GPU recomendations?

S

safehaven

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 28, 2008
Messages
224
I want to upgrade my GPU prior to the release of Modern Warfare 2. My system spes are as follows:

E6320 OCed to 3.0 GHz (3.2 GHz is probably possible)
4GB DDR2 PC2 8000
WinXP 32
Nvidia 8600 GTS 256MB
500W Antec EW
Dell 24" S-PVA @ 1900X1200

I already own Crysis and Warhead and would like to be able to play them at native resolution with as much of the eye candy turned on as possible. But most of all, I'd like to play Modern Warfare 2 when it comes out at native resolution on max settings.

I posted an inquiry in the General Hardware section to see if my system could handle an upgrade and if it would benefit from one. The consensus was "yes". I was originally thinking about a spending limit of about $150.

XFX HD-487A-ZWFC was the recommendation based on the dollar amount I wanted to spend.

The problem I have with this card is that it exhausts into the case. My Antec Sonata 3 does not have the best air flow. So, I started looking at the XFX HD-489A-ZDFC, It seems based on the reviews on Newegg that the most recent models have major problems. So, that one is probably out.

Then I thought about the XFX HD-585A-ZNFC. This baby, however, is way more than I wanted to spend.

So here is the deal. I am willing to spend $250 for the 5850 if I need to or if it would really benefit me a great deal more than the 4800 series. But, I don't plan on upgrading my system, other than the GPU. I don't plan on upgrading my OS. I don't plan on crossfiring as my mobo doesn't support it.

Can someone please help me figure out what the best course of action is for me? 4870, 4890, 5850? I prefer lower price if possible and it must exhaust out of the case. Everyone seems to recommend XFX because of their warranty, which I will admit, I would like as well. But, I am not dead set on XFX either.

Thanks!
 
Well here's the deal. The 5850 would definitely be your best bet if you didn't need all of the air exhausted out. The 5870s all put a lot of heat into the case, and the 5850s exhaust looks very similar. My recommendation would be for a gtx 260. It's dual slot but most of the heat goes out the back.

I had a similar problem when I had a fully enclosed case a while back when I got an 8800. You know what helped a lot? This
 
Well it does, just like the 5870; but the problem is the vent is so small because of all the ports (damn you eyefinity!) Look at a picture of the back of that card and then a gtx 260, you'll see what I mean.
 
Yeah, I just looked. The vent on the GTX 260 is very similar to the vent on the 4890/4850. I can see how the 5850 would be restrictive.

I have not even really looked at any of the Nvidia card because, at the moment, they seem to be a little taboo. Under powered and over priced. How does the GTX 260 compare in performance to any of the before mentioned ATI cards?

Also, I am not opposed to a slot cooler, if they work as well as they are suppose to. If they work, I'd say the 4870 that I linked to may still be a viable option to consider.
 
safehaven said:
Yeah, I just looked. The vent on the GTX 260 is very similar to the vent on the 4890/4850. I can see how the 5850 would be restrictive.

I have not even really looked at any of the Nvidia card because, at the moment, they seem to be a little taboo. Under powered and over priced. How does the GTX 260 compare in performance to any of the before mentioned ATI cards?

Also, I am not opposed to a slot cooler, if they work as well as they are suppose to. If they work, I'd say the 4870 that I linked to may still be a viable option to consider.
Click to expand...

Nvidia has definitely caught a lot of heat lately, basically because they have no response to the 5800s. I just upgraded from a gtx 260 to a 5870 so I can say without bias that they're both great cards. The 4870 is similar to a 260, the 5850 a bit better than a 285. Honestly I think you'll be happy with whichever card you pick, however at the resolution you play the 5850 seems to be your best bet. I'd go for that, grab a slot cooler and game away :)
 
I am in the same boat as you, (have my own thread) and I am hesitant about that XFX 4870 1GB because it doesn't exhaust out of the back, and they discontinued the model that has the heat exhausting out of the back. I have great airflow (antec 900) but I still don't know if I should risk it. Seems to be a great price for a 1gb 4870 though! I would love to hear from someone who actually has the card (other than newegg reviews) and maybe even find a legit review for it. As for the 4890, I don't think that would be worth it when you can have the 5850 for only 60$ more (both are out of my price range) and the performance + power savings are far superior. I would say for you either go with a dual slot exhaust 4870 1gb or just go all out and get the 5850 if you don't plan on upgrading anytime soon.
 
