Upgrade from 8800GT 512MB

[Dahak]

Hey all,

Trying to help my brother chose a new video card has this one is currently flaking out.
Personally I usually buy upper end cards, have not follows the mid range as much but on a budget of no more $200-$250 cdn if possible, unless there is a drastic performance increase

Here's the cliff notes of the machine / usage,
C2D E6850 / 2GB Ram / XP currently, going to windows 7 soon
Current Card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143118
Mainly WoW, but other games like Crysis, Dragon Age, SC2
19inch mon (1280x1024) but probably going to upgrade that to a 22 / 24 inch sometime

I was looking at the 5770($175) as the main choice, but would the 128-bit memory bus be limited vs the old card?

The next set up would be a 5830($275), but thats about $100 more than the 5770, would it be worth it ?

 

[Qbah]

A HD5770 would offer him probably a 40-50% jump in FPS. That's the difference in "pure power". However, this card isn't good enough for 1080p imo And should he upgrade to a better monitor, that will be his resolution most likely. Is the 8800GT not fast enough at 1280x1024? Should be fine for those games you mention (well, except Crysis Just drop the details a bit). Again, a HD5770 won't be good later on for 1080p imo

My advice would be to wait with the GPU upgrade until he's ready to buy a new monitor. And only then buy a new video card, together with the LCD. Tell him to gather some more cash until he's ready for the screen upgrade and then get a HD5850 with it. No idea how much it costs in Canada though.

HD5830 is a bad value card in general (hardly faster than a HD5770 and so much more expensive) and there's no sane person that would recommend it.

 

[yh125d]

Get a $150 5770 and 2 more GB of ram

 

[Axon]

5770 is your only option at the $150-$170 price point. It performs around the same way as a 4870.

Nvidia has recently released its Fermi line (GTX 470: $350/GTX 480: $500) which are both nice cards, but run real hot and consume crazy amounts of power. Nvidia has yet to release its midrange DX11 cards, so you may want to wait and see.

Let me break down what your games need:

WoW: Loves CPU clock speed, RAM, SSD (for load times - my load time in Dalaran at prime time is like, 45 seconds on a standard HDD and like 10 with an SSD). GPU not so critical at that resolution.

SC2: Would benefit from a better GPU, but I would assume he can already run it at medium to high settings.

Crysis: Extremely challenging game for his current system even at 1280. You'd really need to bump the system up overall, though a 5770 would increase performance (likely by 10-15 FPS). Ask him what his 8800 GT gets him currently.

Dragon Age: well designed for multi-core CPUs. 5770 would help.

Overall his RAM is slightly soft and Win 7 pushes the limit of 2GB. I would do what was recommended above and get a 5770 and a 4GB kit, that would really improve his experience.

 

[LucJoe]

I recently went from an 8800GT to a 4860 because it was a decent upgrade and CHEAP!

If I were going to do it again today? I would stretch the budget a bit and pick up this:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...668&CatId=3669

ATI 100-437967 Radeon HD 5850 Video Card - 1GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, Dual DVI, Display Port, HDMI - OEM

$237 after BCB

 

[AlucardX]

go for 5770. i went from a 8800GTS 320MB to a 5770 and i play at 1680x and it's been great.

 

[Dahak]

. Is the 8800GT not fast enough at 1280x1024? Should be fine for those games you mention (well, except Crysis Just drop the details a bit). Again, a HD5770 won't be good later on for 1080p imo

oh it is, except for the card is failing hence the need for the upgrade

Thanks for the confirmations on the 5770.

 

[Attic]

i run the 5770 on a 1080P HDTV and am happy with it's performance, in a perfect world i'd have a 480gtx in there, but gotta make sacrifices. Great card and solid performance.