gfx card advice please

Dcully

So the brother is getting a new gaming rig but unsure what gfx card to go with.
Im not up to speed on whats what so any advice would be appreciated.
He mentioned the gtx 480 but i think they are more expensive than the top ati cards?

fyi he will be running games @ 1920X1080 @ monitors native res.
Im wondering does he need a top end card if indeed im correct in thinking the gtx 480 is top end?

uberpixie

Dcully wrote: »

So the brother is getting a new gaming rig but unsure what gfx card to go with.
Im not up to speed on whats what so any advice would be appreciated.
He mentioned the gtx 480 but i think they are more expensive than the top ati cards?

fyi he will be running games @ 1920X1080 @ monitors native res.
Im wondering does he need a top end card if indeed im correct in thinking the gtx 480 is top end?

The ATI 5970 (€600+) is currently the top card (dual gpu card)
Followed by the GTX480 (€500+) and 5870 (€400) which are fairly even in most games and trade blows here and there.

Main issue with the GTX480 is they generate a lot of heat and such down a lot of power over the 5870 and the GTX480 is more expensive than the 5870.
Ideally if your brother will be gaming at 1920X1080 he will want to get the best card he can afford.

Spear

Dcully wrote: »

So the brother is getting a new gaming rig but unsure what gfx card to go with.
Im not up to speed on whats what so any advice would be appreciated.
He mentioned the gtx 480 but i think they are more expensive than the top ati cards?

fyi he will be running games @ 1920X1080 @ monitors native res.
Im wondering does he need a top end card if indeed im correct in thinking the gtx 480 is top end?

Consider two 460's in SLI, rather than a 480.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/07/12/nvidia_geforce_gtx_460_sli_performance_followup/

Jonny7

The Nvidias have been lagging behind, ATI are now king - the 5870 is a great card at that res and won't be too loud/suck too much juice.

If he wants to budget a bit, then there's one new nvidia card which is actually good - the GTX 460, about 200 quid. I really wouldn't touch any of the other nvidia cards right now

Icyseanfitz

well the most powerful single card (that is actually two ati 5870's that are slightly underclocked packed into one card) is the 5970 and you can get one for around 550 on pixmania at the moment

marco_polo

Dcully wrote: »

So the brother is getting a new gaming rig but unsure what gfx card to go with.
Im not up to speed on whats what so any advice would be appreciated.
He mentioned the gtx 480 but i think they are more expensive than the top ati cards?

fyi he will be running games @ 1920X1080 @ monitors native res.
Im wondering does he need a top end card if indeed im correct in thinking the gtx 480 is top end?

Needs a good card but not an absolute top of the range card. A 5770 is the entry point for decent gaming @1080p, would stretch to either the GT460 or 5850 (ideally) if he can afford either for the better performance and extra longevity.

Just my opinion but a HD5870 would be almost overkill for a single 1080p monitor at the moment, but if he can afford it then then by all means go for it :pac:.

Dcully

Cheers lads, his current rig has an ati HD4870 512 mb but is selling old rig with that card i think.
Shame really as i have the 1gb version of it and have yet to play a game that stresses my system.

Just wondering how much better would a 5850 be compared to my own ati HD4870 1gb card?

lmimmfn

Dcully wrote: »

Just wondering how much better would a 5850 be compared to my own ati HD4870 1gb card?

better in what terms though? that 4870 will play everything( except Crysis, Metro 2033 and CPU bound games like GTA IV ) on max settings at 1680x1050 with some AA and AF at 60FPS on average, but if you have a 1920x1080 screen you might have to turn off AA on some games to get 60FPS( i mean you know this yourself of course owning that card ). The 5850 is only going to improve framerates and AA at high resolutions and of course its DX11 which although not a vast improvement over DX10, the shadows in Bad Company 2 look miles better in DX11

I had an Nvidia 260( slightly faster on average than a 4870 ) and moved to a 5850, its a fantastic card and well worth the purchase. I can max out every game with lots of AA and its also a great overclocker. I also have Eyefinity setup too and thats the only time it struggles with games on high settings with AA due to the screen resolution of 3840x1024 im using.

Lu Tze

lmimmfn wrote: »

I also have Eyefinity setup too and thats the only time it struggles with games on high settings with AA due to the screen resolution of 3840x1024 im using.

Are you running an eyefinity setup with projectors!? if so post a pic, there are rare occasions i would use the word awesome but...:pac:

lmimmfn

Lu Tze wrote: »

Are you running an eyefinity setup with projectors!? if so post a pic, there are rare occasions i would use the word awesome but...:pac:

haha, nah i wish dude, only on 2x19" screens and a 22" unfortunately and for eyefinity to work they have to be the same rez so centre screen is at 1280x1024 for eyefinity only.

I posted the setup before( so you might have seen it ) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlp0-pbijjM
but that setup is running with softTH as opposed to Eyefinity, eyefinity just removes the configuration hassle for the 3 screens

Plan is to get 3x24" screens sometime in the next year, id love IPS screens, but thats a dream lol, theyre still damn expensive

I would also be in absolute awe at an eyefinity projector setup

marco_polo

Dcully wrote: »

Cheers lads, his current rig has an ati HD4870 512 mb but is selling old rig with that card i think.
Shame really as i have the 1gb version of it and have yet to play a game that stresses my system.

Just wondering how much better would a 5850 be compared to my own ati HD4870 1gb card?

At a GPU bound resolution like 2560 X 1600 the HD5850 seem to be a pretty consistently 40-50% or so FPS ahead of the the 5770, which is a similar card to the 4870 ( slighly slower in fact), and probably a accurate reflection of where they are at. As lmimmfn says it the relative gains become less at lower resolutions.

EDIT: About 50% performance difference here too seems to agree with the gaming results
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

lmimmfn

marco_polo wrote: »

At a GPU bound resolution like 2560 X 1600 the HD5850 seem to be a pretty consistently 40-50% or so FPS ahead of the the 5770, which is a similar card to the 4870 ( slighly slower in fact), and probably a accurate reflection of where they are at. As lmimmfn says it the relative gains become less at lower resolutions.

EDIT: About 50% performance difference here too seems to agree with the gaming results
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

One point to note though the 5850's overclock like demons( especially compared to the 4870's ), stock is 725/1000 but i get 915/1100 from mine and with 3D Mark Vantage last time i ran it in Feb i was getting gpu performance above the 5870 with that OC( of course 5870's can OC higher ), game performance increases about 15% on average with that OC.
The newer 5850's are non reference cards and dont have the voltage control so wont overclock as high but they still OC really well and have much much better coolers as my 5850's fan on 100% is a leaf blower lol

marco_polo

lmimmfn wrote: »

One point to note though the 5850's overclock like demons( especially compared to the 4870's ), stock is 725/1000 but i get 915/1100 from mine and with 3D Mark Vantage last time i ran it in Feb i was getting gpu performance above the 5870 with that OC( of course 5870's can OC higher ), game performance increases about 15% on average with that OC.
The newer 5850's are non reference cards and dont have the voltage control so wont overclock as high but they still OC really well and have much much better coolers as my 5850's fan on 100% is a leaf blower lol

Tell me about it, if you unlock ATI overdrive and as much as look look at the sliders on a 4870 it nearly crashes, much less actually move them to the right a bit.

lmimmfn

marco_polo wrote: »

Tell me about it, if you unlock ATI overdrive and as much as look look at the sliders on a 4870 it nearly crashes, much less actually move them to the right a bit.

haha, yeah had that with my old 7800GTX, drove me nuts not being able to get more juice out of it.