Best $150 GPU?

[twelvesaints]

Hi everyone,

I'm building a new system, and one of the components I'm stuck on is my GPU. I've got a budget of pretty much $150 for it. I'm building an i5 setup and will NOT be using SLI/Crossfire. The Radeon HD 5770 was recommended to me by a reliable source, but I'm going to ask for some more input. The link to the card is below.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102864

The GTS 250 was also suggested to me. I'm not a huge gamer, but I do play games and I want to buy a decent card that'll last a few years. Any suggestions would be great.

 

[jyjjy]

Yeah, the HD5770 is the best choice.

 

[delluser1]

I want to buy a decent card that'll last a few years.

Can't say how long a card will last, but DX11 is the future and you won't get it with a GTS 250.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

While I am comfy recommending the 58xx and 59xx, I really don't think the 5770 has anything to offer as a budget card. Gonna refer you to two articles:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-310-5970,2491.html

Here's the "winners" from THG's latest (December) GFX Roundup
Best Graphics Cards For The Money: December '09

$50 - HD 4650
$65 - HD 4670 / 9600 GSO
$85 - 9600 GT
$95 - 9600 GT / HD 4830
$110 - GTS 250 512 MB
$120 - GTS 250 1 GB
$155 - HD 5770 / GTX 260
$200 - HD 4890
$240 - 2 x GTS 250
$310 - No winner (HD 5850 Honorable Mention)
$330 - 2 x GTX 260 / 2 x HD 5770
$400 - 2 x HD 4890
$410 - No winner (HD 5870 Honorable Mention)
$465 - No winner (GTX 295 Honorable Mention)
$625 - No winner (HD 5970 Honorable Mention)

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3658&p=14

But we don’t have that luxury with the Radeon HD 5700 series. The value of the 5770 in particular is clearly not going to be in its performance. Compared to AMD’s 4870, it loses well more than it wins, and if we throw out Far Cry 2, it’s around 10% slower overall. It also spends most of its time losing to NVIDIA’s GTX 260, which unfortunately the 4870 didn’t have so much trouble with. AMD clearly has put themselves in to a hole with memory bandwidth, and the 5770 doesn’t have enough of it to reach the performance it needs to be at.

If you value solely performance in today’s games, we can’t recommend the 5770. Either the 4870 1GB or the GTX 260 would be the better buy.

So here’s the bottom line for the 5770: Unless you absolutely need to take advantage of the lower power requirements of the 40nm process (e.g. you pay a ton for power) or you strongly believe that DirectX 11 will have a developer adoption rate faster than anything we’ve seen before for DirectX, the 1GB 4870 or GTX 260 is still the way to go.

 

[twelvesaints]

I was hoping either everyone would agree with my selection, or disagree. Not split down the middle, haha. To be honest, I have no earthly idea whether or not DX11 is important to me. I've pretty much ruled out the GTS 250. The GTX 260 isn't really priced in my range, either.

Is this 4870 ok?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127451&cm_re=4870-_-14-127-451-_-Product

It's like $155, also, same as the HD5770.

Is the 4870 going to be usable with DX11?

 

[angry_ducky]

How about the Radeon HD 4860?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102866&Tpk=radeon%20hd%204860

From what I've heard, its performance is close to a 4870, and it's $130 with free shipping. I haven't been able to find any reviews of it, though; this is just what I've heard, so take it with a grain of salt. The specs look good, though.

 

[rolli59]

I was hoping either everyone would agree with my selection, or disagree. Not split down the middle, haha. To be honest, I have no earthly idea whether or not DX11 is important to me. I've pretty much ruled out the GTS 250. The GTX 260 isn't really priced in my range, either.

Is this 4870 ok?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127451&cm_re=4870-_-14-127-451-_-Product

It's like $155, also, same as the HD5770.

Is the 4870 going to be usable with DX11?

HD4870 has a little bit more performance than the HD5770 it does not support DX11 but it will run the same games in DX10.

 

[jyjjy]

I'd definitely take an HD5770 over the HD4870 at the same price. Don't just go by the summary of one review someone pastes for you. Almost every major tech site reviewed the HD5770 when it came out and for the most part it got rave reviews and that was when it was more expensive and the HD4870/GTX 260 were cheaper. Look for them yourself and here's one showing the HD5770 to counterbalance the one jack pasted;
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/HD_5770/30.html
Essentially the two cards perform very similarly but the HD5770 is superior feature-wise. It built on a 40nm process which makes it very power efficient/cool, it's dx11 and supports 3 monitors.

