Solved Deciding on a GPU

[ICIT2LOL]

I have a Radeon HD 5450 "silent" card in my build at the moment and my WEI is pathetic an d looks to be a graphics hold up.

Now I am not graphic savvy and have an idea that Radeon is better than NVidia or so my son tells me they are but am not planning on a lot of gaming just the usual flight / submarine sims and don't want to go spending squillions on a card that I would not be getting the use out of except for what I said and perhaps enhancing the screen.

Perhaps if I had a reasonable one I could be tempted into some of that fancy graphic stuff for sigs etc

So what brand and what sort of specs would I be looking for please?

 

[profdlp]

What's your budget? Maybe list a high and low dollar amount so we have a range.

Ati is rolling out their 7xxx series and there are already some good deals available for the 6xxx series cards. Maximum PC lists my card (the 6870) as the best budget card on their list.

Maximum PC | XFX Radeon HD 6870 Review

(Ignore the price they have listed. I paid about $220 a year ago and with rebate they are now in the $170 range and still falling.)

Newegg.com - XFX Double D HD-687A-ZDFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

If you want to compare it to pricier stuff, here is the whole works:

Best of the Best - Maximum PC-approved hardware and components for your rig building needs | Maximum PC

A list of of the exact games you'll be playing could help further fine-tune recommendations.

I should also mention that with the ongoing video card war still hot, Nvidia has some good deals, too.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Thanks Prof looking at around AUD$200 max nothing extreme - there are plenty within my budget for the 6000 and 7000 range but am completely ignorant of specs etc.

 

[profdlp]

I have no idea about this company's reputation (and amazingly enough, everything I saw was on "Special"! ), but here is the Saphire version of the card I listed above:

Buy Cheap Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 Video Card - GDDR5 1024MB 256Bit VRA

Same specs, does DX11, and will handle up to three monitors as long as one of them uses a Display Port monitor or adapter.

The 6850 cards they list go as low as AUD$120 and might do if you're willing to drop a good-sized notch.

AMD / ATI Video Cards

Judging by the prices, they seem to offer deals comparable to what I'm familiar with over here in the US throughout the full range from cheap-as-dirt to you've-got-to-be-kidding-me.

...there are plenty within my budget for the 6000 and 7000 range...

One thing I learned when I upgraded from my old 4870 was that a lower number in the second and third digit for a higher-rated series is often not any real improvement. For example, a 5870 and 6850 are virtually tied performance-wise.

This might come in handy: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

 

[profdlp]

I should add that here is my WEI (gee, I've never said that to a guy before... ) which shows what Win7 thinks of the graphics performance:

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hey thanks Prof that 6870 comes in at just $205 and the 50 at $169 from my usual supplier and I reckon I could do a bit of shopping around for any better deasl although they are usually near the mark.

Oh and thanks for that article too

And I won't tell anyone about your WEI cos mimes only 5.9

PS Prof I noticed this on just below in my supplies listing and apart form that one small difference in the core clock speed seems to be the same http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_877&products_id=19676 and it is quite affordable for me at that price.

 

[vaidas3]

Hey thanks Prof that 6870 comes in at just $205 and the 50 at $169 from my usual supplier and I reckon I could do a bit of shopping around for any better deasl although they are usually near the mark.

Oh and thanks for that article too

And I won't tell anyone about your WEI cos mimes only 5.9

PS Prof I noticed this on just below in my supplies listing and apart form that one small difference in the core clock speed seems to be the same Gigabyte Radeon HD7750 Overclock 1GB [GV-R775OC-1GI] - $159.00 : PC Case Gear and it is quite affordable for me at that price.

WEI is not sure way to mesure your pc performance.. you can only get the idea but its not accurate and you should not mind it too much.
if you have HDD (not SSD) i think your WEI will be limited to 5.9 (HDD can not get better at least as far as i know).
let me ask You, why do you want to change a VGA is it because WEI or you need more power because your games/software(that intensely uses GPU) is laging, not running well enough.
if it is just for WEI there is no point to spend money on new VGA especially if youre not gamer.

