Which Video Card do i choose? Please help

[edly312]

Which Video Card do i choose?

Hi i'm a total newb when it comes to this. Please help me.

System

Lunar Shadow, Alienware Aurora Chassis
Intel® Core™ i7 920 2.66GHz (8MB Cache) Quad Core Processor
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English

6GB Triple Channel 1067MHz DDR3
500GB - SATA-II, 3Gb/s, 7,200RPM, 16MB Cache HDD
Single Drive: 24X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability

Which Video Card.

Single 1GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon™ HD 5870
Single 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 285

Dual 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 240 - SLI® Enabled
Dual 1.8GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260 - SLI® Enabled

I'll be running a dual 23" monitor setup

Thanks for the help

 

[hunter315]

A single 5870 is significantly better than any of the other options, this assumes that you intend to game on this system, if you dont then you can get a much weaker card.

 

[jay2tall]

So this is an Alienware PC and these are your avaliable options I presume. Assuming this, I won't even ask about the Power Supply, because it is a prebuilt machine.

Honestly, if you can swing, it I would get a 5870. It is the best single GPU card you can get right now. With Dual monitors, you will need it. The GTX 285 is on it's way out once Nvidia gets their DX11 cards on the streets next year. I wouldn't bother with a dual card setup.

 

[edly312]

thanks for the input guys. I will get the 5870

 

[jay2tall]

It's an awesome card I must say. It rocks the hot totty.

 

[edly312]

So this is an Alienware PC and these are your avaliable options I presume. Assuming this, I won't even ask about the Power Supply, because it is a prebuilt machine.

Honestly, if you can swing, it I would get a 5870. It is the best single GPU card you can get right now. With Dual monitors, you will need it. The GTX 285 is on it's way out once Nvidia gets their DX11 cards on the streets next year. I wouldn't bother with a dual card setup.

a few more questions if you guys don't mind.

the prebuilt machine comes with 575W is that enough?

I will be gaming a bit on this system. Is 6 gigs of ram enough?

is on board audio good enough or I should just add a sound card?

Thanks again

 

[hunter315]

575 is enough for a single card, dont expect to add another 5870 down the line without upgrading to a good 750 watt PSU first, but for a single one it should be fine.

Tests on toms have shown that games dont benefit from more than 4GB of ram normally so 6GB is more than enough, just make sure you get a 64 bit OS so you can actually use all of it, a 32 bit OS will restrict you to using only a little over 3GB.

Onboard audio is quite good these days, dont spend extra on a sound card unless you are an audiophile with good sound equipment, most games dont include high quality sound files anyway so rarely will a sound card make a difference in quality for game play.

 

[jay2tall]

Exactly, it is enough for what you order. But you will have to look at things if you ever upgrade. It is enough and I'm sure they've tested the configuration thoroughly.