[Solved] Ati 5770 vs ati 4890 vs gtx 260

I am putting together a system (having been using a laptop for the last few months) and want people's advice on the graphics card. My price range is aproximately 150 to 195 dollars.

The current specs of the system are the following:
CPU: AMD64 X2 6000 (Windsor)
MBoard: Gigabyte MA77O-UD3
RAM: 8GB G.Skill DDR2 1000
PSU: Thermaltake W0093RU 500W
Primay HD: 75GB WD Raptor
Secondary HD's: 2 320GB Seagate SATA
The Old Video card was a EVGA 512-P2-N635-AR GeForce 7950GT 512MB, which was awesome for its time.

I don't always play the newest games on this, but I do play games and hope to be able to play them in the near future. The types of games I want the video card to do well with include any of these: mass effect 1, mass effect 2, diablo 3, borderlands, The Last Remnant, possibly Bioshock 2, and others.

Please give me your opinions on which would be the best choice. I've looked at all 3, and read the comparisons both on this site and others, but the biggest problem is that it is hard for me to judge how good the 5770 would be on games that are older and may not be able to have dx11 used on them. Also, I don't expect to have the money to get another card for at least a year, and I'm not sure how that really should affect the choice....

One final note...I'm not sure if this matters in the decision making, but I'll be running Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit.

I look forward to reading everyone's opinions

The 5770 will not suffer at all in old games, because it is brand new, almost no graphics cards suffer that affect.


I guess I would have to say go for the 5770, espescially because you are going to be running Win 7.

As long as a retailer doesn't overcharge you because of stocking issues.

I cant seem to find your motherboard--is that the right number? If its crossfire capable I think the 5770 would be a great choice because it would give you the option to boost your power in a year or so if you want. Both of the other two cards are aging and would not be available by then. The 5770 is also more power efficient, cooler, etc--because its newer. I dont really think you need to worry about backward compatibility with direct x.

However... in terms of brute power the 4890 is the more powerful card...

thanks for the quick replies

this is the mboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128376

I unfortunately didn't have a lot of choice, since that is the only part that broke on the last one, and I made sure to get one that had enough space to use the pci slots and still have room for the thick new graphics card

HD5770.
A good idea is to ugrade your CPU as well. Your motherboard can handle any AMD cpu it seems and upgrading to an Athlon II x4 would be a huge upgrade and not too expensive($100-120.)

4890 > 260 > 5770

If the price on the 5770 keeps dropping it will create a niche....a month ago, the three cards cost the same....now.....

the GTX is up to $185, 4870 at $175 and 5770 is down to $150 on some "off brands). At $170 for an XFX it's just not worth buying compared to the 260 and 4870.

I acknowledge that some of you state that the 4890 is the best bet right now, but is that still true and worth getting instead of the 5770 if i don't expect to have money to get a new generation card in the next year or so?

I notice that deadlockedworld, jtt283, jyjjy and a few others are sure that the 5770 is worth getting. Am I correct in understanding that the 5770 should be able to play any game that is already out smoothly? i don't need all the bells and whistles turned on, but usually try and get a blend of smooth playing and decent quality.

Also as jtt283 has noted about my setup, I run a 500W PSU. It has worked fine for a while, but I honestly don't know how much it can take with the new cards. Is the 5770 the only one that will work with it?

I have an old monitor i'm not going to use lol. I'm borrowing one that supports up to 2560x1600. Currently I'm using a laptop that I use at 1920x1200 whenever possible.

I tend to prefer resolutions that are 1280x1024 or higher, but am willing to run at the 1280 one if that is what it takes to get a smooth game

I would add that when i get enough money, my first purchase isn't going to be a cpu, but instead is going to be a monitor that supports a minimum of a 1080 res.

thanks for all the advice. I ended up ordering this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102858

all the responses were relevent and my 'best answer' choice was based on the answer that pointed out what everyone else agreed on in the end.

I bought the Sapphire one you listed and a friend of mine bought a XFX 5770 that he uses. Mine is being used on a system that has windows 7 Ultimate 64bit and his is on a windows 7 Ultimate 32bit system. He has the brown screens and odd graphical problems. Mine does NOT have them. From what he has been able to find out, it only applies to 32bit versions. If you plan on using the card on a 64bit OS than you should be fine.

As to how it is working. Perfectly
I think the most graphically intense game I've played is The Last Remnant. I don't have everything turned on, but most of it is. On the other hand i'm not sure if the reason i get a very small amount of lag with everything is because the rest of the system isn't brand new.
My current system:
Athlon X2 6000 (dual 3.0Ghz)
8GB DDR2 1066 RAM
75GB WD Raptor HD (1st generation of Raptor Drives)

If you are going to be running a 64bit OS and you don't have the money to get a 5800 or 5900 series card it is definitely worth it. I should also add that I have a UPS connected so I can check how much power the system is using and the MOST power the system has used even when i was benchmarking the 5770 was 300watts, so if power is also an issue to you, the 5770 is amazingly power efficient.

good luck and enjoy using it.
As I've said, it is heaven using it, even more so when i use my laptop with its 3650 512MB and then use the 5770
If you buy it, I hope you love it as much as I do

If it was me i would get somthing like the 4870/5750 and use the rest to upgrade your cpu if you buy a 5770 or a 4890 bottleneck will be an issue you would be better getting a slightly cheaper graphics card and then get a decent gaming cpu such as the phenom 550 x2 which will fit in your board.

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey