Comments on: Best Video Card For Your Money: January 2010

By: MathieuB

MathieuB — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:39:43 +0000

That was an honest mistake on my end, I did indeed overlook the 800/640SP from the Radeon 4850/4860. Same goes with the Radeon 4860/Radeon 5850 comparison, I was probably thinking of another model when I wrote it, went too fast and didn't see that typo.

In any case, I updated the post to remove the Radeon 4860 recommendation. Thank you for pointing it out guys.

By: MathieuB

MathieuB — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:28:40 +0000

Yes, the Radeon 5770 is a tad faster than the 4850, as the Radeon 5770 is comparable to the Radeon 4870 performance wise.

By: Das

Das — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:17:03 +0000

I think he is talking about the price/performance ratio,that, or he made a mistake. Either way the 4860 is a good card.

By: J. MacHale

J. MacHale — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:40:25 +0000

Agreed,
HD5850: 1440 shaders , DDR5 @ 256-bit bus
HD4860: 640 shaders, DDR5 @128-bit bus.

You might want to edit this.

By: upetro

upetro — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:24:47 +0000

“Mind you, even at stock speed, it is the best deal at this price,as it has no problem outperforming the Radeon 4770, 4850 and 5850. This card will do the job at 1680 x 1050 and even 1920 x 1080 although you might have to lower details in some games.”

How can you say a hd4860 outperforms a hd5850, thats bull-shit.

By: Polak

Polak — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:28:23 +0000

I have a quick question about the ATIs. I currently have a 4850 1gb and was curious if the 5770 is any much better. unfortunatly when it comes to the Radeons i sometimes get confused with their series numbers compaired to their performance.

By: MathieuB

MathieuB — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:26:47 +0000

To those who think that this article is biased, stay tuned for an article this week where I tackle the topic of Nvidia vs ATI, what happened in 2009 and what I predict in 2010. Then, I hope that you'll understand my recommendations.

By: james

james — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 18:11:32 +0000

artical seems biased

By: driverboy007

driverboy007 — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:07:23 +0000

Seems a tad bit Radeon biased… Seems from this that Nvidia has nothing to compete at any level

By: MathieuB

MathieuB — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:33:59 +0000

Actually, according to the specs on the motherboard page on NewEgg: http://bit.ly/58vKPI the second slot runs at PCI-E 2.0 4x. You own the board though, I figure that you would know better, so that might be a mistake on my end, correct me if I'm wrong here.

If I'm right though, your second Radeon 3870 X2 is seriously limited.

My suggestion would be to see what will happen when Nvidia release their cards, in the next few weeks/months. Most likely, it will force AMD to drop the prices on their cards, especially considering that their production yields should be higher by then, allowing them to cut their prices to compete and allowing you to save some money.

Then what you can do is to get a Radeon 5970, which is basically a "Radeon 5860 X2", as in it has the full SP, ROPs, etc. of the Radeon 5870, but it runs at the frequencies of the Radeon 5850.

Mind you, the lowered frequencies are due to a regulation (I can't remember which one), which prevents a card from consuming over 300W. Nothing prevents you from overclocking the card and laugh at said regulation.

Then again, we have yet to see what will Nvidia come out with, so patience is your friend here. If anything, at least you'll get a lower price on whatever card you pick in the end.