Upgrading to an ATI Radeon 5770 (Q u e s t i o n)

[gbmack]

Hey Guys,


Right now I have a Dell XPS Studio 9000 with the following specs:

Intel i7 920 - 2.67 ghz
9 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 5450 1 GB (Really Bad Card)
475 PSU.
Windows 7 64-bit

I'm not a super enthusiast gamer. I like playing games like cs:s, mw2, bfbc2, and starcraft 2.

Right now I'm looking at the ati radeon 5770 as the best bang for my buck, but are there any other better alternatives from Nvidia? And can the 5770 perform well with my system specs to play games at high settings?

And my other question is, do I have the following steps correct for upgrading my graphics card?

1. Uninstall current graphics card drivers with Drivercleaner
2. Remove graphics card
3. Put in new graphics card and plug in 6 pin power connector
4. Install new graphics card drivers from CD

Thanks!

 

[Niklas_13]

Is a HD 5770 the best bang for the buck ? well that would depend on your monitors rez. IMO the best bang for the buck is a HD 5850 for a rez of 1920x1080.

A HD 5770 will play most games out at mid to high setting ( NOT VERY HIGH ) on a rez of 1920x1080.

You can look at the top of the page for GPU reviews.

Oh and yes the step to change out the GPU should work well.

 

[gbmack]

Thanks!
Just one last question.

Is it okay if I install the drivers for the 5770 right before I put it in my computer?

 

[Niklas_13]

I would install them when its in

 

[jyjjy]

The HD5770 uses the same drivers as the HD5450. There is no need to change them. You may want to update to the latest version on the AMD site though. Always ignore the driver cd; it is undoubtedly outdated.
It is a good card. It's pretty good at 1920x1080 and great below that.
Nvidia's cheapest worthwhile competitor is the recently released GTX 460 for $200. It's about 20% faster and a pretty good deal. It's worth considering if you have the money and a monitor with a native resolution of 1920x1080 or above.