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best gpu solution for 300-400 quid?

mattyfez

mattyfez

mattyfez

Soldato
Joined
12 Apr 2007
Posts
12,533
Hi as title suggest, I've always been if the "single fastest affordable card" persuasion.

But am a little out of touch with the new line up.

Single 480? Dual 460's? Other?

Thanks
 
480 going for £335, enough said. ;)

If you don't mind ATI, their new top single GPU card will be out in the next few months.
 
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A little over budget - but your not gonna get better value and performance than 2 of these clocked at ~800MHz

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-088-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1810

(NOTE: Today only deal price)

Never mind its gonna be hot and noisy unless your case has great airflow :D

TBH tho unless your using a over 1920x res/multi-display setup a single well clocked GTX470 will power through almost anything and not be hideously slower than a GTX480 clock for clock (generally less than 15% difference).
 
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Fastest single card would be the GTX 480 from Nvidia.

Not far behind it is the HD 5870 from ATI/AMD.

But the 'affordable' bit? Given the title is 300-400 I'd still say the GTX 480, althought the 470's in SLI is a good shout if you don't mind dealing with the faff of two cards :-)
 
I would forget the SLI option, your core2quad at 3.5Ghz will be a bottleneck, stick to single GPU's.;) if it's the spec in your sig the mobo only does xfire.
 
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RavenXXX2 said:
I would forget the SLI option, your core2quad at 3.5Ghz will be a bottleneck, stick to single GPU's.;) if it's the spec in your sig the mobo only does xfire.
Click to expand...

Your right hes better giving multi GPU a miss with that board - the 2nd slot only runs x4 in crossfire mode, and while the CPU wouldn't be a major bottleneck its not going to get the most out of anything faster than 5770cf - which would be pointless buying over a single 5850/5870.
 
GoogalyMoogaly said:
Do you have to pay VAT?
If not this comes out under £400 :)
Cost wise it works out the same as 2 of the 470s mentioned earlier, except it is a single card. And you get some 'free' stuff.
Click to expand...
Personally would avoid dual cards whenever presented with the option to.

Single 480. As for the 'wait'. There is always something around the corner, sooner or later you are going to have to bite the bullet.

Apart from a few pictures and rumours, we don't really know anything about the 6xxx series and as usual you will have a number of problems with the drivers as it's a new card, it takes a while for things to iron out. The 400 series and 5000 series have had time to do that.
 
Thanks all, should have mentioned, its a new build, probably i7930.
Gpu config will dictate mobo. Do newer mobos still have oc issues with sli?
Must admit I'm leaning toward single card, less things to worry about, not to mention heat.
 
+1 for a single GPU.

While in benchmarks dual 460s seem to be on top, I bet in practice you won't notice the difference. (that said I am going to get another 460 but that's just because I already have one)
But if you already have the budget for a top of the range card, the beauty is is can buy one GTX480 today and another one next christmas when they're cheap.

If that would really be your plan then I'd vote for GTX480 rather than AMD/ATI solution as in my subjective experience SLI simply works better than crossfire (better drivers, more games support it). Also with the latest Forceware 260 release the speed improvements in many games are considerable.
 
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