ATI or NVIDIA With Q6600 on P5WDH?

TDHELLER

Junior Member
Jun 24, 2006
14
0
61
OK After using the (ASUS/Nvidia 8800GT-1GB) now for over a year and putting up with the "Little Things" that have annoyed me since day 1 - such as random crashes and slower than expected performance and erratic driver performance.

I find myself wanting a video card that will play nicer with the other toys.

The MoBo Literature suggests ATI Crossfire 200 series, but I want to avoid the Heat Noise Power issues associated with SLI and also believe there is a better card out now than a year ago. I've got to believe there is a comparable ATI Video that will play nice today for less than the $225.00 I spent on this card.

You might notice I have tried to use mid to Higher end parts in this rig so staying along those lines would help though I am not really concerned with the bleeding edge of performance now. Games are pretty simple stuff now Quake Wars ET, Crysis, etc. so I think many of the midline cards would work I just don't know where to start in ATI since I haven't used one in a Looong time.

Suggestions would be welcome since I need a Christmas preasent that will make me smile for the next year or so...
Thanx
 

Painman

Diamond Member
Feb 27, 2000
3,805
29
86
If you want something cool, quiet and easy on the watts, you might wish to investigate the 5770. Not as powerful as a 4890, but a bit cheaper. Is that 22" in your sig a 1680*1050 display? 5770 should handle that.
 

v8envy

Platinum Member
Sep 7, 2002
2,720
0
0
Wreckage, if you read the OP he's under the mistaken belief that ATI drivers are vastly superior to NV on Vista, and wants to give an ATI card a shot for the whole platform experience.

IMO he'll be sorely disappointed, but the 4830, 4770, 4850, 5770, 4870, 4890 (in increasing order of performance, not price) are the ATI products starting at slightly faster and ending at 2x faster than a 1g 8800GT.
 

Wreckage

Banned
Jul 1, 2005
5,529
0
0
Wreckage, if you read the OP he's under the mistaken belief that ATI drivers are vastly superior to NV on Vista, and wants to give an ATI card a shot for the whole platform experience.

Well the title is "ATI or NVIDIA" and he mentioned things like heat/power/noise being an issue. So the GTX260 seems to be his best option.
 

nataku00

Senior member
Dec 5, 2004
216
0
76
I upgraded my q6600/P5WDH deluxe computer to a HD4890 earlier this year and it plays Crysis fine (~23-25 fps) at the game's suggested high settings for 1920x1200. Prior to upgrading, the 8800GTS 640mb I was using can handle the resolution, but there were some issues at the high settings, particularly in the snow scenes. You can't really go wrong with ATI or Nvidia right now, though.
 
Last edited:

Voo

Golden Member
Feb 27, 2009
1,684
0
76
Well the title is "ATI or NVIDIA" and he mentioned things like heat/power/noise being an issue. So the GTX260 seems to be his best option.
If heat/power/noise was the most important thing than the 57xx series would be by far better than the last generation stuff of either ATI or Nvidia.

Though you'd lose some performance compared to a 4890, so it depends on how important DX11 and the aforementioned stuff is for him.

I'd probably go with the 4890 - good price/performance ratio (if you can find a cheaper GTX275 take that)
 
Last edited:

TDHELLER

Junior Member
Jun 24, 2006
14
0
61
Wow! What a killer fast response! Thanks everyone for the great input.
Now to hopefully clarify some questions lingering from the cryptic post I started.

1. Yes Heat and noise are considerations (H>N) But the I forgot to mention the case is a Thermaltake Mozart TX currently using only 9 of ten possible fans. CPU Cooler adds some from the Zalman 9700 but not too much. So Heat is really a bigger concern since this rig will warm the office up quite nicely at times:)

2. V8envy I think you may have misunderstood. I have been having consistent compatibility issues with the Nvidia card and Vista-64, the driver issue is kind of the icing on the cake. Tried installing the latest v195.xx drivers today and wouldn't install but wasted over 30 minutes trying maybe a fluke but it PMO. Hence I'd like to give the ATI package a shot - I doubt it could be too much worse.

3. Werckage - The GTX260 card looks like DDR3 memory of an unknown quantity. Wouldn't I get better Performance from DDR5 as in the HD 5750 or 5770 with 1gb? Just askin'. And the price point looks a little better:)

4. Dguy - yeah I knpow about Crysis being difficult in more ways than one. but I posted it for the "type" of game I play or will be playing. I should also said "Significantly Less" than the 225.00 I am using now. Ive got to believe that price point has dropped a bit for this level of ATI card - I've been wrong before tho.

