Okay, so I'm selling my iMac with an Nvidia 8800GS 512MB, and I'm wondering which card will be better to buy. Actually, I'm 99% sure the order of best to worst goes: 4850 > 8800GS > 4670, but my question is, how much more powerful is one over the other? Is the 4850 a ton better than the 8800GS, or just a bit? Is the 4670 a lot worse than the 8800GS? I'm mostly thinking about gaming here. Of course, ideally I'd get the 4850 but I don't have much money. Thanks.
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8800GS vs. HD 4670 vs. 4580?
- Thread starter upsguy27
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The 4850 is only a little better than the 8800 (which is similar to the GT130 from last gen).
I recommend waiting until the next upgrade where there should be newer cards since Apple likes to get at least two upgrades with the same basic graphic cards.
Should you still decide to upgrade now, make sure you get the 4850 otherwise you will be buying an inferior product as the ATI 4670 is not as good as your current 8800. If you can hold off and save up money for the Quad i5, that would help your performance more, but that is up to you and your finances.
I'll definitely try to get enough money for the dual core w/ the 4850, but I'll go for the Quad if I can (most likely not). I'm going to get this gen; my current iMac already dropped a ton in value thanks to these new iMacs and I was offered a great price for it. The person who bought it from me paid the exact same as a refurb costs.
Im actually buying a reurb with 8800GS because the 4670, is really lackluster for games. The 4850 is nice, but it's obviously just a temp. solution for apple while a new gen of GPU's come out, and they figure how to implement in the iMac and control it's heat. The 8800 GS seems to play almost all games from 2007 and prior maxed, so I think I will be very happy for a couple years (I have a huge backlog of games to play, new gamer) However if games are not a concern anything other than 9400M would be fine.
I just did the same as you. At $1149 the refurb 3.06 is so much less expensive, and I just can't imagine that 27" with the high native resolution. For my games the 8800 @ 1920x1200 is probably better than 2560x1440 on the 4850. Regardless I just can't justify the 27" price and I didn't want to settle for 21.5. I'm confident the 8800 will get me through 3 more iMac refreshes before I pass it on to my wife or daughter.
cheers,
EDIT, Had to eat my words. Sold this one after 3 months and replaced it with the 9,1 w/ATI 4850. Just not a fan of nvidia.
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4850 > 8800 > 4670 > 130
Though if you look at http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html and compare with Barefeats...
It comes down to, is the 4670 the desktop or mobile version and what was the 8800gs? Even if both were mobile its very close except I give the 8800gs the edge with 512
Though if you look at http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html and compare with Barefeats...
It comes down to, is the 4670 the desktop or mobile version and what was the 8800gs? Even if both were mobile its very close except I give the 8800gs the edge with 512
apple is downclocking the ati cards !!!
so you'd better keep your 8800 GS
it was a very good card and it still is, compared to the ati
it may be newer, but still not high-end card like the 8800 GS and they are downclocked
so you'd better keep your 8800 GS
it was a very good card and it still is, compared to the ati
it may be newer, but still not high-end card like the 8800 GS and they are downclocked