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Graphics Best Graphics Card Under £100

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Strudul, 19 Jul 2010.

  1. Strudul

    Strudul ~

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    What is currently the best graphics card under £100.

    I was thinking the radeon 4850, 4870, 5750, 5770

    What are the difference between these? Which is the best? Which model of them should you buy (512mb or 1gb)(sapphire or asus e.t.c)?

    How much of an improvement is DX11 or 10.

    BTW, I dual screen. I run a 20" monitor in 1680 x 1050 (for everything), and a 32" HD TV in 1920 x 1080 (for games).

    Thank you.
     
  2. Elton

    Elton Officially a Whisky Nerd

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    Under 100 quid?

    I'd say the HD4850, it's cheap and it's got plenty of stock, of course you coudl do the GTS250 too. The HD5770 isn't worth the extra expense.
     
  3. registeredlandmine

    registeredlandmine What's a bit-tech?

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    I think atm the 4870 performs slightly better than the 5770 in most games.
    DX11 is only for a few games and you won't be able to play them at that resolution in DX11 so i wouldn't worry about that.

    If you play games on a 1680x1050 screen i'd say the 5770 or 4870 will be fine, however if playing at 1920x1080 i would recommend the GTX 460, the 768mb version can be had for £145 (+ free p&p) if you are willing to stretch your budget.
     
  4. TheMusician

    TheMusician Audio/Tech Enthusiast/Historian

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    I'd pick the HD4850 or HD5750. I have a 4850 and it's magnificent... handles everything I throw at it perfectly.
     
  5. Elton

    Elton Officially a Whisky Nerd

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    DX10 is quite an improvement but eats your GPU, DX11, more of the same not as much improvemnent unless you like tesselation, but once again...eats your GPU.

    Oh you can also try to find a GTX260 for 100 quid, I'm pretty sure you can manage that if you're lucky.

    Worst comes to worst a used HD4890 might set you back that much, and that's quite a bit of GPU for not too much.
     
  6. Strudul

    Strudul ~

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    Is it not worth getting at least the 4870 or 5770 because they are GDDR5, whereas the 4850 is only GDDR3?
     
  7. Elton

    Elton Officially a Whisky Nerd

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    Well GDDR5 isn't necessarily an indication of speed.

    Look up some benchmarks, the HD4870 was an old GDDR5 card that outperforms the newer HD5770. And the HD4850 while slower than both, is still cheaper than both.

    Still try ebay and look for a used HD4870 or a GTX260 or even a HD4890.
     
  8. adamg64

    adamg64 What's a Dremel?

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    This is good reading, im currently in the market for a card under 100 quid how do you think a GTX260 Compares to a 9800 GX2?
     
  9. adam_bagpuss

    adam_bagpuss Have you tried turning it off/on ?

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    for 1680x1050 id opt for 1GB 4870 if you can find one 2nd hand (not ebay though)

    5770 is nice but for 1920x1080 it cant cut it neither can a 260 or 5750.

    for 1920x1080 you need to look at a 4890 (which is getting on now abit) or better grab a 1GB 460
     
  10. Fingers66

    Fingers66 Kiwi in London

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  11. Jipa

    Jipa Avoiding the "I guess.." since 2004

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    HD4890/4870. They use disgusting amounts of power even at idle, but they are also the fastest for that price. Not sure how Nvidias compare, I've mainly been running benches on Ati lately.
     
  12. roosauce

    roosauce Looking for xmas projects??

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    Here is a card comparison chart so that you can loosely judge the performance of each card. At this price point, I wouldn't be fussy about DX11 - it does take resources so you'll probably be better in DX10 territory.

    I would be hunting on ebay for anything 4850 and up, GTX 260 and up, ATI 5750 and up. There's a lot of people upgrading, so you'll probably find some good deals in the auctions ...

    You're not going to manage any current-gen nvidia cards unfortunately.

    I would try hard to avoid 512MB cards as games have really moved on.
     
    Last edited: 19 Jul 2010
  13. Parge

    Parge the worst Super Moderator

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    If I had a budget of £100 I would definitely be going for a 4870 or a GTX 260 (216)

    I’ve been looking around for a second hand card for a mate recently, and you should be able to pick up either of those cards for that price. If you want to buy new Overclockers have brand new XFX 4850’s in stock for just £70 here!
     
  14. roosauce

    roosauce Looking for xmas projects??

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    Out of interest - where haveyou been having luck finding these cards?
     
  15. Parge

    Parge the worst Super Moderator

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    Hi mate,

    I actually picked up a Leadtek 280GTX in almost new condition from Gumtree for just £125!

    The same guy sold me a Internal LG Blu Ray drive for £25.

    They have dedicated Video cards section - you just have to check back once a day or so for new listings - lots and lots of bargains. Check out the page here

    The other place is obviously Ebay.
     
    Last edited: 19 Jul 2010
  16. roosauce

    roosauce Looking for xmas projects??

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    Nice - good deal! I used ebay to sell my GTX295 and buy two 5870s ... a decent experience and definitely some money saved.
     
  17. roosauce

    roosauce Looking for xmas projects??

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    LOL - those videocardshop.co.uk folks are having some trouble either with their knowledge or with their content management system. Pick the errors LOL:

    # Chipset HD 4870 Memory Clock
    # 3.6 GHz Clock rate
    # 750 MHz Memory
    # 512 MB Bus Type
    # PCI-E Memory Type
    # DDR5 Memory Bus
    # 256-bit Highlighted Features
     
    Last edited: 19 Jul 2010
  18. adam_bagpuss

    adam_bagpuss Have you tried turning it off/on ?

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    for the love of god dont buy off gum tree it has a lot of scammers and isnt very well regulated.
     
  19. Parge

    Parge the worst Super Moderator

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    Yeah, for new stuff I only buy from

    Overclockers
    Ebuyer
    Scan

    (though Aria seems popular as well)
     
  20. Fingers66

    Fingers66 Kiwi in London

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    Out of those four, only one is listing a 1GB 4870 at the moment and it is £117.49 excl p&p: http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...R5+PCI-Express+Graphics+Card+?productId=38747

    There are some people on this forum who have bought stuff from videocardshop.co.uk (I haven't) and from what I have read on their posts, they haven't had a problem.

    Dabs are showing one @ £116.98 with free delivery available but none in stock.

    Getting one at £100 looks tricky. You could get a second hand 4890 for that though.
     
    Last edited: 19 Jul 2010

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