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Graphics card suggestions

MiTz

MiTz

MiTz

Associate
Joined
31 May 2004
Posts
234
Location
Leeds
Hi,

I've recently started getting bsod quite frequently and its always something to do with my vid card, so it maybe on the way out... I'll try new drivers first, but i just wanted your suggestions on a replacement should i need one ?... I've been away from the scene for a while and have no clue whats good and bad these days !

Now i realise my system is now a bit of a dinasour lol, but i don't play games as often as i used to, so i just need a card that will work well with the current spec without it causing bottleneck city lol ;)

Thanks guys
 
If you dont game and your just using it for web based stuff then i suggest you get a second hand 3850, 8800GT for about £35

no nned to spend £80 on a card you wont use to game with
 
Well if you looking for a new card I would say the HD5770 is the fastest card you should look at (given you CPU). At £130 card it's bar far the strongest card in it's class and since your upgrading from a X1950 it would represent two major leaps in upgrades in a single purchase.

If you don't want to spend that much then the cards liked above would suit down to the ground, they cost less and would tide you over nicely until you ready to upgrade your whole PC. However a HD5770 would probably give your PC a longer lease of life in terms of usefulness.
 
I do still play games now and then when i get chance, so would still like the best card that will compliment my current spec. moneys not an issue for the card, but at the moment i can't justify a full overhaul :)

Thanks guys i appreciate the advice :)
 
Normally I would agree with people that suggest 5770, however it will be bottleneck by your Athlon X2 4800+ at stock speed 2.4GHz.

If you can overclock your 4800+ to around 2.8-3.0GHz, then get a 5770; if not I would suggest you just get the HIS 4850 instead and save yourself £40-£50.
 
I wouldn't worry about bottlenecks to much, most games these days are GPU bound rather having there performance dictated by the speed of the CPU. That doesn’t mean the CPU doesn’t matter it just means it’s influence is not as great as it once was.
 
Freddie1980 said:
I wouldn't worry about bottlenecks to much, most games these days are GPU bound rather having there performance dictated by the speed of the CPU. That doesn’t mean the CPU doesn’t matter it just means it’s influence is not as great as it once was.
Click to expand...
I would suggest you go and have a look at the frame rate for games. Even the faster Q6600 at stock speed 2.4GHz would bottleneck lesser cards such as 9600GT in games.
Take FSX for example:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-gpu-upgrade,1928-10.html
There are also other examples, but the FSX one is the easiest for me to dig back up.
 
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Marine-RX179 said:
I would suggest you go and have a look at the frame rate for games. Even the faster Q6600 at stock speed 2.4GHz would bottleneck lesser cards such as 9600GT in games.
Take FSX for example:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-gpu-upgrade,1928-10.html
There are also other examples, but the FSX one is the easiest for me to dig back up.
Click to expand...

With all due respect were talking games not simulators, I agree FSX is about a CPU bound as it comes but mainstream games like BFBC2, AvP, Dirt 2, Mass Effect 2, Fallout 3 etc are largely dependant on what video card you have.
 
Bottlenecks are always over exaggerated.

Back when the 4870 was released people went on about how a x8 slot would bottleneck the card, yet we've got 5870's, 480's and 5970's on one slot..

A 5777 would be a great upgrade for you, but 4670/5670 may even be ideal.
I managed to pick up a 4670 for £36 about 9 months ago from here in clearance :D
 
A 5770 is roughly 20% faster than a 4850, for systems that doesn't bottleneck the card.

Now...are you guys going to guarantee that the op will be see the same amount of extra performance 5770 over a 4850, with a 5 years old dual-core CPU at stock speed?

Cause you guys are advising him to spend at least 50% extra money to get a 5770 over a 4850.

I did mention in earlier post...if he can overclock the CPU to 2.8-3.0GHz, then the 5770 could be worth considering.

Also, not to forget the speed of CPU affect the minium frame rate quite hugely.
 
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I don't have decent enough cooling to crank it up that high, so it will just be running at stock...

I just did a clean install of the latest drivers and on finishing after the reboot it failed to install the "avstream" part of the driver (it said something like locked or disabled), so that part was showing as an unknown device... I ran the update driver again though device manager and then it installed fine, so somethings deffo not right.

Cheers for the info guys :)
 
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