Which nVidia card is the best bang for your buck?

B

bumjin

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I've been so out of the loop on computer parts and it's been a few years since I built my computer and it's starting to show old age and what not. I'm currently using 8800 GTX and it runs CoD4 smoothly @ 1600x1050 resolution with some settings maxed out.

Now, I'm looking for a single video card around 300-350$ and it'll perform well for upcoming games such as CoD: Black Ops.

Any suggestions? Or, maybe should I wait for a couple months until nVidia release a new line of GPU?
 
At $300-350, it's definitely the GTX 470. There's nothing coming soon from Nvidia besides the 465, and waiting on GPUs to come out is a losing prospect unless you know for sure something great will be out in the next three months.
 
The 465 is supposedly being debuted in a week, but it's meant to compete with the 5770. At $300 to $350, the GTX 470 is your only option. If you use 12% cashback from TigerDirect, assuming it's still working, you can get one for about $315.
 
Matrices said:
The 465 is supposedly being debuted in a week, but it's meant to compete with the 5770. At $300 to $350, the GTX 470 is your only option. If you use 12% cashback from TigerDirect, assuming it's still working, you can get one for about $315.
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The 465 has been cited as being anywhere from $280-300 so I really doubt it will compete with the 5770, maybe 5770 CF.
 
Xbit has a review of the GTX465 and it's not great but all these cards are over priced right now compared to $200 GTX275's and HD 4890's. I don't even think there will be a massive price war this round where HD 5870's go down to $150 in a few months because nvidia can't compete cost wise with AMD. These cards are going to offer not much more than a GTX 275 and cost $300 for a while.
 
If you're not going for the gold (GTX 480) just get a 5850. It outperforms the 470 and it's fifty dollars cheaper.

This is coming from a PhysX loving, 3D Vision buying, CUDA whore.

Really, if you don't have 3D right now, there is no reason to be loyal to one side or the other.
 
Does it have to be Nvidia? The 5850 is pretty much the big dawg at that price point. Move up $50 to $400 and get the 5870 and you'd be set!
 
I don't like the 5850 at $300 or above for the reference model if I can get the 470 at $315.

The 5850 is slower than the 470 in most games, and even slower now that Nvidia's beta driver shows some decent performance improvements. Some people ignore that the 470 is shown to be faster than the 5850 everywhere but in [H]'s review, and then ignore that even in [H]'s review, it's not an apples-apples comparison, but a comparison of performance at different settings.

The 5850 also has only 1GB of vRAM, which I'm just not comfortable with in 2010.
 
op, if the rest of your specs are good then the gtx470 will be a good choice if you want Nvidia. you might want to list all your pc specs including power supply though.
 
If you are dead set on nVidia it's a 470 for sure, with a bit of voltage I got mine up to 800 core and 3800 memory.
vantagerecord.jpg


Not bad for $325

After looking into it and the 5850 it seemed like the best choice to me unless you are bothered by the fan and power use.
 
Matrices said:
I don't like the 5850 at $300 or above for the reference model if I can get the 470 at $315.

The 5850 is slower than the 470 in most games, and even slower now that Nvidia's beta driver shows some decent performance improvements. Some people ignore that the 470 is shown to be faster than the 5850 everywhere but in [H]'s review, and then ignore that even in [H]'s review, it's not an apples-apples comparison, but a comparison of performance at different settings.

The 5850 also has only 1GB of vRAM, which I'm just not comfortable with in 2010.
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Actually, [H] does do apples to apples comparisons, but that isn't the point. In [H]'s testing, the 5850 has better performance in the apples to apples and higher IQ in the highest playable. Either way you slice it, the 5850 wins according to [H]. I trust [H] more than other sites because I believe [H]'s testing methodology is superior.

I'm not a fan of the GTX 470. The GTX 480 is a beast, and GTX 470 SLI looks solid, but a single GTX 470? Pass.
 
If it's anything less than a 480 I would go ATI. I'm not impressed by anything below the 480 series, really. I went from a GTX280 to my 5870s and I don't regret it.
 
NVIDIA and bang for the buck don't quite go together.

5850 seems to be the bang for the buck from all DX11 cards
 
I really wanted a gtx470 myself, and I could have got one for $309 shipped. But I got kaboom for buck and picked up my 5850 pcs+ for $270. So that made my decision.
 
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I just ordered an MSI gtx470 for $329 shipped that comes with a free game and 8gb flash drive. not really a great deal but seeing as I prefer Nvidia I guess its okay. ATI certainly has a little better value in the 5850 but at the end of the day 20-30 bucks doesnt really matter compared to having something you feel confident using for the next year or so.
 
cannondale06 said:
I just ordered an MSI gtx470 for $329 shipped that comes with a free game and 8gb flash drive. not really a great deal but seeing as I prefer Nvidia I guess its okay. ATI certainly has a little better value in the 5850 but at the end of the day 20-30 bucks doesnt really matter compared to having something you feel confident using for the next year or so.
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Wow you went ahead and bought a 470? Weren't you the one who started the why does the GF100 suck thread or am I confusing you with someone else? *g*
 
vjcsmoke said:
Wow you went ahead and bought a 470? Weren't you the one who started the why does the GF100 suck thread or am I confusing you with someone else? *g*
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yes I posted in that thread but my main complaint was about the gtx465. the gf100 cards do suck in many ways but really all I can do is pick from whats available. I still tell most people to go with the 5850 but again I prefer Nvidia when possible.
 
the best bang for the buck is a $125 gtx260 on ebay.

at $300 you arent talking about bang for the buck. how many $300 video cards do you think nvidia makes? you just limited yourself to one card at the start of the thread.

