Please recommend me a video card

[ibex333]

Well my 8800GTS 640mb started crashing the system again and showing artifacts, and I'm tired of baking it again and again. (see sig)

I was going to hold out till Christmas to hopefully find some good deals for these new DX11 video cards, but I need a new video card NOW, and getting the 1st gen DX11 cards might not be such a good idea anyway. On one hand, I want to get something "future proof" because I usually upgrade my video cards once in every 3 years or so. On the other hand, I rather get something slightly cheaper for around $150 and upgrade again a year from now when DX11 hopefully becomes more mainstream...

Suggestions? what would you do in my shoes? Get something like 4870/4890 and upgrade again later or go for 5850? (Btw, I don't have anything against nVidia if there are any good offerings atm.)

When my 8800 GTS came out, it was one of the very first DX10 cards and it's still going strong (performance wise). I am wondering if the 5850 will easily last me 4 years+ being able to easily handle any game at at least medium settings.

What options do I currently have for the "most bang for my buck" video card?

PS: I am gaming on a 16:9 23 inch monitor, and my PSU is a 600w OCZ StealthExtreme, with a 850w PSU available in case this one wont be able to pull the new card.

Also will I be bottlenecked bu my CPU? (in sig)

 

[themisfit610]

Your CPU is fine. A 5850 would be a fantastic choice, and to be honest a 5770 would be perfectly good as well

~MiSfit

 

[ibex333]

That's what I'm thinking... I can buy a 5770 now and a second one like 6-12 months later to crossfire it when it gets cheap.

 

[AzN]

Don't get a gimp card. Save your money and buy 5850. 5770 might do well in the average frame rates but I'm thinking not so great with minimum frame rates as the bandwidth is quite low for a card of it's caliber.

 

[toyota]

your cpu isnt too bad at all and at 1920 a 4870 or 4890 would be a good match if you want something from the current high end cards. problem is you will need to upgrade within a few months if some of those DX11 games interest you. a 5770 is not bad but at 1920 I am thinking you will want a little more for some games. yeah you could always add another 5770 later but I dont like fooling with multi gpus myself so I would try and get just a single gpu.

also its silly to try and buy a card now to last you 4 years. cards are easily upgradable for a reason you know and you really cant anticipate how gaming needs will change that far into the future. also even though your cpu will handle all games now just fine we are certainly seeing the need for more cpu power like high end quads especially if trying to really push the fastest graphics cards in many newer games. in other words over the next 4 years everything you have now will start getting pretty outdated.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: ibex333
That's what I'm thinking... I can buy a 5770 now and a second one like 6-12 months later to crossfire it when it gets cheap.

After looking at these benches , I agree with this idea. Minimum fps look fine.

http://www.elitebastards.com/i...Itemid=27&limitstart=4


I read earlier on another site that crossfired 5770's were about as fast as a 5870, I'll see if I can find it.

Edit:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1105/8/

Here it is beating up a gtx 295

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1105/9/

Looks great here too.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1105/5/

 

[deimos3428]

Originally posted by: toyota
problem is you will need to upgrade within a few months if some of those DX11 games interest you.

I agree that upgrading twice in rapid succession is a bad idea, but is it likely that DX11-only games will be produced in the near future? I would hope game developers would have the sense to make the newest games backward compatible to DX10 for a while yet, and if so the second upgrade is optional...

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: deimos3428

Originally posted by: toyota
problem is you will need to upgrade within a few months if some of those DX11 games interest you.

I agree that upgrading twice in rapid succession is a bad idea, but is it likely that DX11-only games will be produced in the near future? I would hope game developers would have the sense to make the newest games backward compatible to DX10 for a while yet, and if so the second upgrade is optional...

yeah they will be backwards compatible of course but those games could look and run better in DX11 but no way to know for sure yet. I guess I should have said that if he wanted to take advantage of DX11 then he would need to upgrade.

 

[cbn]

Well my 8800GTS 640mb started crashing the system again and showing artifacts, and I'm tired of baking it again and again. (see sig)

I was going to hold out till Christmas to hopefully find some good deals for these new DX11 video cards, but I need a new video card NOW, and getting the 1st gen DX11 cards might not be such a good idea anyway. On one hand, I want to get something "future proof" because I usually upgrade my video cards once in every 3 years or so. On the other hand, I rather get something slightly cheaper for around $150 and upgrade again a year from now when DX11 hopefully becomes more mainstream...

Suggestions? what would you do in my shoes? Get something like 4870/4890 and upgrade again later or go for 5850? (Btw, I don't have anything against nVidia if there are any good offerings atm.)

When my 8800 GTS came out, it was one of the very first DX10 cards and it's still going strong (performance wise). I am wondering if the 5850 will easily last me 4 years+ being able to easily handle any game at at least medium settings.

What options do I currently have for the "most bang for my buck" video card?

PS: I am gaming on a 16:9 23 inch monitor, and my PSU is a 600w OCZ StealthExtreme, with a 850w PSU available in case this one wont be able to pull the new card.

Also will I be bottlenecked bu my CPU? (in sig)

Most bang for the buck is a HD4870 1GB (In fact, I bought a brand new (never opened box) XFX one from the "for sale" forum for $120 shipped)

However, if I were buying from new egg I would probably have gotten ASUS HD5750 (with Voltage tweak) or HD5850. I'm sure they would be a lot quieter (my old 40nm HD4770 was much quieter than this 55nm HD4870) and I know they are more power efficient (especially at idle)

 

[cbn]

I agree that upgrading twice in rapid succession is a bad idea, but is it likely that DX11-only games will be produced in the near future? I would hope game developers would have the sense to make the newest games backward compatible to DX10 for a while yet, and if so the second upgrade is optional...

Stalker call of Pripyat (DX11) is coming out in a few months.

Hopefully that game is just as good as Stalker shadow of chernobyl (which I got for $5 on steam recently).

As far as backwards compatibility goes Stalker clear sky (for example) is a DX10.1 title but it will also scale reasonably well with DX8 hardware (according to wikipedia)

 

[Indus]

Depends on your resolution:

If you have a 1680 x 1050 lcd, for under $200 a GTX 260 or 4890 will be great.

If you play 1920 x 1080 or 1920 x 1200, I'd suggest GTX 285 or HD 5870. If you're going to shell out money for a 5850, no point not to get the 5870, almost same price range and for a tad bit more money since you're talking $300-400.

 

[bryanW1995]

5750 1 gb is a few % faster than 4870 512 and a few % slower than 4870 1gb right now. It will almost certainly improve over the next year. I'd go that route to save money, plus it should give you all the gpu horsepower you need. In fact, if you can find a 5750 512mb get that instead.

btw, I would have recommended 5850 but it seems to be VERY hard to find still with no relief in sight. CURSE YOU TSMC!!! Who wants to bet that tsmc hired hector ruiz 3 mos ago as a consultant?