Another "Which GPU Thread?"

Hi guys,

Continuing on from my previous thread - GPU Crash Whilst In Game? ive decided to invest in a new GPU.

My requirements arent too much:

1) Must be able to handle gaming at the mighty resolution of 1360x768. Would be nice to have all the goodness of AA and AF turned up to max too :) so something that can handle all that would be good

2) Don't really care for DX11 at the moment...would the newer generation of card's be of any benefit over older generation for my need's?

3) Must be able to handle high definition video (upto 720p) and audio streams

4) Run relatively quiet and cool. Athough, i already have an Accelero Cooler it would be nice if i could transfer it to the new card if possible.

5) I would like to keep the budget as low as possible £120 max

Im pretty sure also ATi's driver's cannot be this bad causing them to crash in every PC game. So fanboyism aside which GPU would be best? I was thinking a 4870:

HD 4870 - £98

Good deal? Advice welcome as always :)

For that budget why not a 4890 ?
http://forums.hexus.net/current-barg...delivered.html

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Originally Posted by Phage

For that budget why not a 4890 ?
http://forums.hexus.net/current-barg...delivered.html

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Sorry to sound silly, but the price says £132? Am i missing something?

I'd be tempted to say 5750 512MB @ £85. For 1366 x 768 it'll be slight overkill even with everything turned up (except perhaps in Crysis ;) ) but it prepares you for DX11 down the line, gives you that much better power profile than 4-series cards and is cheaper too. Oh, and should you fancy it later (and you don't mind shelling out for a DisplayPort equipped monitor) it'll cover you for Eyefinity :D

On the NVidia side the only "new" GPU in the same band is the GT240 - make sure you go for a DDR5 one like this XFX (which incidentally seems to have a rather short PCB!). A GTS250 is basically a rebadged 9800GTX+ which traces its lineage directly to the venerable 8800GT, but is no performance slouch. Ebuyer do have a 192-shader GTX260 available which also wouldn't be a bad option @ £107.

Personally, I'd go for the 5750.

I think the 4890 was £115 up to Christmas only.

For performance wise, 4890 is pretty good and runs cooler and quieter than the 4870 AFAIK. 5770 performance is roughly equal to the 4870 so it's pretty good and will last for the future.

However, as scaryjim said, at those resolutions a 5750 (equivalent to a 4850 I imagine) is pretty much enough.

I'm not too keen on Nvidia cards but GTS250 and GTX260 have gone down a bit in price recently I see. I don't think a GT240 is worth it though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scaryjim

I'd be tempted to say 5750 512MB @ £85. For 1366 x 768 it'll be slight overkill even with everything turned up (except perhaps in Crysis ;) ) but it prepares you for DX11 down the line, gives you that much better power profile than 4-series cards and is cheaper too. Oh, and should you fancy it later (and you don't mind shelling out for a DisplayPort equipped monitor) it'll cover you for Eyefinity :D

On the NVidia side the only "new" GPU in the same band is the GT240 - make sure you go for a DDR5 one like this XFX (which incidentally seems to have a rather short PCB!). A GTS250 is basically a rebadged 9800GTX+ which traces its lineage directly to the venerable 8800GT, but is no performance slouch. Ebuyer do have a 192-shader GTX260 available which also wouldn't be a bad option @ £107.

Personally, I'd go for the 5750.

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Seems like a very viable option at £85! Thank you very much sir. What do you mean by power profile? As in it consumes less power then the 4-series cards? Another good thing is that it has a nice big cooler on it too :D Would i need the 512MB or the 1GB version of the 5750?

I'm pretty sure he meant it consumes less power. 512MB should be enough for all your needs due to the lower resolution. If you're planning to upgrade your monitor in the future I'd go with the 1GB though but there's not that much benefit really.

1gb = totally pointless at that resolution, 512mb is all you'd need.

the gt240 is a lower power consumption rebranded 9600gt
the gts250 is a lower power consumption rebranded 9800gtx+ and performs around the same as the 4850

the gtx260, 4870 and 5770 perform around the same level, of the 3 cards the 5770 has the lowest power demands.

AFAIK the 5750 performs slightly below the 4850 and closer to the 4770/9800gt/8800gt/gts240*

*the gts240 is OEM only, ie only sold to companies who make pre built pc's and not availible to buy as a seperate card.

for 1360x768 a gtx260/4870/5770 is overkill, even 4770/9800gt/8800gt is going to be able to handle that eaisly.

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Originally Posted by KalC

Would i need the 512MB or the 1GB version of the 5750?

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As Ulti says, at your current resolution 512MB should be ample, although it is to an extent game dependant as well as resolution dependant. If there's a possibility of you moving up to a 1920x1080 (or higher res) monitor in the future, or if you're a massive Crysis fan, then you might benefit from the 1GB, but I'd suggest you save money and stick with 512MB

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ulti

I'm pretty sure he meant it consumes less power.

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I did indeed. The power consumption of the 5750 is significantly lower than either the 4870 or 4890, both at idle and at full load. Here's some figures I worked out for another thread:

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Originally Posted by scaryjim

{you} will save £1 for every 160 hours the computer is running in an idle state (e.g. web browsing or word processing), and every 106 hours while gaming.

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That comparison is the 5770 to the 4890, but the figures for the 5750 - 4870 are very similar. I suspect that if you sit down and work out how much you use your computer over the course of a year you'll see a fairly significant saving over the lifespan of the graphics card.

Or go onboard graphics and save even more!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ulti

I'm pretty sure he meant it consumes less power. 512MB should be enough for all your needs due to the lower resolution. If you're planning to upgrade your monitor in the future I'd go with the 1GB though but there's not that much benefit really.

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Yeah I wont be upgrading the monitor for sometime anyway. I think the 4890 would be overkill for my needs and is a bit on the expensive side as well (for what i going to be using it for).

Do you agree that i should go for the 5750 also?

Yeah, the 5750 seems to match all your needs. I was thinking of getting a 5770 myself when I upgrade to a bigger monitor but 4770 (roughly same performance as 4850) is good enough for every game I play at 1280*1024. Even played through the whole of Crysis Warhead on Enthusiast settings. (It was a short game though)

Right so the 5750 it is :)

The cheapest i can find is at scan at £85 (thanks to scaryjim) and i doubt i'll find any cheaper tbh?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pob255

the gt240 is a lower power consumption rebranded 9600gt

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Just for clarity and to give nVidia what little props they currently deserve, this is very very wrong ;)

The GT240 is a new, DX10.1 supporting GPU, and is nothing like the 9600GT, having more in common with the 8800GS / 9600GSO. It has 96 shaders (like the 8800GS / 9600GSO) vs. the 9600GTs 64, but only a 128bit memory interface vs the 9600GTs 256bit (the 8800GS / 9600GSO had 192bit). It comes with either DDR3 or DDR5 memory: the DDR5 version, with more shaders and as much (or more) bandwidth as the 9600GT should outperform it a little: the DDR3 version has only half the bandwidth of the 9600GT and will be horribly be bottlenecked: avoid like the plague unless you are buying specifically for folding (for which it should be rather good).

:embarrassed: yes I ment the 9600gso not gt but yes it's a new chip not just a rebrand that it was originally slated to be (like the gts240 and gts 250)

It is a not very good card, the ddr5 version only beats the 9600gt in dx10 game without AA turned on, otherwise it's firmly behind it in performance.
Also it lack an sli capability, granted not a major issue, but still a gapeing feature hole.

No sli? I've gone right off it then - I was actually considering one if I couldn't get a decent 7-series on ebay, but I guess it'll be a 9600GT if I go for a new card then...