EVGA GTX 570 SC, EVGA GTX 480 or HD 7850

Ignorance · 19 Mar 2012 at 16:21

I'm stuck for choice. I have about £240 to spend and I'm not sure which card to get. I've heard all three are reasonably good.

The GTX 570 SC is available for £220 this week, the GTX 480 is available for £180 this week and the 7850 is around £200. I'm not sure what card to get so I'd be thankful if someone could point me in the right direction as I've heard they're all good cards.

EVGA GTX 480
http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-124-EA

EVGA GTX 570 SC
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-170-EA&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010

MSI HD 7850
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-154-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411

Specs -
Case - Antec 300 Ultimate
Motherboard - ASUS M5A97 Pro
CPU - AMD Phenom II X6 1090T at 3.20GHz
RAM - Corsair Vengeance 8GB
Graphics Card - ATi Radeon HD 4850
PSU - Corsair 650W
OS - Windows 7 Ultimate - 64 bit

Thanks.

baldmonk · 19 Mar 2012 at 16:32

1st.480
2nd. 570
3. 7850

RavenXXX2 · 19 Mar 2012 at 16:33

Tough call between the 480 and 570, rule out the 7850 as it's a fair bit slower.

If you don't mind a bit of fan noise then go 480, go 570 if you want a quiet running card, it's overclocked as well so even more performance over the two other cards.

[WU-TANG]GZA · 19 Mar 2012 at 17:58

baldmonk said:
1st.480
2nd. 570
3. 7850

+1

spain · 19 Mar 2012 at 18:11

RavenXXX2 said:
Tough call between the 480 and 570, rule out the 7850 as it's a fair bit slower.

If you don't mind a bit of fan noise then go 480, go 570 if you want a quiet running card, it's overclocked as well so even more performance over the two other cards.

If the 480 is the better card but loud, Is there not a cheap/reasonably priced custom cooler that will do the job. Theres 40 pound to play with, the difference in price between the 480 and 570.

ALXAndy · 19 Mar 2012 at 18:15

7850 for me. £199 buys you a nice MSI TFIII and it has the most vram. I would hazard a guess that it overclocks like stink too.

rowedogg · 19 Mar 2012 at 18:17

spain said:
If the 480 is the better card but loud, Is there not a cheap/reasonably priced custom cooler that will do the job. Theres 40 pound to play with, the difference in price between the 480 and 570.

i think the gelid icy vision is a good cooler for the 480. they sell it here too

ALXAndy · 19 Mar 2012 at 18:26

It's about the only cooler now, given that you'll be paying £55 or so for the Zalman V3000F

Ignorance · 19 Mar 2012 at 18:43

Thanks for the advice guys. Right now, I'm slightly leaning towards buying the GTX 570 SC as you've said it runs quieter. I know I could buy a different cooler for the 480 and get the 480, but I've done a bit of searching and it appears there isn't that much of a performance difference between the two cards so just to be handier I think I might get the 570 SC as I won't need to buy a new cooler for it. I'd prefer something that's not too loud.

Cleeecooo · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:17

Ignorance said:
Thanks for the advice guys. Right now, I'm slightly leaning towards buying the GTX 570 SC as you've said it runs quieter. I know I could buy a different cooler for the 480 and get the 480, but I've done a bit of searching and it appears there isn't that much of a performance difference between the two cards so just to be handier I think I might get the 570 SC as I won't need to buy a new cooler for it. I'd prefer something that's not too loud.

The 80 does have more VRAM. the 570 is by noi means quiet either, it is much quieter than the 480 though. I would personally buy an aftermarket cooler either way, it really depends what you deem to be quiet and how loud the rest of your system is.

arc@css · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:20

You could consider other 570 models that come with a non-reference cooler.

Cleeecooo · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:22

arc@css said:
You could consider other 570 models that come with a non-reference cooler.

I (personally) would stick with EVGA for a fairly high value card:
http://www.evga.com/articles/00671/

ALXAndy · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:24

570 is the worst of the lot IMO. As soon as the next game engine comes it will be rendered useless.

Get a 6970 if you can. Very close fight with the 570, 2gb vram, price *should* be about the same.

Ignorance · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:29

ALXAndy said:
570 is the worst of the lot IMO. As soon as the next game engine comes it will be rendered useless.

Get a 6970 if you can. Very close fight with the 570, 2gb vram, price *should* be about the same.

The 6970 seems to be around £270 whereas the 570 I'm looking at is £220. The 2GB vram version of the 570 is around the same price as 6970 but that's out of my budget.

ALXAndy · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:33

Any chance you could push on for the 2.5gb 570?

There's a nice EVGA one there. Didn't realise the 6970 was that much mate sorry.. There was a special recently where the Powercolor was £250 IIRC.

Borsch · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:33

480! Cheaper by 40£ and same/better performance. More VRAM than 570 too. Otherwise go for 6970 - also fast card but 2gb RAM.

7850 is a fail in terms of price for performance.

Ignorance · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:34

ALXAndy said:
Any chance you could push on for the 2.5gb 570?

There's a nice EVGA one there. Didn't realise the 6970 was that much mate sorry.. There was a special recently where the Powercolor was £250 IIRC.

Doubt it. I'm not looking for anything amazing, just looking for a decent card that'll last me a while as I'm currently using a 4 year old card and it still runs most games fine - just not at the highest settings xD.

arc@css · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:37

What resolution do you run games at, 1080p?

ALXAndy · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:39

Ignorance said:
Doubt it. I'm not looking for anything amazing, just looking for a decent card that'll last me a while as I'm currently using a 4 year old card and it still runs most games fine - just not at the highest settings xD.

The thing that worries me mate is the "last me a while" bit.

Nvidia are already showing that new engine, and I can tell you now it's going to need heaps of vram to store those textures.

I did mention before getting a 7850 and overclocking its **** off. Apparently they become quite the beast when overclocked. And the nice part is there's no major reason to have to do so when you first get it because it can already throw around everything out there with decent framerates.

Ignorance · 19 Mar 2012 at 19:41

arc@css said:
What resolution do you run games at, 1080p?

Yup.

ALXAndy said:
The thing that worries me mate is the "last me a while" bit.

Nvidia are already showing that new engine, and I can tell you now it's going to need heaps of vram to store those textures.

I did mention before getting a 7850 and overclocking its **** off. Apparently they become quite the beast when overclocked. And the nice part is there's no major reason to have to do so when you first get it because it can already throw around everything out there with decent framerates.

Hmm. That could be an option. It's a hard choice. xD.