Poll: Which graphics card?

[geon106]

Okay i've got myself a job and wish to upgrade my PC along with some new games for it.

It's current spec is:

AMD Athlon X2 6000+
4GB DDR2 800Mhz
NVIDIA 8800 GTX XXX Edition graphics card
Creative X-Fi Fatality Champion soundcard
Gigabyte SLI Motherboard
500GB 32MB SATA hard drive
750W PSU
19inch LG monitor/tv, 2000:1 contrast ratio, 12ms response time

Now i'm thinking of upgrading the graphics card(or maybe other components listed, will come to that in a mo)

I'm on a budget of £200 tops not including the games

I've heard good things of the ATi 5770 1GB GDDR5 graphics card, it supports DX11 PCI 2.0 and has HDMI

But, on benchmarks the Geforce 260 comes out slightly better for similar money(both retail for around £130) but it lacks DX11 support, has no HDMI port and only has DDR3 ram, not GDDR5 and also only 896MB v-ram. I'm not sure which to go for or whether to go for another card or change something else.

I was thinking of keeping the 8800GTX and upgrading the monitor for a 120Hz Samsung and getting NVIDIA 3D Vision and push myself slightly over-budget(costs £260 i think).

What do you guys think?

Btw the games i'm going to buy:

CoD MW2
OFP: Dragon Rising
Rage when it comes out

 

[Discon]

We've got pretty much the excactly same specs, and I've also got the 5770.

It is a very good mid-range card, and if you can run them in XF they will scale very nicely, so after a while you could get another one and get approximately the same power as a 5850 for a lower price.


Anyway, I think that just because the 5770 has dx11 support, it's a better buy than the GeForce 260.


PS: With the same specs as you, but with only half your RAM, I can run TF2 at max settings at 1600x1000 without dropping below 50 FPS in firefights.

 

[geon106]

We've got pretty much the excactly same specs, and I've also got the 5770.

It is a very good mid-range card, and if you can run them in XF they will scale very nicely, so after a while you could get another one and get approximately the same power as a 5850 for a lower price.


Anyway, I think that just because the 5770 has dx11 support, it's a better buy than the GeForce 260.


PS: With the same specs as you, but with only half your RAM, I can run TF2 at max settings at 1600x1000 without dropping below 50 FPS in firefights.

But can you run Cross-fire on an SLI board? I didn't think it was possible?

 

[geon106]

We've got pretty much the excactly same specs, and I've also got the 5770.

It is a very good mid-range card, and if you can run them in XF they will scale very nicely, so after a while you could get another one and get approximately the same power as a 5850 for a lower price.


Anyway, I think that just because the 5770 has dx11 support, it's a better buy than the GeForce 260.


PS: With the same specs as you, but with only half your RAM, I can run TF2 at max settings at 1600x1000 without dropping below 50 FPS in firefights.

But can you run Cross-fire on an SLI board? I didn't think it was possible?

You can't. Also, forget 3dVision, it's not worth it. At all. Especially not if you keep the 8800.

Maybe save a little more and buy a 58xx instead? (I'm out of touch with the prices, I don't know how much more they cost.)

I like the 260, but only because I recently bought a second one for some SLi goodness so ATi is still a better bet for you.

Hmm, i can't find a 58xx series on Amazon :S Would it give enough power over the 5770 to warrant the extra cost?

 

[veloper]

Keep the 8800GTX, unless you're planning a bigger upgrade very soon.

The x2 6000+ is already the slowest part in that rig. Sticking a fast GPU in the sytem won't make any noticeable difference.

A good guideline for a gaming rig is to keep the CPU and GPU rougly in the same price bracket.

 

[geon106]

Keep the 8800GTX, unless you're planning a bigger upgrade very soon.

The x2 6000+ is already the slowest part in that rig. Sticking a fast GPU in the sytem won't make any noticeable difference.

A good guideline for a gaming rig is to keep the CPU and GPU rougly in the same price bracket.