IRSmurf said:
If you're not going for the gold (GTX 480) just get a 5850. It outperforms the 470 and it's fifty dollars cheaper.
Click to expand...

kllrnohj said:
I'm not a fan of the GTX 470. The GTX 480 is a beast, and GTX 470 SLI looks solid, but a single GTX 470? Pass.
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and these two guys are just delusional. near as I can tell the 470 even beats the 5870 at minimum framerate, which is why everyone who owns one loves it, because your eyes cant calculate averages
http://www.legitreviews.com/images/reviews/1287/stalker_day.jpg
http://www.pcper.com/images/reviews/889/hawx-1920-bar.jpg
http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/nvidiageforcegtx480launch_032610115215/22162.png
 
OC'ed 270 will stand up to a 5870 no prob, stock it's still faster than a 5850.

Definitely delusional :rolleyes:

It's funny a year ago it would have been nvidia fanboys making ridiculous comments, I guess those guys went out and bought ATI cards this year :D
 
bAMtan2 said:
and these two guys are just delusional. near as I can tell the 470 even beats the 5870 at minimum framerate, which is why everyone who owns one loves it, because your eyes cant calculate averages
http://www.legitreviews.com/images/reviews/1287/stalker_day.jpg
http://www.pcper.com/images/reviews/889/hawx-1920-bar.jpg
http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/nvidiageforcegtx480launch_032610115215/22162.png
Click to expand...

So you figured the best way to back up your point was to provide 2 graphs that don't support your claim and 1 that does? Brilliant!

Boom: http://hardocp.com/images/articles/1273440101htHcHnqaLG_6_2.gif

Hey, look at that, I can cherry pick a benchmark that shows the 5850 laying the smack down on the GTX 470 (and note the 5850 has the higher min fps, too)! Clearly the 5850 is much faster, right? I mean, you only need one chart to make that conclusion.

And I like how you are trying to downplay average fps. Guess what? It matters - a lot, actually. Min FPS is important, too, but more important is the entire fps chart. If you look at two cards, card A has a min FPS of 20 and an average of 50 vs. card B with a min FPS of 25 and an average of 40, which is the better card? You would probably claim card B because it has a higher min FPS. Now what if I showed you the FPS graph, and card A had a single low spike below 30 fps whereas card B dropped below 30 fps quite frequently. Card A would be much better to game on, despite a lower min fps. Single numbers aren't all that meaningful, a full FPS graph is.

StaticSurge said:
OC'ed 270 will stand up to a 5870 no prob, stock it's still faster than a 5850.

Definitely delusional :rolleyes:
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An OC'd 5850 will stand up to a 5870 as well and its $50 cheaper. But now you're making the ridiculous comparison of OC'd vs. stock. Compare an OC'd GTX 470 vs. an OC'd 5870 - who wins? 5870, easily.

StaticSurge said:
It's funny a year ago it would have been nvidia fanboys making ridiculous comments, I guess those guys went out and bought ATI cards this year :D
Click to expand...

No, I bought my 5870 launch week and have been enjoying Eyefinity months before the GTX 470/480 reviews came out. Meaning I bought my 5870 last year ;)
 
kllrnohj, no matter how much you act up, you can't convince anyone 5850 is faster than gtx 470. I didn't cherry pick, you did.
 
bAMtan2 said:
kllrnohj, no matter how much you act up, you can't convince anyone 5850 is faster than gtx 470. I didn't cherry pick, you did.
Click to expand...

Yes, you did cherry pick. And I'm not "acting up", I'm pointing out how flawed your counter argument is. You're the one who started calling people delusional.

Again, according to [H] the 5850 is faster than the GTX 470. I trust [H]. Who you trust is up to you.

Regardless, you were trying to convince people the GTX 470 is better than the 5870 - which it most certainly is not. What I said was that I don't think the GTX 470 is a good card. Even if the GTX 470 is slightly faster than the 5850 like other reviews have found, I still don't think its a good card. I think the drawbacks outweigh the slight performance increase (if that increase is even there)
 
bAMtan2 said:
kllrnohj, no matter how much you act up, you can't convince anyone 5850 is faster than gtx 470. I didn't cherry pick, you did.
Click to expand...

Hahaha, this is like a much more eloquent form of "No U".
 
kllrnohj said:
An OC'd 5850 will stand up to a 5870 as well and its $50 cheaper. But now you're making the ridiculous comparison of OC'd vs. stock. Compare an OC'd GTX 470 vs. an OC'd 5870 - who wins? 5870, easily.
Click to expand...

Ok compare an OC'ed 5850 and an OC'ed 470. 470 still wins. Stock 480>Stock 5870. You can find 470s for pretty much the same price as the 5850 if you look hard enough. That in my opinion constitutes a better value.


Here it is all in a nice graph :D http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/3288/galaxy_geforce_gtx_470_gc_overclocking/index19.html
 
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honestly, get a used GTX260 for ~$125 as stated above, and spend the other ~$200 on a new monitor(1080p or something with a resolution that will actually require GPU power).....at 1680x1050 you wont see a dam bit of difference between a GTX470 and a 5850.......hell a 5770 would suite the needs of the OP fine, or pretty much any 200 series card from Nvidea(260 and above)...

i also honestly doubt that CoD:Black Ops will be any more stressful on a system than any of the previous three(all three of which put barely any stress, and my 9800GTX, pretty much the same thing you have, runs all three smooth as butter at below stock speeds.....), so your 8800GTX should hold you for a while if you decide to go that route
 
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