Best graphic card at 1024x768 resolution

[tufel]

guyz, iam going to be buying a new grpahic card .i'll be gaming at 1024x786 with full aa and af. my budget is abt $100. i hv finalised these five cards. plzzz help me decide. thnx in advance.

p.s. i am from asia so newegg is out of question.

 

[tufel]

sorry i forgot to post the name of the cards and my specs
radeon 4670
radeon 3850
radeon 3870
nvidia 9600gt
nivdia 9500gt


specs: intel core 2 duo 2.66 ghz, 4gb ram and a 15" crt monitor

 

[tufel]

i am going to be playing cod4, assassins creed, stranglehold, gta 4....i am not into too much of first person shooters.i mostly play third person, racing and sports games...pls help!!!

 

[njalterio]

No one benchmarks for that resolution so it really is impossible to tell which is best. I would save up for a better monitor before getting any of the new graphics cards, they will all do fine at that resolution anyways.

 

[aevm]

I'm voting for the HD 4670. Second choice 9600GT.

 

[njalterio]

I'm voting for the HD 4670. Second choice 9600GT.

Why? Would he even see a difference?

 

[tufel]

right now i'm broke and can't afford a monitor...if i had to game at 1024x768 and think abt playing all the upcoming titles (future proofing) which wud be better? i game on xp and vista

 

[aevm]

Why? Would he even see a difference?

At 1024x768? It depends. In Crysis, HD 4670 gets 60 fps and 9500GT 30 fps. That one you'd notice.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3405&p=7&cp=4

In less demanding games, yeah, all 5 of those cards would do nicely.

I totally agree with you he should get a new monitor ASAP, by the way.

Why HD 4670 before 9600GT now - that was the more difficult choice. He mentioned racing games, and I remember reading that those tend to favor ATI cards. For example the HD 4870 1GB totally humiliates the GTX 260 Core 216 in GRID (http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3415&p=7), when in fact the GTX 260 Core 216 is just as good or even better that the HD 4870 1GB in lots of games.

 

[marco324]

9600gt is the fastest of the bunch i googled
ati 4670 reviews
4670 uses less power if thats a concern

if your ordering on line newegg has the sapphire 4830 for 110.00
i think is your best bang for the buck nice card i have one runs cool
idles 30 something under load 50's
can't go wrong with this card for the money o/c comes close to the 4850
good for higher res when you upgrade your monitor

 

[njalterio]

Well it really is impossible to future proof in this case because as soon as you get a better monitor that opens up the door for pretty much any graphics card configuration (assuming you got a monitor that supports at least 1680 x 1050). So it doesn't really matter which card you get now because it would not be so great once you hit that resolution. I would just get whatever is cheapest and try to save for a better monitor.

What graphics card are you using now? or integrated?

 

[tufel]

i probably wud be getting a new monitor in abt a year. till then i want to play all the latest games that come out and when i get myself a new monitor i wud be gaming at higher resolutions. keeping all this mind pls help me decide and pls remember that i will be gaming with aa and af. thnx for all ur replies.

 

[aevm]

+1

1680x1050 is the sweet spot now, with 22" monitors selling best.

What kind of PSU do you have? For example a HD 4830 will require a 450W PSU or better, and a 9600GT 425W, according to Sapphire and BFG respectively.

 

[tufel]

i got a 400w psu

 

[njalterio]

According to ATI's site they recommend a 450 Watt power supply for the 3800 series.
http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonhd3800/specs.html

You may be able to get away with using your power supply depending on the brand.

 

[njalterio]

Also check to see if you have a 6 pin PCI-E connector from your power supply.

 

[turboflame]

HD4670 is probably the way to go, it does better than the HD3X00 series when it comes to AA performance plus it doesn't require extra power.

 

[KyleSTL]

+1 on the HD 4670 recommendation. 1GB may help with GTA4 if you can find one in your budget.

 

[cjl]

Go with the 4670, and 512 MB is fine. You don't need a GB until you are way above that resolution.

 

[KyleSTL]

Go with the 4670, and 512 MB is fine. You don't need a GB until you are way above that resolution.

Have you read about the graphics buffer problems with GTA4 though? If he expects to play it at all 1GB is my recommendation (although I've read it's a CPU hog too, so a 3Ghz+ dual or quad core might be necessary). Overall, it sounds like a very poorly ported game (say that three times fast).

 

[michaelmk86]

With the cards you can play this games with max settings at 1024x786, but not the gta4 with a core 2 duo 2.66 ghz in fact you cannot play gta4 even at the lowest settings. So you need a quadcore for th gta4.

 

[aevm]

Does GTA4 work better on a lower-clocked quad-core (Q6600) than a higher-clocked dual-core (E8500), for example? Just curious. So far only FSX does that, AFAIK, but I'm hoping more games will start doing it.

 

[michaelmk86]

Yes a quad-core 3GHz perform better than a dual-core 4GHz in gta4.

 

[aevm]

Cool, thanks!

 

[tufel]

my frnd plays gta 4 on his c2d with a 9500gt at all the max. settings at 1024x768...not kidding

 

[tufel]

9600gt vs 4670
and
9600gt vs 3870