First Time Builder Needs Graphics Card e

[Computer n00b]

First time builder and I have some things picked out but now am going to order my graphics card.

Here's what i have now:

Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215

ASUS P7P55D PRO LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131405

And i'm thinking of getting these parts:

XFX GS250XZDFU GeForce GTS 250 1GB 256-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150439

CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260

not sure on the hard drive or anything else I might need. For the graphics card, I will take any other card as long as its in the same ballpark price range. All suggestions and help appreciated, thanks!

 

[capt_taco]

The RAM isn't bad, but for the graphics card, if you'rs spending more than $150, you might as well get an HD 5770.

Also, if I was building a system from scratch, I'd definitely get a motherboard with USB 3.0 support. They have plenty in roughly the same price range, or cheaper if you don't mind only one PCIe x16 slot.

 

[paperfox]

Dont think you need a 750w psu a good 650w will be able to handle crossfire/sli for $30 cheaper. (corsair 650TX)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

HD 5770 vs 250 GTS
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/gaming-graphics-cards-charts-2009-high-quality-update-3/compare,1697.html?prod%5B3253%5D=on&prod%5B3210%5D=on

$145 or $150 + Free Shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131328&cm_re=5770-_-14-131-328-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102873&cm_re=5770-_-14-102-873-_-Product

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I think I answered your PIM earlier but ..... I agree w/ the others:

I'd want SATA II / USB 3 (from Asus)

I'd go with a 650 watt Earthwatts.

Corsair gets an 8.5 performance rating for $109
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story4&reid=73

Antec Earthwatts gets a 9.0 for $89
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story4&reid=110

What's monitor resolution ? If HD (1920 x something either at present or in near future), my recommendation would be contrary to what ya might 1st think.....take the 250 ...has more of a future.....yes, I know DX11 is the next "thing" and 250 is "old tech" but since the 5770 can't do 30 fps w/ DX11 at 1920 resolution, what future does it really have at HD resolutions ? At least the 250 can serve ya as a dedicated PhysX card.....of course that assumes you into that kinda thing.

If going 1920 res, the 5850 makes sense, the 5770....nah.

 

[Computer n00b]

Alright 5570 seems pretty much better but i can't decide between these two.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150462&cm_re=HD_5770-_-14-150-462-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102858&cm_re=HD_5770-_-14-102-858-_-Product

they're both pretty much the same price, but I think XFX is known for better quality. Which is better and what importance does the fan have?

 

[capt_taco]

What's monitor resolution ? If HD (1920 x something either at present or in near future), my recommendation would be contrary to what ya might 1st think.....take the 250 ...has more of a future.....yes, I know DX11 is the next "thing" and 250 is "old tech" but since the 5770 can't do 30 fps w/ DX11 at 1920 resolution, what future does it really have at HD resolutions ?

It has a future as one half of a set of crossfired 5770s, that's what. Although yes, that's not the ideal solution. But neither is the 250 -- in either case, you eventually need to add another card. If money was no object, then yeah, the 5850 is a way better option than either, and a better fit for the CPU too.


To the OP's question about the different 5770s: All things being equal, I would take XFX over Sapphire any day because of XFX's lifetime warranty (double lifetime warranty, actually, but who really cares about that). It looks from the pictures that the XFX has a better cooler but is slightly more open with directed fins instead of a complete enclosure for venting ... so some of the hot air MIGHT blow back into the case. Probably nothing to worry about, especially given that you have a pretty good case for cooling to begin with.

Also: With that case, PLEASE, do not be one of the people who shows up here six months from now making a thread that begins, "Help, I have the Antec 300, and I/my friend/my pet knocked over a drink and it went down the top exhaust fan of my case and got soda all over the motherboard, and there was a loud POP and the system turned off and now it won't turn back on again." I cannot tell you how many times I have seen people do that with this case -- or the runner-up for most soda damage, the CoolerMaster HAF 932. Make sure you put this in a safe location where some idiot can't set a drink on top of it and ruin your system. Even if you know better yourself, you would be amazed at where people think it's an acceptable place to set their cup down.

 

[jyjjy]

my recommendation would be contrary to what ya might 1st think.....take the 250 ...has more of a future.....yes, I know DX11 is the next "thing" and 250 is "old tech" but since the 5770 can't do 30 fps w/ DX11 at 1920 resolution, what future does it really have at HD resolutions ?

Do you really have such an irrational hatred of the HD5770? This doesn't make sense in any way whatsoever. Even leaving DX11 out of the equation entirely the card is simply more powerful than the GTS 250. So you will recommend an inferior card because the better card has an extra feature you speculate it might not be powerful enough to use at high resolutions? That speculation is also based one precisely ONE game when there are 2 other DX11 games showing opposite results.
You've spent months bashing the HD5770. Don't you think it's time to give it a rest when you start spouting this kind of nonsense?

 

[scarletvw]

I cant see the prices because my work blocks newegg.com for whatever reason but if you can afford it go with the 5770. I wanted to get one because it beats the GTS 250 in just about every way but the 5770 was 179$ and the GTS 250 1gb was 117$ so I went with the lower cost because, well because i'm poor.

The 5770 will beat the GTS 250 in every bench mark though.

 

[scarletvw]

I cant see the prices because my work blocks newegg.com for whatever reason but if you can afford it go with the 5770. I wanted to get one because it beats the GTS 250 in just about every way but the 5770 was 179$ and the GTS 250 1gb was 117$ so I went with the lower cost because, well because i'm poor.

