Best $100-150 GPU ?

[konakid]

Ok. I am looking at building a new system, and am wondering which GPU I should get.
I am partial to AMD and will be upgrading a HD 4650 crossfire pair.(They were ok, but could only Play Dirt on medium settings) When O.C. they scored 5.7 on aero and 6.5 on gaming in WEI.

So whatever will beat these cards and is in the $100-$150 price range.

I am currently looking at the 4800 series and 5700 series.
It will pair with a 750w psu , Phenom x4 940, and some sort of ddr3...



I know nothing about Nvidia, so suggestions may help also.

 

[amk09]

Ok. I am looking at building a new system, and am wondering which GPU I should get.
I am partial to AMD and will be upgrading a HD 4650 crossfire pair.(They were ok, but could only Play Dirt on medium settings) When O.C. they scored 5.7 on aero and 6.5 on gaming in WEI.

So whatever will beat these cards and is in the $100-$150 price range.

I am currently looking at the 4800 series and 5700 series.
It will pair with a 750w psu , Phenom x4 940, and some sort of ddr3...



I know nothing about Nvidia, so suggestions may help also.

Get a Radeon HD 5770

I'd recommend the one below but you can find them for as low as $150

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127490&cm_re=5770-_-14-127-490-_-Product

 

[shadow187]

Agreed with AMK.

 

[rheaun]

5770 is seriously worth the extra 60 or so $ because it is directx 11...

 

[konakid]

So the extra money for the 5770 is worth it over 5750?
There's a XFX 5750 for $130 on newegg....

 

[shadow187]

That is an extremely good 5770. It will overclock very nicely, and allow much better performance.

 

[chaitanya_mkin]

yah i agree with what all replied xfx 5770 is best affordable card..........

 

[shadow187]

yah i agree with what all replied xfx 5770 is best affordable card..........

I was talking about the one jyjjy linked.

 

[konakid]

Ok what about this card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127495

Would this be an equal to the MSI 5770 that AMK09 suggested?

Also what about the 5600 series?

Or a crossfire pair of 4850s or 4770s

 

[amk09]

The GTS 250 does not perform on the same level as the 5770, nor does it support DX11.

Considering you play Dirt, a game that utilizes DirectX 11, a DX11 card like the 5770 would be great for you, while the Geforce GTS 250 and the 4850/4770 don't support DX11.

Like shadow said, the 5770 is the best bang for your buck card available, and is able to max out pretty much any game, and there is always the option of getting another one down the line when more demanding games start coming out as they work great in crossfire.

 

[konakid]

Ok. Thanks.

I'll probably go with the HD 5770 than.

I just compared a bunch of cards on AMD's website and your right:, between DX11,streams,GPU and memory clock...it'll probably be the best bet.

 

[gamerk316]

Again, I personally think the 5770 will show to be too weak in DX11 tasks, but at least its not $250 anymore, so my previous objections against it are lowered somewhat. If you can pony up for a 5850, I think thats a much safer long-term buy.

 

[amk09]

Again, I personally think the 5770 will show to be too weak in DX11 tasks, but at least its not $250 anymore, so my previous objections against it are lowered somewhat. If you can pony up for a 5850, I think thats a much safer long-term buy.

You've got to remember he's only playing at 1440x900, so it won't be as demanding as higher resolutions. Also, why get a 5850 when you can get two 5770's for the same price, and two 5770's perform on par with a 5870. It is indeed a safer long term buy, but he's looking for a $100-$150 card..No sense in recommending a $300 card.

 

[konakid]

I'm on a budget of how much I can sell my previous build for, so the more I get out of it the better card I can get....

I do like $150 over $300. I would have to agree with amk09 that two 5770s would be a better bet than one 5850.

Unless of course your motherboard or case won't allow...

...I can play many old games at I think its 1680x1050, but ya with DIRT it's pretty hard to drive with graphics half a second behind..so 1440x900 is much more liquid.

I have a LCD LG W225TQ I think which is 1680x1050...sucks cause its so close to 1080

 

[jyjjy]

The HD5850 can OC like crazy and is a better choice than 2 HD5770s imo if you have $300 to spend. If not though 1 HD5770 now and another at some point in crossfire when you feel it's necessary is a good plan.

 

[konakid]

Weird how the HD5850 has a lower GPU clock and lower memory clock and is so much more expensive.

I guess the 5770 has only 800 streams compared to 1440 streams.

 

[shadow187]

That's some of the reason.

The HD5850 can get to HD5870 clocks on stock volts, and to 1000/1250 with a bump.

 

[jyjjy]

It also has a 256-bit bus which is more expensive to manufacture, twice as many ROPs, ect.

 

[konakid]

I know 256bit is better than 128bit but why is this?

also what are ROPs

 

[jyjjy]

The memory bus and the memory speed combine into the memory bandwidth which is the important stat. It is how fast information can be given to the processor. If the processor is fast enough that it can need more info than the memory can deliver at a given time then frame rates will suffer. The HD5770 uses very fast DDR5 ram so they cut it down to 128 bits on the memory bus to save on production costs. In general it isn't a big deal on one HD5770 but in crossfire it does come into play. There's some discussion of the issue in this article;
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd5770-hd5750-crossfirex.html
The HD5850 is a better choice than two HD5770s imo because it doesn't have this memory bus limitation, it will leave you with a free slot to upgrade later on and the card OCs to almost an absurd degree if you bump up the voltage(40%+) so it will be superior in performance as well in the end.