Best bang:buck game card at 1920 x 1200?

iGas

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2009
6,240
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Civ 5 will be the game, and the 1920 x 1200 monitor is already ordered and on the way.

Canada pricing (CAD):
$224~$295 - GTX 460 1GB
$311~$460 - GTX 470 1.28GB
$297~$465 - HD 5850 1GB

Currently running:
Seasonic S12D 850W power supply.
4GB ram
AMD II X2 245 is the CPU will upgrade to X6 1055T if need more horsepower.

Please suggest me a card thank you.
 
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busydude

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2010
8,793
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Civ 5 releases on Sep. 21st, we will see AMD's new series of video cards from Oct 12. Expect some price drops from AMD's side in a few days.
 

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
11,144
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typically civ games are, um, shall we say, not exactly graphics intensive. I've played civ 4 many times with integrated graphics on my 2+ yr old amd laptop. civ 5 looks to be much improved, but this states that you'll also be able to run it on integrated graphics. the listed system recommendations are 9800gt or 4830 for gpu. It's been my experience that the cpu often has more of an impact in civ4 than the gpu.

If you're looking for absolute max graphics on a bang/buck perspective then definitely wait until the game arrives.
 

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
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Every single one of those cards is overkill.
/Waits for the 'you've got to have gtx 460 in sli to play MS Solitaire with all the eye candy' crowd./
 

tviceman

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2008
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typically civ games are, um, shall we say, not exactly graphics intensive. I've played civ 4 many times with integrated graphics on my 2+ yr old amd laptop. civ 5 looks to be much improved, but this states that you'll also be able to run it on integrated graphics. the listed system recommendations are 9800gt or 4830 for gpu. It's been my experience that the cpu often has more of an impact in civ4 than the gpu.

If you're looking for absolute max graphics on a bang/buck perspective then definitely wait until the game arrives.

Civ 5 will have support for tessellation. While Civ games always scale well with hardware, this one recommends a quadcore and support DX11. There have also been previews saying there is perceivable slowdown (sometimes) while playing this game on max settings with an hd5870.

If the civ 5 engine is using tessellation on the landscape, water, and environment it has the potential to be more noticeable than how tessellation has been used in games up to this point (only on npc's so far).

Civ 5 releases on Sep. 21st, we will see AMD's new series of video cards from Oct 12. Expect some price drops from AMD's side in a few days.

My understanding from the overwhelming majority of rumors is that we're only getting 1 new card then and it isn't going to be high end.
 

Flipped Gazelle

Diamond Member
Sep 5, 2004
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Every single one of those cards is overkill.
/Waits for the 'you've got to have gtx 460 in sli to play MS Solitaire with all the eye candy' crowd./

Not overkill. If you want to play your games on "low" settings, that's fine, but it seems the OP wants to crank it up, in which case the cards he's listed are appropriate.
 
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busydude

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2010
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My understanding from the overwhelming majority of rumors is that we're only getting 1 new card then and it isn't going to be high end.

Yup, but a 6770 is rumored to offer performance equal to 5850 for ~$200.
 

Dark Shroud

Golden Member
Mar 26, 2010
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If you don't mind replaceing the card in 9 months then a GTX 460 is fine. Otherwise the HD 5850 will last a bit longer.

I would suggest waiting until at least Sept. 13th or a few days before the game comes out to order as prices are coming down. If you can get an HD 5850 for $250-$260 go for it over a GTX 460.
 

Wreckage

Banned
Jul 1, 2005
5,529
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The 470 is a lot faster than the 5850. It's actually closer to the 5870. While the 460 and 5850 are closer in performance to each other (except in newer DX11 games where the 5850 has poor tessellation performance).

I imagine though the 460 will be more than enough for Civ 5 so save a few bucks and go with that. If you can get a 1GB for $224(CAD) all the better.
 

Sind

Member
Dec 7, 2005
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I'm sure the 460 will be fine for Civ5. It's too bad they can't get the demo out earlier than the release date so we can catch any surprises.
 

Flipped Gazelle

Diamond Member
Sep 5, 2004
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If you don't mind replaceing the card in 9 months then a GTX 460 is fine. Otherwise the HD 5850 will last a bit longer.

I would suggest waiting until at least Sept. 13th or a few days before the game comes out to order as prices are coming down. If you can get an HD 5850 for $250-$260 go for it over a GTX 460.

If Civ 5 is the OP's game, why would he need to replace the card in 9 months?
 

edplayer

Platinum Member
Sep 13, 2002
2,186
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Not overkill. If you want to play your games on "low" settings, that's fine, but it seems the OP wants to crank it up, in which case the cards he's listed are appropriate.


I'm going to go to college and study game design. When I graduate I will invent a new choice between low and high. I would just call it medium but then everyone will say that anyone could have done that. I might call it schmedium.

If he wanted to crank it up, maybe he would have asked for the best card, not the best bang for the buck card.
 

