Question about high end budget video cards.

[Apocalypse23]

I'm currently running a Asus HD 4350 on one of my machines with a E8400@3.9. The games I really want to play are CODWAW with full eye candy, currently the screen I'm using is a Acer X193w 19". It does the job for gaming and also has 75hz peak capacity. I decided to go budget and sell my 9800gx2 and downgrade to a 4350. The 4350 manages to give me a minimum of 30 fps to 75fps (1440x900) but mostly averages 30 fps at 640x480 and minimal settings with no AA or AF. This is saddening, so I have decided to look for a budget high end card...

My options are the new 5830 from Power color, it comes with a stock overclock and is selling for $249 CAD + tax (12&#37 = 278.88 CAD but only a 2 year warranty

I've read the reviews on this card and it is definitely a worthy power to the 5770, but is roughly 18% slower than a 5850.

Now if I look at attaining a 5850, I'm looking at the Asus 5850, gives you the Asus voltage tweak bios for greater overclocking and also has a 3 year warranty. Price I'm getting this for is $313CAD + tax (12%) = $350.56 CAD

I can go the cheaper route and get a Sapphire 5850 with Dirt 2 + 2 year warranty for $300 + tax(12%) = $336 But I don't think it allows you to overclock it very high when compared to the Asus.

I need some suggestions on whether any of these will give me the bang for the buck and also if I can Crossfire my existing 4350 to any of these cards. Mind you my motherboard only runs on PCI - E 1.0.

Or should I wait for the GTX 470?

My future plans are to upgrade to a 24" screen but for now I'm okay with the 19" Acer.

Or could I benefit from buying a bigger screen and a video card at the same time for a better bundle?

Thanks!

 

[blanketyblank]

I'm currently running a Asus HD 4350 on one of my machines with a E8400@3.9. The games I really want to play are CODWAW with full eye candy, currently the screen I'm using is a Acer X193w 19". It does the job for gaming and also has 75hz peak capacity. I decided to go budget and sell my 9800gx2 and downgrade to a 4350. The 4350 manages to give me a minimum of 30 fps to 75fps (1440x900) but mostly averages 30 fps at 640x480 and minimal settings with no AA or AF. This is saddening, so I have decided to look for a budget high end card...

My options are the new 5830 from Power color, it comes with a stock overclock and is selling for $249 CAD + tax (12%) = 278.88 CAD but only a 2 year warranty

I've read the reviews on this card and it is definitely a worthy power to the 5770, but is roughly 18% slower than a 5850.

Now if I look at attaining a 5850, I'm looking at the Asus 5850, gives you the Asus voltage tweak bios for greater overclocking and also has a 3 year warranty. Price I'm getting this for is $313CAD + tax (12%) = $350.56 CAD

I can go the cheaper route and get a Sapphire 5850 with Dirt 2 + 2 year warranty for $300 + tax(12%) = $336 But I don't think it allows you to overclock it very high when compared to the Asus.

I need some suggestions on whether any of these will give me the bang for the buck and also if I can Crossfire my existing 4350 to any of these cards. Mind you my motherboard only runs on PCI - E 1.0.

Or should I wait for the GTX 470?

My future plans are to upgrade to a 24" screen but for now I'm okay with the 19" Acer.

Or could I benefit from buying a bigger screen and a video card at the same time for a better bundle?

Thanks!

I'd wait if only to see if the 470 lowers prices. Chances are it will be a lot more expensive than the 5850 and at your resolution so I doubt it would be an option even if it's not sold out. I'd go with one of the 5850s depending on whether the extra year is worth more than the game and $14 is to you. The difference in OCing is still a matter of luck between the two so I wouldn't pay more without hardware tweaks (i.e. MSI lightning uses different PCB components). 5830 is a bit too crippled so you won't get much extra out of it later if you do upgrade monitors.

 

[Apocalypse23]

I'd wait if only to see if the 470 lowers prices. Chances are it will be a lot more expensive than the 5850 and at your resolution so I doubt it would be an option even if it's not sold out. I'd go with one of the 5850s depending on whether the extra year is worth more than the game and $14 is to you. The difference in OCing is still a matter of luck between the two so I wouldn't pay more without hardware tweaks (i.e. MSI lightning uses different PCB components). 5830 is a bit too crippled so you won't get much extra out of it later if you do upgrade monitors.

Thanks! So the 5850 it is then...I think I'll pick an Asus for better resale value/warranty.

 

[cbn]

With 1440 x 900 resolution, I would get this

HD5850 is too much card for such a small monitor.

 

[Apocalypse23]

With 1440 x 900 resolution, I would get a HD5770.

HD5850 is too much card for such a small monitor.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131328 (Here is the card I would buy).

Do you think I could crossfire that with my 4350? Would there be any performance boost?

 

[Lonyo]

Do you think I could crossfire that with my 4350? Would there be any performance boost?