Shadowssong said:
I am in the same boat as you, (have my own thread) and I am hesitant about that XFX 4870 1GB because it doesn't exhaust out of the back, and they discontinued the model that has the heat exhausting out of the back. I have great airflow (antec 900) but I still don't know if I should risk it. Seems to be a great price for a 1gb 4870 though! I would love to hear from someone who actually has the card (other than newegg reviews) and maybe even find a legit review for it. As for the 4890, I don't think that would be worth it when you can have the 5850 for only 60$ more (both are out of my price range) and the performance + power savings are far superior. I would say for you either go with a dual slot exhaust 4870 1gb or just go all out and get the 5850 if you don't plan on upgrading anytime soon.
Click to expand...

You should be totally fine with an antec 900. The big worry when you have a card that dumps heat into your case is heat building up, causing other components to get hotter and making life miserable. The giant fan at the top of that 900 will take care of that easily. I'm running a 5870 in a Lian Li P50 (very similar to a 900) and my CPU temps haven't even gone up a degree, so you should be in great shape with that 4870.
 
Is this for Modern Warfare 2? (since is runs on a game console, we can assume it will @ 1080p on anything better then a 9800gt or higher).

MW2 is going to be a DX9 game, again, unless if the 2 week PC delay was to add some nice dx10/dx11 features...
 
mrrogers747 said:
You should be totally fine with an antec 900. The big worry when you have a card that dumps heat into your case is heat building up, causing other components to get hotter and making life miserable. The giant fan at the top of that 900 will take care of that easily. I'm running a 5870 in a Lian Li P50 (very similar to a 900) and my CPU temps haven't even gone up a degree, so you should be in great shape with that 4870.
Click to expand...

Ok thanks, so would you suggest the OP avoid it since he doesn't have the best air flow?
 
Shadowssong said:
Ok thanks, so would you suggest the OP avoid it since he doesn't have the best air flow?
Click to expand...

It's a tough call. I'd say it really depends on the cooling on other components (CPU mainly.) I linked to a slot cooler I've used a few posts up when I had a case with less than optimal airflow. I put it right underneath my video card and my case temps dropped a few degrees. It's not going to be a magical solution, but it can help make the difference between too hot and bearable.
 
gtx 5870-285 a jiont partnership between ati and nvida to rule the world. Oh and with lucid some where in between.

5870 gpu and a gtx 285 on the same card.
with a hydra 200 chip in the middle !

4 gig ram with a retail price of 899.99+ tax
 
safehaven said:
XFX HD-487A-ZWFC

Can someone please help me figure out what the best course of action is for me? 4870, 4890, 5850? I prefer lower price if possible and it must exhaust out of the case. Everyone seems to recommend XFX because of their warranty, which I will admit, I would like as well. But, I am not dead set on XFX either.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

The cooling solution on that 4870 just looks lame. XFX top cards are the XXX edition. But you pay a premium for those. The thing is there are several manufacturer's with better cooling solutions on the 4870 but when you run into trouble, they might not be as good as XFX on the support.

I've recently heard good things about ASUS. One guy had a defective 4870x2 in a matched pair and he got them both replaced with 295s. So that's not bad RMA service there.

