Expat in need of GPU price advice!

Glenmoray · 26 Oct 2010 at 13:49

Hello guys,

I made a post some time ago but never actually checked up on it and can't find it... mind you this was in April.

I'll cut to the chase, I'm an expat in the Netherlands looking for an obvious GPU upgrade as I want to play the upcoming Cataclysm in full

. I don't speak Dutch and don't have friends who know enough about PC's to help either

Rig:
*Edit* Corsair HX620 watt
ASUS P5Q-E
Intel E8400 @ 3.6ghz
4gb OCZ PC6400
ASUS 8800GTS 512
Windows XP 32bit

Really just looking for general advice on how to get the most out of my rig, my obvious thoughts are the GPU and Windows XP 32bit... Don't think I can be bothered upgrading to Windows 7 but if theres an outrage as to why I don't have it already I'll acquire a copy :]

I'm looking for best price for performance, not necessarily the top range stuff but maybe a steal or most reasonable buy.

Current best price GPUS I can get in the Dutch Market excluding shipping:

XFX HD 6870 1024 MB ------ 214 Euros (£188)
Sapphire HD 6850 1GB ----- 153 Euros (£134)
Sapphire HD5770 1GB ------ 109 Euros (£95)
Gainward GeForce GTX470 1280MB ---- 189 Euros (£165)
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 1GB ------ 163 Euros (£143)
Asus GeForce GTX 470 op 607MHz met ---213 Euros (£187)

Any suggestions are welcome!

Cheers,

Glen

HazardO · 26 Oct 2010 at 13:52

The GTX470 looks a bargain there. However it is probably the noisiest card in the list.

What PSU do you have/are you getting?

cmndr_andi · 26 Oct 2010 at 13:55

Hi there,

May I ask what PSU you have?

If the PSU is powerful enough to run it - then I would suggest going for a GTX 470. At £165 that is a great deal.

Also, from what I have seen WoW tends to run better on Nvidia cards, compared to AMD cards of the same price level. So if cataclysm is one of your main reasons for upgrading, then the GTX 470 makes even more sense.

You may want to consider upgrading to Windows 64bit (windows 7 preferably). As 32bit windows XP can only address up to 4GB of total memory, with 4GB system RAM and a 1.28GB graphics card you will rocking around 5.3GB.

Scougar · 26 Oct 2010 at 13:57

What is your make and model of power supply?

best there is probably the 470, although hot and power hungry... but the 6870 is a damn good buy as well, although possibly not as fast (this 'may' change as it's literally only just been released a couple of days ago).

As a side note: You won't be getting any benefit from DX10/10.1 or DX11 if you don't upgrade to at least Vista. Win7 is actually pretty good, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Also, you'll 'gain' a little bit more ram if you get the 64 bit version, as XP can only utilise 3.24GB rather than the full 4GB.

crackerbear · 26 Oct 2010 at 14:00

Glenmoray said:
Gainward GeForce GTX470 1280MB ---- 189 Euros (£165)

What.

I need to go live abroad. Goddamn Britian.

(If it wasn't clear enough, get that 470, providing you have enough power to feed it)

Ezyryder · 26 Oct 2010 at 14:03

If you have a good PSU (post model and wattage here) and don't mind the noise the 470 is the best of the pick in there.

The price on the 6850 is also very good.

Glenmoray · 26 Oct 2010 at 14:37

Hey guys thanks for your replies!

My PSU is a Corsair HX620 watt.

I use my 8800GTS at 80% fan speed and I find that quite loud, if the 470 is louder I think that would be a problem, I use headphones but the gf is already annoyed at me playing... let alone a massive whirring noise coming from the computer.

opethdisciple · 26 Oct 2010 at 14:44

My thoughts:

You have two choices:

6870 vs GTX 470....

Which is better for you, I think you need to decide, based on reading reviews and benchmarks.....

However, your current processor, is significantly holding you back.

If you dont have the money to upgrade the cpu as well (may* require a motherboard and ram upgrade aswell) then stick with the cpu.... it will be adequate...

The whole Windows 7 thing... I think its worth it to be honest with you.

Not only is it a nice operating system, but you get Dx11 of course, which is one of the advantages with buying a new Dx11 capable graphics card...

You should have bought Win7 at launch as it was cheap. I bought mine for £45, now they are at least twice that...

Even better....... becuase the rest of your system is holding you back, ie your cpu, maybe best option is to save money and get a second hand 5850 or 5870 or GTX 460 or GTX 470?

Food for thought.

If noise is a concern the ATI cards 5850, 5870 and 6870 will be silent....er oh and supposedly* certain 460's are quiet too.

crackerbear · 26 Oct 2010 at 15:03

opethdisciple said:
certain 460's are quiet too.

The Gigabyte 460 he listed on his first post is very quite. Not sure about the Gainward 470, if it uses the reference cooler then it's probably going to start getting audible/loud once it reaches 60-70% fan speed. The 6870 should be much quieter too.