You can't, and there wouldn't.
The HD4350 is really not a gaming card, and about the only thing it can be Crossfired with I think is either IGP, another 4350 and maybe a 4550, but even with that it would be horribly slow.

 

[blanketyblank]

With 1440 x 900 resolution, I would get this

HD5850 is too much card for such a small monitor.

You're forgetting the fact he's planning on upgrading monitors later.
At which point 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 the 5770 is not going to get good fps at high settings in the more demanding games like BC2.

 

[cbn]

You're forgetting the fact he's planning on upgrading monitors later.
At which point 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 the 5770 is not going to get good fps at high settings in the more demanding games like BC2.

He can just sell the video card then. Who knows he might even want the 470 GTX at that time also? (He already has a HD5870 if you take a look in his sig)

 

[Apocalypse23]

Okay guys I appreciate the feedback, a quick note on pricing:

Just found this website is selling a Gigabyte 5770 for $118 CAD, this could be a typo on their part but I think I can price match it....

Should I get two of these? or 1? for now....

http://www.cendirect.com/main_en/tech_specs.php?rPart_no=TDWD-HJ-HW-O363PD7HJ&rSrc=sb

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Get a good 5770 and save your money. You can either go for the cheapest one you can find, get an XFX if you want lifetime warranty or get one that will overclock to and beyond 5830 speeds. You can get those for under 200$ CDN shipped from newegg. From someone who has been playing anything on a 4350 a 5770 would already be a MASSIVE upgrade. Then in a year or two you can always get a 2nd card for cheap and crossfire it.

*EDIT*

Buy that card ASAP and hope they will send it to you. Thats much cheaper than any 1GB 5770 on newegg.ca hell it's cheaper than the 512MB card I have seen. They only have 40 in stock so don't waste your time and order it asap.

 

[Apocalypse23]

Get a good 5770 and save your money. You can either go for the cheapest one you can find, get an XFX if you want lifetime warranty or get one that will overclock to and beyond 5830 speeds. You can get those for under 200$ CDN shipped from newegg. From someone who has been playing anything on a 4350 a 5770 would already be a MASSIVE upgrade. Then in a year or two you can always get a 2nd card for cheap and crossfire it.

*EDIT*

Buy that card ASAP and hope they will send it to you. Thats much cheaper than any 1GB 5770 on newegg.ca hell it's cheaper than the 512MB card I have seen. They only have 40 in stock so don't waste your time and order it asap.

Roger that, buying two of these right now!

Thanks!

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Hell if you click on the "similar items" tab on that website they are also selling that exact same card for 183$. Let's all hope you can actually get the cards at that price before they notice that they messed up.

*EDIT*

I looked here http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Central_Direct for any info on how good/bad this store could be. They have only 4 reviews but all the positive reviews are from guys who have't reviewed any other store... Just something to consider.

 

[Apocalypse23]

Hell if you click on the "similar items" tab on that website they are also selling that exact same card for 183$. Let's all hope you can actually get the cards at that price before they notice that they messed up.

*EDIT*

I looked here http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Central_Direct for any info on how good/bad this store could be. They have only 4 reviews but all the positive reviews are from guys who have't reviewed any other store... Just something to consider.

Well I'm ordering it from Ncix.com and price matching, and picking it up from their local outlet. Placed the order, will let you know how it goes....hopefully they don't read the wrong part number and note the discrepancy.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Ok I just figured it out. The card's price is good. I looked up the part number GV-N240OC-1GI and it's a GT240 not a radeon 5770. I actually found the same card on newegg http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...YTE-_-14125311

That website just messed up their description.

 

[blanketyblank]

Well at that price it's certainly a steal. 5770 is a good card just not quite quite good enough for high resolutions in the few more demanding games. Crossfired though it will crush practically anything assuming no driver issue for the game.

 

[OS]

512 MB only though, does that matter?

 

[Apocalypse23]

Nevermind guys, the Ncix guys couldn't price match it as it was too low..and it also appears it's a typo on that link as they have a different product number. I instead bought a asus 5850. ($313 CAD + 12%tax) = 350 approx. Yes I'm a little mad at spending so much, but I'm desperate...and the closest the Ncix would price match a 5770 1 gb was for $159. I could have bought one 5770 and bought another later, but it was too much of a hassle.

Will post some benchmarks on the asus 5850 soon.

Cheers.

 

[Apocalypse23]

Alrighty, installed the card with Catalyst 10.2 drivers, runs smooth, but runs louder than my 5870 (I'm also using a smaller and crowded case with the 5850). My temps seem normal, 45C idle and 82C was the max. The 3d mark vantage performance scores are as follows for my E8400@3.96Ghz running hot at about 73C on load:

P11539
GPU:14036
CPU:7523

The GPU scores would be higher if I had a faster proc, ram and a newer board but seem about right where they should be. I will overclock this card later perhaps.

 

[betasub]

9800GX2 -> 4350 must've been quite a come-down for your gaming experience. Glad to see you have returned to performance/enthusiast level (although "high-end budget" is somewhat of an oxymoron).