Need opinions on what card I should get

[Dark4ng3l]

As I mentioned in my last thread http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2048431 my 9800GT died a couple of weeks ago. I managed to get by without a decent gaming machine because I had just finished ME2 and I had no real game I felt I absolutely needed to play right now.

I have been using my HP DV2 ULV laptop for the last couple of weeks and it's been better than I expected really. It's just a Athlon NEO MV-40(1.6Ghz Athlon 64 with a much lower voltage basically) and HD3200 mobile graphics. Needless to say I can't watch HD youtube videos or play any real games on this thing(it's mostly a web on the go and powerpoint viewing during class machine). And the upgrade bug has started to hit me.

I haven't really upgraded or built a computer since like 2005 where I lost interest in the hobby. Needless to say PC gaming has changed a lot since the last generation of consoles were launched. So I have been shopping around and looking at the different options that I have and it somehow revived the interest I had lost in the PC hardware arena. About 8 or 9 years ago I would have been the one roaming the forums and helping out people but this time I need you guys to help me decide what I should do.

Pretty much what I decided on doing is that i'm going to upgrade to a 5xxx series card. My budget is going to be about 200$ CDN at the top range but closer to 150 would be ideal. Also I want whatever I buy to be strategic in terms of having good upgrade options in the future as I plan on trying to keep my machine more up to date than what I have been doing int he last 5 or 6 years this time. I think I should mention that my monitor runs at 1680*1050 but that I might consider getting an extra monitor(or two llol) in the future.

So the first dilemma that I have is between getting something cheaper and similar in performance to what I had before, saving the extra dough for a better purchase in the future or just buy something significantly better right now. What I have in mind by this is something like a 5670 would be under 100$. Now obviously this won't really be better than my old 9800GT but I guess the feature set would be better and I could potentially get something far superior in about a year when current gen card prices come down and refresh parts are launched.

My other options are getting a 5750 or 5770. This is the options I am leaning towards right now. My thoughts on this is that I can get a card now and in the future when I upgrade my motherboard/cpu I can get a crossfire motherboard and and extra card on the cheap to make for an easy upgrade path. Also i'm not sure if the extra price difference between the 5750 and 5770 is really worth it.

Another thought that I am having has to do with overclocking and noise. I don't think I would need to overclock a card I get right now to have acceptable performance but it's nice to have the headroom to squeeze and extra 10-15% out of your hardware when you need to in the future. This is why i'm not sure if it's worth it to get a card with the "old" stock cooler or if the $$ difference makes getting something a bit better like Vapor-x worth it.

Finally (and I guess this works with the above paragraph as well) I wonder about different brands. I guess i'm asking about the differences between the brand cards and if's brand X is worth spending a bit more than brand Y. Since I haven't bought a new video card from a vendor in over 5 years I need you guys with experience with the different manufacturers. For example should I just go with the cheapest card possible and maybe get a 5770 or is it worth it buying something like a Sapphire Vapor-x cooled 5750 card for a bit cheaper. Another thing I might like is the XFX lifetime warranty. It might be worth it.

As I mentioned previously I am in Canada so my buying options are more limited but it's still not bad. From what I see newegg.ca is cheaper than my other options but if you guys have other suggestions i'm always open to buying from somewhere else.

More specifically these are the cards I was looking at the most

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814102865
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814150448
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814150447
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814102868

Also if you guys have other suggestions like good deals on 4xxx series cards or Nvidia cards i'm open to them.

Thanks to anyone who read the whole thing and I have I did not leave out and important details.

 

[Occ]

Personally I don't think the Vapor-X series for the 57xx parts makes any sense. Those cards already run cool and quiet, and they only factory overclock it by 10mhz. That doesn't seem worth a ~$20 difference. There doesn't appear to be too much difference between a 5750 and a 5770 either... the Canadian currency/prices throws me off a bit. Personally I would be inclined to either avoid the 5750 and instead grab a 512mb 4850 for under $110 or go for a 5770 if it could be found for < $160 (wait for an instant $10 off the HIS on newegg - XFX is a bit over-rated IMO).

 

[mm2587]

Xfx's double lifetime warranty is awesome and will increase the resale value of your card. Is it worth paying more for an xfx card? maybe, maybe not. But their non overclock edition cards are typically the same price as everyone else so why not got with XFX. I would not waste the extra $20-$25 o a XXX edition card though. you get what 25mhz?

If you can find a 5770 in your price range grab it. Otherwise Its a tough choice between a 5750 and 4850. 4850 is a bit faster but you give up all the goodies of the 5000 series. I went with an XFX 5750 that I picked up for $120.

