With the plethora of graphics cards options available at the moment, im looking for some friendly advice on what to go for (not a vs thread).
Having seen how poor my 5850 is with minimum frame rates compared to a friends 470(actual gaming felt very smooth with his 470) i wanted to know what was best for me out of these options. Maybe others have similar questions or in the same situation.
PSU: AX750
CPU: i5
MB: x8/x8 board (sli or x-fire)
GPU: His 5850 (Vmodable)
Case: RVO2
- Sell 5850 -buy 460, add another when needed for sli, be ok for power till next christmas?
- Buy 3rd party cooling for 5850, overclock it to its limit, wait for 7 series
- Keep 5850 with stock cooling, save up for another and be ok for power for a good while
- Sell 5850- buy 470, add another in the future if needed
- Wait and see what happens with the 6 series to fluctuate the prices of Nvida and 5*** series ATI
With the cost of aftermarket cooling these days i dont want to spend £30-50 on cooling (VF3000 or MK13+VRM heatsink = £45/60+) when i could get the MSI 460 that would stay very cool in my case, and overclock just as well as my 5850 would with aftermarket cooling.
Opinions welcome plx.
1. NO! There's no point, consider it for a while. Most people get a stable 850MHz oc from their GeForce 460s, that is 25% ish overclock with a little voltage adjustment (1.087V). GeForce 460 is slower than 5850 by an average of approximately 10% at stock. I and many more people run their 5850s stable with stock cooling at 900/1200MHz (this is around the same overclock as with GeForce 460s on average) with only a little voltage adjustment that doesn't push the chip at all. 1.15V is not only safe but also applied to some higher overclocked models afaik and is a default voltage for Radeon 5870 (same GPU). They also overclock to the same levels on average (with good cooling that is).
Now, with whatever bull**** I said above, GeForce 460 1GB will perform about the same as Radeon 5850 at 1680x1050 (within 5% margin) and will be slower by 10-20% at higher resolutions (5% at 1920x1080, x1200 - 10%, 2560x1600 - 20%).
Selling your current card means basically swapping it over for a slower performer. No benefits from this solution until you add another 460 to the basket!
If you want to get SLI 460s, do it all at once. If you don't have the moneyz, wait till you collect it, sell your current card, buy the 460s, ???, PROFIT.
2. You can buy a third party cooler but you should be able to overclock it to said levels without a need for an aftermarket cooler. The card will perform as well as a stock 5870 which is good enough for most people. It doesn't cost you moneyz as well. Need help with ocing/temps/noise? No problem with that.
3. Good option but only if you lack the power. I'd also suggest a second-hand 5850. It may save you up to £50 on purchase and I don't think you'll lose anything, maybe besides one year warranty less.
4. This is worth consideration but being limited by the cooling and wanting to squeeze a lot of potential these cards have, you want an aftermarket cooler. Trust me, you can cope with the noise/temps/stock but you won't want to, so take it into consideration. The overall upgrade will therefore cost you £225 for the card plus probably £30-35 for the cooler (whether it is Zalman VF3000F or Gelid Icy Cooler).
5. This is an OK option, because you'll have time to rethink your needs. Trust me, there is a good reason to wait yet, it's nice to see good graphics popping out at reasonable prices but it's not the best time to upgrade from a current gen yet. The new series may bring something interesting into the game, current generation of ATI cards were
Your PSU will be fine with SLI anyway.
