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What's the best sub £150 graphics card on the Market?

mogbat

mogbat

mogbat

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10 May 2007
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96
Hi folks I'm looking for a sub £150 graphics card that will best suit my system to play games I.e cod black ops etc.

I've been looking at the gtx 460 but some of the ati ones seem interesting, I currently have a hd5770 in my dell xps 8100 i7 6gb Pc

Mick
 
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The 460 will be ~70% faster than a 5770 and you will notice a difference, particularly at 1920x1080 or higher. You should also consider the 6850, as this offers slightly better than 460 perfomance at a similar price point. Overclocked, both 460 and 6850 perform very similar.

For a few quid more than £150 you can find a Gigabyte GTX 460 SOC. This runs at 815MHz core (up from 675) and has the best cooler currently available. It is 20% faster than a stock 460, but runs cooler and quieter. It's performance is pretty much equal to that of a GTX 470, but the 460 requires MUCH less power to operate.
 
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I've got a 1Gb 460'and gaming at 1080 is no problem for any game except Crysis.

ETA: on something like Metro 2033, or Just Cause 2 you will have to turn things down a touch. Everything else works on full.
 
Blue160 said:
I've got a 1Gb 460'and gaming at 1080 is no problem for any game except Crysis.

ETA: on something like Metro 2033, or Just Cause 2 you will have to turn things down a touch. Everything else works on full.
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So if I could get a decent priced 470 that would be relatively future proof
 
Locky said:
I would go with a 460, but if you can stretch a little get a 470.
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Or somewhere in the middle, as it should be, a 5850 is finally at an appropriate price. As cool and quiet as a 460, better performance and also overclocks like a beast. At £170 very much worth considering, especially for this MSI model with a fantastic cooler and volt adjustment for overclocking...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-103-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411

Coulda got it for £150 yesterday :eek:
 
555BUK said:
The 460 will be ~70% faster than a 5770 and you will notice a difference, particularly at 1920x1080 or higher. You should also consider the 6850, as this offers slightly better than 460 perfomance at a similar price point. Overclocked, both 460 and 6850 perform very similar.

For a few quid more than £150 you can find a Gigabyte GTX 460 SOC. This runs at 815MHz core (up from 675) and has the best cooler currently available. It is 20% faster than a stock 460, but runs cooler and quieter. It's performance is pretty much equal to that of a GTX 470, but the 460 requires MUCH less power to operate.
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the 460 is faster in games than 6850 most of the time.
 
I went from a highly overclocked 460 to a 480 and to be completely honnest, the difference is not massive. Saying that, my 460 reached 950core versus just 750 for the 480. 480 temps go to high above 750, but the 460 stayed nice and cool.

When both are overclocked, there is not a massive difference between the 460 and 470. If you have good case cooling and a decent power supply the 470 is a good option, but the 460 is great card.

I personally would go for the Gigabyte 460 1GB SOC for under £160 because it offers 470 like performance with less noise and lower power/cooling requirements. My 460 was fine at 1920x1200 and I kind of wish I kept it and didn't bother with the 480.

edit: Your XPS 8100 case does not provide great cooling so I would definately avoid the 470. The PSU may also be a limitation for high end graphics cards. I hope you do not have the stock Dell 350W version because even a 460 may not run on this. You probably need a 500W PSU for the 460 and 600W+ for a 470.
 
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555BUK said:
I went from a highly overclocked 460 to a 480 and to be completely honnest, the difference is not massive. Saying that, my 460 reached 950core versus just 750 for the 480. 480 temps go to high above 750, but the 460 stayed nice and cool.

When both are overclocked, there is not a massive difference between the 460 and 470. If you have good case cooling and a decent power supply the 470 is a good option, but the 460 is great card.

I personally would go for the Gigabyte 460 1GB SOC for under £160 because it offers 470 like performance with less noise and lower power/cooling requirements. My 460 was fine at 1920x1200 and I kind of wish I kept it and didn't bother with the 480.

edit: Your XPS 8100 case does not provide great cooling so I would definately avoid the 470. The PSU may also be a limitation for high end graphics cards. I hope you do not have the stock Dell 350W version because even a 460 may not run on this. You probably need a 500W PSU for the 460 and 600W+ for a 470.
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I'm worried about my psu now, how do i find out what ive got
 
mogbat said:
Just got off the phone from dell my psu is 350... Gutted what are my options now?
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It seems that the Dell 8100 series may only support Dell replacement PSU's due to non standard ATX cable from PSU to motherboard. I suggest checking with dell whether you can use a standard PSU, or if they can supply an upgrade. 450W will be minimun requirement, but I would go for atleast 500W.

Tip for the future. Avoid Dell.

edit: An alternative option may be an ATI 6850. These only use a little more power than the 5770 you currently have and you may be ok. If the PSU issue becomes problematic you can try one of these.

edit2: On the Dell website they do offer the XPS 8100 with a GTX 460 option. This suggests that the PSU can handle it, although Dell do not specify whether the 460 is the 1GB or 768MB (lower power) version. I say the 6850 will be the safest option for your exiating PSU. It provides very similar performance to the 460, but requires less power to feed it.
 
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rolypolyman said:
Should read this review.:)
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Seems to me that 6870 is on average ~10% faster than 460 and that 460 is a smidge faster than 6850 once all are overclocked. I guess that makes pricing and positioning about right (GTX 460 & 6850 @ ~£150 and 6870 @ ~£190). All 3 are great cards, but in the real world it would be hard to notice any difference between them.
 
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