 

[garritynet]

If you really want to upgrade but don't have any games you want to play just buy another monitor now. I figure that by the time a game comes out that you "have to play" everything will be different and your $200 will go a lot further.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Well my computer has no video card right now so another screen is going to be less useful to me than a new card . Another thing I did not mention in this thread but that was in my other thread is my weak power supply. For that reason I can't get a high end 48xx part without upgrading my psu. Though I guess upgrading that is going to have to be done in the future anyways but right now I have to focus on making my main rig usable again.

 

[happy medium]

@1650x1050 buy a 5750 (130$) set the fan speed to 45&#37; (quiet) and overclock it to 5770 speeds. Thats what I did. It will go 900 core 1375 memory if I want it to.

Unless your psu is complete garbage it should be fine with a 5750.

Edit: Holy crap prices are way high now..... you could get a 5750 for 130$ shipped 2 weeks ago.
NEVER mind.

Edit 2: The 5830 must be comming....

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/17745/65/

 

[Dark4ng3l]

If you were looking at my links for prices then maybe you did not notice that it's canadian dollars and not USD. 130 USD vs 150 CDN is not too bad of a markup. I can get a 5750 for 150 or a 5770 for 170 pretty much. Both are around 10$ shipping so it's 160 vs 180. So it's about 12-13% more for the 5770. Is the 5770 13% better than a 5750? That and since the 5770 has more SPU's it would be faster than a 5750 at the same clock speeds and would probably overclock as well right?

 

[happy medium]

Yes, a 5770 also overclocks well. Most hit 950 ,1375 and easily match a gtx 260.
With both cards overclocked I would say the 5770 is about 10&#37; faster.
I guess it all depends on how much you wanna spend.

I don't think the extra 80 sp's on the 5770 makes much difference but when you crossfire them it might. Then you have an extra 160 sp's.

 

[WicKeD]

Wait for Nv's announcement on Monday

 

[Blue Shift]

...or get an uber-cheap stopgap (such as the gt210 or HD4650/3650) while you wait for prices to drop? It dosen't take much muscle to run most of the console ports that we're seeing at the moment.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

...or get an uber-cheap stopgap (such as the gt210 or HD4650/3650) while you wait for prices to drop? It dosen't take much muscle to run most of the console ports that we're seeing at the moment.

Well looking at prices I could get a 4850 for about 100$ (50 cheaper than a 5750) the only problem would be potential power issues but it might be a better deal I guess.

 

[Blue Shift]

Well looking at prices I could get a 4850 for about 100$ (50 cheaper than a 5750) the only problem would be potential power issues but it might be a better deal I guess.

Getting a $100 video card now may not benefit you in the long run. The 5850 currently runs at around $300, whereas the MSRP was originally $260. Assuming that the card will eventually reach a floor for this summer at $30 below original MSRP (which is generous), that's still only a difference of $70.

Paying $100 now to save $70 later isn't worth it. A stopgap card would have to be *really* cheap in order to save you money, which the 4850 isn't.

Edit: Of course, I could be wrong here... But assuming a $100 price drop may be a bit extreme. That is, if you'd still be looking for a new card soon, after purchasing the 4850.

 

[blanketyblank]

Getting a $100 video card now may not benefit you in the long run. The 5850 currently runs at around $300, whereas the MSRP was originally $260. Assuming that the card will eventually reach a floor for this summer at $30 below original MSRP (which is generous), that's still only a difference of $70.

Paying $100 now to save $70 later isn't worth it. A stopgap card would have to be *really* cheap in order to save you money, which the 4850 isn't.

Edit: Of course, I could be wrong here... But assuming a $100 price drop may be a bit extreme. That is, if you'd still be looking for a new card soon, after purchasing the 4850.

First off I doubt these prices will change much in the next few months. Nvidia has already announced that Fermi will be limited until basically next year which means ATI has no need to cut prices. In fact from what I've seen prices have been increasing as demand has been exceeding supply probably since the higher end nvidia cards are all EOL (260 and up) and more people buying the 5xxx cards. So strangely enough you would have been better off buying at the beginning rather than waiting unlike most people thought.

That being said I think a stopgap card works fine as a possible alternative. It's not paying $100 to save $70 later since the 4850 will still retain much of its value even with new cards introduced. I'd say worst case you could still get $50 for it after about a year of use (as long as it works). Thus it's paying $50 to save $70. What you do lose out on though going with something like this is the time you could have spent playing with the better card.

Personally I'd go for the 5770 since overclocking a 5750 to stock 5770 speeds is not guaranteed and the price difference is pretty small. Right now 5750 prices are inflated while 5770 prices haven't changed as much. In fact if you had kept an eye out and weren't picky about brand they've actually been cheaper than 5750s. In terms of speed I think the bump is worth it since the 5750 plays many games with minimums around 30 fps. The 5770 can keep youf fps constantly above 30 while the 5750 will sometimes fall below.

 

[evolucion8]

HD 5770 is the way to go, or you may wait for the monday announcement if it has relevance, so it can drop the HD 5830 prices when launched and get one.