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Best Graphics card for £80 please

famas

famas

famas

Soldato
Joined
12 Dec 2004
Posts
3,284
Location
the south
Hello all

I'm currently specing a new system mainly for photo editing but I would also like to be able to play some new games as well.

I'll only occasionally be playing games which is why I'm not looking to spend a huge amount on a card but would like to know which card gives the best bang for bucks for £80

thank you
Dan
 
thanks for your reply :)

Can't see me wanting to add another card, like I say it would only be for occasional gaming.

Are there any others I should consider than come in on budget?

thanks again.
 
famas said:
Can't see me wanting to add another card, like I say it would only be for occasional gaming.
Click to expand...
Ah sorry it was mistake on my part. I was meant to ask you if you want to consider 2nd hand cards or not, not 2nd card :D

New card one level down would probably be HD4770 512MB at £76:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-133-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1434

But I really think you should get HD5750 512MB at £89 instead of the HD4770 because it support dx11, considerbly faster and the audio over the HDMI of the card (if you use it) supports AC-3, AAC, Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio formats, whereas HD4000 series only support AC-3, AAC, DTS5 (because it is last generation card).

However if you would consider 2nd hand cards, you would probably be able to get a HD4870 1GB at around £70. Although it is faster than HD5750 and can handle games better at high res (1920x1080 or above), it does run a lot hotter (because it is not 40nm), as well as doesn't have dx11 support.

A 2nd hand HD4890 is a very good dx10 card, but I believe the going price for 2nd hand is still around £100ish so it ain't exactly close to your budget.

What is the max resolution of your monitor by the way?
 
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sorry for confusion, to be honest It would be quicker and easier for me to get a new card, I understand that I could probably get a better card second hand but gaming isn't a major priority for me just something to do in my spare time.

I know nothing of new cards, I'm currently running a 6800gt so you can see how in the past I am :)

max res on this monitor is only 1280x768

out of curiosity whats this card like?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-225-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673

thanks for your help I really appreciate it.
Dan
 
famas said:
max res on this monitor is only 1280x768

out of curiosity whats this card like?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-225-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673
Click to expand...
HD5670 is fair bit slower than 9800GT and HD4770...roughly around the level of 9500~9600GT. With that said, it should be enough for gaming at highest quality at 1280x768 for most games in dx9/10 mode (excluding intensive games like Crysis, Dawn of War II STALKER Clear Sky etc).

HD5670 does support dx11, however if you play games in dx 11 mode, it is almost certain that the frame rate will drop to below smooth playable level. The HD5750 on the other hand should be able to run games smoothly in dx 11 mode at 1280x768.

Because the HD5670 is a 40nm GPU, it runs very cool. Its max power draw is only around 60W, and require no external power (it draws power directly from the PCI-E X16 slot, so it doesn't need to connect to a 6-pins power from the PSU). However, there are known issue of incompatability with some motherboards (probably older boards), some forum members has reported the HD5670 is not working with their PCs.

By the way, have you got dx11 (Window 7 or Vista)? Also, it might be helpful to let us know what CPU, motherboard, memory you using.
 
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cheers for explaining all that, makes things a lot clearer.

Here's the spec as it stands so far, I'll be installing windows 7.
My plan was to get the mobo, cpu and RAM first, get the system up and running using the on-board graphics then when I had some more cash add the graphics card and another 4Gb of memory after.

I'm on a budget of about £350 for CPU, mobo, RAM, PSU and windows 7, Then I'll add gfx ect as and when I get some more money.

This was what I spected up with my limited knowledge, Fell free to suggest if I could get anything better within my budget.


AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core 630 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £83.99

Patriot G Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (PGS34G1333ELK) £79.99

Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H AMD 785G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £74.99

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - Retail (Upgrade Version) £67.99

Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-400CXUK) £39.99

Sub Total : £295.26

Total : £358.09


Cheers
Dan
 
famas said:
Patriot G Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (PGS34G1333ELK) £79.99

Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H AMD 785G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £74.99
Click to expand...
Is there any particular reason why you are getting 1333MHz DDR3 instead of 1600MHz? (Besides saving about £10). The board would run memory up to 1800MHz.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
However, there are known issue of incompatability with some motherboards (probably older boards), some forum members has reported the HD5670 is not working with their PCs.
Click to expand...

Tell me about it. Was incompatible with my Asus board -Now I have a new one installed it runs sweet and does exactally what I need. Low power consumption for a 24/7 machine, decent enough FR on CSS and flawless Adobe usage.
 
Is there any particular reason why you are getting 1333MHz DDR3 instead of 1600MHz?
Click to expand...

not really :) what RAM do you recommend around the £80 mark?

I've done some reading and I think I've settled for the HD5750 512MB.

How does the system look so far? would you recommend changing anything else for similar priced parts?

cheers.
 
famas said:
not really :) what RAM do you recommend around the £80 mark?

How does the system look so far? would you recommend changing anything else for similar priced parts?
Click to expand...
For the 2x2GB 1600MHz, G.Skill Ripsaw should be pretty good:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=8&subid=1517&sortby=priceAsc

As for other components, my only concern is that I'm not sure if the Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H AMD 785G (£75) is a decent overclocker or not.

For £75, you can actually get a fast and good overclocking board such as MSI 770-C45 (£50~52) and a HD4350 256/512MB (£21~25).
 
cool, swapped the ram over to the G.skill.

I'm not that interested in overclocking, to be honest I wouldn't have a clue where to start, my computing knowledge is basic at best :)
 
ngsavfc said:
The best card for £80 by far would be someone selling a HD5970 for £80....amazed no-one thought of that.....:eek:
Click to expand...

I hear Nvidia will announce the gtx480 with a RRP of £40, the op could buy a pair :D

You can get a 5750 for that sort of money. It will spank everything right up to GTX260 performance.
 
famas said:
I'm not that interested in overclocking, to be honest I wouldn't have a clue where to start, my computing knowledge is basic at best :)
Click to expand...
It's not really that hard. It's just changing numbers and figures in the bios. I self-taught by googling around back in the days, whereas for you you can get all the advice you need right here on the forums.

Overclocking the Athlon II X4 630 from 2.8GHz to 3.5GHz would be 25% increase in speed.

Also I just remembered, you should get a 3rd party CPU cooler for your CPU, as the stock CPU cooler such and temperature could get quite high under load.
 
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