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I am trying to decide between the GTX 460 or MSI HD 5850. I have about max of 150 to spend.
People seem to prefer the 5850 but I have seen some benchmarks which prefer the 460??
Any ideas what would give the best performance for the money? Or is there something else I should look into?
460 768mb or 1gb? the 1gb versions perform better as there are most changes than just more ram
The 5850 is generally better in games, although it does depend on the game as some games perform better on nvidia cards and some perform better on ati cards.
We're also seeing some very high factory overclocks on some 460's which does push the 460 1gb very close to the 5850
£150 for a 5850 is a good deal :)
The 768mb one...
I think the 1gb is over 150?
You say the 1gb overclocked will be near the 5850, does that mean the 5850 is the better buy overall without overclocking?
Thanks :)
There are lots of 1GB 460s under £150, take this Gigabyte version for example (which is the version I'd recommend if you wanted a 460):Quote:
Originally Posted by Predator
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-g...s-dl-dvi-mhdmi
However the 5850 is still faster and they were ridiculously good value or "bang per buck" a few weeks back when they were being sold for about £125.
Yep and as Bearbear pointed out there are plenty of 460 1gb cards under £150, the one he linked to is a good example and factory overclocked to 715mhz
The EVGA SC is 763mhz and still under 150 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-e...dvi-i-minihdmi
at that speed it's very close to the 5850 (dependant on game) the 5850 will still generally be a better buy at £150 but ether will be good.
If you do folding then the 460 is much better at that, IF we start seeing games that actually really use dx11 and not just DX9 with some added DX11 slapped ontop then the 460 is going to be a better buy however that's a very big IF
That evga is the external exhaust edition from memory, it's louder and hotter as a result, but does lower temperatures in the case. I'd get the Gigabyte card that was linked to, I have one and it's pretty good.
MSI ATI Radeon HD 5850 Twin FrozR II 1024MB £141:99 and yes its overclockers.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=56&subcat=411
OcUK and Scan had the MSI for HD5850 1GB for around £125 the week before last. I know someone who has the card and I am surprised how light it was TBH.
I've been contemplating this same choice myself lately. Have been trying to decide between a 5850, 1gb 460gtx and a 6850, to go into a system with a Corsair HX520 psu and a maximum car length of 10.5inches to be able to fit into my case.
- For the 5850 i'd been looking at the recent MSI Twin Frozr II bargain at £140 or £145 if you want Assassins Creed II
- For the 6850 i'd decided on the dual fan XFX stock clock version at £144.15 Most reviews of stock 6850s manage to get them to overclock to around 940mhz fairly easily, so there is a good 15-20% more performance available from the card if wanted.
- As for the 460gtx i really wasn't sure which was the best option available for myself. I think it is genuinely harder to pick out the best card of a bunch when comparing Nvidia ranges. Be it all the different ram variations, the overclocked versions, the super overclocked versions, the SE versions, or even just the shear fact that Nvidia seem to have an endless list of board partners at times, these all just making it harder to find the best deals of the lot.
In the end i went the route of looking on scan's site and looking for any of the cards that i felt comfortable with the price and then deciding to look into any of the cards that looked to have the most efficient looking cooling for quiet operation (had kept this in mind for the ATI cards too)
I ended up settling on something like the Gigabyte 460gtx Super Overclock, as i didnt mind stretching to £158. After reading the comments about it's Temps and Noise in the Hexus review, i was happy. The other Gigabyte card mentioned above was going to be next choice to look into.
These cards may all be worth you having a look at to see if any of them suit your needs best. For myself, i decided the XFX Dual fan 6850 was my best option for a few reasons.
The main one being that i already run a dual screen setup and a nice new 1080p monitor is next on my wishlist of items, so if i can find a use for a 3 monitor system, Eyefinity is a good option to have available, and the ports on the 5850 only has 1 dvi, so a display port would have to be used and not sure i can be bothered with the hassle of going that route.
The 6850 at stock might not necessarily benchmark as high as the other cards but will easily be more than enough for playing most game for a while to come.
So there i was today, all happy thinking of ordering the XFX 6850 when i found this, A Powercolor 6870 for £167 If your budget can stretch to it, it may be a great buy. Certainly the cheapest 6870 i've seen around. I've not managed to find any reviews of this particular model yet, but it's worth noting that according to a review at ebuyer the card is actually this model
:EDIT: Just realised after posting this that obviously the prices have all gone up a few pounds due to vat increase. Also the 6870 is now saying out of stock, it was in stock yesterday.
I like the look of the 6850...I might go for this!
Thanks for the advice, it has been helpful!
You could wait for the inevitable GTX 560 that is bound to compete with the 6850 on price and performance.....
Otherwise, until recently for £150 I would have gone for the MSI GTX 460 HAWK, but right now I guess the 6850 hits the mark.
I was going to say about the 560 (rumoured around the 23rd from the sites i saw) but they also suggest it'll compete with the 6870 more and with the 6950 when overclocked, so i figured they are more likely to be around the £180-190 range. Suppose only time will tell.
i'd look at the msi 460 gtx hawk or wait for the 560 gtx and some reviews on it
I think 5850 has more grunt than 460, although no PhysX or CUDA (depends if that stuff is important to you).
The benchies in the following link seem to suggest it's application dependent...
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/313?vs=295
...but the 5850 wins out in more
Interestingly, it seems like a similar story with CF vs SLI
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/314?vs=303
A while ago everybosy was saying CF is cr@p, doesn't scale well, etc.
I guess AMD must've released some new drivers that solved those issues??