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BANG for buck
- Thread starter banja
- Start date
Sorry I didn't include my budget. But that was the point really - 'bang for buck' suggests the best card for it's price. If I spent £400 that wouldn't be the best value / performance card, just the best card 
£200 is perhaps a bit above my budget. How long before the 5850 gets closer to £150 do you all think? Realistically that's about the ballpark figure I'd be at. But I could stretch further. Yet like anyone, I want cheap as possible.
£200 is perhaps a bit above my budget. How long before the 5850 gets closer to £150 do you all think? Realistically that's about the ballpark figure I'd be at. But I could stretch further. Yet like anyone, I want cheap as possible.
If I spent £400 that wouldn't be the best value / performance card, just the best card
It would be the best value card if it absolutely out performed anything else by a significant margin
Though I see your point.
The 5850 is a very good card for £200 and I don't think we'll see it drop by £50 for a fair few months yet, they've not been out very long at all. If you can stretch to it, you'll be very pleased with what the extra £50 would get you.
For your budget I'd go 4890 or the 5770 if you want to save a little more cash.
The 5850/5870's won't be comming down in the near future, no competition plus a scarcity of parts mean prices are what they are for a month, probably more, or so. OCUK might put them on this week only for a few pounds less but not by much.
No one will know when the price will drop to £150, it will eventually happen but when would simply be a guess. The only event on the horizon that will likely force a radical price drop is the release of the nvidia Fermi cards, but they won't hit till the end of the year.
Right now for the 150 notes you have in yer pocket either the ATI 4890 and you'll still have enough for a few pints or the GTX275 but this'll push you to ~£165.
Depends at the end of the day the res you use it at and the kinda stuff your going to play. However, in almost everything at even at 1900x1200 either of those two will serve you well..... (Crysis will be a bit more of a challenge though)
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Is the 5850 worth the extra £30 or so over the GTX 275?
Won't be buying / building till early next year so I've time to watch prices and see what else is coming.
Thanks for the input guys
Is the 5850 worth the extra £30 or so over the GTX 275?
Won't be buying / building till early next year so I've time to watch prices and see what else is coming.
Thanks for the input guys
Ah, well ,not building till next year is a different story, the advice is different in this case. I'm building now, but I am buying a cheap 2nd hand card to make do till the DX11 war starts (ATI vs Nvidia) early next year. This should shake up the market and prices will adjust themselves to put the cards in order of performance/price. Then the card you buy will be the one that sits at your budget, at the moment this strategy doesn't really work due to the lack of competition from the green team.
The best bang for buck currently available will be an ATI 4850 for £70-£80. Irrespective of price, there is nothing that scales as well as far as "fps per £" is concerned. However I would only recommend one for resolutions up to 1680x1050. For anything higher you need a more expensive card.