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Looking to upgrade

Mandalore

Mandalore

Mandalore

Associate
Joined
17 Jun 2008
Posts
32
Location
South Wales
I've had a 8800GT for a few years now, it seems like it might be on its way out and I want to upgrade. My budget is no more than £200, although I'd prefer to spend less than that.

I've been looking at some reviews and OcUK prices, and I can't decide between a Geforce GTX 460 1GB, Radeon 5870 or a Radeon 6870. Are the Radeons significantly better than the Geforce for the higher price? Am I missing any other cards that would be more suitable? Is my power supply good enough?

My PC specs:

Abit IP35 Pro
OCZ 600W StealthXstream 2
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600
4GB Corsair DDR2 800MHz RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT 512MB
22" 1680*1050 Monitor
 
That's a very similar spec to what i had, with the exception of a Core 2 E8400 3GHz here. I got a Gigabyte GTX460 1GB and I'm very happy with it. TBH you can't go wrong with any of those cards and unless you plan to upgrade your monitor to 1920x1080 or higher then anything above a GTX470 is overkill IMO. You could get the Special on the 5870 for £199.99 though.
 
OP the BEST card for you is 6870.
It can be had for £170.

It beats 460 1gb, trounces 460 756mb, and its on par with 470.
your psu would stuggle with 470 tbh.
 
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coupe69 said:
In your opinion.



An OCZ 600W stealthxstreme would not struggle with a 470 at all, what makes you come out with this sort of nonsense?
Click to expand...

you got something to add to the post or your just trolling?

I know because I own a 470 and ran it on a OCZ 700W psu. Voltage droop was epic. From 12.3V to 11.5V and thats a 700W in testing.

Back to the thread.

5870 for £180 is also a GREAT price and will beat even a 470gtx for less noise and less heat.

http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-136-OK
 
Skyrocket said:
you got something to add to the post or your just trolling?

I know because I own a 470 and ran it on a OCZ 700W psu. Voltage droop was epic. From 12.3V to 11.5V and thats a 700W in testing.

Back to the thread.

5870 for £180 is also a GREAT price and will beat even a 470gtx for less noise and less heat.

http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-136-OK
Click to expand...

This is doing my head in. A 5870 or 470 to game at 1680x1050 is insane overkill. :rolleyes:
 
Skyrocket said:
your psu would stuggle with 470 tbh.
Click to expand...



Rubbish. 600w is more than enough. People are running SLI/Crossfire with 620w psu's on here. The rig in my siggy only pulls a max of 334w at the wall and even then only by running Linx and Fur stability test at the same time.

Op, i would be extremely tempted by the £180 5870 on offer at the moment but it is a bit much for your res. Give you some extra headroom for a bigger monitor in the future though.
 
Skyrocket said:
you got something to add to the post or your just trolling?

I know because I own a 470 and ran it on a OCZ 700W psu. Voltage droop was epic. From 12.3V to 11.5V and thats a 700W in testing.
Click to expand...

Excuse me :confused: Seems to me you've had a faulty psu so you've decided that all OCZ psus should be tarred with the same brush :rolleyes:

To the OP your psu will run any single card you can get at the moment, so don't worry about Mr Skyrockets scaremongering.

Just FYI:

ocz.jpg


The 5870 is a very good price right now and just about beats a stock 470, and although some may deem it slightly overkill for your pc at the moment at least it gives you some headroom for

a bigger monitor and/or more demanding games in the future. Bear in mind that the 470s are generally awesome overclockers and quite a few extra frames can be gained from a relatively small bump in clock speeds,

having said that they are slightly noisier and obviously draw more power than ATi/AMDs equivalent.
 
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Considering the resolution I play at, would I notice a significant difference in performance between the 460 1GB and the Radeons? I don't know if an extra £50 is worth it.

Would I notice a difference between the 786MB and 1GB varieties of the GTX 460?

And lastly, is the 5870 slightly better than the 6870? the numbering is quite confusing. At the moment I think I'm swaying towards the £180 OcUK 5870 deal, but still feeling a bit indecisive.
 
Mandalore said:
Considering the resolution I play at, would I notice a significant difference in performance between the 460 1GB and the Radeons? I don't know if an extra £50 is worth it.

Would I notice a difference between the 786MB and 1GB varieties of the GTX 460?

And lastly, is the 5870 slightly better than the 6870? the numbering is quite confusing. At the moment I think I'm swaying towards the £180 OcUK 5870 deal, but still feeling a bit indecisive.
Click to expand...

5870 is quicker than 6870 by about 10% ( dont worry about the naming AMD screwed up badly )
They are quiet, with low power consumption and in my opinion would suit your needs to the ground.
At your res you would be able to stick everything on max, AA and AF and would not be an overkill.
Especially in games such as Mafia and Metro 2033.
 
Skyrocket said:
I should know. Because I tested it.
The rest of the armchair entusiast havent and are speculating. End of class.
Click to expand...

You're giving people bad advice and writing off a manafacturers whole PSU lineup because you've had ONE that wasn't up to scratch :rolleyes:

Let's have a look at Nvidias minimum requirement for a GTX 470 shall we:

nvidiapsu.jpg


LINK

Now let's take a look at Guru3Ds recommendations for PSUs to power both the 470 and 480:

guru1.jpg


LINK

The OPs PSU exceeds the minimum spec easily.

I'm running a GTX 480 and a GTX 260 for PhysX using a Seasonic M12 700 watt without any issues at all.

I also seem to remember Rroff is using an OCZ 700 watt psu for 470 in SLi!!

[Off topic] @ Skyrocket, as a hardware field engineer for the past 10+ years I've probably seen more faulty psus than you've had hot dinners,

so please less of the stupid patronising posts, you don't win people over by talking to them like idiots.
 
Personally I wpold go with the 5870 - it is a bargain at this price. If you were to upgrade to a 24" monitor at some time in the future this card would do very well.

It's not that the others are poor , it's the fact that this card is just a bit better.

If you were thinking that you will never look to go 'more pixels' for your monitor then as all of them will cope with your res. go for the cheapest/whichever you fancy.
 
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