire. Last night I was playing Call of Duty 4 at 2560 * 1600 with 16X Anisotropic filtering and 8X FSAA. Largely it was a smooth experience with the 3 cards working in harmony. There were some slight hiccups from time to time.Anyhow my 1000 watt power supply with only 72 amps on the 12v rails combined is not enough. When I add the 4th video card it just shuts down right after you turn it on. I'm pretty sure it is the problem. I ordered a 1100 watt supply with 110 amps combined on its 4 12v rails from Tigerdirect. When you have water cooling, 3 hard drives, and 4 video cards you need a lot of current. Perhaps when I get Frankenstein together some pictures are in order.

Are you effin serious!? Well if it turns out the 4 4850's don't ammount to better performance than two, feel free to send one my way. I'll pay for shipping.

Seriously thought. You're playing games at 2560 by 1600 resolution!? That's just ****ing ridiculous. I thought I was getting it good at 1920 by 1200, I guess I was just toying around. Good going RTR, that setup is pimp.

[ceevee]

i need to see some 3dmark benchmarks man! that rig is ridiculously powerful. wouldn't you need a mobo that can fit 2 CPU together too? or aren't there any out in the market.. but seriously 4 4850? enjoy the ride RtR

[Robert-The-Rambler]

screw the pictures i want bench results.aquamark.3dmark 06 and 03

Aquamark will be severely CPU limited although I will run it tommorrow when and if the power supply gets here. I don't expect much over 100000.

The problem with 3DMark06 is that it doesn't seem to be recognizing crossfire with Windows Vista. I ran it with the 3 4850s and it only seems to use one video card. My score was about 11500 if I remember correctly. Anybody with any idea of what could be happening?

I've never run 3DMark03.

[Robert-The-Rambler]

i might have to have a competition with ya.ill buy a sli board and add another 8800 GT see who wins lol

Will be very good up to 1920 * 1200.

[DBS]

Damn,
I still run my x1950 512 meg p4 system and fine it is still just fine for my gaming at 1920x1200 for most my games. No I do not own Crysis but I have cod4 for my fps gaming and that is fine with me.

I will probably get one more year out of this system before my total upgrade is due.

[BaneNWN]

Aquamark will be severely CPU limited although I will run it tommorrow when and if the power supply gets here. I don't expect much over 100000.

The problem with 3DMark06 is that it doesn't seem to be recognizing crossfire with Windows Vista. I ran it with the 3 4850s and it only seems to use one video card. My score was about 11500 if I remember correctly. Anybody with any idea of what could be happening?

I've never run 3DMark03. man you better get over 200k with that rig.aquamark might be an old test but it still is a very good indicator of how strong your pc really is.Im pushing 180k aqua with my single card i really think you will be in the 240-250k range.my 3dmark 06 was 11803 still not sure if thats good for what i have but i just know that my PC runs everything i throw at it silky smooth.My native resoultion is only 1680x1050 but i would like a monitor that supports atleast 2048x1536 or whatever.I play crysis at 1680x1050 everything in high and shadows medium and i was staying above 80 FPS but turning shadows to high i was between 27-40 which really isnt acceptable to me i want to stay above 40 playing an FPS game.oh and to get aquamark to work right with ATI cards you need to go into the aquamark file in your programs folder and delete the direcpl.dll file thats how i got it to work with my x1900xt it would run the test but not display the score so delete that file