Hey guys, in the next couple of months, im getting a custom build pc done. CPU: AMD Phenom X2 550 black edition (3.1GHz) 4gd of ddr3 corsair ram Gigabyte GA-MA790xt ddr8 atx motherboard SAmsung sm943nw 19" monitor 1440x900 But i need to know which graphics card to buy, the one recommended was a ZOTAC GTC295 but it doesn't support direct X 11, so then i came to ATI's 5000 series, they look ok, but the 295 outperforms them in some games which I'd like to play. So i need to know; 295, 5870, or do i wait for Fermi, which by the sounds of things is ages away??? Also money is no object because the graphics card will be free..... I'll be looking to play, men of war, company of heroes, grid, empire total war, napoleon total war, rome total war and some other titles, possibly MW2 All help is appreciated, Thanks!
the 295 only outperforms the 5870 in games that are optimised for SLI - alot of games (most notably RTS games) tend to work better with single-gpu cards. If the absolute top performance is required id say wait for the dual gpu card ati is about to bring out. since a 5870 performs about the same as a 295 then logically it should be twice as fast (barring any driver snarl-ups). But by this stage your cpu might start to be the bottleneck, so i might think about getting a x4 as more games are being multi threaded nowadays.
well looking at the resolution you play at you won't need much more than a 250 or a 260. but i would personally wait for the fermi cards
havent you heard? they are already out. but dont expect to do much gaming on them http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2009/10/03/fermi-card-on-stage-wasn-t-real/1
dont bother with high end cause your gaming at a low resolution. get a GTX260/4850/4870 and that will handle everything just fine for some time to come since those cards can handle 1680x1050 no problems
Thanks guys, he's gonna requote with a quad core and maybe i7, ive also changed the monitor, so ill let you know what he comes up with as he recommends the 5000 series.
your kidding right? , have you seen the benchmarks, Bit tech gave it a recommended aswell, its a good chip and if you can unlock the 4th core you have a quad core for under £100 As for Graphics, why would someone recommend a GTX 295 over a 5870, the 5870 can play virtually any game, it's a single GPU, DX11 and runs cooler, if there is a game that the 5870 can't handle and you wanna play it your die hard and then you can get another one for Crossfire... the 5870 is cheaper too... Go for: X4 955 and 5870 / i5 and 5870 or X3 720 and 4890
Sorry, the parts that I posted were for a cheap option. If price is no problem go with what Moyo2k suggested, a Phenom II X4 955 and a HD 5870. And I think he is kidding or just reading how high the numbers in the names are...
With that current setup (good dual core, low res monitor) anything above a 4870 is really unnecessary (and a bad way to spend your budget imo). So a 4850/4870 512/5750 would be good optons for the setup as-is, but if you go for a quad and a higher res monitor (1920x1080 or higher), a 5850 would be very good performance for the price, or 5870 if you think the extra perf is worth the $$
Points the legendary finger of blame at MBVQ... POST WHORE!!!! Lads, I give you permission to stone him to death or until his head falls off, whichever is first.
take it easy i'm only a kid (with a very small wallet). come off it i've got a dual core e5300 @stock 2.6ghz with a radeon x600 series GPU and use the pc for homework and ocasionally go on spore, train sim or pinball. but want to move onto empire total war
yeah but i bet you have a better pc and bigger wallet see my NEW post on which GPU i should buy on a budget and for mid range
Lets stop arguing now, this is not a general thread. If you want to argue start a new thread, Ill check if you do. BTW: I have £600 in my wallet saved up for University and a 3 year old Inspiron.
