Time for a new video card, a few questions about high end/mod range.

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bradyapba

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Nov 30, 2004
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Ok so im building a new system. i7/920. 6 gigs of ram. Gaming machine.

Sorta costing a little more than i want. So have roughly 2 budgets in mind.

Around 400, and around 200.

What are the best cards at those price points?

And at the 200 range, which one would be best to add a second card in later? If i go the $200 route, i will probably xfire/sli in april, when the bonus check comes in.

Are they are good round up reviews anywhere?

I was sort of leaning towards a 260/270/275 and then overclocking it.

At the $400 i have no idea, i know theres the 285, but i have no idea whats comparable ATI wise, A 5870? And at the$200 range, im clueless on what would be an good ati card.. a 5770? Or maybe a 5850 in the $300 for DX 11?

any links, or opinions would be great.
 
at $400 the radeon 5870
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...EPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=radeon+5870


After that the radeon 5850 which has a msrp of $289.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...EPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=radeon+5850


I would certianly opt for the 5850 over anything at the under $200 price point.

But under $200 go with the radeon 5770. I believe the 1 gig verison can be had for $170
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...EPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=radeon+5770

I don't know why at this point you'd buy an nvidia dx 10 card. While they are competitive you miss out on alot of things

1) dx 11
2) 3d gaming on 60hz monitors (nvidia requires 120hz)
3) Eyeinfinty.

Sure you might not have the cash to burn on eyeinfinty but with ati esp the higher end ones (5850/70) it will run really well.

THe other thing to take into consideration is energy use.

The 5870 is faster than all of nvidia's card while using the same power at idle as the gts 250 , radeon 3870 and gtx 285 and 20 watts less than the gtx 260. While at load its 59 watts less than the gtx 295 and only 17 watts more than the gtx 285
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3643&p=26


THe hd 5850 at idle uses slightly less than the 5870 but at load it falls between a gts 250 and 4870. A full 50 watts less than the gtx 275 and 63ish watts less than the gtx 285 and it normaly beats out the gtx 285
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3650&p=13

THe 5770 uses less power than any other card anand tested at idle and only the 3870 uses less power at load.

Of course the 5770 looses out to the gts 260 in many cases . However you do get lower power usage and of course dx 11

Personaly if i was in your situation i'd target the 5850. It will rip through any game at 1920x1200 or 1080p it has a low cost , dx 11 and in the future when prices drop you can get a second card for crossfire which actually will get you radeon 5970 performance in the majority of apps ($600 card) So you can buy now at $280 and later this year perhaps get one used or even price reduced at $200 or less and have $600 card performance for $480 or so.
 
Pasta (who doesnt like pasta!) thank you very much! Exactly the sort of info I was looking for. The more I think about it, the more the 5850 makes sense. I do believe that it the card im going to target. Again thanks for taking the time to post.
 
bradyapba said:
Pasta (who doesnt like pasta!) thank you very much! Exactly the sort of info I was looking for. The more I think about it, the more the 5850 makes sense. I do believe that it the card im going to target. Again thanks for taking the time to post.
Click to expand...

No problem. ALso don't think that nvidia doesn't produce a good card. I didn't talk about them because you already seemed to know about them. But like I said at this point nvidia is dx 10 and dx 10.1 only. Its silly to waste upwards of $400 on a video card that wont play this years games with all their effects while there are cards at the same price point that will.

Also remember ati is supporting bit cauldron 3d glasses which work on 60hz and up monitors while nvidia requires 120hz screens. Whats more the bit cauldrens will work on tvs while nvidia's wont.

Also you can do eyeinfinty with a single card on the ati side.

So there are other non core things that are attractive on the ati side. You should also go to the amd video card forum and read whats in the new leaked drivers. Some good things coming down the pipe.
 
Another option may be saving money on the CPU/MOBO/RAM combo. The I5 750, P55, and 4GB of DDR3 would save you a lot of cash (>$200) and preforms pretty similar from my reading.

But the HD5850 is the way to go if you want to save some cash over the HD5870. Anything under the $200 mark is quite a drop in preformance.

Regreting the GTX285 preformance, it falls between the HD4890 and HD5850, but costs $100 more than the HD5850, uses more power and has less features (dx11, Eyefinitey).
 
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Good stuff. Stuff I would not of thought of. 60/120 (my monitor only does 60), eyeinfinity, dx11, etc all stuff I had not taken into consideration. Really helps make a decision.

I had not even realized that the new nvidia cards did not do dx11. Ive been rolling on the same set up for so long, I have been out of the loop when it came to hardware. Thanks!
 
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