Best £200 graphics card

TerryH · 21 Apr 2011 at 20:57

If you're thinking of buying a 1GB 6950, I'd rather choose an 5870 and pocket the £40 odd difference.

MumboJumbo · 21 Apr 2011 at 21:27

Vogon said:
Yep will only ever be single card use, I should have said
480 is a bit power hungry and hot running for me, I feel.

The gigabyte versions (SE and SOC) have an arthermarket cooler on which makes them extreamly quiet and very cool. They are briliant cards. Also your psu is enough to handle one. You'd be a fool to spend anywhere near £200 and not get one.

Ferax · 21 Apr 2011 at 21:37

PapaLazaru said:
Can you run 2?

You can pick up a couple of new 5850's for less than £200 atm.

Will pee on anything else.

I know the OP specified a single card solution, but I was wondering how the CF would compare to the 480SOC in terms of heat and power draw? Trying to make the decision myself between the 2 and am a bit concerned about by Corsair 650W PSU.

razerbwfc · 21 Apr 2011 at 21:38

I just picked up a KFA2 Anarchy 480 with an aftermarket cooler, and whilst not clocked as high as the gigabyte, it certainly does not run hot or loud.

It replaced a 1gb 4870 that ran around 70 degrees whilst gaming, this one hasn't budged over 50 degrees and thats with a reduced fan speed. Plenty overhead for overclocking I would think, but it's creaming everything I throw at it, so no need to really. Under £200 too.

MumboJumbo · 21 Apr 2011 at 21:48

Ferax said:
I know the OP specified a single card solution, but I was wondering how the CF would compare to the 480SOC in terms of heat and power draw? Trying to make the decision myself between the 2 and am a bit concerned about by Corsair 650W PSU.

I would not CF on a 650w corsair. You can do it as CF you won't peak over 550w with 5850's but realistically you don't want to go over 500w on a regular basis.

Also I believe CF 5850 beats 480GTX more often then not but I'm not sure about the SOC. Though the 5850 is not great with AA at higher resolutions, I think on a 24" they would be close to even with the 5850's slightly winning. Over 24" and the 5850's will loose.

Ferax · 21 Apr 2011 at 21:49

That seems worth considering razerbwfc. Can I ask what PSU you have?

chrisarm · 21 Apr 2011 at 21:53

can't understand why people go for the newest cards if everyone is sayin the 480 is the best card to buy. hasn't it bein knockin on a bit now

razerbwfc · 21 Apr 2011 at 21:55

I'm running a Zalman 750W, which seems to be plenty enough for my needs. Rest of the system is only a Q6600 (overclocked), 6 HDD's, DVD-RW and a couple of fans. Power isn't a problem.

MumboJumbo · 21 Apr 2011 at 21:55

chrisarm said:
can't understand why people go for the newest cards if everyone is sayin the 480 is the best card to buy. hasn't it bein knockin on a bit now

Untill recently the 480GTX was closer to £300 and the 5850's were a lot more too. Now they have all become bargins. I'm certainly going to pick up another 480GTX within a few months I think. Just hoping for them to break bellow £200.

MumboJumbo · 21 Apr 2011 at 21:56

Ferax said:
That seems worth considering razerbwfc. Can I ask what PSU you have?

Your psu is more than enough for a single 480GTX. Will be drawing around 450w-500w total at peak.

Ferax · 21 Apr 2011 at 21:57

8igdave said:
I would not CF on a 650w corsair. You can do it as CF you won't peak over 550w with 5850's but realistically you don't want to go over 500w on a regular basis.

Also I believe CF 5850 beats 480GTX more often then not but I'm not sure about the SOC. Though the 5850 is not great with AA at higher resolutions, I think on a 24" they would be close to even with the 5850's slightly winning. Over 24" and the 5850's will loose.

Its a 24" monitor, but thanks for the advice regarding the power consumption. Seems to be an issue with power draw generally though with higher rated PSUs recommended for the 480s as well. I really thought when I bought the PSU 3 years ago that it would last me a while, but it's starting to look like I might need to upgrade it

Ferax · 21 Apr 2011 at 21:59

Just seen the posts from while I was typing - good news on teh 480 power consumption at least! Cheers

Does seem pretty incredible what you can get for ~£200 at the moment.

razerbwfc · 21 Apr 2011 at 22:00

8igdave said:
Untill recently the 480GTX was closer to £300 and the 5850's were a lot more too. Now they have all become bargins. I'm certainly going to pick up another 480GTX within a few months I think. Just hoping for them to break bellow £200.

This is true. My 480 was touching £280 last week, I paid £196 for it yesterday. Absolute bargain

MumboJumbo · 21 Apr 2011 at 22:05

I just hope I time it right and don't in fact miss the 480s when they go out of stock for good. I'm going to sell my 285GTX as well I think as its just sitting about in another pc collecting dust.

Ferax said:
Its a 24" monitor, but thanks for the advice regarding the power consumption. Seems to be an issue with power draw generally though with higher rated PSUs recommended for the 480s as well. I really thought when I bought the PSU 3 years ago that it would last me a while, but it's starting to look like I might need to upgrade it

I did a bit of reading up to check my values. Turns out the power consumption is in fact extreamly close with the 480GTX being a bit more. I thought the 5850's would draw more than they do. The 5850's will draw around 450w and the 480GTX around 470w. Both are fine on a quality 620w like the corsair.

Ferax · 21 Apr 2011 at 22:12

Hmmm, back to a difficult decision then! Especially as a review I just read says that with the aftermarket coolers the 480s are about a foot long, and my Antec 300 only has 11" before its hitting the HD bays.

MumboJumbo · 21 Apr 2011 at 22:15

I think the SE and SOC are slightly shorter as they don't have any extra cooling casing around the outside.

I'd check out some benchmarks, the ones I found suggest that at your resolution the CF just about beats it.

http://www.*****.net/content/item.php?item=24061&page=6

:EDIT:

But do bare in-mind the 480GTX drivers have come on a lot since as that is a year old. The same could probably be said for the 5850's but i suspect the 480GTX has benefited more as it was newer when that review was done.

Ferax · 21 Apr 2011 at 22:25

Benchies are definately suggesting that CF is the better option, and it's certainly very tempting. From what I have read on these forums, the 5850 drivers do seem to have improved form what was apparently a pretty poor state at launch so I don't think that should be too much of an issue.

Planning on upgrading MB and CPU to an i5 setup in the next coupelof months, but am presently stuck with an Asus P5Q pro which could be an issue with CF as the second slot will only run at x8 speed from what I can gather on the manufacturers website.

Going to have to give up and go to bed soon, this is making my poor little brain hurt!

MumboJumbo · 21 Apr 2011 at 22:30

x8 is perfectly fine for CF and unless you spend over £150 on a mobo I'm not sure you'll get dual x16. I don't think there is much difference in performance however.

Vogon · 21 Apr 2011 at 22:41

Can anyone come up with any reason why either of these cards would be a worthwhile upgrade for 1920 res over my 5850 overclocked ?
I thought things would have moved in quite quick, but from what I can see maybe 15% is all ?

MumboJumbo · 21 Apr 2011 at 22:53

If you already have a 5850 just pick up another one. You'll just about beat the 480GTX for £80. bargain!