Advice on a graphics card for my 1st build...

[Goonerbyron]

Hi,

I'll start off by saying I've never owned my own PC that is a dedicated gaming machine.

I'm looking to put together my first PC, which will more or less only be used for gaming. I don't own a PC at the moment, only my Macbook Pro, so I'm completely starting from scratch with no parts to recycle.

Obviously, the hardest part of my build to decide on is the graphics card and as I'm so out-of-date when it comes to graphics cards these days I really don't know what's a great pick.

I want the best bang for buck and my budget is probably around £200ish maximum, although if there was a much better card for just over that than under it I'd be willing to go a bit higher. I'm going to be playing at a res of 1920 x 1080 and want a card that can play everything currently out there on it's highest settings and hopefully one that will last a while..

In the little research I've done, I was looking at the Radeon 7850 although there is not any reason in particular.

Any advice would be great!

Thanks..

 

[Guest]

it would best to know what cpu you plan on getting along with what games on what resolution to suggest the card best suited for your wants/needs.

 

[Goonerbyron]

Ok, I plan on buying an i5 2500k for the CPU as I've heard good things about it for the price.. Haven't decided on a mobo, but will likely have 8 or 16GB RAM.

Going to be playing everything 1920 x 1080, games played will vary but specifically at the moment it's for Diablo 3 coming out and I'm likely to play The Old Republic and Battlefield 3 also.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Guru3D uses the following games in their test suite, COD-MW, Bad Company 2, Dirt 2, Far Cry 2, Metro 2033, Dawn of Discovery, Crysis Warhead. Total fps (summing fps in each game @ 1920 x 1200) for the various options in parenthesis (single card / SL or CF) are tabulated below along with their cost in dollars per frame single card - CF or SLI:

These are in your price range.

6950 (479/751) $ 0.46 - $ 0.59
6950 Frozr OC (484/759) $ 0.50 - $ 0.63
560 Ti (455/792) $ 0.44 - $ 0.51
560 Ti - 900 Mhz (495/862) $ 0.42 - $ 0.49
560-448 (501/835) $ 0.54 - $ 0.65


900 MHz 560 Ti
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-asus-gtx-560ti-direct-cu-ii-top-40nm-4200mhz-gddr5-gpu-900mhz-shader-1800mhz-384-cores-mhdmi

 

[simon12]

I suggest you stick with the 7850 its performance is very similar to the 480, it uses less power, it overclocks better and will get even better performance when the drivers improve. Also it supports direct X 11.1 which older cards (Nvidia 4xx & 5xx series & AMD 4xxx & 5xxx series) don't, how important that is remains to be seen.

 

[Goonerbyron]

Guru3D uses the following games in their test suite, COD-MW, Bad Company 2, Dirt 2, Far Cry 2, Metro 2033, Dawn of Discovery, Crysis Warhead. Total fps (summing fps in each game @ 1920 x 1200) for the various options in parenthesis (single card / SL or CF) are tabulated below along with their cost in dollars per frame single card - CF or SLI:

These are in your price range.

6950 (479/751) $ 0.46 - $ 0.59
6950 Frozr OC (484/759) $ 0.50 - $ 0.63
560 Ti (455/792) $ 0.44 - $ 0.51
560 Ti - 900 Mhz (495/862) $ 0.42 - $ 0.49
560-448 (501/835) $ 0.54 - $ 0.65


900 MHz 560 Ti
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-asus-gtx-560ti-direct-cu-ii-top-40nm-4200mhz-gddr5-gpu-900mhz-shader-1800mhz-384-cores-mhdmi

How does the 7850 compare to these cards mentioned?

 

[jessterman21]

I suggest you stick with the 7850 its performance is very similar to the 480, it uses less power, it overclocks better and will get even better performance when the drivers improve. Also it supports direct X 11.1 which older cards (Nvidia 4xx & 5xx series & AMD 4xxx & 5xxx series) don't, how important that is remains to be seen.

+1

Definitely an HD 7850

 

[jessterman21]

How does the 7850 compare to these cards mentioned?

Slightly better than all, with half the power consumption.