 

[rolli59]

How about the Radeon HD 4860?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102866&Tpk=radeon%20hd%204860

From what I've heard, its performance is close to a 4870, and it's $130 with free shipping. I haven't been able to find any reviews of it, though; this is just what I've heard, so take it with a grain of salt. The specs look good, though.

That card performs on the level of HD4850 it is a crippled HD4890.
Review that I posted in a topic here few weeks ago http://en.inpai.com.cn/doc/enshowcont.asp?id=6829

 

[JackNaylorPE]

The 4870 or 260 will play DX11 games, just not use DX11 features. Both beat the 5770 by about 10% on average. However, despite it's DX11 label, the 5770 choked on Dirt 2 which is a Dx11 game w/ just minor incorporation of DX11 features.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/dirt-2-performance-benchmark,2508-8.html

Enabling DirectX 11 has a massive impact on performance. The Radeon HD 5750 and 5770 can easily handle the high 2560x1600 resolution in DirectX 9 mode, but in DirectX 11 mode things become very choppy.....With DirectX 11 taking a colossal performance toll,....

The 58xx should be considered the entry point to playing DX11 games at 1920 x 1200.

 

[sbcharlie]

I dont think there is a $150 price point atm.

almost all the decent cards are withina $70 range.
from 5770 at bottom, thru 260/4870 to 4890/275.

 

[sabot00]

The 4870 or 260 will play DX11 games, just not use DX11 features. Both beat the 5770 by about 10% on average. However, despite it's DX11 label, the 5770 choked on Dirt 2 which is a Dx11 game w/ just minor incorporation of DX11 features.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/dirt-2-performance-benchmark,2508-8.html

Enabling DirectX 11 has a massive impact on performance. The Radeon HD 5750 and 5770 can easily handle the high 2560x1600 resolution in DirectX 9 mode, but in DirectX 11 mode things become very choppy.....With DirectX 11 taking a colossal performance toll,....

The 58xx should be considered the entry point to playing DX11 games at 1920 x 1200.

You realize that DiRT 2 probably has horrible DX11 optimization, they tacked in small features at the end.

 

[deadlockedworld]

The 5770 is the best option at $150. If you are not a hardcore gamer you wont really notice the difference between it and the 4870. The never 5770 is also more energy efficient, runs cooler, has DX 11, etc.

HOWEVER--. Its generally not wise to future-proof in video cards...--You should get what you actually need right now, then upgrade to another card in a couple years -- it will cost you less in the long run than getting a more expensive card now--and give you better performance 2 years down the road.

If you are not a huge gamer I think you could probably also be just as happy with a $99 4850 which can play basically every game out now. Its equal in performance to the GTS 250, and costs less.

 

[sbcharlie]

Doesnt that also depend on resolution?

At 1920x1080 or higher, wont you need a more powerful card then the 250 and ati comparable?

 

[thebigring]

We really need to know what resolution you're playing at to give a good recommendation.
Just so you have a reference, I own a 4850 (overclocked, but with more room to go!) and it plays every game out at @ max settings w/ AA @ 1680x1050, and even crysis on high with 2xAA.

Depending on resolution my votes go for the 4850 ~$100 or a 4870 ~$150+.

 

[JDFan]

Hi everyone,

I'm building a new system, and one of the components I'm stuck on is my GPU. I've got a budget of pretty much $150 for it. I'm building an i5 setup and will NOT be using SLI/Crossfire. The Radeon HD 5770 was recommended to me by a reliable source, but I'm going to ask for some more input. The link to the card is below.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102864

The GTS 250 was also suggested to me. I'm not a huge gamer, but I do play games and I want to buy a decent card that'll last a few years. Any suggestions would be great.

I'd say the 5770 was the way to go but currently I'd get this one instead - ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161317 ) - It's pretty much the same as the sapphire card just made by HIS but is $152 shipped if you use the $10 promo code instead of $177 ($169.99 +6.98 shipping) saving you $25.