What Graphics card?
 

Hi all. (especially Zing :D)

I need to replace my ageing (and failing) NvIdia 7900GS card.

I was looking at an 1GB ATI 5770 for around £100, but have just seen a 512mb ATI 4850 for about £50 - so which would you recommend i get?

Mainly play a few games like MW2 - which runs fine, although my card is failing so i get lots of artifacts once it warms up. I also have battlefield BC2, which only runs at a rubbish res of around 800x600, and lags like hell.... as such i've only played it for about 10 minutes in the last month!

So of the 2 options above, which would be better value, and would both cards run both games on a 22" tft at a fairly decent level?

TIA :)

Re: What Graphics card?
 

you'll get what you pay for imo. if you have £100 to spend, try to spend it. get the best you can for that price - preferably a DX11 compatible (ATI 5xxx series is, but not the 4xxx series) card such as the ATI 5750 which you can get for about £100, give or take £5. the 4850 will not be DX11 compatible. you want the DX11 just to futureproof yourself. if you keep this card for as long as the 7900GS (which is mighty old in GPU land), I would totally recommend you go DX11 unless you have no plans in the next 5 years to move away from XP, in which case, it doesn't matter.

Re: What Graphics card?
 

You are not exactly comparing like for like there. One card is the newer generation ATI stuff with a gig of RAM, one card is older generation with only half a gig.

Most cards will support the 22" tft and do quite well You do need to establish that monitor's native resolution and decide on the graphics capacity to power that resolution. Only if you really try to max out all of the detail settings of somoe games will you see some stuttering. Indeed that is usually the issue of many poor quality images, we want too much detail on screen.

If you are likely to use any newish game that can support directx 11 stuff, then the 5770 is by far the better card to go for. If you have no forseeable need for directx11, then the 4850 might suffice. On the basis that you want BF:BC2 which does directx11, then you want the 5770.

Re: What Graphics card?
 

i would go for the 5770 what ram is in it gddr3 or 5 if 5 then its a bloody good bargain

Re: What Graphics card?
 

If you can save the money up to get a Nvidia GTX 460 1GB then that's what I would get, think they are around £170'ish but they are on average 35% faster than the ATI 5770.

Re: What Graphics card?
 

5770 all the way . Its equal to the 4870 which is still a very capable card.

Re: What Graphics card?
 

The 5770 is a great card for the money

Re: What Graphics card?
 

Yep, very good card, have been using one for some months

Re: What Graphics card?
 

The 5770 Card is brill. I have this version of the card.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/179463#reviews

Its been very good, I can play all the new games on high settings with no problems. Does very well on futuremark when I tested it on there.

Re: What Graphics card?
 

thanks to everyone for the replies! Looks like i'll be getting the 5770 then :)

looking forward to playing BF2 at last!

Re: What Graphics card?
 

Enjoy BF2, I use all the settings on high with no problems.

Re: What Graphics card?
 

Though dont forget if the rest of your system is still substandard the game could still be unplayable or at least be laggy. especially if the game is a cutting edge one. Far too many people focus on the gpu or cpu when normally at least both of these and sometimes a combination of other components are really needed to make a difference.

Re: What Graphics card?
 

yeah - BC2 REALLY likes a meaty CPU. When I got the beta, I had an old C2D 6850 with 8Gb DC and it was painful. I know a few people who got new cards but still used a C2d and it grinds badly. I now have an i7 930, 6Gb TC and ATI 5870 which works flawlessly.

Re: What Graphics card?
 

If you want to improve the frame rate in BFBC2 then turn off the HBAO effect's in the option's as that will help if you get low frame rate's.

Re: What Graphics card?
 

i got a C2D ocd to 2.6ghz, am looking to go to an i5 or i7, but need to save up as it'll need a new mobo, ram etc!

Re: What Graphics card?
 

start saving - you'll need to! :)

Re: What Graphics card?
 

If i may hijack this thread for a bit of advice on my sons graphics card

he has a nvidia 8500gt which used to run fine but just lately he gets some funny little squiggles on the screen and sometimes crashes on games that it used to play ok

his pc has intell duel core 3.0 ghz processor with 2gb ddr2 ram packard bell running XP proffesional installed after factory loaded removing vista home premium

Re: What Graphics card?
 

that sounds like a gpu or gram issue to me. I assume you have cleaned it up reseated it and properly uninstalled and installed new drivers?

---------- Post added at 12:48 ---------- Previous post was at 12:47 ----------


not so much if they go down the i5 route

Re: What Graphics card?
 

cheers zing ,yep cleaned it spotless uninstalled and reinstalled ,so is it about knackered ?
he's looking at the nvidia gts 250 as a replacement is this suitable ?

Re: What Graphics card?
 

hmm would rather spend a bit more and get a 5770 but if around 90 is max max it shoudl be ok

Re: What Graphics card?
 

Thanks zing one last question ,he was told that he needs to update his power supply ,is this correct ?

Re: What Graphics card?
 

still needs to save to update from the C2D. the new CPU will require a new mobo and ram too. it adds up quick

Re: What Graphics card?
 

did you think I didnt know that or something???

However the i5 cpus are fairly priced compared to the i7 cpus . P55 motherboards are also far more cheaper than the X58 variety plus he would only need 4 gig of ram. It can be done for 300 notes board cpu and ram, very fair priced I think seeing as my i7 if you include cooling cost twice that

---------- Post added at 13:39 ---------- Previous post was at 13:38 ----------

depends on what he has. I dunno about the 250 but the 240 does not need external power the 5770 would need external power so if he is running an generic psu then yes he will need a new one

Re: What Graphics card?
 

did you think i didn't know that? :)

still has to save money, be it an i5 + bits or an i7 + bits... i made no mention of how much, just that he would likely need to if upgrading!

@ TightScot - it's also worth noting a new case might be required as the ATI cards can get pretty big (model depending of course).

Re: What Graphics card?
 

possibly I do not know you I know you changed your name but it eludes me who you were before. Me however am well known in these parts pardner lol lol

Re: What Graphics card?
 

once known as 'Bender'. and don't worry - I'm not here to threaten your 'CF Home Build Guru' status! just offering my first hand opinion on what the OP was asking about. I'm not trying to have a knowledge battle. I know what I know and you know what you know. I've no time for futile displays of Alpha dominancy.

Re: What Graphics card?
 

lol neither am I I was just saying I dont know you thats all lol lo now I do ;) I have no status here mate

Re: What Graphics card?
 

wondered what happened to you ,happy new name :D

Re: What Graphics card?
 

lol - thanks! :)

Re: What Graphics card?
 

You could go AMD, they don't quite perform as high per mhz as their Intel rivals and they don't over-clock as well for the most part but you get a hell of a lot more bang for your buck in mid-high range systems (their price per Mhz is significantly lower for these systems).
If you just need to save because you don't have the money this minute Intel might be worth considering still but if you don't have the money because you just don't really have the money as I did then AMD is definitely worth a thought.

Re: What Graphics card?
 

you only really save around £50 going Phenom 2 quad verses i5 quad and thats buying bottom end mobo although you could soak that up with a 1055T 6 core

Re: What Graphics card?
 

I'll prob go for an i5 with new mobo. My case should be plenty big enough (coolermaster scout)

Just can't justify it at the moment (to the wife!)

Re: What Graphics card?
 

remove the power on from the front panel header and tell her it aint working lol lol