HazardO · 26 Oct 2010 at 15:20

The HX620 should cope with any of those GPUs.

Cleeecooo · 26 Oct 2010 at 17:48

ATI

I personally would stick to ATI and go for the 6870. Possibly go for a 5850 and overclock it, don't know the price of a 5850 in the Netherlands. I would wait for the new ATI cards to come out and see how that affects the prices of the 6870.

Orcvader · 26 Oct 2010 at 18:09

Best get the 6870 then, it'll be more quiet.
Yes, you need Windows 7, especially the 64 bit one if you want to make full use of the 4gb of RAM you have.

^Andy^ · 26 Oct 2010 at 18:10

Glenmoray said:
Don't think I can be bothered upgrading to Windows 7 but if theres an outrage as to why I don't have it already I'll acquire a copy :]

DX11

opethdisciple · 26 Oct 2010 at 20:33

Orcvader said:
Best get the 6870 then, it'll be more quiet.
Yes, you need Windows 7, especially the 64 bit one if you want to make full use of the 4gb of RAM you have.

Good point!!

I run 64bit Win7, no issues at all, with 32 or 64bit software.

I would check before hand however to see if you can download the 64bit Win7 drivers for your motherboard, soundcard and ethernet etc....

Nate Silvers · 27 Oct 2010 at 00:21

opethdisciple said:
My thoughts:

You have two choices:

6870 vs GTX 470....

Which is better for you, I think you need to decide, based on reading reviews and benchmarks.....

However, your current processor, is significantly holding you back.

If you dont have the money to upgrade the cpu as well (may* require a motherboard and ram upgrade aswell) then stick with the cpu.... it will be adequate...

The whole Windows 7 thing... I think its worth it to be honest with you.

Not only is it a nice operating system, but you get Dx11 of course, which is one of the advantages with buying a new Dx11 capable graphics card...

You should have bought Win7 at launch as it was cheap. I bought mine for £45, now they are at least twice that...

Even better....... becuase the rest of your system is holding you back, ie your cpu, maybe best option is to save money and get a second hand 5850 or 5870 or GTX 460 or GTX 470?

Food for thought.

If noise is a concern the ATI cards 5850, 5870 and 6870 will be silent....er oh and supposedly* certain 460's are quiet too.

His CPU went from

significantly holding you back

to

it will be adequate

opethdisciple · 27 Oct 2010 at 00:52

Nate Silvers said:
His CPU went from to

It is both....

Of course a dualcore is holding him back. Any gpu he is thinking about is going to be held back by a dual core, especially in multicore games.

But, on the other hand if he is looking at a new gpu and Win7 he cant afford to by a cpu as well which may also include a mobo and ram.. thus he's cpu is adequate.

Paracelsus · 27 Oct 2010 at 01:50

Of course a dualcore is holding him back. Any gpu he is thinking about is going to be held back by a dual core

Really? I very much doubt it - any benchmarks to back it up?

My 2.2ghz dualcore has never limited gaming and his is 3.6ghz and a better architecture...

Essexraptor · 27 Oct 2010 at 05:01

Reading around the forums you already have a system capable of playing the game. if you you want a upgrade to turn the settings up a little take the option of Win7 Home Premium Retail (install 64bit to make full use of your RAM) and just a 5770 to be honest. (the 460 has better performance but at £95! for a 5770 it's a no brainer) The AMD (formerly known as ATI) 6 series cards are the new kids on the block but that can wait until you do a full system upgrade. DX11 doesn't cut it because you don't need it for that game anyway... before you all start..... how many games actually out on the big world wide market use it... pray tell? (a clue - you won't need more than 2 hands)

Glenmoray · 27 Oct 2010 at 08:05

Thanks everyone for your valuable input.

I will get Windows 7 64 bit to make full use of the 4GB of RAM.

I'll spend a good weekend trying to push my e8400 a little further as well, all I know is when researching it some time ago I have the harder chip to OC (think its g0 stepping).

With Windows 7 64 bit being a definite purchase I will prefer the cheapest GPU upgrade.

The GPU I'm kind of edging towards thanks to your input is the 5770 because of the cheapness - but I'm unsure if I'll see a big difference in WoW between the two cards. Especially as the card isn't Nvidia (never used ATI and I've casually glanced through Google about their bad drivers, but this could be myth and poor perception on my part).

Is it possibly just worth upgrading the OS to make use of the RAM and holding out on the GPU?

crackerbear · 27 Oct 2010 at 09:46

Glenmoray said:
Is it possibly just worth upgrading the OS to make use of the RAM and holding out on the GPU?

I would've thought a better graphics card would give you faster gaming performance than having the full use of 4GB of RAM.

I would really try to stretch for the 6850 over the 5770 if you don't want to pay for the more expensive cards. There is a good amount of performance difference between the two.