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ATI upgrade now? or wait?

Michael_10

Michael_10

Michael_10

Associate
Joined
15 Jan 2010
Posts
978
Location
Scotland
Hi everyone,
so it's coming up to my birthday and I'll be getting some money and I'd really like to get a graphics card upgrade. My question is, what should I do? Should I wait for the Southern Island refresh later this year or buy something from this generation (like an HD 5770?) I'd like to play crysis 2 as high as I can when it comes out, and my monitor supports 1280x1024 and currently I have an OC 6800LE.

Thanks!
 
I would suggest getting something now. The southern islands chips will be nice, but they are won't be a quantum leap ahead of current 5000 series cards and are months away.

Instead of waiting that time and making do with your 6800, i'm sure you would much prefer playing modern games at high settings ASAP.

What is your budget? If it is around £130 then I normally say "go for the 5770!" however, as you are running a reasonably old GPU, I probably should ask - what are the specs of the rest of your system?
 
I've got a Phenom X4 B50 @ 3.4ghz, 4 gb DDR3 ram, and a 500gb WD caviar Blue, the pc has been getting upgraded in stages because I didnt have the money all at once, so it's now the graphics card's turn!

I could probably afford something higher than the HD 5770, but I don't know if I would want to as the cards will be replaced soon. I was thinking about getting the 5770 now, and not spending hugh amounts on a GPU, and then in half and year or so, when good drivers are out for southern island or even when northern island comes out in 2011, to upgrade then with the money saved in buying the cheaper card now. Sound good?
 
Yeah your right, thats the next thing on the list! Suppose the only advantage of the old monitor would be higher FPS! What make of 5770 should I be looking to get? Is it worth paying an extra £10/£15 for a ASUS CuCore?

Thanks for you're help btw, much appreciated! :D
 
Happy to help :D

Yes, I would certainly suggest going with the ASUS CuCore one over the others. It has a better cooler than the stock one, comes with a longer warranty than the others (3 years) and has an overclocker friendly BIOS. All-in-all a great card.
 
Cool, time for a bit of shopping and looking about then! Thanks again for the advice, I was orginally gonig to wait until southern islands, but i think buying a cheaper card now and upgrading after the new gpu's have been released for a bit and the bugs have been fixed is a much better idea! :D:D
 
I would get a 5770 for your 1280x1024 monitor as it will be a lot faster than a 6800LE and anything faster will be a waste.
Maybe when ati's and nvidia's next gen are out and have good drivers get one with a new monitor aswell.
 
Thanks for all the advice, I've bought an HD 5770. Hopefully will arrive sometime this week, it'll be great to play Crysis and Crysis Warhead on settings other than low!!!! and hopefully it'll have a good stab at Crysis 2 before I need to think about upgrading again :D
 
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Found this extract on Wikipedia, when was this announced?

"The Southern Islands series is a family of GPUs developed by AMD graphics products division. AMD has stated in a report that it plans to release the cards later than expected, in 2011."
 
Big.Wayne said:
Hi Michael, I think that GPU was released summer of 2004? :eek:

A used nVidia 8800GT (£35) or Radeon HD 4850 (£50) would be a rather large upgrade for you! :)
Click to expand...


haha yeah, the pc has been about for ages, and for a while I was a PS3 person, but I have moved over to the pc in the last half year so I've been doing loads of research and upgrading the pc. I think the jump I'll get by upgrading the graphics when the 5770 arrives will be the largest one compared to any other gpu upgrade in the future!!
 
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