VIdeo card For Games and Movies

garm84

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Hi all,

I am here 2 fine out a very good video card. that will give me what I want.


I am looking for a high end video card that will support 1080P and must have HDML or DVI and it's good for movies and games.

I am looking for a video card hat will do max settings on all games. and will do 1080p, 1920x1080. I have goting a new Monitor
A Sceptre X246W-1080P 24" Widescreen Monitor - 1080p, 1920x1080 and the video card i got right now is a 8600GT 512MB and it's very old card. they dont even sale them anymore so i would like to upgrade i would like to h ave at lest 4 Video cards in my machine do run on crossfire X 4 way. My price is between 100 to 200 buxs maybe 250 max per card i will go. i would like cheaper if i can get. the cards i was looking at but not sure what one would do all. here they are.

D10-4870 ::Diamond Radeon HD 4870 Video Card - 512MB GDDR5, PCI Express 2.0 x16, CrossFireX Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV, HDMI Support, VGA Support(5.6 lbs) x2

P450-4894 ::XFX Radeon HD 4890 Video Card - 1024MB DDR5, PCI Express 2.0 x16, CrossFireX Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV(5.8 lbs) x2

P450-4772 ::XFX HD477AYDFC Radeon HD 4770 Video Card - 512MB DDR5, PCI Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, Dual DVI, HDTV, HDMI Support(3.6 lbs) x2

whitch card will do all that i need ?


Thanks
 

kiban

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Forget the 4xxx series, go for the 5xxx series.

The HD 5770 price is between 150-200$, HDMI+DVI, DX11, low heat and noise... and perform great. If you want less price, go for the HD 5750.

You do know, that you need a mobo that support 4 cards now do you?

 

garm84

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what you dont understand Virrze?
 

garm84

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yes I do know i will need a MB that will support 4 video cards. but if it do perfect with 2 or 3 video cards that be best. If i go with 4 and it just a waste of $ then il do with 2 or 3. witch ever i get max at.
 

garm84

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When i go for a gaming Monitor what do i look for. im not 2 sure on the monitor i have said i was gonna get. please note i didnt get it yet. but i am open to any comments that will be better other then the one i said.
 

redechelon

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garm, 4 cards is overkill. Especially because of scaling... past a 2nd card, you start to see significant performance decreases.

And by ALL games MAX settings, what do you mean... Crysis at MAX settings? AA?
You'd be better off spending $400 on 2 cards, then $200 on 4 cards.
If you wanted a cheaper route while being able to max out many games, my recommendation is 2 5770's. ($300)
If you want MAX performance in all games, consider 5870's or GTX 470's if you're looking to spend $800 (nVidia SLI gets a much larger increase of perfromance than ATI's Crossfire in general)

Here is a link comparing Crossfire and SLI, but from a 5870's and 480 GTX's stand point. You just have to decide which choice is better for you, value or raw power.
 

garm84

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max settigs means on high settings on the game. and what one is better crossfire or triple SLI my friend has crossfire and he said crossfire is better. and i wasnt 2 sure. but if sli has better performance then crossfire i think il go with sli. i just want a good card that will do that. and i didnt mean 200 buxs for 2 card i mean 200 buxs per card as in 2 cards = 400 buxs. il look in to the sli cards. thanks more info will help.
 

redechelon

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This is a tom's review with some really nice SLI vs Crossfire graphs, but these 2 comments sum it up for you. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-480-3-way-sli-crossfire,2622.html

"At the very worst, SLI is good for a 71% performance increase (in Just Cause 2). At the very best, it yields 89% additional performance."

"At the very worst, CrossFire increases performance by 23%. At the very best, it’s good for a 79% boost"

In the end, the great value of the ATI card evens with the great SLI performance, making it a hard decision. Good luck =]
 

redechelon

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First of all, the margin is HUGE, in almost every application SLI scaled almost double... thats where the "much better" came from. As far as comparing HD5000 series with GTX200 series, I was looking for cards that support DX11 for new games... hence fermi. I can understand buying new HD5000 cards, but I cant justify buying nvidia's last gen cards when new ones are out... if the price point is too much, get ATI, or lower priced GTX 400's will be out soon. IMO i'd try to get away from old technology... Why would you buy $400 worth of older technology, when you could get a fermi or CF HD5000's?

I wouldn't even consider 3 cards, you'd gain an insignificant FPS jump, while still paying the same price for the card.
 

welshmousepk

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as Does dual crossfire, so you obviously have not done your research.

in most cases two 5870's ,at resolutions of 1920x1080 or higher, scaled by more than 80 percent. in the most demanding games the margin was above 90 percent (crysis for instance)

so while the GTX480 does sale better, its certainly not by a huge margin. and when you take into consideration the drop off with Tri-sli, that is no where near as apparent in crossfireX, i'd say his post is pretty damn accurate.

so do some research before ranting.
 

redechelon

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Did you not just read the review i posted, or countless others?

