My computer

MasterP said:

I find it odd that you two bash the whole “spend $800 and be happy for 2 years” thing.

 

Nickname you’ve gone through more laptops in the last 2 years than most people go through in a lifetime. What are you up to now? 7? 8?

 

Kuros you bought a dual-GPU card. Your money advice is, well…

I wasn’t on a budget, thanks. I bought the card that best suited my needs (at the time).

MasterP said:

wall of garbage

First, the one link of mine was supposed to be http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/ph…ii_720_810_am3/ sorry I guess I double posted the same benchmark.

I love the whole ” Fallout3 is dominated by a dualcore (we’ll throw that out)” because it means you miss the point and that is that 4 cores doesn’t necessarily make for better gaming than 2 cores, hence the reason I have not upgraded my almost 3 year old CPU.

So… you are faulting anandtech for using beta drivers at the time of the review when ATI’s full release drivers hadn’t been released for its cards? Also why would you be complaining if the other ATI cards are using older drivers? Shouldnt that make them slower? Besides we are comparing the 4670 vs the 9600gso on the same machine. I don’t really see your argument.

Yes, in the past 3 years I have been through many laptops, all of which have cost > $800 because I am still trying to figure out exactly what purpose I want a laptop to serve for me. My desktop on the other hand has many parts in it > 2 years old, including HDD, CPU, and motherboard, and the original RAM. All I have done is upgrade the ram (which was warranted but rather cheap) and the GPU, which in retrospect was probably a waste of my money. Also, weren’t you just the one that hounded me for comparing laptops and desktops when you just went and did the same thing?!?

Also you didn’t build a $450 machine there. You built a $570 machine. Mail-in rebates are a joke and I don’t count them when pricing parts because they can easily take > 3 months to get back. I missed the mark too and came in at $450. If I recall though I said to spend the extra and get the 4850 and the phenom x4 920, which at the same price point as your build would have had a CPU that performed roughly the same while having a MUCH faster video card. Just sayin.

Finally the “spend $800 and be happy” thing isn’t what you did either so… yeah good job on that one.

Sorry I am going out of order but I also noticed you talking about the nvidia rebranding the 8800gs as the 9600gso (which they did). I should have been more specific initially: the radeon 4670 is NOT a rebrand of any ATI card. It has very similar specs and performance as the 3850 which is why I made the comparison. In reality though the 3850 uses 256 bit memory and the 4670 uses 128bit memory but the 4670 is clocked higher to help compensate. Thus that is in no way a rebrand. I have no idea why you are such an nvidia fanboy but seriously I think the 4670 deserves some credit for being a decent gaming card that is only $65. I was actually considering buying one for my media center PC cause the 8600gts that is in it performs kinda meh. Oh and while I am on that topic, yeah my 8600gts DESKTOP CARD really can’t handle l4d very well at 1280×800 so I would LOVE to see a 7600 run it wonderfully.

iKnife said:

that link didnt work. idk if its just me.

hmm works fine for me…

Nickname said:

So… you are faulting anandtech for using beta drivers at the time of the review when ATI’s full release drivers hadn’t been released for its cards? Also why would you be complaining if the other ATI cards are using older drivers? Shouldnt that make them slower? Besides we are comparing the 4670 vs the 9600gso on the same machine. I don’t really see your argument.

The beta was of a higher revision than the other ones. Go look at the verions. If the beta works for one it should work for all. My bashing was founded.

Nickname said:

Also, weren’t you just the one that hounded me for comparing laptops and desktops when you just went and did the same thing?!?

I bashed your waste of money and in no way even came close to comparing them aside from saying desktops chips are faster than laptop chips.

Nickname said:

Finally the “spend $800 and be happy” thing isn’t what you did either so… yeah good job on that one.

Note I said I wouldn’t stand behind anything attempting to game in this price range. I don’t mind pricing it but would never guarantee it’s gaming potential. Spending the amount we’re talking about here will get you into the game but isn’t enough to really enjoy it. Playing L4D or CoD4 at medium settings and lower resolutions is simply not fun.

The warranty length usually becomes a factor in this range because things typically don’t last, hense why I went with more expensive yet more reliable brands. Most of the parts I posted have 3 year, 5 year, or lifetime warranties. I’m not saying Saphire isn’t reliable but having more than 2 years would really be nice.

Nickname said:

Sorry I am going out of order but I also noticed you talking about the nvidia rebranding the 8800gs as the 9600gso (which they did). I should have been more specific initially: the radeon 4670 is NOT a rebrand of any ATI card. It has very similar specs and performance as the 3850 which is why I made the comparison. In reality though the 3850 uses 256 bit memory and the 4670 uses 128bit memory but the 4670 is clocked higher to help compensate.

I thought it odd, thanks for explaining.

Nickname said:

I have no idea why you are such an nvidia fanboy but seriously I think the 4670 deserves some credit for being a decent gaming card that is only $65.

I prefer to not jump ship simply over which is cheaper. Nvidia has quite a few decent low priced cards

:offtopic: WARNING… lol

Nickname said:

The problem is even though that might be true for kuros, he has a better card to show for it.

I don’t own a single game that can’t be played at max settings. I don’t mind spending that much on a video card if it’s still trucking along after 2 years. Maybe he can play Crysis better but I have a hard time caring about a game I don’t have installed

Considering how competitive the card still is, would you honestly recommend I upgrade?

just wanted to update my recommendation with a video card that is only $5 more but has much better performance:

SAPPHIRE 100225L Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card – Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx…N82E16814102719

I am actually buying one of these for myself and selling my powerhungry gtx 260.