New Graphics Card Choice...

[Craig010]

Hey Guys

I'm aiming to build a new system, after xmas, when i have some cash ... however, i dont know what graphics card to choose. I was originally intending to buy a GTX260 "Super Over Clocked" by Gigabyte... but iv'e seen people talking about the ATI 4890's and the new 5770's and now i dont know what to do ...
My budget is about £150 (not that much i know... but i am a student) for a card... so i just want to see what everyone's oppinions are on them?

Another option would be to use my ancient MSI 8600GT from my old computer for a month, so i can raise my budget to the £200 mark... if that would make allot of difference?

Thanks

 

[Nameless_87]

If you can stretch your £240 in a month/month and a half buy 2 of these in crossfire

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-216-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1515

Or buy one now, save money for another one at a later date

 

[Craig010]

ooh okay, i hadn't thought about going the crossfire route because iv'e heared that the gains are small.. and buying one good card is better than two lesser cards?

the motherboard im getting is crossfire compliant.. do i need anything special to make it all work? or do i just plug both cards in?

 

[Nameless_87]

well 2x 5770 will outperform a 5850 and sometimes a 5870 so 2 cards are way better than 1

About crossfire I think you plug them in and apply the crossfire bridge but I'm not that sure since I never crossfired before... will crossfire 2x 5870 next year hopefully

 

[Duff-Man]

Well, any of the three you mention (GTX260, 4890 and 5770) would be a decent buy. I'll run down just a couple of advantages for each.

Of the three cards, the 4890 is (in most cases) the fastest of the three, though not by a huge amount. The GTX260, as an nvidia card, will also give you access to hardware accelerated physics (physx). Very few games support this though, at least as more than a few superficial effects. The 5770 is slightly slower than the 4890 in most cases (due to the lower memory bandwidth), but it is the only card of the three that supports directX 11. Currently this is not so important, but as time goes on more DX11 games will be released. If you're planning on keeping the card for a couple of years, then this could be the most important factor. The 5770 is also consumes the least amount of power.

In your shoes, I think I would probably go for the 5770, but any of the three would be a decent choice. Not all that much in them really.

 

[Morlock]

If you go the Xfire route, make sure that the motherboard supports 2x PCIEx16 slots.