71%-89%
vs <-----------Sound like a good margin to me.
23%-79%

90% in Crysis? CF 5870's FAIL at Crysis for some odd reason, and its not just Tom's review, so im confused where you got your numbers.

"so do some research before ranting." Isnt that what the review links and quotes are?

At higher resolutions, yes the 5870's performed *better* but if you can honestly say that you dont see the number differences in scaling, you must be blind.

3 cards seems wasteful to me, you get 50% of a card performance when you could throw that extra money into 2 nicer cards in the first place.
Unless you're upgrading a dual-GPU system already, buying 3 cards from the get-go is foolish...

I'm by no means an nvidia fan boy, actually I have CF 5770's and im very pleased, but the numbers dont lie.
Especially when you consider they just released new drivers (These numbers were recorded with the 480, but can provide an idea):

o Up to 14% in Aliens vs. Predator (1920x1200 noAA/AF – Tessellation on)
o Up to 4% in Batman: Arkham Asylum (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF PhysX=High)
o Up to 5% in BattleForge (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF – Very High settings)
o Up to 5% in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF)
o Up to 4% in Crysis: Warhead (1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF – Enthusiast setting)
o Up to 24% in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (1920x1200 no AA/AF)
o Up to 9% in Far Cry 2 (2560x1600 8xAA/16xAF)
o Up to 25% in Just Cause 2 (2560x1600 no AA/AF - Concrete Jungle)
o Up to 7% in Metro 2033 (1920x1200 no AA/16xAF – Tessellation on)
o Up to 40% in Metro 2033 with SLI ((1920x1200 4xAA/16xAF – Tessellation on)
o Up to 8% in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (1920x1200 no AA/AF – Day)
o Up to 110% in Stone Giant with SLI (2650x1600 – Tessellation on, DoF on)
o Up to 6% in The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena (2560x1600 no AA/AF)
o Up to 9% in Unigine: Tropics (2560x1600 no AA/AF – OpenGL)
o Up to 5% in 3DMark Vantage (Performance and Extreme Presets)
o Up to 19% with Transparency AA (1920x1200 4xTrSS – measured in Crysis)

* Adds support for new extreme Antialiasing modes for 3-way SLI PCs, including up to SLI48x AA for GeForce 200 series GPUs and up to SLI96x AA for GeForce GTX 400 series GPUs.
 

garm84

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so ur saying that slu has more performance and lower power . and ati has more power and less performance ?
 

redechelon

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haha @ welsh.. When did I say "GET A GTX 480!"? I dont want to argue, if you can put up some numbers to support your words, then it'd all be good.
Even if I did say that, he said he wanted to spend around $400, so its not too far out of his league.

No, you misunderstand garm...

I'm saying it all depends on the card, you can't lump them all into 2 categories, ATI or nVidia. I was giving you graphs to show you that at the CURRENT cards, SLI performs better, so if you're considering a multi-GPU setup, it gives you an idea. The 5770 has amazing performance/power. The 480 is a power HOG and runs HOT.

It depends what you want... 1 beefy card, 2 cards, 3 cards (if that floats your boat), what games youre talking, low power consumption, raw performance, low temps, etc...

By no means am i saying one or the other is better, you just have to decide what is best for you...

2 x ATI 5770's or a nVidia GTX 470 (room for another in the future) would be my recommendation.
Both have great value.
 

virrze

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I don't know why you don't just get a 5970 instead of 4 video cards, the scaling on most games make it so anything above 2-3 gpus adds nothing. Single video card>dual video card.
 

welshmousepk

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Red, i did not accuse you of fanboyism. I simply did not like your response to Timop's post. you made it sound like the GTX cards scale by some massive margin compared to Radeons. I'm not here to argue, but a few results (especially ones from toms) are not going to cut it. Your post is fairly accurate, but so is Timops. Your response was unnecessary.
 

garm84

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oh ic. the thing is im running on air cooler and if i get something that gets very hot. i dont think it would perform good would it? i have the cool master haf 932. case.
 

garm84

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as others say 4 video cards is a waste of cash. im only gonna get 2 maybe 3 no more then that.. i would think it's a waste of cash.
 

redechelon

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As long as you have good air flow in your case, you should be fine. I recently had the same question... but usually cards that run hot are meant to handle the heat.

How big of a monitor are you looking for? I just bought a ASUS VW246H and I love the thing. 1920 x 1080 resolution and its 24", so nothing outrageous, but its great. $200
 

kiban

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3x HD 5850.(tri-fire)

You intended to spend 800$ on 4 cards(you said 200$ each and wanted 4) in my country they are for around 250€.

I would go for this, but is up to you.