One for the geeks: GPU choice

[Fukushima]

Hi all,

My 2nd hand 8800GT has failed on me last night.

I'm in the market for a replacement in the $300-400 range, and want to pick it up quickly because I need my games to unwind.

Usually I'd do some research but tooooo busy atm. So Nvidea/ATI atm? I've had experience with both but I don't know who flavour of the month is.

Rest of the rig is pretty modest: asus striker II motherboard, e7400 dual core or something overclocked to 3.2ghz, 4gig ram, caviar black HDD, win7 64 etc... I *might* upgrade the CPU later but I was getting by okay with the 8800GT and dual core combo.

Quite a few in that price range at PLE http://www.ple.com.au/?p=products&category_id=13 so just help me choose one.

[Lasoya]

HD5850 or GTX465, if that too high in price then just get a GTX260

[nismo180sx]

Flavour of the month would be ATI

1. 5770 - $171-$199. If you were happy with the 8800GT, this card will do. Its some better than the 8800
2. 5850 - $339-$379. Great Card and within your budget

Prices are from MSY.

[yeahlow34]

Probably go GTK1000

[scj91]

ATI Direct x11 ftw :)

[bhappy]

ati is definitely the best out there at the moment. even though i am a nvidia fan.

[ELUSIV]

5850 is the best card $/performance wise.

The older nvidias are slower, the new fermi ones, 460/470/480 eat shit loads of power, run crazy hot and dont overclock well, plus they are on par with their equivalent ATi card but cost more.

Theres absolutely no reason to go with a fermi card at the moment when ATi's offerings will run cooler, use less power, cost less, are faster and overclock better.

My last PC I built was an Nvidia video card with AMD cpu, building one soon which is ATi video card and Intel CPU. I have no brand alliances/fanboi-ism, I just get whats best at the time :)

[satch]

5850 is the best card $/performance wise.

The older nvidias are slower, the new fermi ones, 460/470/480 eat shit loads of power, run crazy hot and dont overclock well, plus they are on par with their equivalent ATi card but cost more.

Theres absolutely no reason to go with a fermi card at the moment when ATi's offerings will run cooler, use less power, cost less, are faster and overclock better.

My last PC I built was an Nvidia video card with AMD cpu, building one soon which is ATi video card and Intel CPU. I have no brand alliances/fanboi-ism, I just get whats best at the time :)

Summed up perfectly.

Im in the process of building myself a brand new machine and have been investigating a lot.

HD5870 is def best if you can stretch to 500 otherwise 5850 is without doubt the best bang for buck.

Nvidia are no longer the king of the game as it was years ago, new GTX and fermi is in its infancy and wont get better anytime soon, despite what people say about the detonators regain ground once optimised. New beta detonators have made no difference.

[Fukushima]

Lots of good info - exactly what I wanted to know about.

5850 might be the way to go, by the sounds of it I'd probably need to think about a better cpu if I went with the 5870

so if you were going to buy a 5850 which brand would you go with?

xfx, gigabyte, sapphire?

[bhappy]

all the same pretty much. i have a gigabyte and its been great.

[evo5aurus]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-geforce-radeon,2646.html

[mehow2g]

My last PC I built was an Nvidia video card with AMD cpu, building one soon which is ATi video card and Intel CPU. I have no brand alliances/fanboi-ism, I just get whats best at the time :)

Yeah I have the same mindset but dont nvidia normally have more support with games or is that just marketing?

[mitchy]

Probably go GTK1000

dont even know why i read this thread, but that was the only bit i understood. lol

[zeroyon]

It's been the case for a long while that nvidia have had lower performing cards but far better drivers and software when compared to ATI.

For that reason been buying Nvidia.

Friends recently scared off by the issues with the new fermi card have been convinced to buy ATI. They have not been happy and wish they went back to Nvidia.

That said you will get a good graph card with either if you stick to known brands like Gygabyte and Asus.

Avoid the brand X boards :)

[ELUSIV]

Lots of good info - exactly what I wanted to know about.

5850 might be the way to go, by the sounds of it I'd probably need to think about a better cpu if I went with the 5870

so if you were going to buy a 5850 which brand would you go with?

xfx, gigabyte, sapphire?

XFX as they have a lifetime warranty on all their stuff if i recall correctly.

Nvidia and ATi both have same support for games. Ironically some games that are sponsored by Nvidia (and have the big "The way its meant to be played") logo come up actually perform better on ATi cards!

[locote]

What speed does your ram run at??
Plus you are only using a Core2Duo, you would bottle neck any of the cards metioned above, plus have u got enough juice in your power supply??

go for a gtx260... cheap and wont need as much power to run...

I upgraded from a 8800 last year to a gtx280 and changed the power unit and mother board plus ram to see any mayor difference from the 8800....

Straight swap from the cards was not posible as the power requirements are alot greater on the newer cards, under powered card will not perform to great either.

[satch]

Lots of good info - exactly what I wanted to know about.

5850 might be the way to go, by the sounds of it I'd probably need to think about a better cpu if I went with the 5870

so if you were going to buy a 5850 which brand would you go with?

xfx, gigabyte, sapphire?

Sapphire do a HD5850 Toxic, which should be no more than $20-30 over reference boards, they come factory overclocked, but crucially with a lot better on board coolers and heatsinks.

You can o/c a ref board no problem easily, what your really paying for is the cooling, plus the benefit to push it that much harder over a stock 5850 should you decide to OC.

XFX do the same look for XXX or Black Edition.