Well, the mobo is AM2, Maybe I should save up for a Phenom as they'll work in AM2 at its slower 2000Mhz FSB rather than the faster AM2+. Then get an ATi 5770 at the same time.. might see how much Phenoms go for

 

[geon106]

I've checked Gigabytes website and my AM2 mobo is AM2+ and AM3 compatible, so tell me if this is good, save up for:

AMD Phenon II 3.40 Ghz Quad Core 8MB L2 Cache £136

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-Phenom-Cache-Quad-core-Processor/dp/B002KV6MLS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1259439882&sr=1-2

And an ATi 5770 1GB GDDR5 HDMI Graphics card £131

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-HD5770-GDDR5-Express-Graphics/dp/B002RXK3P0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1259440207&sr=1-1


So for both with delivery, it'll be just under £300... not bad tbh

 

[veloper]

I've checked Gigabytes website and my AM2 mobo is AM2+ and AM3 compatible, so tell me if this is good, save up for:

AMD Phenon II 3.40 Ghz Quad Core 8MB L2 Cache £136

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-Phenom-Cache-Quad-core-Processor/dp/B002KV6MLS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1259439882&sr=1-2

And an ATi 5770 1GB GDDR5 HDMI Graphics card £131

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-HD5770-GDDR5-Express-Graphics/dp/B002RXK3P0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1259440207&sr=1-1


So for both with delivery, it'll be just under £300... not bad tbh

This should be pretty good. Also consider the 4870 as an alternative to the 5770.
The 4870 is generally faster, though it lacks some of the new features.

 

[DazZ.]

Hmm, i can't find a 58xx series on Amazon :S Would it give enough power over the 5770 to warrant the extra cost?

Why are you looking at Amazon? This site [http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/radeon-hd-5770,review-31704-7.html] gives a few gaming benchmarks between the 2 cards, see if it's worth the extra price.

 

[reggiejames]

buy more ram. it never hurts to have more ram.
personally, i'm saving my money for a
ATI Radeon HD 5870 1 GB HD-587A-ZNF9

 

[Discon]

buy more ram. it never hurts to have more ram.
personally, i'm saving my money for a
ATI Radeon HD 5870 1 GB HD-587A-ZNF9

As far as I'm aware, RAM hardly affects your FPS after 2 gig.

 

[dommyuk]

buy more ram. it never hurts to have more ram.
personally, i'm saving my money for a
ATI Radeon HD 5870 1 GB HD-587A-ZNF9

As far as I'm aware, RAM hardly affects your FPS after 2 gig.

Depends how demanding the game is and how many processes you have running in the background and how much memory they're using.

 

[tk1989]

Here is a good benchmark for Mid-range to high range cards atm:
http://www.techspot.com/review/221-ati-radeon-hd-5970/page3.html

But eyah, I'd go for a Raedon HD 5850, 1gb. Lands in at a cool £201

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/ATI+Radeon+5000+Series+PCI-E/VTX+3D+HD+5850+1GB+Graphics+card+?productId=38157

 

[Mr.Black]

I have the 260 and I can play Dragon Age on ultra high (Same goes for MW2).

 

[MaceUK71]

The 4890.

I was looking at the 5770 for DX11, but the 4890 is faster than the 5770 and the 5770, although DX11 enabled, is a low end 57xx series card so will more than likely have trouble running the new DX11 games such as DIRT 2.

If I were you I would either save my money and get a 58xx when they are available again next year or get a 48xx card and upgrade to a 58xx next year if you definately need one staright away. You have to ask yourself how many DX11 games will be out in the next year?

 

[SF_KiLLaMaN]

I would definitely go for the DX11 card. I have heard nothing but good things about the 5770.

 

[veloper]

buy more ram. it never hurts to have more ram.
personally, i'm saving my money for a
ATI Radeon HD 5870 1 GB HD-587A-ZNF9

As far as I'm aware, RAM hardly affects your FPS after 2 gig.

Depends how demanding the game is and how many processes you have running in the background and how much memory they're using.

The guy already has 4 GB.
More than that will do absolutely zero in games even for the most recent releases.
Buying DDR2 is a waste in any case. DDR3 is more value for money nowadays.

The OP's system is good for one last, modest CPU + GPU upgrade and after that nothing more can be gained, not without a complete overhaul.

 

[Nova5]

Get the nVidia card - it'll function better with your board, given it's developed around SLI. Last few times I've tried introducing an ATI card to an SLI board, bad things happened (BSoD, driver issues, graphical glitches). Same thing with nVidia cards on a Crossfire board.

Good luck, bro.

 

[slipknot4]

ATI 5770 is one of the best card up to date with full dx11 support, i believe. But you can overclock the 260 so that it's preformace is equal to the 295