ATi HD4670 vs HD4850

[David J.]

OK, I really don't play a lot of PC games... I really don't, but I want something decent than the onboard HD3200 which is hogging some ram that I want! But honestly, I am I saving that much $$$ by buying a 1GB ATi HD4670 over, say a 1GB ATi HD 4850?

The HD4670 is like $100, and the HD4850 is $200.

Either way... I am wondering what would be better... and yes my power supply can handle the HD4850.

[thedaemon]

Well the HD4850 is faster. I hope you have 3GB (if 32bit) of ram at least. Because 1GB of video memory will eat 1GB of regular RAM. What do you expect games performance at? Games and resolution and quality settings?

[David J.]

I really don't play games... I have a lot of older PC games I like to play, but I want to get a rid of the onboard video, while decent... I don't like a bottleneck.

Ouch. I have 32bit Vista, and 4GB of PC800 DDR 2. I went on the cheap and got the 32bit OEM edition of Windows Vista Home Premium, and I run a Athlon 64 X2 5000+ And the 64bit versio is the same price!

Don't ask... Since my busted laptop has a Turion 64 X2 and it has the 32bit version of windows...

[thedaemon]

Most games are 32bit anyways. So don't worry about it too much. I would get the cheaper one if I were you, unless you play current games and want the best performance. Although in crossfire mode, 2 of the HD4670's beat 1 HD4850, so in the future you could upgrade. But right now 2 HD4670s are still higher than 1 HD4850. I would get a 512MB video card if I only played older games (which I do.) But if you plan on keeping this system long enough to play some of the new games like Fallout 3, splurge for the HD4850. I'm a Nvidia guy though, so I would get the 8800GT 512MB. :O

[David J.]

I used to love nVidia, but eh... I'm at the point where I'm not really loving them.

I will say their product line has gotten really, really confusing lately.