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Midrange graphics card for occassional 1920x1200 gaming

mrochester

mrochester

mrochester

Soldato
Joined
29 Sep 2003
Posts
5,834
Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
Hi all

I'm looking for a new graphics card to replace my aging GeForce 8800GT 512mb. I've recently purchased Civ 5 which is taxing my system somewhat and requires me to turn down a number of the graphical goodies. I have a 24" monitor with 1920x1200 resolution and would like to game at this resolution.

I currently have a Core 2 Duo E8200. Do you think I'd get by with just a grapics card upgrade? My system otherwise performs admirably. I was looking at something like the Radeon 6850 as a balance between power, price and how much power it sucks and heat it'll chuck out (I have a carefully balanced airflow setup so that I only need a single 120mm fan!).

Any thoughts on the matter greatly appreciated.

Michael.
 
Sounds like one of those cheap 5850's would be ideal for you. Would be a massive improvement and only just over £100!
 
Hey Michael, that CPU will clock well, CIV 5 would appreciate it :)

Personally, I'd go for a 5850 or a 460 before the 6850 tbh m8. 5850 for just ower a ton, 460 for a ton twenty.
 
Well I've found the 6850 for about £125, but there's a specific 5850 or 6850 I'd want (the MSI Cyclone series) because it looks to be easy to disconnect the stock fan so that I can add my own. I've found one for £144 and it might be worth me paying the extra to get the type of heatsink I'm after.
 
As already mentined you can get 5850's for ~£100 - example.

It may pay you to google these cheaper options cross referenced with modded heatsinks - you may find that one of the cheaper alternatives will fit your desired heatsink just as easily (if you haven't done so already of course.).

Good luck.
 
it might be worth me paying the extra to get the type of heatsink I'm after
Click to expand...

Share this then you won't get lots of recommendations with you saying no becuase it's not what you have in mind ;)

If you're talking 150 quid, found this.
 
It would have been more important to find out the wattage of his PSU before giving so many options, especially if your recommending 470's.
 
Wouldn't the Nvidia cards be the better choice for Civ5 as they'll cope with tessellation better ?

And didn't NV add multi-threading support to their drivers in Dx11 recently, which Civ5 should take advantage of ?


Edit - Civ 5 results from Anandtech's gpu bench :

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU11/203
 
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auraindigo said:
Hey, the guy is talking custom coolers, I don't think we're dealing with a duck-egg here ... did you ask him?
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He was kind enough to tell us he considers "balance between power, price and how much power it sucks" important and NO o I didn't ask him, mostly because I wasn't recommending one to him.
 
Overall, the 5870 destroys a 460!

I get fantastic fps with my card in BFBC2!

The 5870 imo is a very underated gpu. Its basically give or take a 69501Gb in terms of power.
 
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I'd agree to an extent. There's the odd game that the 1gb 460 is quicker in, but then again there's a few the 5870 is.

If mrochester doesn't mind a b-grade card, there's MSI 460 Cyclone's for £99 here :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=bg-192-ms&groupid=595&catid=683&subcat=

£50 less than a 5870 to spend at the pub = result ? :)

plus, the op's wanting it for civ 5, in which the nv cards are quicker :

http://www.techspot.com/review/320-civilization-v-performance/page6.html

If he's going to being playing Civ the most, then picking the card that offers the best performance in that title seems the better option ?
 
One thing I just remembered is didn't some 460's have issues with certain motherboards ?

If mrochester is interested in one, it would be better checking with a google search first to make sure it's a problem-free combination.
 
Hi all

Many thanks for the replies. What I meant by modding the heatsink is to disconnect the stock fan and zip tie my own fan to the heatsink so that it's much quieter, hence I thought the MSI Cyclone cards would be a good idea because the heatsink on them is fully exposed so receives the full benefit of a 3rd party fan.

My PSU is a fanless 300watt Silverstone unit. Looking at the reviews of the 6850 at least, one of the test rigs was an overclocked Core i7 rig and with the 6850 pulled a max of 273watts from the plug. As I'll come in well under that in the power stakes with a stock Core 2 Due, I think I'm safe with a 300watt PSU (and could easily upgrade to a slightly more powerful fanless PSU if not!).

So I'm still undecided. I'm trying to find some good pictures of the cheaper cards to see whether the fan connector on them is easily accessible to disconnect, and does anyone know how easily it typically is to remove a plastic shroud from a graphics card?

Many thanks again

M
 
Whilst Silverstone is a great make of PSU, I'm not sure 300 Watt is going to be enough to power the sort of cards you are looking at. Personally i'd be wanting a 450 Watt minimum or preferably a 650 Watt so you have some headroom for the future.
 
IvanDobskey said:
Whilst Silverstone is a great make of PSU, I'm not sure 300 Watt is going to be enough to power the sort of cards you are looking at? Personally i'd be wanting a 450 Watt minimum or preferably a 650 Watt so you have some headroom for the future.
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Well all the reviews I've seen seem to peg the maximum power usage a good way under 300watts (for the entire system) and they'll be using much more powerful processors than me. I don't see why 300watts wouldn't be sufficient in that case.
 
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