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Which graphics card for £50 - £100?

PiKe

PiKe

PiKe

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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I've tried researching myself but there's such a bewildering choice! Last time I bought a graphics card it was much easier (7900GTX era)!

I'm after something that will send audio over it's HDMI interface and something that will mate well with my existing configuration of an A8N-SLI Deluxe, AMD X2 4800+ and 4GB DDR Ram.

I'm not concerned whether it's Nvidia or an AMD card, just so long as it's value for money and has the features I want.

Answers on a postcard :)
 
Are you CPU or GPU limited at higher resolutions? I can't remember which way around it is.
 
GPU, but GPU is in turn dependant on CPU:) 5850 is a great card and if you can get it cheap - go for it. Otherwise OCUK 6850 deal is unbeatable in this price bracket.
 
GPU limited, but you have an old system so it will probably still be CPU limited. I would grab the Asus 6850 and save up for a CPU/MB/RAM upgrade for the future.

On the other hand it will perfectly meet your needs, it's got a native HDMI port.
 
Orcvader said:
GPU limited, but you have an old system so it will probably still be CPU limited. I would grab the Asus 6850 and save up for a CPU/MB/RAM upgrade for the future.

On the other hand it will perfectly meet your needs, it's got a native HDMI port.
Click to expand...

Just remembered I have a spare unused core2 system living in a cupboard, might actually be worth seeing what spec that actually is :o
 
Yea. Some games are actually more CPU demanding than graphic card...particularly if you play mmos.

For example I got a 2nd system at my parent's which is a E5200 overclocked to 3.75GHz, and it bottleneck the 9800GTX+ (around 60% speed of 5850) on DC Universe Online which I play. The CPU usage is always at 100%, while the GPU usage is only around 50% most of the time.

While generally it is true that games in general are GPU limited, but I would say that only applies if you have at least a overclocked Core2/Phenom II system.
 
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Here's the spec of the other machine:

CORE2DUO E4300
Gigabyte GA-G31MF-S2 iG31
Corsair 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Kit
 
I had an E4500 @ 3.2ghz stable and it held back a 295. Though the 295 is a chunk faster than the 5850. Let me see if I can find some Vantage results for you.
 
Here you go. This was at the initial 3GHZ OC.

oc.jpg


And the Vantage results. This should have been about 17k+ for the GPU score. Ignore the CPU score as the version I was running was old and buffed up the CPU score due to the Physx aiding.

vantageresults.jpg
 
PiKe said:
Here's the spec of the other machine:

CORE2DUO E4300
Gigabyte GA-G31MF-S2 iG31
Corsair 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Kit
Click to expand...
Overclocked that CPU to above 3.0GHz and get a 2nd hand 9800GT/5770 to go with it. Not much point spending more on graphic (because of CPU bottleneck) unless you get a better CPU, or plans to upgrade in the near future.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
Overclocked that CPU to above 3.0GHz and get a 2nd hand 9800GT/5770 to go with it. Not much point spending more on graphic unless you get a better CPU, and plans to upgrade on the near future.
Click to expand...

Yeah pretty sound advice IMO.

On quad SLI that rig choked the GPUs something rotten. I was barely clearing 26 FPS on Dirt 3 in surround on very low res monitors.

Mind you I have to say that even though it will bottle the crap out of the 5850 it will still be faster in there than a 5770.. Might pay to find a 5830? I know that select outlets still have them for around £70 ish brand new.

Ed. That was a top end motherboard too actually with 1600mhz DDR3. So you'd probably fare a lot worse on a DDR2 machine.. 5770 then is sound advice :)
 
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