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
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Civilisation 5 Recommended Requirements:

- Operating System: Windows Vista SP2/ Windows 7

- Processor: 1.8 GHz Quad Core CPU

- Memory: 4 GB RAM

- Hard Disk Space: 8 GB Free

- DVD-ROM Drive: Required for disc-based installation

- Video: 512 MB ATI 4800 series or better, 512 MB nVidia 9800 series or better

- Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatibile sound card

- DirectX: DirectX version 11

According to the recommended hardware not, the minimum needed, all of the OP's listed cards are overkill at 1920 x 1200.

I'm glad the sli'd GTX 460 to play MS Solitaire crowd didn't disappoint.
 

toyota

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
12,957
1
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MagnusTheBrewer, for MOST games the recommended specs are usually the real world minimums if you want good performance with any detail at a decent res. for example, Far Cry 2 has an 8600gts listed for the "recommended" card. lol
 

Flipped Gazelle

Diamond Member
Sep 5, 2004
6,666
3
81
I'm going to go to college and study game design. When I graduate I will invent a new choice between low and high. I would just call it medium but then everyone will say that anyone could have done that. I might call it schmedium.

If he wanted to crank it up, maybe he would have asked for the best card, not the best bang for the buck card.

Ridiculous argument. He didn't want the "best" card, he wanted the "best value" card that can play his game at his desired settings. Judging by the OP's card choices, he wants the game's graphics settings to be high.

Civilisation 5 Recommended Requirements:

- Operating System: Windows Vista SP2/ Windows 7

- Processor: 1.8 GHz Quad Core CPU

- Memory: 4 GB RAM

- Hard Disk Space: 8 GB Free

- DVD-ROM Drive: Required for disc-based installation

- Video: 512 MB ATI 4800 series or better, 512 MB nVidia 9800 series or better

- Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatibile sound card

- DirectX: DirectX version 11

According to the recommended hardware not, the minimum needed, all of the OP's listed cards are overkill at 1920 x 1200.

I'm glad the sli'd GTX 460 to play MS Solitaire crowd didn't disappoint.

Nowhere in your quote of the "recommended" settings is there an indication of settings for optimum performance. Nor does it specify the resolution. We all know that the publisher's "recommended" hardware is equivalent to high-end performance, right?

This has nothing to to with "MS Solitaire with all the eye candy", either. That's incongruous. You probably have voice immodulation disorder, too. :p
 

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
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Ridiculous argument. He didn't want the "best" card, he wanted the "best value" card that can play his game at his desired settings. Judging by the OP's card choices, he wants the game's graphics settings to be high.



Nowhere in your quote of the "recommended" settings is there an indication of settings for optimum performance. Nor does it specify the resolution. We all know that the publisher's "recommended" hardware is equivalent to high-end performance, right?

This has nothing to to with "MS Solitaire with all the eye candy", either. That's incongruous. You probably have voice immodulation disorder, too. :p

You said it yourself, the OP is looking for the best value. High settings does not mean everything tweaked as high as it can go so, yes, the recommended hardware is 'optimal.' Any of the cards listed by the OP have frame and fill rates far in excess of what's needed at 1920 x 1200.

My use of the MS Solitaire with all the eye candy quote is in response to the plethora of posters in this forum who think a "budget" card is $200 and any game that doesn't support at least 4x AA is unplayable. I like my shiny new toys as much as anyone but, I also understand having other demands on my money than 'updating' my graphics card every 6 months.
 

iGas

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2009
6,240
1
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To clear up the confusion.

I want to get a card that give me enough power for high graphics for Civ 5, and maybe a tad of head room but not an over kill.

The video cards above are ones that I'm considering at the moment, but I'm willing to change my option if there are better match alternatives out there.

Thanks.
 
May 13, 2009
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Get a 9800gt for 60 bucks and enjoy the game instead of seeing how far you can turn up aa or physx. I just wish I could follow my own advice. I'm through upgrading for awhile. Seems now gaming for me is about more fps with as much eye candy as possible. I had a 9800gt in my rig for a couple weeks while I waited on my current card. It actually gamed great and the games still looked good. Should of just kept it.
 

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
24,122
1,594
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OP, the kicker is DirectX 11, you could go with a HD 5670 for around $100 or a Nvidia solution for around $200. Of course, the $200 Nvidia card will definitely out perform the $100 ATI card but, both will play Civ 5. Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, Nvidia doesn't have any $100 cards that have DirectX 11. To be fair, ATI has quite a few lower performing cards with DirectX 11 that can't make use of it.

On further consideration, I have to go with the recommendations for 9800 GT or GTX. DirectX 11 and tessellation is hardly going to make or break the game.
 
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happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
14,387
480
126
The gtx460 will be more then enough for that game and is the current best bang for the buck at $190 after rebate for the Palit 1gb version at New egg.
At this price forget the $260 5850, it's just not worth it.:(

Edit: Canada prices?, nevermind.

Edit 2: 75$ cheaper for the gtx460 in Cananda? The gtx460 choice is even better!
 
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evolucion8

Platinum Member
Jun 17, 2005
2,867
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At such prices, the GTX 460 1GB is the better price, while the HD 5850 is the faster card, doesn't worth the commanding price premium over the GTX 460 1GB.