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Good Budget Card

Voyager31

Voyager31

Voyager31

Associate
Joined
24 Dec 2011
Posts
8
Hi Guys, in the process of updating my system with a Gigabyte Z68 board and probably an i7 CPU, looking for the best card under £100 (£100 being the max I want to spend) rarely play any games but want it to have the capability should I need it.

I'm currently looking at these options as I want a silent passively cooled card (unless there are any that are virtually silent?) Silence is more important than performance.

I currently have a HD3800 which I guess is now past it for the upgrade?

These are the cards I've found within my budget, can you guide me as to which would be best in the budget range, by best I mean best performance for the money out of this group?


Asus GeForce GT 440 SILENT 1024MB GDDR3 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-261-AS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1402


Asus ATI Radeon HD 6670 SILENT EDITION http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-257-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1983


SAPPHIRE HD 6670 ULTIMATE Edition http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-268-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1983


Asus GeForce GTS 450 Silent 1GB DDR3

or

Asus 1GB Radeon HD 5570 Silent 1GB DDR2


Thanks for any feedback that you might offer, & Merry Christmas :)
 
You say you rarely play any games, so I would get the 6670 unless you use CUDA.

Very cool and low power card - requires no extra PCI-E connector. Make sure you get one with GDDR5 - excellent performance per watt.

That GTS 450 looks like a cut down "green" version - only uses GDDR3. Proper GTS 450's use GDDR5. If you need more performance than a 6670, you may want to opt for a 6770/5770 instead (most have very quiet fans) which is slightly faster than a normal GTS 450. GT440 is ok, but GDDR3 would put me off, not as fast as the 6670.

If you can find a cheap Sapphire silent 5670 with GDDR5, that would be a good option too. Faster than a GT440, only slightly slower than the 6670.

5570 would be slower than your 3800 series for 3D, but has better media playback and much lower power. I'd avoid - bottom line, stick with a silent GDDR5 card.
 
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Hi Alexrose1uk & spirits247

I was tempted myself to go with the SAPPHIRE HD 6670 ULTIMATE Edition out of my list, but thanks for your feedback much appreciated, as you can tell I'm a little rusty these days and still uncertain :confused:

Does anyone else have any comments to add?

Thanks :)
 
Ah apologies, I did miss the £100 part of the OP! I thought the choice was simply the cards suggested and rated them as such. Spirits does have some good points as well, I was purely looking at raw performance behind the GTS 450 and 6670 (the 'full fat' version is typically 10-30% ahead of the 6670)

The 6790 is available under £100, and for just a couple of pounds over there's the 6850, which arguably would be worth the extra cash as it's that bit stronger again :)
Now coming back to silence, I was impressed by the fan noise of a 5750 and I understand the 5770/90 are similar although it'd be worth checking between reviews on the models to confirm the cooler performance/noise.

GTX550ti might also be worth considering, it runs cooler than the 460's from Nvidia, is just inside your budget, and the fact its relatively cool running should allow for quieter cooling.
 
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Thanks for all the replies, what are your thoughts on the EVGA GTS 450 and how quiet are these cards? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-160-EA&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1830

Another question, just as an example what difference could I expect from my current HD3800 going up to say a 6670??

I know the 6670 is like an entry level card for most of you guys, but if I can get an idea as to whether the 6670 is going to be powerful enough or a worthwhile upgrade or just hang on and upgrade my card later on :confused:

Also with regards drivers, been using radeon cards for several years now and just wondering who currently has the best drivers Nvidia or ATi/AMD or is there not much in it these days?

Thanks everyone for the advice :)
 
Voyager31 said:
Also with regards drivers, been using radeon cards for several years now and just wondering who currently has the best drivers Nvidia or ATi/AMD or is there not much in it these days?
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Ignoring CrossFire and SLI then neither side can be said to have better drivers than the other.
 
To be honest the drivers are much of a muchness, both can be equally bad and good at times. Nvidia has a very slight edge, but I honestly wouldnt put as much in it as you often hear about
 
decto said:
HD6850 @ £108 on this week only. Twice the performance of the HD6670.

Have a HD6670 and it's ok for older games, 30% more cash for double the performance is a bargain though.
Click to expand...

It's tempting, is it really "twice the performance" of the 6670? if so I guess that's the wisest move!

Are prices stable right now or likely to increase or decrease over the next month or so? Hard drives especially seem to be more expensive than they were a while back :confused:

Anyways, thanks for taking the time to reply :)
 
Voyager31 said:
It's tempting, is it really "twice the performance" of the 6670? if so I guess that's the wisest move!

Are prices stable right now or likely to increase or decrease over the next month or so? Hard drives especially seem to be more expensive than they were a while back :confused:

Anyways, thanks for taking the time to reply :)
Click to expand...

The clock speed is about the same and the 6850 has twice the number of stream processors (960) as the 6670 (480). With a single card performance scales fairly well vs the number of cuda units(nvidia) or stream processors (AMD).

Hard drives is due to floods limiting supply so prices increased. GPU's may get cheaper at some point when 7 series cards are established but if you're buying in the next 3 months unlikely to be more than a tenner either way so you may as well enjoy.

Fairly sure this card was £99 the other week on a daily special but in the £100 range it's about the best option.

AD
 
Thanks for the replies, thought hard about this and decided in the end to go for the 6850

I chose the Gigabyte Radeon HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 card as most reviews claim its near silent with the windrush cooler and I also understand the fans can be decreased using catalyst or MSI afterburner utility

Hopefully I've made a good choice which will see me OK for a year or two :)

Thanks everyone for the guidance
 
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Voyager31 said:
Thanks for the replies, thought hard about this and decided in the end to go for the 6850

I chose the Gigabyte Radeon HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 card as most reviews claim its near silent with the windrush cooler and I also understand the fans can be decreased using catalyst or MSI afterburner utility

Hopefully I've made a good choice which will see me OK for a year or two :)

Thanks everyone for the guidance
Click to expand...

Also looking for a card in this price range £100 -120 and would be interested on your thoughts of your new card and did it meet your expectations?
 
FiXiT said:
Also looking for a card in this price range £100 -120 and would be interested on your thoughts of your new card and did it meet your expectations?
Click to expand...

Hi Fixit

Only ordered the card last night (order still being processed :eek: ) and will be a week or two before I put together my new system as I have to source other parts first so can't really help at this moment other than to say reviews put it on par with the GTX460 (some games slightly slower / some slightly quicker) I have to admit I'm not a huge / frequent game player but liked the feedback for the cooler which most say is very quiet so fingers crossed :)
 
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