[evo5aurus]

brand doesnt really matter get the best deal with good warranty

the 5850 is under $350 at MSY, these guys are almost always the cheapest in perth for anything PC

[Fukushima]

Kingston Hyper X 4GB DDR2 1066MHz Non-ECC CL5
(kit of 2 – 2GB)

Sigma 500w PSU or have a 'Super Flower' 500w in my old box if i need it

hmmm - perhaps as suggested I should step it down to the 5770 ($195). I do remember matching the cpu and ram to the 8800GT so maybe you have a point there.

Or gtx260 if i can be fucked going to msy to get one (saves changing drivers though?)

both have similar performance my game of choice in bad company 2 tests (obviously with a better rig than mine)

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2010-gaming-graphics-charts-high-quality/Battlefield-Bad-Company-2,2112.html

[Phyber]

Fucken nVidiiaaaaaa


Also due to driver hell with Ati. Been there with PCs at work, not going to subject my own PC to it.

8800GT till I die! Or it dies.



Fuck it all off and get a new PC anyway :) Core i7 glory!

[Skipmaster J]

i lost interest in computers long ago. i voted ati because back when i was interested, the 9700pro was king. no idea whats happened since.

[satch]

fucking everytime Ive been to MSY or called them they dont have stock.

[savage1987]

Always used nVidia, don't really know why.

dad's pc is old tech now but kinda retro cool, running SLi'd pair of 7600GT.. mine has a 2nd hand 9800GT sitting in it waiting for me to fix the rest of the broken shit :(



in summary, ATI could well be better but for some reason I stick with nVidia :)

[Fukushima]

fucking everytime Ive been to MSY or called them they dont have stock.

uh huh

generally i'll pay a few dollars extra and go to ple... but they dont have the gtx 260 so that could sway me

[Alt_F4]

Currently running some Gigabyte GTX260 variant, got it cheap from Netplus

[locote]

dont forget to check rail amps.. may have the watts but the card may have different amp requirements to what the PSU has on its rails or lack of...

Best to look at the web site of the manufacturer of your PSU and the look at the requirements for the video card your looking at, then have a look how many spare rails you have....

[savage1987]

dont forget to check rail amps.. my have the watts but the card may have different amp requirements to what the PSU has on its rails or lack of...

Best to look at the web site of the manufacturer of your PSU and the look at the requirements for the video card your looking at, then have a look how many spare rails you have....

I had so many fail-to-POSTs before I learned this :( 9800GT + fail "500W" power supply ftl

[mys1]

I voted for ATI, for no other reason than I like the look of the letters

[Fukushima]

dont forget to check rail amps.. may have the watts but the card may have different amp requirements to what the PSU has on its rails or lack of...

Best to look at the web site of the manufacturer of your PSU and the look at the requirements for the video card your looking at, then have a look how many spare rails you have....

or open the case :)
excuse the 'bayside blue' accessories
http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/3196/0031846535.jpg

12v 1 - 18 amp
12v 2 - 16 amp

Clearly not enough to power any of the replacements I've been looking at, I think it was just enough for the 8800gt I had (XFX 'alpha dog' factory overclocked)

In fact I'm worried that running 2 hard drives, 4 12cm fans, 30% overclock on the cpu, and the overclock on the gpu all off this 500w power supply might have contributed to my current problem.

There is conflicting information, but the gtx260, 5770, and 5850 apparently need 40amp. I think my first purchase is going to be a modular power supply in the 700 watt range.

I cant see the point in spending $200 on an average card when I want to upgrade the whole system in the next 6 months and then I'll want the $400 card

So I'll get the 5850 next pay, after ensuring I have the power supply to run it and planned upgrades in the next few months. Might even blast the 8800gt with some contact cleaner and see if the new power supply helps.

Now it's turning into a build thread :D

[locote]

http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=2543

I paid 340 for this PSU.. SLI ready

[savage1987]

SLI... old tech ftw!

A surprising number of people hate it or suggest it's not worth bothering with:) but i love it, just stack 2 older cards, like dad's pc with SLI'd XFX 7600GT haha

[Fukushima]

motherboard could take SLI no probs

but I view it the same way I think of raid 0 - one component fails and you've fucked both, mainly cos you won't find an identical part in 12 months time

[winstor]

http://www.staticice.com.au/

Best site to shop around with.

Looks like MSY has the cheapest hd5850 in WA @ $339

[satch]

Just picked up a Corsair HX-850 for $245

Cannot complain!

[Fujiwara13]

Voted for ATI

I'm just running one of these currently, but looking to add another which'll apparently then outperform a 5870. I'm pretty stoked with one, but another would be cool.

That said, a friend built my pc so I'm not really a dedicated fanboy for either.

[scj91]

Just picked up a Corsair HX-850 for $245

Cannot complain!

Corsair 950's are going for $210 ish on pccasegear.com
Suckk!

[Alt_F4]

Corsair 950's are going for $210 ish on pccasegear.com
Suckk!
He probably got the modular version of the 850, which would explain the price difference as the 950 doesn't have a modular option.

[Fukushima]

Just picked up a Corsair HX-850 for $245

Cannot complain!

+1

went to ple and got it yesterday, then span the wheel and got a tomtom xl gps

win!

[satch]

lol naice, just connected mine up yesterday, looking at O/C now.

The corsair was so well packed, standard of packaging was fantastic as well.

[Fukushima]

haha yeah seriously, felt satchels and a bum bag to hold spare cables lol

was exactly like opening an iphone box