Graphics card question

[Diogones]

Greetings AnandTech Forum! As this is my first post, I'll get right to the point. For my new computer, I need to decide which GPU to get. Now while I want to be somewhat future proof and be able to play games in a couple of years, I don't need anything top of the line by any means. I also don't play any high fps demanding games like the infamous Crysis, Far Cry, etc. I do want to be able to play games like World of Warcraft at max settings at a resolution of about 1920x1200, and of course I will be playing Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 when they are available as well. Similarly, the other games I play are RTS, strategy based games, etc. I have heard that the GTX 275 is good, but that something like the Radeon 5850 or higher would be needed for me to get the best results. What does everybody here think? Thank you for taking the time to read this, and any helpful replies are welcome!

 

[Bill Brasky]

To make a good recommendation, we need to know the rest of your system specs and how much you money you want to spend. It doesn't make sense to buy a beefy graphics card and pair it with a puny cpu. Assuming the rest of your specs a good, I'd go with a 5850 for sure. I think it really hits the sweet spot for price/ performance ratio, and it does very well at 1920 rez.

Also, how important are factors like heat and noise?

A 5770 would also be a good choice.

 

[blanketyblank]

5770,5850, or gtx 470 are good and fairly future proof with dx11 support.

 

[Borealis7]

WoW is more CPU demanding than GPU, so a good CPU + some configuration file tweaking would do good there. SC2 does not seem (from the beta) to be a graphics hog so even a midrage card would suffice, and about D3 we don't know anything yet.

 

[Diogones]

Thank you for your prompt and helpful replies! I can certainly post my computer specs. They are as follows:

Processor: Intel Core i7 930 2.8GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: EVGA X58 LE Edition SLI (Intel X58 Chipset) (Supports SLI or CrossFire)*
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz
Power Supply: 750W Corsair TX (Dual SLI Compatible)
Expansion Bay: Internal Digital Media Card Reader (Black) (NOTE: Disables 2 Front USB Ports)
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (500GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
OS: Windows 7 Professional
I think I agree with your suggestions: a 5850 would fit my budget, as with that card I'll be at about $2000, which is my price ceiling. That should cover any games I will be playing, with graphics maxed out, no less.

On the other hand, do you think the GTX 275 would be strong enough at that resolution?

 

[SlowSpyder]

What is your budget?

A 5770 will future proof you a bit since it has DX11 capablitiy. It should be fast enough for your resolution. I'd get that over a GTX275 personally.

 

[RussianSensation]

Depending on the pricing of GTX275, it may be a good choice. GTX275 is a good deal faster than 5770. However, if it's > $200, you might as well get the 5850 and use that for a while.

 

[badb0y]

According to your post it seems like you are particularly fond of Blizzard games and alike. As far as Blizzard goes, they don't push hardware that much as they want to capture as much market as they can. With that being said, I would recommend something along the lines of HD 5850 since you want to be somewhat future proof as well as run games at high settings.

 

[Diogones]

Right, Blizzard and similar games aren't the resource monsters like top FPS sometimes are. My budget is about $200 to $250. While the 5850 seems to fit that price bracket, I am wondering if it can support anti-aliasing at that resolution? On the other hand, it might not matter, as the games I play don't use that I believe. Thanks again for everyone's input: it has been very helpful!

 

[nenforcer]

If you are talking about a future proof purchase now then your choices are really between the Radeon HD 58XX and Geforce GTX 470/480.

However, if you can wait another month or so nVidia will be releasing the GTX 460 which should compete right at the Radeon HD 5830 / 5850 level and could possibly lower prices on that card.

I would wait another month if you can.

 

[Bill Brasky]

Right, Blizzard and similar games aren't the resource monsters like top FPS sometimes are. My budget is about $200 to $250. While the 5850 seems to fit that price bracket, I am wondering if it can support anti-aliasing at that resolution? On the other hand, it might not matter, as the games I play don't use that I believe. Thanks again for everyone's input: it has been very helpful!

With a 5850, you should be able to do 4xAA just fine at 1920x, and even 8xAA in less demanding games. If games don't support AA 'in-game', you can usually force it through the driver.

 

[Diogones]

Force AA through a driver eh? Do you know where I could find a good resource to try that with some of the games I have there, Zaitsev?

 

[Bill Brasky]

I have an ati card so I'll use that as an example. From what I understand, there are two options for graphics settings: those provided in-game, and others provided in Catalyst Control Center (or whatever you use, AtiTray Tool is a common alt). If you enter Catalyst Control Center and look at "3D settings," it should look like this (below). When you enable AA or Aniso in CCC, it should enable those feature through the driver which allows you to 'force' it even if those features aren't supported in-game. Do I know 100% if that's going to work for those specific games? No. But the number of games this won't work on is very small. If these features are provided in the game, it's recommended to use those over CCC because they usually give better performance.