Graphics ATI HD5770 or Nvidia GTS250 or Nvidia GTX260

ok price wise, its like this GTS250<HD5770<GTX260 , i.e.

>1GB XFX GTS 250 From Scan- £105

>1GB Powercolor HD5770 From Scan- £116

>896mb Palit GTX 260 Sonic From Scan- £138

I will be gaming at maximum resolution of 1440x900, I'll play games like these:

>COD4MW2
>Race Driver: Grid
>Battlefield 2
>Battle for middle earth
>Maybe Bad Company 2
>Assassin's creed 1+2

etc etc...

So few questions:

>Is DX11 worth it?
>Are these cards overkills for 1440x900 resolution?
>And finally, which card to get

 

At that res, a 250 would be ok, and price wise, OCUK do the Green 250 for 86 and the normal one for 95. Both by Gainward, so good cards.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/search_results.php?sortby=&groupid=&search=gts+250

The 5770 is better, but based on those prices, costs loads more.

 

is the HD5770 better than both of those cards?

 

It is better than the 250 for sure. As for the 260, its better from a low power / DX11 compatability stance, I wouldn't say they were any more powerful. In fact some 260's are noticeably quicker, even vs an OC'd 5770. I bought an Asus 5770 to replace an Asus TOP GTX260 in my son's PC and it was noticeably slower by 3-5 fps.

 

The 5770 is considered the best card of the three, yes. The 5770 is as powerful as the 260 GTX, but is cooler, quieter, requires less power (just one PCI-E cable) and is cheaper too. It also offers superior connectivity with dual DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort on one card. You can pick it up for around £120 - that 250 GTS you linked is really poor value as it's just a glorified 8800 GTX.

 

5770 also gets my vote. what Ph4zed said.

 

Whoa, hold on my friend! I agree with you 100% about the 250 but...

The 260 the OP is looking at is the Palit Sonic edition. Normally I'd agree with you about the 5770 being pretty much the 260's equal but this Palit version (of which I have two, natch) is actually the equivalent of a 275. So don't throw that option away so casually.

As for DirectX11 being worth it? Well, let's face facts. DirectX11 is a cutting edge feature that is typically very demanding. In that respect, you can only ideally run it with the more powerful cards e.g. 5850+. Even though you could buy the 5770 for it's DirectX11 features, you may find that you have to revert to DirectX9/10 just because the card can't handle it.

So, IMHO, the OP has to decide whether he wants to pay £22 for a little more performance.

 

I agree with PeteJ and AnandTech:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2856/14

I've never liked the 5770 due to the low memory bandwidth. (and DX11 is irrelevant in a card this weak) I'd get a 4870 or GTX60 if I was the OP.

 

The 5770 usually scores lower than the 260 in benchmarks, including the ones on this site. Once you overclock both cards, or compare the boy racer editions like the Asus TOP 260, the 5770 gets off the pace. My personal experience supports this. But there isn't that much in it.

 

so the Palit gtx 260 you have is the best of the three?, see its like this, I initially started off with a strict budget of £90 of which I saw a nice gts 250 but then I saw the new flashy HD5770 which in itself is more than my budget and then I saw the palit one which is like £50 from my budget and my budget is very tight , so I'm prepared to spend 50 more if its worth it, whats your opinion?

 

This may be all academic actually as the 260 you linked will probably never come back in stock. I'd recommend the 5770 in this case.

How long can you wait to buy this card? I'm hopefully going to have some new cards in the next fortnight and so will be looking to sell my 260s for ~£100 each. Let me know if you're interested.

 

at 1440x900 res.. the 5770 for sure- this talk about it not handling dx11 at that res XD yeah right

you'll be future proofed for quite some time.. buying the older 200 series is going backwards if buying new- there's no point unless you get a great deal or buying used

 

I would vote for the 260 as the most powerful card of the three. Its more powerful than the 5770 and OCs better. If you can find at the same price as the 5770 I would get that. DX11 and lower power are the only advantages the 5770 holds. The power is your choice but I wouldn't fret over DX11 being a deal clincher.

Skip the 250 unless you are power supply limited; its gone through so many rebrands. It is easily definately the weaker of the three.

 

Not really, ATi cards are weak at DX11 in general, but this one in particular has real problems.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2977/...x-470-6-months-late-was-it-worth-the-wait-/11

Note the 28fps average at Battleforge at 16X10, not that much different of a res than the OPs 14X9. Getting around 30fps at a current DX11 game doesn't bode well for the future.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2977/...x-470-6-months-late-was-it-worth-the-wait-/15
Stalker is going to be around 30fps again- you wouldn't choose to play these games in DX11 with a 5770.

I'd buy a 4870 with some memory bandwidth before I'd buy a 5770. Or I'd stretch the budget to a 5830.

 

if you can find a 4890 vapor x edition or a 260 palit instock buy either

both destroy the 5770 in terms of fps and both are as quiet. the 4890 is still a very highly powered card. And until you hit 1900 rez your still looking at max settings in most games on it today. Only reason i upgraded to 5850 was because i went to 1920 x 1080.

250 is a waste of money period .

5770 260 or 4890 are still the cream of the crop in the £130 price bracket. If you can get a vapor x 4890 it will blow the other 2 away.

if a big electric bill is your worry dont buy any. power saving between the cards are quiet small. A more effient psu in the first place saves more money.

5770 is a decent card unless you push it. And its not really dx 11 worthwhile. You lose around 30fps on most direct x 11 games.

main issue with 2 of the cards is availability.

260 + 4890 are rare. Really really rare. of all 3 main uk retailers ( ccl scan and overclockers ) 0 had stock of either cards.

5770 you will pick up at any retailer.

sad thing is theres no real better option than 5770 which for most people is so under powered.

 

********. They do not "destroy" the 5770 at all.

 

everyone is saying completely contrasting opinions.... this is where I got stuck , especially cause its my first build and I haven't used any graphics card bigger than a meagre 256mb 8400gs

 

Well Joseph i should get my Asus 5770 Cucore tomorrow. Before this i had a 4870 512mb that died. I almost spent 2.5x as much on a 5870 vapor-x but decided looking at benchmarks that id rather use this card for 6-12 months and then sell it on later. Reason being that many games can be played on max or high with this card. Others such as Stalker and crysis will struggle but by the time i get round to playing them im betting on the next gen cards being more competitive and being produced in higher quantities bring pices down to a more reasonable level.
This generation of card ati and nvidia alike have not been very friendly on the wallet. Not like the Gt200 and ati 4000 series were. Im sure all fanbois of either company can agree on that.
I mean anyone who snapped up the gtx260 when they dropped nearer the £110 mark will be very happy as with those who purchased the 4870 1GB cards for the same money.
Need a brew now. That must have been the longest rant ive ever done

 

Oh and btw i will let you know how i get on with my new card.

 

Thanks mate