The 5770 will beat the GTS 250 in every bench mark.

 

[wiinippongamer]

Alright 5570 seems pretty much better but i can't decide between these two.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150462&cm_re=HD_5770-_-14-150-462-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102858&cm_re=HD_5770-_-14-102-858-_-Product

they're both pretty much the same price, but I think XFX is known for better quality. Which is better and what importance does the fan have?

i'd go with the xfx based on warranty.

i have sapphire myself though, and it's great. either option you go you wont be dissapointed, they're both very respectable and high quality brands, only difference is warranty, sapphire has 3 years i think, and xfx has lifetime warranty.

though i highly doubt that a high end gamer would still be using the same graphics card for 3 years.

i always upgrade graphics each about 2 years or add a second one for crossfire and keep it for a little more

 

[pondfisher]

Hey..that build is almost exactly like mine...and here i thought i was being unique!!!


antec 300 illusion
antec earthwatts 650w
asus p7p55d
xfx hd 5770 1gb
intel i5-750
corsair xms3 4gb
dvd burner
500 gb hd

I looked at a usb 3.0 board but the one i have was cheaper and i dont see myself needing the extra speed.......any usb 3.0 hardware will be able to run on 2.0

 

[Computer n00b]

Well I will probably go for the 5770 then but XFX manufactures two different versions of it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150462&cm_re=radeon_5770-_-14-150-462-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150447&cm_re=radeon_5770-_-14-150-447-_-Product

which, since they're almost exactly the same, stump me as to which one to get. Does anyone know what the difference between these two. Otherwise I will go for the first one since it has better reviews.

 

[jyjjy]

The difference should be pretty noticeable. They have different coolers. The one that vents outside of the case is probably the better choice unless your computer has very good airflow inside the case already.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Do you really have such an irrational hatred of the HD5770? This doesn't make sense in any way whatsoever. Even leaving DX11 out of the equation entirely the card is simply more powerful than the GTS 250. So you will recommend an inferior card because the better card has an extra feature you speculate it might not be powerful enough to use at high resolutions? That speculation is also based one precisely ONE game when there are 2 other DX11 games showing opposite results.
You've spent months bashing the HD5770. Don't you think it's time to give it a rest when you start spouting this kind of nonsense?

Its a card w/o a market niche....and I'm not alone in that opinion.

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

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..... But that’s a future that’s hard to predict, and something we got burnt on somewhat with DX10 and DX10.1.

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. Or to put things another way, outside of those two circumstances we’re still at status quo. A 1GB 4870 will continue to be a better choice until the price difference between one of those on sale and a 5770 drops below $10-$15, at which point we could justify rolling the dice and paying a bit more for the 5770.

 

[jyjjy]

lol
Give it a rest man. The prices of the various cards in that bracket were ENTIRELY different when that article was written. What you are quoting is meaningless. Far from not having a niche the HD5770 is now the only card worth considering in it's general price/performance area. Reread the last line you quoted:
"A 1GB 4870 will continue to be a better choice until the price difference between one of those on sale and a 5770 drops below $10-$15, at which point we could justify rolling the dice and paying a bit more for the 5770."
You are misinforming people and quoting an article that clearly states at what point the HD5770 will be worthwhile and that point came months ago, not very long after the card was released. These days the pricing hasn't just reached the point suggest in the article it has reversed. So please, just cut it out already. And if not then when recommending people cards based on prices from 6 month ago you should provide a link to a time machine as well.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

lol
Give it a rest man. The prices of the various cards in that bracket were ENTIRELY different when that article was written. What you are quoting is meaningless. Far from not having a niche the HD5770 is now the only card worth considering in it's general price/performance area. Reread the last line you quoted:

Price changes don't solve bandwidth problems.....neither does the last excuse ...... driver updates won't do it either ?

"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."

and you forgot this part ...

"the 5770 needs to be at around $130 to win on performance alone,"

the 5770 is still $155+ from any decent vendor. As Anandtech says, at $130 and less it's right where it belongs ....with all the other cards that can't do 1920 x 1200

 

[jyjjy]

Price changes don't solve bandwidth problems.....neither does the last excuse ...... driver updates won't do it either ?

"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."

and you forgot this part ...

"the 5770 needs to be at around $130 to win on performance alone,"

the 5770 is still $155+ from any decent vendor. As Anandtech says, at $130 and less it's right where it belongs ....with all the other cards that can't do 1920 x 1200

This is like talking to a 4 year old. This was written based on prices that DO NOT EXIST ANY MORE. Do you understand that at all? When this was written you could get an HD4870 512mb for $125-130. That is what those statements are based on and it is absolutely 100% irrelevant to today's pricing or what card is a decent buy or recommendation in today's market.
Your harping on the memory bandwidth is also misleading. No, price and drivers cannot increase memory bandwidth. What drivers can do is increase performance and that is the thing that matters to most people. Furthermore if the bandwidth was such a limitation crossfired HD5770s would be severely crippled by the 128 bit bus but instead the card scales extremely well. If you need more convincing here is an article on the subject;
http://alienbabeltech.com/main/?p=12474&all=1
It seems like you are willing to bash the card based entirely on an ill conceived notion that no card with 128 bit memory bus could possibly be good. It would be wise to judge cards based on (current) price and actual performance, not one detail you've decided you don't like.