Any video card <$200 that will be a worthy upgrade over a Radeon HD3870?

[dm0kk]

I've been using my HD3870 for about a year now and it runs fairly quickly on almost everything considering it runs everything at 1280x1024 on a 19" monitor. I ordered a new monitor 23.6" monitor recently that runs at a native resolution of 1920x1080. I'm expecting an FPS drop if I try running games at that resolution.

I was curious to know if there is any video card out there for <200 that would be a decent upgrade over the 3870?

 

[Silan]

5770 would good upgrade if you wanna stay with ATI and have DX11 support.

GTX 260 if you wanna go Nvidia.

 

[Painman]

There's an XFX 4890 for $195 shipped at Egg - Link

 

[hdfxst]

if you don't mind a rebate http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=AT-489V_1G

never mind,i didn't notice it was out of stock

 

[dm0kk]

Thanks for the suggestions. What are the major differences among the 4890, 5770 and 260? Other than price, of course. Any reasons to get one over the others?

I would also like to note that I'm running an C2D E8400, would the upgrades cause a bottleneck or any other issues that may arise?

 

[GaiaHunter]

4890 (is around the same speed of the GTX275) is the fastest of that bunch and the one that consumes the most power.

GTX260 is slightly faster than the 5770 (a GTX260 is around the same speed of a 4870 too, btw).

The 5770 is the only one that supports DX11 and consumes significantly less power. Is also the slowest of the bunch, but not by much when comparing with the GTX260.

The GTX260 is DX10 has the NVIDIA technologies (means physX and CUDA), 4890 has DX10.1 and the 5770 has DX11 and Eyefinity (not sure how well this card can handle it).

For gaming CUDA doesn't mean shit, physX doesn't mean much and DX11 means very little yet.

I would also like to note that I'm running an C2D E8400, would the upgrades cause a bottleneck or any other issues that may arise?

Unless the game wants a quad-core (not many around and most run good on a dual-core anyway), no.

 

[happy medium]

5770 would good upgrade if you wanna stay with ATI and have DX11 support.

GTX 260 if you wanna go Nvidia.

+1

 

[Qbah]

The fastest would be the HD4890, followed by a GTX260 with the HD5770 being last and slowest.

The HD4890 runs hot and usually loud-ish. Needs a decent PSU too. GTX260 is hot too, runs more quiet though. Same quality PSU needed as the HD4890. HD5770 is cool and quiet, most PSUs will handle it. But it's also the slowest.

Depending on what you are aiming at, those three should be fine. There's also a HD4870 which should be cheaper and faster than a HD5770 too. Requires a beefier PSU though - similar to the other two cards. It all depends.

Ohh and all those cards are at least equal to two HD3870s in CrossFire (note that it doesn't mean double the speed). Usually faster.

As far as your CPU goes, it's a nice dual core with 6MB cache running at 3GHz. You'll be fine as far as the above mentioned cards go. If necessary, you could always overclock it. The E8400 was well known for reaching high clocks so with a bit of luck you should reach a nice overclock.

 

[dm0kk]

What exactly signifies a "beefy" power supply? I'm running an Antec EarthWatts 500W, would I have trouble powering any of the mentioned video cards?

 

[Qbah]

You'll be fine with that PSU for any of the above mentioned cards.

 

[Wreckage]

At that res get a card with more than 512mb of memory. If you want to save some cash get a 260. If not get a 4890/275

Either way they will be significant upgrades over the 3870

Also if you are not in a huge hurry watch sites like tech bargains or the hot deals forum here for those random huge deals. If you are really not picky you can watch the inventory in Newegg's "open box" section.

example for "open box"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814131156R

 

[CurseTheSky]

example for "open box"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814131156R

That's a really good deal as long as you're not worried about getting the Crossfire bridge and adapters (you can buy them for under $5 each if you absolutely need them).

By the time DX11 games are in the "mainstream," they're most likely be much faster cards out that leave the HD 5770 in the dust.

 

[Wuzup101]

What exactly signifies a "beefy" power supply? I'm running an Antec EarthWatts 500W, would I have trouble powering any of the mentioned video cards?

Yeah, you'll be fine. My brother uses the same power supply with a q9550 overclocked to 3.6ghz and a 4870/1gb...

All of the choices listed above are quite good.

 

[T2k]

You can probably pick up my 4850 X2 2GB around $200 nowadays - DX11 aside it's probably a tad faster than a 5850.

 

[nemesismk2]

I would get a 5770 because it would give you a big performance increase over the 3870.

 

[NIGELG]

At that res get a card with more than 512mb of memory. If you want to save some cash get a 260. If not get a 4890/275

Either way they will be significant upgrades over the 3870

Also if you are not in a huge hurry watch sites like tech bargains or the hot deals forum here for those random huge deals. If you are really not picky you can watch the inventory in Newegg's "open box" section.

example for "open box"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814131156R

Wow nice to see you link an ATI card as a suggestion.There's hope for you yet.

 

[billyb0b]

I say go for a 5770 if the cash isn't an issue and you can find it in stock somewhere. Otherwise, a 4890 is a sweet deal in terms of performance and price.

 

[bryanW1995]

At that res get a card with more than 512mb of memory. If you want to save some cash get a 260. If not get a 4890/275

Either way they will be significant upgrades over the 3870

Also if you are not in a huge hurry watch sites like tech bargains or the hot deals forum here for those random huge deals. If you are really not picky you can watch the inventory in Newegg's "open box" section.

example for "open box"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814131156R

did they go back up on the 4890? the his was at newegg for about 10 days for $159 AR w FS.

I wouldn't upgrade to any of those except perhaps the 4890. gtx 260 and 5770 aren't enough of an upgrade unless you're absolutely desperate. It will take a few months, but you should probably hold out until tsmc gets their shit together and starts pumping out more 40nm chips. Once that happens and tesla gets here, you should see 5850 ~ $200. THAT would be a good upgrade to your 3870.

btw, if the 4890 is really at $195 now, I would just hold off on anything until the new gen stuff comes down to more reasonable levels.

I would get a 5770 because it would give you a big performance increase over the 3870.

huh??? I went from a 3870 to a 4850 with a slight improvement. 5770 is another small step above 4850, but not as fast as 4870. so you're saying spend ~ $170 for 1 1/2 steps????? As I stated earlier, just wait a few months. Your 3870 probably won't go down much if at all in value, you'll still be able to game with slightly lower quality settings, then pounce when fermi launches and tsmc pulls their heads out.

 

[lothar]

You missed out man.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2027755

Got it for $150 after 10&#37; black friday discount, Bing Cashback, and mail in rebate.

Supplies of the cards have pretty much almost dried up everywhere.
If you can't get it now, just wait until next spring/summer when 5850 drops to $200.

Not worth it to get the 5770 IMO. There are no good DX11 games out yet.

 

[kmmatney]

The HD4890 is the best bang for <$200 IMO. However, as others mentioned, it can be loud - at least mine was. The noise bothered me such that I resorted to playing at lower resolutions and underclocked the card to keep it quiet! My computer is very quiet in general, and this was a huge problem. I was eventually able to install an Accelero cooler with a silent fan, which keeps it nearly-silent even when heavily overclocked, so all is good.

So the HD4890 is a great card performance-wise, but can be noisy. Obviously, it doesn't bother a lot of people since you don't hear complaints about all over the place, but I'd thought I'd mention it. I have a hard time recommending any HD4890 with a reference cooler design, unless you really don't care about noise.