I am sure most people are fed up with answering questions about graphics cards atm with the release of the new ati range and all the confusion with nvidia's however i have to ask one more. so apologies to those already at breaking point. My current spec is as follows; CPU: Intel Q6700 @ 3.6Ghz Motherboard: DFI LP LT-X48-T2R iX48 S775 GPU: 512M GIGABYTE ATI HD3870 GDDR4 @ 825Mhz/1150Mhz RAM: 2 X 2G OCZ Reaper-X pc2-8000 @ 1066Mhz HDD: 500G SAMSUNG SATA2 HD501LJ PSU:CORSAIR HX 520W MODULAR PSU. Now with that cleared up. I am looking to udrage my GPU as my trusty 3870 is now a little long in the tooth. I currently play my games at 1680x1050 on my 22" monitor. At this resolution there is little point in me buying a 5850 or higher as it would most likely be wasted and i very rarely game on my 52" tv. The titles that i currently enjoy playing are pretty much the usual jumble. COD4, Grid, Empire TW, oh and not forgetting X3. So i will want something i can plug in and run everything at my required rating at max (although this may be hard on the empire front). I have no real affinity for either camp although i would lean more to ati due to having a bad experience with Nvidia back in the FX days. Despite having a crossfire capable board i have never been enamoured by the idea however should a bargain arise i could be swayed assuming my psu could take it. So now the crux of the matter please could i have your 2 pence worth to help me decide. Stank you for your patience. And thank your for any advice you may have.
i would think a 5850 would be perfect for the games you play and the resolution...if it fits your budget
Nvidia of today and nvidia of the FX generation are totally different, I wouldn't rule them out just for that For that res, something 5850/GTX285 ish is already starting to get close to overkill, so something higher doesn't really need to be considered unless you want to upgrade your monitor soon. Even a 4850/GTS250 can pretty well max out most games at 1680x1050. A 5770 I think would be a good match of features/performace/price for you
Following on with trig you could get a 4870 if the HD 5850 seems a little pricey. And if you want more power than than HD 4870 get a HD 4890.
Well atm i was looking round the £150 mark guessing it would be between 265-275 and 4850-4870. However if the difference in price were to be matched by a suitable increase in real world gaming performance i could be swayed
For about that price you could get a *refers to magazine* 1GB Sapphire HD 4890 Vapor-X at £161.22. If you are willing to push the price up a bit you could get the Sapphire Atomic HD 4890 which is essentially the same except it has been factory overclocked.
you could get a good hd4890 for less than 150 quid. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/175747 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167324 http://www.dabs.com/products/gigabyte-radeon-4890-hd-900mhz-1gb-pci-express-dvi-oc-6457.html?q=4890
I've got the same PSU as you with a similar spec rig (E6850 dual3ghz, Asus P5KC, 4x1gb 4-4-4-12-1t RAM, WD Cav Black 640gb, Dell 2007WFP 1680x1050 20"). Very happily running a HD4870 1GB I got 2 months ago for £114, having upgraded from a HD3870. My frame rates in World of Warcraft, got a roughly 30 fps global boost (although I vsync to cap at 60 so its not always visible) on full sliders to the maxxxxxx!
