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Best graphics card for about £80

Ady2009

Ady2009

Ady2009

Associate
Joined
4 Feb 2009
Posts
115
Location
Derbyshire
Hi

What is the best PCI-E graphics card you can buy for about £80 ?. I've got thedilema weather to upgrade a AGP machine or weather to replace the lot.

Thanks
 
Thanks

I was worried about flogging a old AGP machine. If the mobo went then I would be stuck with a nice but useless graphics card.
 
Ady2009 said:
It says that the 4850 has 800 cores while the GTS 250 only has 128. Is that right ?
Click to expand...


Technically no.

You cant compare the way Nvidia organise the architecture of their cards to the way amd do on theirs.

Amd cards have many more cores on their gpu's but it doesnt neccessarily relate to power.

For instance a 5870 has 1600 cores (shader) but the gtx 480 which is more powerfull only has something like 448 cores.

So an apples to apples comparison is not possible between Nvidia and AMD.

Checking out benchmarks is your best bet.

If memory serves me right i think toms hardware (website) have a list of gpus and their comparisons Nvidia vs AMD.


Ok im cannot find the chart I was looking for, but here is a webpage from tomshardware, where they 'supposedly' tell you whats the best gpu at what price point:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-radeon-hd-5870-geforce-gtx-480,2621.html
 
So in answer to your question.... according to that Tom's Hardware chart, the GTS 250 and the HD 4850 are comparable graphics card.

The only choice you need to make is Nvidia or AMD, but most importantly which of the two cards performs better in the games you want to play with it.

For that you need to look at some benchmarks.

My personal preferance would be the 4850 out of the two.... only becuase I pretty much always go AMD.

Maybe save the money and at least get a comparable card but dx11 capable?

According to that chart a 5750 is the same performance as the hd 4850, but has dx11 support.

However one thing I read somewhere is that the 5770 is only a little bit more expensive than the 5750so maybe thats the better buy.
 
GTS250 might be a smidge faster than a 4850, but with high AA I think it turns around. Basically they are simlar, with the GTS250 having CUDA and PhysX if that's at all important.

Now if you could find a 1GB 4870 for that price it would be good....or save a little more for a 1GB 5770. It's worth it.
 
Hmm seems the 5750 are at around £110, so maybe that is not in your price range.

Ideally, from an amd point of view you want a card with 800 cores, dx11 support and 1gb of memory.

For £80 I dont think you can get that. However the 4850 gives you 1gb ram and the 800 cores, minus the dx11 support.

Its a tough one.

Check ebay, you may be able to find a second hand 5770 or 5750..... less than £100.

Best of luck.
 
I had a nvidia card in a pre-built compaq machine once which cost me £1000 and it was awfull, it kept locking up and all sorts. I've always been a bit icky about nvidia since then. I am a straight intel fan though!
 
Ady2009 said:
I had a nvidia card in a pre-built compaq machine once which cost me £1000 and it was awfull, it kept locking up and all sorts. I've always been a bit icky about nvidia since then. I am a straight intel fan though!
Click to expand...

Fanboism is straight up gay!

I remember years ago like 14 years ago we bought a computer for 2.5 grand wow if you look at it now its uber **** but back then it was the boss
 
Ady2009 said:
I had a nvidia card in a pre-built compaq machine once which cost me £1000 and it was awfull, it kept locking up and all sorts. I've always been a bit icky about nvidia since then. I am a straight intel fan though!
Click to expand...

thats more than likely down to the shoddy quality of hp.

I dont have a preference between them. Used to be nvidia now ati but i just pick which ever card has the best performance in my price range. Ati normally win that game.
 
Hi

Thanks for the comments much appreciated. I've decided to opt for the Nvidia GS250 although it was a close call with the ATI. I had a Quadro board at work which did give me years of good service so I've based my decision on that.

I've noticd that there is lots of different brands of the board. Is anyone better than the other ?. Also will a OCZ 500W power supply be sufficent for this board ?

Thanks
 
Ady2009 said:
Hi

Thanks for the comments much appreciated. I've decided to opt for the Nvidia GS250 although it was a close call with the ATI. I had a Quadro board at work which did give me years of good service so I've based my decision on that.

I've noticd that there is lots of different brands of the board. Is anyone better than the other ?. Also will a OCZ 500W power supply be sufficent for this board ?

Thanks
Click to expand...

http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gts_250_us.html

Recommended PSU is 450W so the OCZ will do just fine.
 
I thought I had made my mind up on the GTS250 but somebody else has thrown a spanner in the works and said that it might not be the best card for what I need.

I need it to run really heavy CAD applications mainly with the occasional trip aroundthe world on the latest flight simlutor. I would buy a Quadro but I want a bit more flexibility with my system.

Does anyone know how the 4850 and GTS 250 handle CAD ?
 
Dont you think, your expectations out match the price your willing to spend?

I can understand that you may not have the money to splash on something like a gpu, but you also need to realise that maybe ALL of your expectations will not be fullfilled either.

I would take a complete guess, and say the nvidia card would handle it better. Not becuase it neccessarilly the faster card, but more becuase of the the cuda stuff Nvidia have optimized their chips for.

But do some reaserch on the web.
 
id guess the nvidia will be better for cad, etc but its down to preference, they are so similar in preformance you wont really notice any difference between the two. id either go for the 4850 1gb or try get a 4870/gtx 260 if you pay a slice more.
 
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