And if you decide to buy new powerful VGA you may need to change your psu too because VGA is one of the most power hungry component of pc. what kind of PSU is instaled now on that pc?

 

[bobkn]

Hey thanks Prof that 6870 comes in at just $205 and the 50 at $169 from my usual supplier and I reckon I could do a bit of shopping around for any better deasl although they are usually near the mark.

If I understand your specs correctly, the system you wish to upgrade has a Corsair HX650 PSU. That ought to be adquate for any single card.

I think that a 6870 is typically 11" (280 mm) long. Will that fit in your case? (I expect that it will.)

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hum vaidas when I built this machine I very stupidly decided on an H67 and an
i5 2500 as it was cheaper and I was nt at the time interseted in gaming or graphics.

Turns out that it is becoming increasingly more interesting if only to play my simple stuff and do some graphical apps - like those folks do with the sigs etc I am running an SSD a Crucial M4 128GB and a 1TB Seagate up behind it to dump stuff into and when I compared the WEI to what those other folks were getting I reckoned somethings wrong in old Chinatown so to speak.

Oh and bob I have a HX 650 Corsair and a Coolermaster Centurion II case which will take cards up to 270mm so there is no problems there.

I suppose I am doing this more for WEI and curiosity than anything else so might just leave as is for the time being.

 

[Britton30]

John the Gigabyte card you linked to would be a decent one for what you do/want. As a ball-park I would get one that has GDDR5 VRAM and at least a 128 bit interface. That all means you'll have a nice picture in games and any photo shopping you want to do.
Cheerio mate.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

John the Gigabyte card you linked to would be a decent one for what you do/want. As a ball-park I would get one that has GDDR5 VRAM and at least a 128 bit interface. That all means you'll have a nice picture in games and any photo shopping you want to do.
Cheerio mate.

Thanks Gary

 

[profdlp]

John the Gigabyte card you linked to would be a decent one for what you do/want...

Good advice.

One thing I hadn't considered until reading that was that a 7xxx series card will almost certainly hold more resale value down the road if you run into some games you want to play which would benefit from a better card. I agree with Britton that that looks like a good fit for your current needs.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

John the Gigabyte card you linked to would be a decent one for what you do/want. As a ball-park I would get one that has GDDR5 VRAM and at least a 128 bit interface. That all means you'll have a nice picture in games and any photo shopping you want to do.
Cheerio mate.

Thanks Gary & cheerio
John

 

[vaidas3]

Hum vaidas when I built this machine I very stupidly decided on an H67 and an
i5 2500 as it was cheaper and I was nt at the time interseted in gaming or graphics.

Turns out that it is becoming increasingly more interesting if only to play my simple stuff and do some graphical apps - like those folks do with the sigs etc I am running an SSD a Crucial M4 128GB and a 1TB Seagate up behind it to dump stuff into and when I compared the WEI to what those other folks were getting I reckoned somethings wrong in old Chinatown so to speak.

Oh and bob I have a HX 650 Corsair and a Coolermaster Centurion II case which will take cards up to 270mm so there is no problems there.

I suppose I am doing this more for WEI and curiosity than anything else so might just leave as is for the time being.

H67 and I5 2500 IMHO is not stupid decision well in place of i5 2500 i would recommend i5 2400.. why? because its almost same exept a bit increased clock.

if you have money and dont have better way to use it then.. well its okay to buy a new card even if its just to have good WEI (that has no other meaning just a number to boast about in forums)
for your needs mid range card i think should do more than you need.
for example nvidia geforce GTX 550ti or radeon HD 6770
even intel HD 2000 (integrated in to i5 2500) is good enough for most things.
well it would not work if you want to play new graphic demanding games on high resolutions..
i have pc with old nvidia geforce 8800GS 384MB and it can still play such games as skyrim on medium graphics on 1440x900 resolution with no problems