5. Painman - Thanks for the suggestion the 5770 looks good from here - Yes the HP is at 1680X1050(native) Res. The question I have is in your post you say "it SHOULD handle it" is there an issue when running higher resolutions with the card? That would be the only drawback I see. The monitor May be upsized in the next year - but I am pretty comfy here 4now.

Again thanks everyone for the great feedback and ideas! I feel sort of like the HD-5770 could do the trick IF I can expect some performance increase over the Nvidia I currently run. Any additional input should seal this deal.
Oh BTW I updated my sig to help clarify in the future.
 

TDHELLER

Junior Member
Jun 24, 2006
14
0
61
The 5770 is still a lot faster than the 8800GT. It's a good choice.

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3658&p=5
Thanks DGUY I think that's the way I'm leaning to now...
I've got a couple weeks before hammer time so I'll keep an eye out for improvements.
But the price point (Kinda an issue in Detroit now) and the performance boost seem to make this a solid choice for an upgrade and savings.
Now what to do with a used 8800GT hmmm...
 

Wreckage

Banned
Jul 1, 2005
5,529
0
0
3. Werckage - The GTX260 card looks like DDR3 memory of an unknown quantity. Wouldn't I get better Performance from DDR5 as in the HD 5750 or 5770 with 1gb? Just askin'. And the price point looks a little better:)

The GTX260 is faster than a 5770 by around 10-30% depending on the game. It has 896MB of memory. Although if you are looking to save money, you can go with the 5770. (I completly understand sticking to a budget). You could also get a GTS250 for around $100 which would be a tad slower than the 5770.

It goes HD4850>GTS250>HD5770>HD4870>GTX260>HD4890>GTX275 as far as speed goes. The GTX275 runs around $200+ though. The rest are under $200.

Plenty of options.
 

Qbah

Diamond Member
Oct 18, 2005
3,754
10
81
Going from a 8800GT to anything lower than a HD4890/GTX275 is not worth it imo. That should be the slowest thing you should update to - or you will hardly see any difference. Especially at 1680x1050.

A HD4890 is far from double the speed of an 8800GT. It is clearly slower than a GTX285 which is slower than a 9800GX2 (8800GTx2). The 8800GT is still a great card.

The HD5770 is more of a side grade imo - sure it's faster and cooler, but not really that much faster and that much cooler. It's slower than a HD4870/GTX260. Let alone a HD4890/GTX275. Totally a waste imo with your current setup.

If you want to upgrade and feel the difference, a HD5850 is the least you should aim at imo (it's similar to 8800GTs in SLi in speed). Or try to find a good deal on a GTX285 if you can (as in under 300$). Otherwise I'd just wait for the prices to come down for the 58xx series and get a different present in the end.

EDIT: If you get the new gen ATi card you'll be set once you upgrade your LCD to a higher resolution one too. It will handle 1920x1200 (or x1080) without breaking a sweat.
 
Last edited:

Painman

Diamond Member
Feb 27, 2000
3,805
29
86
5. Painman - Thanks for the suggestion the 5770 looks good from here - Yes the HP is at 1680X1050(native) Res. The question I have is in your post you say "it SHOULD handle it" is there an issue when running higher resolutions with the card? That would be the only drawback I see. The monitor May be upsized in the next year - but I am pretty comfy here 4now.

If you don't expect it to run high levels of eye candy, you could run a 5770 at 1920 rez. My old 8800 GTX could do it, but I did have to dial down the detail levels. 5770 is faster than 8800 GTX, but still behind something like a GTX 260.
 

Voo

Golden Member
Feb 27, 2009
1,684
0
76
The GTX260 is faster than a 5770 by around 10-30% depending on the game.
From the AT review, everything @1650
Crysis: 7.4%
Far Cry 2: +-0
BattleForge: 15.9%
HAWX: 18%
Dawn of War: 6.9%
RE5: 4.5%
Batman: 7.3%
L4D: 11.5%

E.g. on average a GTX260 is 9% faster than a HD5770, not as much as you claimed, but I'm sure nobody here is surprised by that.

Not the best card for price/performance, but the quietest and least powerhungry of the pack.
From the price/performance view I'd go with a 4890 - or a gtx275 if you could ever find one for the same price- but rather noisy and hot.
 

TDHELLER

Junior Member
Jun 24, 2006
14
0
61
OK Guys Last question here...
It looks from the sales out there like there are two distinct variants of this card (from ASUS no less) One with TWO Fans the other with ONE fan.
Is there a difference?
Do I want/Need two?
Does it appreciably affect noise?
This does look to be a more direct level replacement card than the 57xx series.
Any closing thoughts on the last questions?
This looks like a deal at New Egg ~200.00 with a rebate:)
Thanx