Should I buy 1 more 3870 to Xfire or buy a 4830?

[vivek]

I have a 3870 and i want to upgrade to improve frame rates. I only have 80 bucks to spend, so should i get a 4830 or a 3870 and crossfire it?

[skier]

i have no authority on ATI cards, but i do know the 4k series is way ahead of the 3k, but i'm not sure dual 3870's would be beaten out by the 4830(the main reason FOR the 4830 is so you could xfire it in the future so instead of having to get rid of two cards in the future, you would just need to add another 4830 later)

but i suggest waiting for more responses...

[stopthekilling77]

If I were you, I'd ditch both ideas and go with a single 4850. Logic being that its a step up from that 3870 and you'll be able to get another to crossfire with as prices drop

[vivek]

Would a 4850 be better than two 3870's? I know the 4850 has 800 stream units vs. only 320 for a 3870. Crossfire for the 3870 seems to improve frame rates by up to 20 % in most games. I really don't know what to do. Nobody benchmarks the 3870 with the latest 9.4 drivers. All I can find is articles from 2007 and from early 2008.

[vivek]

i found a 4850 for 80 bucks after refund....

[pwcmed]

Whats your resolution? I would save a little more money and get a 4850 thats if you need it

[vivek]

I have a Samsung SyncMaster 245BW 24'' lcd at 1920x1200.

[pwcmed]

Ohh, yea a 4850 would be a better buy for that res. Maybe you can sell your 3870 and get a 4870 for about 139.99 after MIR.

[vivek]

Actually, I was thinking of installing the 3870 in my other pc, it has a e5200 pentium dual core and g43 chipset. Currently using onboard video.

[Thybalt]

I am running a cfx config with 2 x 3870's. If you want I can run some benchmarks for you if you need to know some figures. Drop me a pm and let me know what you need, I'll try to bench these days.

[vivek]

i will just wait for the price of the 4850 to go down..