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Best £65 GFX card

stoke1863

stoke1863

stoke1863

Soldato
Joined
13 Jun 2009
Posts
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Location
Chesterfield
Im making a £400 system for someone. He is a coder so wanted more CPU power for multitasking. He isnt fused about games but he said he may play the odd old game.

i have £65 left over . I have speced an AMD 630 and a Corsair 430w PSU.

What is the best choice for £65? Second hand is not an option as he needs the computer ASAP.

I think that there is one 4850 in stock that would be good. One thing that concerns me is the length of the card. (Small case), the power draw and also the heat of it.

The other options are the 9800GT or the 5670, I know the 5670 isnt as good as the other two but its very quite and has very low power draw,
 
Hi there,

Good idea with the 4850 - however I would suggest going with the CX 400W PSU, as I believe it is more efficient and offers more current on the 12V (30A vs 28A).

If you find a 4850 for within the budget - then just ensure it is one with a full warranty, otherwise I'd say you are better off going with a slower card with a year warranty.
 
cmndr_andi said:
Hi there,

Good idea with the 4850 - however I would suggest going with the CX 400W PSU, as I believe it is more efficient and offers more current on the 12V (30A vs 28A).

If you find a 4850 for within the budget - then just ensure it is one with a full warranty, otherwise I'd say you are better off going with a slower card with a year warranty.
Click to expand...

So is the CX400 better than the CX 430?
 
It is. The CX400 has a higher efficiency (CX430 is not 80plus certified), more current available on the 12V rail and a year longer warranty. Also, this review shows that corsair could have labelled it as a 450W unit, but the efficiency drops below 80%.
 
As an alternative, this is just on budget, as fast as the gt 240, has the cool amd 5000 series features (dx11, eyefinity), is very quiet and doesn't use much power (peaks ~66w). Here is a review.
 
cmndr_andi said:
As an alternative, this is just on budget, as fast as the gt 240, has the cool amd 5000 series features (dx11, eyefinity), is very quiet and doesn't use much power (peaks ~66w). Here is a review.
Click to expand...

Both solid cards for the price IMO. Not sure what the RAM difference would be. I really don't think Eyefinity or DX11 are selling points for a 5670 mind, the card really doesn't have the oomph to do them :)
 
Any of the cards above are good enough but your friend might find the eyefinity technology on the HD5670 useful for his work and might wish to add addtional monitors to his setup latter on.
 
Just to be clear, the 9800GT is actually faster than both the GT240 and the 5670. At simliar price, I see no reason to take ther other two over the 9800GT, unless prefering 5670's lower temp over performance.
 
Hello stoke1863 :)

stoke1863 said:
Im making a £400 system for someone. He is a coder so wanted more CPU power for multitasking. He isnt fused about games but he said he may play the odd old game.

i have £65 left over . I have speced an AMD 630
Click to expand...

What motherboard are you using for the build? . . . did you pick one which features an IGP? . . . could he not use that and keep the £65 cash until the point in the future he actually wants to game?
 
Big.Wayne said:
Hello stoke1863 :)



What motherboard are you using for the build? . . . did you pick one which features an IGP? . . . could he not use that and keep the £65 cash until the point in the future he actually wants to game?
Click to expand...

That was my thinking. A 7 or 8 series chipset IGP will suffice for some extremely light gaming (used a 790GX IGP on a 20" monitor for a bit myself). Obviously its nowhere near the power of a 5670 or a 9800GT, but use the extra time to slap another £20 onto that budget and look for a second hand 5770. They pop up in the MM quite frequently around the £85-90 mark, and we should hopefully see a few more in the buildup and immediate aftermath of the 6xxx series release.
 
Hye guys thanks for reply.

I went with the 5670 for the lower power draw and the lower temps.

Maybe the 9800GT is a better card but its deffo OTT for what he is going to use it for. Same goes with getting a second hand GTX260 or 5770 its just over kill.
 
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