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Current "best bang for the buck" card?

Roll

Roll

Roll

Soldato
Joined
20 Apr 2004
Posts
2,743
I've been out of the loop on graphics cards for a while and reckon it's time soon to update my two year old HD3650.

Could anyone tell me which card at present gives the "best bang for the buck"?

Would prefer to stay with ATI as thats what I've always had, but am open to suggestions.

Thanks for advice ;)
 
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It depends on you requirement and budget.

If it's along the £120ish, then grab a HD5770 1GB, £220ish grab a HD5850. HD5870 is about 10-20% faster (stock vs stock speed) than 5850, but price is around £320 (cost around 50% more than 5850), so it is not as bang for buck as 5850.

What res do you game at?
 
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Thanks for that.

The native resolution of the monitor I'm using is 1680 x 1050 (22").

I was also thinking about two lower spec cards running in crossfire?
 
It is the 5850. It is best to get one now. I think once people realize that an overclocked 5850 is faster than Fermi the price will shoot up.
 
forest4 said:
It is the 5850. It is best to get one now.
Click to expand...
Well, one thing need to be taken into consideration is that 5850's price has rised from the average £200 in the past to current £230-£250, so it's not exactly as bang for buck as it used to...

A pair of 5770 in xfire would be faster than a single 5850 and that's already been proven. But getting a 5850 would keep one PCI-E slot free, so it is possible to grab another 5850 for xfire in the future. So if not taking future upgrade in to consideration, pair of 5770 would be more bang for buck than 5850. But I guess it would depend on which option would suit Roll the most.

The chances are when selling the cards in the future, he would probably get more money back for selling a pair of 5770 than a single 5850, as their price/value would not drop as sharp.

Just checked the prices again, and apparently 5870's price has rised to average £330-350 as well.
 
If you have the cash, the 5850 is the best card to get, but...If you're not looking to spend £230-£250, the 5770 is the best card to get.
 
Cheers.

5770 (£120) is a lot closer to my budget than a 5850 (£240).

Interesting that 2 x 5770 in crossfire will be faster than a single 5850.
 
Updated to 10.2, Hasnt sorted mine atal. randomly crashing then comes back after a few seconds with a "driver stopped responding"

I would say its a major issue if you are in that 0.05%...
 
Yea. 5770 is a very good card for the price they are at (unlike its overpriced big brothers). I am very interested in the 5770 myself...but the performance would not be huge improve over my current card (it would be like upgrading from a 4850 to a 4870). Even if it does give dx 11 support and lower power consumption as bonus, it doesn't really justify enough for me to blow another £120 on it. However for buying from scratch, 5770 would be the definitely be the card of choice, and have enough juice to run most games in dx 11 with 4xAA in 1680x1050.

If you are buying from OCUK, you better act quick as the following Sapphire 5770 is on £5 off discount at £120:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-216-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1515

Asus's 5850 got unlocked voltage thingy for their bios, not sure if it's the same for their 5770. But if you don't overclock graphic card then that means nothing to you, and you can just grab the Sapphire 5770 above.

Or if you want the AVP game bundle, go for the XFX one:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-165-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1515
The game worth £24.99, so the card itself would be £114
 
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Brand new 5770. 2nd Hand 4870/4890. Overall can't really beat £65 that the 4870's are going for in the MM. (Sold one myself a few weeks ago for that much)
 
I think you need to think about what games you're likely to use it on and what CPU you are currently using. If you want to future-proof (as much as is possible), then 5850 is a clear winner, but if you have a slow CPU then there's little point as you will get a bottleneck and your "excess" GPU processing power in the 5850 will be in effect, wasted - in that case go for the 5770.

Other arguments for the 5850 include: uses less power (than Xfire 5770), will have less compatibility problems than CF 5770, uses one PCI slot which means when the 5850s drop in price you'll be able to pick one up for Xfire at a later stage and extend the life of your graphics solution.

If you are that bothered about DX11, the 57** and 58** are the obvious choice. Yet consider that its likely that a single 5770 will lack the punch to run a next gen DX11 game at high resolutions with high frame rate, where a 5850 will likely be fine.

For info, I just upgraded from 8800GTS 640mb to XFX 5850 XXX inc Dirt2 from an OcUK competitor (sorry OCUK you had no stock and bit pricey on this one!!) for £230inc vat.

EDIT: I can't deny that a secondhand 4890 for under or as close to £100 is probably your best solution though! 5850>4890>5770
 
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