Need to upgrade from 8800 gts 320mb

[teejay73]

Hi all, i am new to oc3d and must say i am well impressed! good job!

Anyway i was hoping that you guys could help me out with a selection choice for my future upgrade (in about two months) on my gfx card, at the moment i have the 8800gts 320mb unclocked and i have been looking for a better replacement for about £160 and have sort of decided but would like some opinions, so here goes.

1.A hd4770 in xfire (bear in mind i have a p45 chipset, mobo is p5q-e so can only run xfire @ 8x)

2.A hd4870 in single channel

3.A 260gtx 216

4.Maybe if they become cheap enough a hd4890?

The main concerns i have are the power req`s as i only have a hiper type-r 530 watts and i think it has dual rails with a combined amp of 37, though i maybe wrong on this. My monitor will also be upgraded to a benq 1080p 22in, though i am not too concerned about my resoloution.

Personally i would like to go x-fire with the hd4770 but this depends on power required, any opinions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[AntiHeroUK]

The 8x slots on your mobo are PCI-E 2.0 so they have around the same bandwidth as a normal 16x slot, which should be plenty for two 4770 cards in Crossfire.

The XFX 4890 is really well priced on Scan atm. On their front page they have it listed at £163.48 including VAT. Shipping charges will vary depending on where you live.

Does the PSU have 2x6 pin PCI-E power connectors? If so it should be fine for 4770 Crossfire.

 

[j.woody]

you want to upgrade in 2 months time? im pretty sure that all the prices will be completely different and new technology will be on the market by then.

you might even be able to afford a gtx285 by then! lol

 

[Ham]

My vote goes for the 4890, failing that price wise the 4870.

Simply down to one card is less hassle, and either of these are enough performance for any sensible 24/7 user.

 

[j.woody]

My vote goes for the 4890, failing that price wise the 4870.

Simply down to one card is less hassle, and either of these are enough performance for any sensible 24/7 user.

+1, i agree and then later on you could crossfire it with another 4890 or 4870.

 

[teejay73]

Does the PSU have 2x6 pin PCI-E power connectors? If so it should be fine for 4770 Crossfire.[/QUOTE]

Ah i forgot about that, so i would need a new psu then for sure, oh well perhaps after reading other`s opinions a single solution might be the best bet, i take it a hd4890 should have about the same power consumption as 2 hd4770 in xfire or not?

thanks for your reply.

 

[teejay73]

thanks to all, i am gonna investigate the single card solution with hd4890 in mind as i can see this dropping a fair bit when the new 5xxxx series card comes and i may even be able to hunt out a better deal by then! thanks again.

 

[Mul.]

I too would opt for the single HD 4890 or GTX 275 on the grounds that having dual graphics cards isn't as convenient.

 

[limpkorn]

I too would say the HD4890 is your best bet! You will get fantastic performance for the price of that card.

I'm concerned on your PSU can you provide a link to see if it will be enough I couldn't quite find a Hiper 530watt version.

When you say 37 amps is it because it's got dual rails one at 19amps and one at 18 amps? If so your total is not 37 amps well I don't know I would like to see the PSU before I recommend getting the HD4890 or else you will be stuck with an unusable card unless you upgrade your PSU. It would also help greatly if you list the rest of your specs and if anything is overclocked.

 

[nepas]

Dont trust your power supply!!! I have read a couple of reviews for Hiper 500+ units ,and in them they fail to pull anywhere near the rated output.I used to have the 580w type r and found it only pulled 350w

 

[teejay73]

I too would say the HD4890 is your best bet! You will get fantastic performance for the price of that card.

I'm concerned on your PSU can you provide a link to see if it will be enough I couldn't quite find a Hiper 530watt version.

When you say 37 amps is it because it's got dual rails one at 19amps and one at 18 amps? If so your total is not 37 amps well I don't know I would like to see the PSU before I recommend getting the HD4890 or else you will be stuck with an unusable card unless you upgrade your PSU. It would also help greatly if you list the rest of your specs and if anything is overclocked.

yeah was not too sure on the amps on my psu tbh! cant post urls untill i have done 15 posts, sorry but there is a review somewhere but i cant link to it.

The specs are as follows:

mobo: asus p5q-e

ram: ocz platinum ddr2800

cpu: e5200 overclocked @ 3.0ghz

hdd: 1@ 300gb 1@ 80gb

1 dvd re-writer dual layer

3x case fans.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Ham]

Hiper units were(/are? not seen one in a long time) hit and miss. I had a 430w unit that I would happily use to power any one of my rigs today.

Nepas, did you put that on a load tester and it belw up at 350w? Or just mesued how much it was pulling out the wall?

 

[teejay73]

Dont trust your power supply!!! I have read a couple of reviews for Hiper 500+ units ,and in them they fail to pull anywhere near the rated output.I used to have the 580w type r and found it only pulled 350w

Yeah i have heard this before even though they state rated wattage was 530w and at peak load it specs 580w, it has served me quite well though and cant fault it but i do feel, now that things have moved away from my last upgrade quite a lot that i should look into a better psu.

 

[nepas]

nope thats as far as it reached over on [H] and jonnyguru

 

[limpkorn]

Ok I found a review with the specs and the max current output over the 12v rails is 30 amps for v2 and 32 amps for v3 don't know which of the two you have. The HD4890 with a good overclock can take about 15 amps alone and another 15 amps for your setup based on your specs you should be good as gold! I wouldn't add any more hardware though especially if your PSU is more then a year old. You would be cutting it a bit close if you overclock the card to it's max ptential.

Good luck with your decision your PSU can handle the load based on specs as to the quality of that PSU I've hadn't really heard about it until today so I wouldn't know.

 

[limpkorn]

Dont trust your power supply!!! I have read a couple of reviews for Hiper 500+ units ,and in them they fail to pull anywhere near the rated output.I used to have the 580w type r and found it only pulled 350w

That actually sounds accurate based on the specs. Most hardware now days runs off the 12v rails very little hardware runs of the 3.3v and 5v rails so most of the power needs to come from the 12v rails and the max amps this unit can put out is between 360 watts and 384 watts, but that's what is rated at so Hiper is not lying about anything.

 

[teejay73]

Thanks limpkorn, im glad you have told me this as i like to have a little in hand when it comes to the psu and now thinking about it perhaps thats why i cant boot into xp when overclocking my cpu past 3.0ghz though at 3.0ghz it is well stable in prime and orthos after a 10hr cycle.

So i should look at a new psu before i get my gfx card sorted i think.

 

[limpkorn]

Not a problem dude! But if you'll be saving for a while you may want to reconsider what graphics card you go for later.

 

[teejay73]

Not a problem dude! But if you'll be saving for a while you may want to reconsider what graphics card you go for later.

i assume you mean that there will be better options money wise?

 

[limpkorn]

i assume you mean that there will be better options money wise?

Correct! I'm sure you know how it goes! A month or two from now the HD4890 might not be the best option or it could still be who knows.