HardOCP has done a review on ASUS GTX 260 and Asus Dark Knight 4870 1GB. Either card should suit your needs.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/03/02/asus_gtx_260_55nm_4870_dark_knight_1gb/1

The ASUS 4870 Dark Knight right now comes with a $20 MIR at the egg and free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121291

The ASUS GTX 260 will run you $10 more after $20 MIR and does not have free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121337&Tpk=asus gtx 260
 
vjcsmoke said:
The cooling solution on that 4870 just looks lame. XFX top cards are the XXX edition. But you pay a premium for those. The thing is there are several manufacturer's with better cooling solutions on the 4870 but when you run into trouble, they might not be as good as XFX on the support.

I've recently heard good things about ASUS. One guy had a defective 4870x2 in a matched pair and he got them both replaced with 295s. So that's not bad RMA service there.

HardOCP has done a review on ASUS GTX 260 and Asus Dark Knight 4870 1GB. Either card should suit your needs.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/03/02/asus_gtx_260_55nm_4870_dark_knight_1gb/1

The ASUS 4870 Dark Knight right now comes with a $20 MIR at the egg and free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121291

The ASUS GTX 260 will run you $10 more after $20 MIR and does not have free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121337&Tpk=asus gtx 260
Click to expand...

Unfortunately XFX stopped either stocking newegg or completely discontinued to the 4870 with a full shroud rear exhausting cooler. I wish I could get it with a full shroud XFX 4870, but now that I have read a little about the 5750, I'm aiming more toward that because of the lower power consumption and HOPEFULLY lower heat output. You may want to look into this card as well OP, fudzilla says it releases in two days, might hit just the sweet spot if the prices aren't jacked up right at release.
 
Since heat may very well be a factor for me, I am posting a pic of my case. I have an AC7 blowing directly into a 120mm exhaust fan. My current GPU exhausts directly into the case. To be perfectly honest, though, I do not know how hot the GPU runs under load. Other than those three fans mentioned, my case has no other mean of air movement. There is an oblong air intake port in the rear, and a pretty good sized air intake in front of the HDD bay. However, that one has a filter and is often pluged with dust if I do not stay on top of it.

Would this setup, as it is now, be adequate to run that 4870 that exhausts into the case? How about the 5850, the exhausts out the back?

Also, I have drawn in possible fan locations that I could install. There is more than enough room for an 80mm fan mounted on the back wall of the case behind the PSU. I am fairly certain that there is room for (2) 120mm fans mounted in the access door. I have never modded a case like this before, so I have no idea as to the difficulty or whether it is even possible.

Also, I am very open to installing a slot cooler, or two, or three, if they would do the job. Those would be a lot easier than modding the case.

casep.jpg
 
I personally would advise against going OCD on cooling and I certainly wouldn't hack up a nice looking case to add more fans. The Sonata may not have a LOT of airflow but it does have pretty efficient cooling even with that sincle fan, provided your cables are managed and yours don't appear to be causing any major airflow obstructions.

My advise, use it as is and get whatever card you want. Monitor the temps and if they're within acceptable values leave it alone. If the CPU or GPU starts running too hot, simply replace the single exhasut fan with a slightly more powerful unit.

I'm running an Antec 900 now but prior to that I was runnign a Coolermaster Mystique case which had a single 120mm, fan in the same location as the sonata but also had another, low-rpm intake fan right in front of the drives. I had my system in there (specs in sig) except instead of the 5870 I was running a 4850 with a Thermaltake Duorb cooler that dumped all the heat inside the case. Temps are definatly cooler with the 900 but I never had any temp related issues with the mystique either.
 
If you add any fans, add a single 120 around where you have them in your diagram. Either in the middle of where your boxes are, or the right one, around 800 RPM will be fine. This will keep the card nicely fed with cool outside air, and will keep it from needing to spin up as much. The 80mm will be useless, as would a second 120mm side panel fan.
 
OP wait and check out what cooling solutions come with the 5770 and 5750, they most likely will have some models with a full sheath and rear exhaust, now all you need is an intake so I would suggest installing that intake fan infront of the HDD bays to have some cool air being brought into the case, and if you get a 5770/5750 with rear exhaust you would be fine heat wise.
 
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