[RESOLVED] 7600GT or HD 4670

[mattaust]

This is for my old computer is it really worth spending $160 to get a ATI Radeon HD 4670 over my Geforce 7600gt, i wouldnt mind this computer lasting abit longer of what it already has lasted me.

Specs so far on it:
AMD Athlon 2000+
MSI Geforce 7500GT 512mb
Some average Gigabyte motherboard.
2gb DDRI Ram.

[Midknyte]

No. the 2000+ doesn't have enough horsepower for the 4670.

[equinoxe3d]

Ditto, I tried out a Radeon 3850 AGP (similar to the 4670) and it was moderately bottlenecked by my CPU, so I wound up selling it to a friend with an Athlon64 3400+ system. Even there, it was still a bit held off by his CPU. The 3xxx/4xxx AGP cards are mostly for people using S939 AGP systems as HTPCs for Blu-Ray decoding and light gaming. Also these parts are not sanctioned by ATI so the driver support is sub-par at best (well, at least it was when I had mine), you'll probably need hotfix versions of drivers or forced installation/.ini editing to make the cards work.

IMO that system is fine as it is, I wouldn't spend much money on it, let alone $160

[mattaust]

Cheers, I totally forgot about the bottlenecking issues that could arise.. Thanks for reminding me.. Looks like i might as well just leave it how it is then.

Cheers, Matt

[Ratt]

Ditto, I tried out a Radeon 3850 AGP (similar to the 4670) and it was moderately bottlenecked by my CPU, so I wound up selling it to a friend with an Athlon64 3400+ system. Even there, it was still a bit held off by his CPU. The 3xxx/4xxx AGP cards are mostly for people using S939 AGP systems as HTPCs for Blu-Ray decoding and light gaming. Also these parts are not sanctioned by ATI so the driver support is sub-par at best (well, at least it was when I had mine), you'll probably need hotfix versions of drivers or forced installation/.ini editing to make the cards work.

IMO that system is fine as it is, I wouldn't spend much money on it, let alone $160

mattaust, sorry for hijacking this thread.

equinoxe3d, If I was looking for the world's fastest agp card should I go for the HD3850 (256-bit/512MB) or HD4870 (128bit/1GB)? Been searching for answers and looking at reviews on the web but still not conclusive enough to make the decision. Tom's Hardware did make a HD3850 vs HD4650 review but not with an HD4670.

I figure that if I ever want to buy my first Ati card, it must be for a good reason.

[equinoxe3d]

mattaust, sorry for hijacking this thread.

equinoxe3d, If I was looking for the world's fastest agp card should I go for the HD3850 (256-bit/512MB) or HD4870 (128bit/1GB)? Been searching for answers and looking at reviews on the web but still not conclusive enough to make the decision. Tom's Hardware did make a HD3850 vs HD4650 review but not with an HD4670.

I figure that if I ever want to buy my first Ati card, it must be for a good reason.

Honestly I haven't read much between both since I bought the 3850 right when it was released, so way before the 4xxx series. The closest direct comparisons I found a while ago is a reviewer of the Powercolor 4670 AGP on Newegg (I know, not exactly a reliable feedback source) upgrading from a 3850 AGP and finding it overall slower, without giving more details (resolutions, etc.). I know that the 3850 AGP has pretty much the same performance as the PCIe one, but I'm not sure about the 4870.

Personally, strictly for gaming out of the two I'd give a slight edge and buy the 3850, as the price/performance ratio seems better to me. You also have more brands to choose from, (probably) better drivers and much more feedback/resources available on the net if you encounter a problem as it's a year older. However, the cynic in me will tell you to avoid both cards if you want to have a good first impression of ATI

My friend still has the 3850 and he likes it, it runs GRID great on his 1280x1024 LCD. However, his system is going to his brother as I'm building him a new i7 rig with a 5870 next week

[Ratt]

My friend still has the 3850 and he likes it, it runs GRID great on his 1280x1024 LCD. However, his system is going to his brother as I'm building him a new i7 rig with a 5870 next week

Thanks for the feedback. It's more for the sake of completeness for my AGP series. It might come in handy in the future.

Sounds like a nice build for your friend. Would be nice if you could later post a thread for a short review and some benchmarks in the gaming or hardware forum.

[equinoxe3d]

Sounds like a nice build for your friend. Would be nice if you could later post a thread for a short review and some benchmarks in the gaming or hardware forum.

Yeah, it's a totally overkill build in many ways, but he insisted on spending all his budget (around CDN $2000) and we chose most parts for it in something like 5 hours...

Intel Core i7 860
Asus P7P55D
8GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1600 7-7-7-24
Gigabyte Radeon HD 5870
1TB Western Digital Caviar Black
LG 22X SATA DVD writer
Corsair HX750W
Antec Nine Hundred case (already had)
Asus VW266H monitor (locally bought)
Windows 7 x64 (likely Home Premium, will get it this week)

It will probably explode and fall apart when I'll put it together, so it's likely to be a troubleshooting thread first before the benchies and reviews