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512mb GDDR5 vs 1GB GDDR3

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Ok so im not very advnaced in softwares or hardwares, im just a general computer user, i dont even game much at all, and i if i do its a few games on PS3.

However im keen on a bit of casual gaming on PC, games like fallout 3 or left 4 dead, crysis isnt bad but im not too bothered. I bearly play games anyhow, but when i do get into a gamephase, i play for about a month. On-off.

Anyways im going to build a new PC in the summer (so quite a while away). Anyhow, its just gonna be fast with relatively good graphics card etc..

I came across two here.

PowerColor HD 5670 1GB DDR3
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/252757

Sapphire HD 5670 512MB GDDR5
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/247668

Which do you think i should go after?

also, do you think there are any other good or better graphics card (i dont mind nvidia or older graphics cards) around a similar price range, 60-70 quid.


I know its quite a low budget but like i said im not one of those people who wish to spend £1000's of pounds on useless equipment which i probably wont even use alot. I mean who actually buys an i7 extreme for home computing and makes it sweat?


Anyways, any advice, im quite new to this all :) 

Thank you :) 

More about : 512mb gddr5 1gb gddr3

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Graphics card Master

What resolution will you be using?

The reason I ask is because when using higher resolutions such as 1920 x 1080 then the 1GB of VRAM on the Powercolour card will really help, The 512MB of the Sapphire card will limit performance at higher resolutions even though its GDDR5 which is twice as quick as GDDR3.

Just as a side not, people who spend £1000's of pounds on their PC's are sometimes PC enthusiasts who aren't buying top end hardware out of necessity, but more for benchmarking/overclocking/showing off/hobby ETC...

Oh ok my bad. Its just that my friend spent like 2000 pounds on this alienware laptop but he barely uses it.

Anyways yeah its 1920x1080 monitor. So the powercolour is better?

also do you know any other cards around the same?

thank you :) 
Graphics card Master

Just noticed that The Sapphire card's memory speed is 4000Mhz effective (1000Mhz x 4) where as the 1GB is 667Mhz x 2 = 1334Mhz So the Sapphire's memory speed is considerably faster, but only half as much.

So the 512MB Ram would be much faster at changing textures in and out of the Ram, but wouldn't be able to store as much as the 1GB Ram card.

I'm not 100% sure which card would give you best frame rates, so I'd recommend you wait until someone else replies with an answer.
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Graphics card Master

It will play games above 30FPS, just on low settings. Its really the bare minimum I'd recommend for modern gaming.

Its also your best option, I looked at the HD4670 for £40 but its considerably slower than the HD5670, and I also looked at the GT440 which is also slower and costs £75.

Unless you can get something like a HD4870 or GTX260 on ebay for £60 then I think the HD5670 is your best bet.
Graphics card Master

Definitely the DDR5 over the 1GB. Even at high resolutions the faster ram will do better than more of it. For casual gaming the HD5670 will do alright even at 1080p. Don't expect to max out current games but most will be ok at medium settings. If you can afford it at least an HD5770 is the way to go.
What kind of PSU do you have in your system? It is an important factor when choosing any card.
Graphics card Master

a 4850 would be a good choice or a used gtx 260 or hd 4870 off ebay would also be a good choice, they would also be worlds better than the 5670 which is pretty low by todays standards

4850 is out of production isnt it? Anyways i found a 4850 on ebay for like 60 quid so thats pretty good. But ill when the time comes how much it costs. Im not making it now after all :p 

also there are 9800 gtx's on ebay too forlike 60 quid.
Graphics card Master

yeah a 9800gtx is about the same as a 4850 fyi, and also you should be able to get a 4870/ gtx 260 for like 70-80 and that would be a significant jump in performance... but imo any of these options would be better than getting a 5670, for that level of performance, its not even powerful enough to run dx11 imo...

yeah the ati 4 series is out of production but there are still great dx10 cards as well as the nvidia 9 and 2 series there are a lot of great deals to be had.

Obviously you are in the UK but in the US i saw an ebay auction for dual 9800 gtxs for around 90 dollars "buy it now" to me that would be a nice cheap sli setup for a budget gamer...
Graphics card Expert

If your not building until summer, don't even look at the 5670, the 6670/6650 release Q1 2011, so they'll be out any time now. There will also be other cards hitting the market as well, price changes, cards vanishing from the market as they're phased out, etc.

is 9800gtx and gtx260 still in production?

