ATI Radeon HD 5770 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460

[ap1982]

I'm trying to buy a new Video Card to play SC2 on max settings, and these are the two new video cards im looking at:

MSI N460GTX CYCLONE 1GD5/OC GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127510&Tpk=N82E16814127510

MSI R5770 Hawk Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127490

Could anyone tell me which one is best?

Also if anyone knows what makes:

Memory Interface 256-bit better than Memory Interface 128-bit?

And wouldnt 800 Stream Processing Units be better than 336 Processor Cores in regards to Stream Processors?

 

[yesitsmario]

The gtx 460 1gb is faster. The 6850 would be it's equal.

 

[Maziar]

Both cards can handle SC2 fine,but as poster above mentioned,GTX 460 is(significantly) faster.

 

[hopkiller]

Can I get more information about your system, to see if that card may create a bottle neck, and if you are just a casual gamer and SC2 is you main game. If so stick with the 5770 and save the money.

The 5770 is a great card, and will handle almost all games that you throw at it, the GTX 460 will out perform it but save the money.

 

[salmon]

As others have already stated, the 460 is the more powerful card out of the 2.
The difference between 128 and 256 bit is bandwidth, 256bit will allow faster throughput to the GPU's RAM
The 800 stream processors on the 5770 work differently to the 336 on the 460.
It's like comparing apples to oranges.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

460. This ones $30 cheaper
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130570

This ones almost 20% faster (factory overclocked) and still $10 cheaper
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130596

 

[hitec16]

get a GTX 460 no need to think

 

[Tamz_msc]

Blizzard games favor NVIDIA cards, so get the GTX 460.But make sure that your PSU is adequate for it.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

gtx460 for sure. PSU requirements a 450w good quality, not cheap and nasty.

 

[jjb8675309]

gtx 460 hands down, imo the 5770 is not really worth investing in at this point

 

[jjb8675309]

how about a 6850? which is on par with the gtx 460 and only requires 1 6 pin as we all know,

 

[jjb8675309]

I'd rather have the 6870 than the 6850...
but I'd still take a nVidia option first.

yeah I would agree, I ended up buying a 6870 for myself after all, did the op ever respond about his system and psu?

 

[iam2thecrowe]

i think there is too much of a price difference between 6850/6870, the 6850 is the better buy, especially if your keen on overclocking. Overclocked the performance nearly matches the 6870. the 6870 does not have much room for overclocking at all. I still think the op will be better off with the gtx460 for starcraftII, althogh this can be very CPU limited and also plays better with intel systems.

 

[ap1982]

I ended up going with:

PNY XLR8 VCGGTX470XPB GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133318

Which I think its probably better than either of the cards I mentioned above, if only slightly.

 

[jjb8675309]

^
nice decision how are the frame rates with it.?

the frames are great my main game right now, bfbc2 never goes below 58 fps in multiplayer at 1920X1200 4xaa, all high settings, vsync and hboa enabled. I'm sure my 4.0 ghz overclock on my 955 helps, but overall the performance is amazing for a single 1080p display imo, for that matter crysis runs really well on just one card, but a second will be need for ultra high settings in that game.

 

[17seconds]

I ended up going with:

PNY XLR8 VCGGTX470XPB GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133318

Which I think its probably better than either of the cards I mentioned above, if only slightly.

Good one. Lifetime warranty if you register on their website within 90 days.

 

[jjb8675309]

i think there is too much of a price difference between 6850/6870, the 6850 is the better buy, especially if your keen on overclocking. Overclocked the performance nearly matches the 6870. the 6870 does not have much room for overclocking at all. I still think the op will be better off with the gtx460 for starcraftII, althogh this can be very CPU limited and also plays better with intel systems.

yeah there is some truth to what your saying about the 6870, but for me the performance increase is significant enough to matter enough now that I don't have to crossfire right away, whereas (in my personal scenario and preference) if I was going for a 6850 I probly would have crossfired right off the bat. Anyways, just some thoughts.

I agree that the 460 would have been a great choice but the 470 will be even better, starcraft favors nvidia and a strong cpu so a 470 is a great choice imo.

 

[jjb8675309]

that it a good clock on that chip.
my 940 is clocked at 3.4GHz I just haven't push it higher..

yeah I was pretty shocked as I did not bring my reference clock down in the bios before uninstalling my old chip when I first purchased the 955. Upon installation, it (the 955) immediately booted up flawlessly at 4.0 ghz. After that discovery I kept it at 3.6ghz , but after a while, I went back into bios and I just increased the multiplier and achieved that same overclock (4.0ghz) on stock voltage no problem. It was nice, and I installed a coolermaster hyper 212+........ at stock voltage (1.35v I believe) and 4.0ghz the 955 never goes over 53C in prime 95 and never really goes past the mid forties in gaming, which I thought was really good for this $140 quad core, ha

I would not be surprised if your 940 hit around 4.0 ghz with a nice increase on the reference clock. But that is just the thing with overclocking, you have to have a reason to do it in the first place.