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Need graphics card advice for new build

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Hey everyone,

I'm building a new system and I need some advice on a graphics card. I was recommended the ASUS 5770. It didn't get AMAZING reviews on newegg as far as the "5 star breakdown" goes. Does anyone have any thoughts about this? Any other recommendations?

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: This weekend

BUDGET: Flexible, but less than $200 would be preferred.

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: I do a bit of video editing, photo processing, planning on adding a Blu-ray drive to my new build and some gaming

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: None - new build

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS: I'm building a new machine with a i7-860 on a ASUS P7P55D-E Pro board. 650W PSU. NZXT Tempest Evo case.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg.com, amazon.com

PARTS PREFERENCES: SLI or CrossFireX

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe

MONITOR RESOLUTION: I dunno, high? :)  I will want to have a dual monitor set up as well.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: None

Thanks,
Brandon

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Just updated my post. I have a flexible budget, although if I could find a solid deal for less than $200, that would be preferred. I could make a case for something more expensive than that, but what would be the benefits?
Graphics card Master

Quote:
Nothing much, besides That the Tempest has removable 3.5/5.25 drive cages, tool-less mounting and a different front bezel.

Quote:
MONITOR RESOLUTION: I dunno, high? :)  I will want to have a dual monitor set up as well.
is pretty skeptical, though for most dual monitor setups, the HD5850 would perform much better. (eg. With 2 1080P monitors, the 5850 can run most games on at least High-settings, while the 5770 can barely do Medium.)

Having an extra monitor that isn't gaming is a very small performance hit. What game(s) are you referring to with the "High" and "Medium" statements exactly?
An HD5850 would be nice but that he puts gaming last and prefaces it with "some" makes me think that an HD5770 would be more appropriate, especially considering the motherboard is crossfire capable for an inexpensive and very effective upgrade path. An HD5850 would give no advantage for the first 3 uses he listed unless he is specifically using software that supports ATI Stream.
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Since your first question still hasn't been answered I thought I'd pipe in and explain why you were recommended the ASUS 5770. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the model recommended was the ASUS CUCore Radeon HD5770. This particular model of the card is a great overclocker because of the cooling solution on the GPU and the ability to tweak the voltage of the card. Most likely if you were recommended an ASUS model, it would've been this one. If you're not looking to overclock, then you'll probably be able to find another cheaper model from another manufacturer.

Since you're not a particularly avid gamer, I don't think I could consciously recommend the 5850 to you. It's going to be overkill for the majority of your comps usage and realistically you can always get a 5770 now and upgrade your GPU down the road with whatever's good then. Going with the 5770 will most likely cover your needs for the next couple years and keep you under budget.

If you want a second opinion though, it would help to know what games you're planning on playing. You won't be playing with max setting at 1920x1080, but the card will handle itself fairly well at 1680x1050 especially with less graphically intensive games.
Graphics card Master

Quote:
lots of people, actually. Especially with FPS/Racing games.

Really? I've never heard of that. How does it work with the bezel down the middle of the "screen"? Especially on a FPS that sounds terrible.
Graphics card Master

Slayer697 said:
This particular model of the card is a great overclocker because of the cooling solution on the GPU and the ability to tweak the voltage of the card.
Is the cooler on that card actually good? The fan/heatsink seems to get very mixed reviews in the newegg user review(yes, I know, but still...) in terms of both noise and cooling.
Graphics card Master

Alright I guess, still seems rather unpalatable to me though. But yeah, if you actually plan on gaming on both monitors at once then an HD5850 would be the way to go.

jyjjy said:
Is the cooler on that card actually good? The fan/heatsink seems to get very mixed reviews in the newegg user review(yes, I know, but still...) in terms of both noise and cooling.


I'd imagine it's at the very least better than the reference model. I could be mistaken though; I'm just going off the hardware site reviews I read when I was researching my own card purchase. Also this:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum2.php?config=tom...

;) 
Graphics card Master

If you read that thread we were mistakenly calling the DirectCu HD5850 CuCore instead before correcting ourselves so that isn't actually relevant.

jyjjy said:
If you read that thread we were mistakenly calling the DirectCu HD5850 CuCore instead before correcting ourselves so that isn't actually relevant.


Strangely, I missed that the link was actually to the 5850 I ended up buying. I didn't realize that the CUCore didn't have the heatpipes, but I could've sworn it was a copper based cooling solution of some kind.

In it's own way that thread is still very relevant as it tackles the very same discussion we're having now, and quite conveniently you were the one who solved it for me. I went with the card because of the research I did after the recommendations made to me there. If I'm mistaken about the CUCore though, I apologize. As it is we don't know if he's interested in overclocking it. I stand by not recommending him a 5850. I leave choosing a 5770 model that fits his usage and needs up to him.
Graphics card Master

I'd generally just recommend the cheapest HD5770 of a decent brand. Ordinarily I would recommend the CuCore but the cooler does seem a little questionable from the reviews. The overvolting ability of the card isn't nearly as important as on the HD5850 anyway. They can both get to 1ghz apparently but the HD5770 starts at 850 mhz stock which is much higher than the 725 mhz of the HD5850. Also the HD5770 can usually get to 925-950 mhz just on the stock voltage so while bumping that up to 1000-1025 mhz is nice it's not a big deal.

Hey all, thanks for the suggestions. I honestly don't see myself gaming with two monitors. I usually end up playing a lot of FPSs and looking forward to picking up Starcraft II whenevr it actually comes out. I'm not much of an overclocker, so I don't know exactly where that puts me as far as recommendations go. Id also like to not worry too much about updating in a year if you all think its best for me to pick up the more expensive card, as long as its not complete overkill.
Graphics card Master

Basically if your resolution will be 1680x1050 or below then just get the HD5770. At 1920x1080 the HD5770 will still be quite good but the HD5850 will certainly be better and last you a longer time. A good compromise would be getting a motherboard that is crossfire capable(both slots at least x8) and an HD5770. Then later if you find it necessary you'll be able to add another which will give you average performance similar to an HD5870.
Graphics card Master

Forgot you mentioned the motherboard you were getting. The P7P55D-E Pro is fine for crossfire so you are set there if you want to go that route. Also you may want to consider the i5-750 instead to make room in your budget for an HD5850 is you want to go that way. The i7 is nice but the i5 is certainly the better value for the money imo.

jyjjy said:
Forgot you mentioned the motherboard you were getting. The P7P55D-E Pro is fine for crossfire so you are set there if you want to go that route. Also you may want to consider the i5-750 instead to make room in your budget for an HD5850 is you want to go that way. The i7 is nice but the i5 is certainly the better value for the money imo.


I was actually going to say the same thing much earlier in this thread, but then I remembered that microcenter has the i7-860 for $200 right now:

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml...

I figured he was taking advantage of this deal already and took it forgranted that he might not live near a microcenter. I definitely agree that if he isn't getting the i7-860 for $200 that downgrading the CPU will be a great way to balance out the budget for this system. Then again, my system runs an i5-750 on a P7P55D-E Pro with a 5850 joining the party in a couple days, so there might be some inherent bias towards building a system in this way.

I've also got a 650W power supply, and as far as I've understood it bgreeley it should still be sufficient for 2 cards in crossfire in case that's something you're considering doing down the road.
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