Since im going to get my pc and everything like later since im busy with exams and all now, do you think the prices are going to go up alot for these cards?

If they do what else do you reccomend?

thank you :) 
Graphics card Master

Prices on video cards don't really go up, just down. Those two cards are not still in production. I believe they are recommending you buy a used card to fit something better in your budget.
What power supply are you using? You really can't even start to pick out a card without knowing which you can actually power.
Graphics card Master

^+1
Definitely go for a good brand like above rather than the ones you listed. The power supply is the last component you want to be of sketchy quality.
Something like that Corsair can likely handle any card you are looking at but in general if you are buying a new card + PSU you'll want to choose the card first and then look for a PSU that is appropriate.

Yeah sure il get that 500 watt one, i could go a bit higher, so i will look for something better too.

apparantly ati radeon 4850 needs 450 watts
and 9800gtx needs is the same, 450

4870 needs 500 watts or greater
same for gtx 260


1) do you think i should get higher just in case? Or is 500 enough for something like 4870 (considering graphics cards are only going to get cheaper, by the time its summer it might be in my budget :] )

2) Also, why not get the other psu's? Are they both not 80+ psu's?

Just wondering.

ps.
3) Do you think the amd athlon ii x4 640 is a good cpu? I was looking at toms hardware and even though it had 3ghz, it was beaten by the core 2 quad at 2.66 ghz? Why is this?

thanks.
Graphics card Master

The core 2 Quad is Intel and the Athlon is AMD, two different architectures, its not all about clock speed :) 

That corsair PSU would be fine for the HD4870 or GTX260, its a very high quality unit, I've personally never heard of powercool before, So I can't recommend them.
Graphics card Authority

The 4870 asks for a 500W PSU, they say this because they know that there will be a CPU, motherboard and at least 1 HDD plugged in. Basically, if you have at least a 500W PSU (that's decent quality), then you have met the basic power requirements for the 4870. If you're running multiple HDD's or are planning on heavily overclocking your CPU or anything else, you may want to go a little higher to accommodate this.
Graphics card Master

Griffolion said:
The 4870 asks for a 500W PSU, they say this because they know that there will be a CPU, motherboard and at least 1 HDD plugged in. Basically, if you have at least a 500W PSU (that's decent quality), then you have met the basic power requirements for the 4870. If you're running multiple HDD's or are planning on heavily overclocking your CPU or anything else, you may want to go a little higher to accommodate this.

No, ATI/AMD in particular seem to assume a fully decked out system as well as a sketchy quality PSU when coming up with their recommendations.

jyjjy said:
No, ATI/AMD in particular seem to assume a fully decked out system as well as a sketchy quality PSU when coming up with their recommendations.


what does that mean? Are amd/ati bad? I dont mind getting intel but amd is so cheap you know?

anyways i need to read up on what hyperthreading is cus thats what intel has.
also what l3 cache is etc... and how important it is.
Graphics card Master

No, I didn't say anything like that. I was just saying their recommended wattage to run their video cards is often very inflated. For example they recommend a 400w power supply to run the HD5570. That card actually uses about 35w under normal conditions and barely breaks 50w under stress testing.
That said they make fine video cards and good processors although if you can afford an i5 it is worth the extra money over a Phenom II.
Graphics card Master

Your choice should basically come down to what you want to spend. If you can handle $225 for a processor then the i5-2500k is the obvious choice. If that is too much a Phenom II x4 is good value for the money. Here is a comparison;
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=88
As for the video card if you aren't building until the summer you really shouldn't be trying to pick out a card now. 4+ months is a long time in the video card industry so the cards you would go for right now may not make any sense when the time comes.
Graphics card Master

You can go with an Athlon if you want. L3 is nice but not a huge deal. If you are really looking for the best value for the money you can try unlocking a Phenom II x2 or Athlon II x3. Success rates are quite high(80%+.)
Graphics card Master

Both the Phenom II x2 and the Athlon II x3 processors are in fact quad core processors with one or two of the cores locked by AMD. Most motherboards however can attempt to unlock those cores making it a full Phenom/Athlon II x4. It doesn't always work but it does a large majority of the time, around 80%.
Sometimes the Athlons also have L3 cache that can be unlocked but I believe the success rate on that is a lot lower.
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