I've been searching and searching for a new graphics card, trying to get all the input I can from people. I currently have an ATI Radeon HD 4650 1gb. It plays all the source games maxed out, MW2 is maxed no AA/Vsync, and Dragon Age/ME2 are maxed no AA/Vsync but sometimes I get really crappy fps. I really want something that will max out Bad Company 2, and Crysis on at least high with solid FPS. I want to do a subtle upgrade, nothing more than $200 since I'll also have to upgrade the PSU. I've been looking at the nVidia gtx 260, ATI 4850,4890, and 5770. All fall in the price range and seem to have pretty similar specs on paper. CompUSA did a test where the 4850 out performs the gtx 260 and so on, it also has better numbers overall than the other cards but it's a but older. The 5770 supports DX11, while that's not all that important right now, it doesn't hurt to have it. I'm leaning more towards the 4850, but would love some more input before I open my wallet. My current rig: Win7 64x, AMD Phenom X4 9750 2.4 quad core, 8gb DDR2 RAM. Thanks in advance.
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Need advice for a new card
You want to skip the Hd4850, it's actually just a 9800GTX in terms of benchmark and there are slowdowns and it might overheat easily, I wouldn't recommend it at all. The Hd5770 is next in line, it's more powerful, however not gtx260 core 216 powerful yet has DirectX11 and it's good enough for most games with the exception of crysis, however still playable. The gtx260 doesn't have DirectX11 graphical settings, which makes it pointless now to get even if it's slightly more powerful. Same with the hd4890 which is the most powerful card there, yet pointless with the release DX11.
I say you should get the hd5770 because it's affordable and it should be good enough for now for your needs with DX11. If you don't care about that at all, get the hd4890, it's the most powerful card on that list and it's really affordable these days, however you might miss out on DX11, in exchange for alot more framerates.
Well I've been reading reviews for a whole damn week and I think I'm going to take a risk and get the 5770, I'm not too fond of the 128 bit memory interface, but everything else seems good. Thanks to those of you that left feedback.
" why isn't the 4870 being considered? "Didn't really look into that one, for the price point I figured I may as well go to the 4890, and 4850 since those were the only two recommended from all the videos I watched. Is there something about that card that I should consider?
The 4850 is as slow as the GTS 250, it definitely can't top the GTX 260 core 216. I think whatever bench you saw they were testing against the older GTX 260 which had some cores locked out.
For budget, 4850 is nice. However, if you start considering the 4870 and 4890, you might as well get a 5xxx series.
First of all, don't lie. If you could really play those games "maxed out" then you wouldn't be asking for a new graphics card. It's also completely against benchmark numbers: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-4650-agp,2383-5.html
Pertaining to the question, the 5770 is best the card for the money at the ~$200 price range. You can get a good idea of its performance here: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/HD_5770/1.html (note you will probably have to subtract 10-20% performance due to the reviewer using a much higher clocked processor). Good value doesn't always translate into good performance however; the 5770 will do well in most games but you won't be getting maxed out Crysis with it (tbh, even the DX11 functionality is a waste since it's not strong enough to run it without hitting unplayable framerates). Even BC2 will probably not run at 60fps at max settings. Before anything however, you should check whether your motherboard supports PCI express, since your current one runs on AGP. All of the newer cards run on PCI express.
" First of all, don't lie. If you could really play those games "maxed out" then you wouldn't be asking for a new graphics card. It's also completely against benchmark numbers: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-4650-agp,2383-5.htmlYes I do have PCI express and yes I do run them maxed out without AA and Vsync, my monitor only does 1600x900 so it's not like I'm running them on 1900x1080 resolution. Like I said, I get low fps during some scenes in Mass Effect 2 as well as some cut scenes in Dragon Age, and CoD6 doesn't stress the card at all. Please don't call me a liar, I know what my card is capable of, that's why I'm asking for opinions with these, a simple upgrade so I can play Bad Company 2 with some nice eye candy.
Pertaining to the question, the 5770 is best the card for the money at the ~$200 price range. You can get a good idea of its performance here: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/HD_5770/1.html (note you will probably have to subtract 10-20% performance due to the reviewer using a much higher clocked processor). Good value doesn't always translate into good performance however; the 5770 will do well in most games but you won't be getting maxed out Crysis with it (tbh, even the DX11 functionality is a waste since it's not strong enough to run it without hitting unplayable framerates). Even BC2 will probably not run at 60fps at max settings. Before anything however, you should check whether your motherboard supports PCI express, since your current one runs on AGP. All of the newer cards run on PCI express. "
" @mark_evans83: I'm sorry I said you lied, the benchmark I referred to was clearly CPU-bottlenecked and I had not read carefully enough. A rare mistake on my part (it's late over here). The information I gave about the 5770 is still entirely true though, and I hope it will help you. "Thanks I appreciate the info
" @Skytylz said:I don't have one but most say it is somewhere between the gtx 260 and 280 and i think it is about the same price or less than the 260." why isn't the 4870 being considered? "Didn't really look into that one, for the price point I figured I may as well go to the 4890, and 4850 since those were the only two recommended from all the videos I watched. Is there something about that card that I should consider? "
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