Which one to buy

[sourav_1988]

hello, friends. i am a newbie in this forum. i want to upgrade my graphics card but there are so many issues making me confuse. for example bottleneck, compatibility with processor, compatibility with motherboard, compatibility with PSU etc. so, now i am totally confused now. i have read many threads, many views and advises but still don't know what to do. i want a very good graphics card in the budget of RS 8000. recently i tried to bf3 on my pc and it start lagging. so i have decided to upgrade now. My specs are-

Processor: E5800
RAM: 3GB
Motherboard: G41-M7
Present Graphics card: GT 520
PSU: 300W
Budget: Rupees 8000

and i am happy with 1024*768 resolution with ultra settings.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Deemo13]

The highest you can go on that power supply is probably a Radeon HD7750.

 

[Sunius]

http://www.flipkart.com/asus-amd-ati-hd-7750-1-gb-gddr5-graphics-card/p/itmd7hzcp7hsqpzj?pid=GRCD7HZCMSNWZJHB

That one is the best card you can get that will work in your PC and is in your budget. It should run Battlefield 3 on ultra without AA at your resolution. What is your monitor btw?

 

[sourav_1988]

samsung 798mb plus ..its a old one.. well there is one review saying it bad.

 

[sourav_1988]

may be i can afford a 2000 rs power supply. then the budget will be around 10000.

 

[sourav_1988]

and thnx 4 d replies.

 

[Sunius]

Link to that review?

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/HD_7750/

Looks pretty decent to me.

 

[sourav_1988]

and what about the bottleneck issue? as i am using E5800 processor along with G41-M7 motherboard. and am i going in right direction or i need to upgrade in some other area before upgrading the graphics card. and i think i can manage 2000 rupees more to buy a decent PSU. Now which one to buy. tnx for the reply

 

[sourav_1988]

or anything new coming up..should i wait???

 

[Sunius]

I don't think you need to upgrade anything else.

 

[Deemo13]

You should be fine with the Radeon 7750 in your system. There should be no bottleneck, little if there is any.

I don't understand why like everyone is so worried about bottlenecks.

 

[sourav_1988]

@ Deemo13, previously i am not. but after reading so many reviews i came to know about this term.

 

[Deemo13]

Nah you're fine.

 

[sourav_1988]

thank you friends for your reply. just one more query... i found that hd 6850 is better than 7750. can it be match for my system????? if its not i will go for 7750. again thank you guys for your reply.

 

[sourav_1988]

thank you friends for your reply. just one more query... i found that hd 6850 is better than 7750. can it be match for my system????? if its not i will go for 7750. again thank you guys for your reply.

 

[absxiith]

Hello sourav_1988,
The 6850 Vs the 7750-

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=676&card2=636

The 6850 is faster than the 7750 in terms of raw figures like Texture fill rate,pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth according to the link above.But
a)It uses more power,127w compared to 55w for the 7750.So ,you HAVE to buy a new PSU,something like this IF you decide to go for the 6850.

http://www.flipkart.com/corsair-cmpsu-430cxv2uk-430-watts-psu/p/itmd5xz5qs9mhqmq?pid=PSUD5XZ4ZJ5YPGBU&ref=f80fb168-058e-4ff4-a0b6-b6d354c22e45

Don't worry that it is 430w.I am running a Sapphire HD 6850 on a CoolerMaster 460W eXtreme Power Plus which puts out 435.8w according to this review.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-eXtreme-Power-Plus-460-W-RS-460-PMSR-A3-Power-Supply-Review/550/9

Also,you have to be careful that the 6850 you purchase comes with only one PCIE x16 connector as this PSU has only one PCIEx16 power connector.
2)Technology on the 7750 is newer ie it has OpenGL compliance 4.2 instead of the 6850's OpenGL 4.1.Plus it uses the 28nm manufacturing technology ,compared to the 40 nm manufacturing technology for the 6850.
3)The 6850 is quite a bit more expensive than the 7750,at least on Flipkart.
The PowerColor version of the 7750 costs INR 7616 and the Sapphire version costs INR 8064 and INR
The PowerColor HD 6850 costs INR 9222 and the Sapphire HD 6850 costs INR 10600,although both are out of stock on FlipKart.The HIS version,though in stock,is most expensive at INR 10976.
However,you motherboard has PCI E x16 slot.So,I would check before buying PCI E x16 2.1 (6850) and 3.0 (7750).Hope this helps you in your purchase.

 

[sourav_1988]

thanks to you all for your reply and thanks to abs for the detailed reply. and so much to know..this technology part(28nm vs 40nm) i didn't know before. i studied it after reading your reply. well that's a new technology hence a leap in terms of power consumption and a newer opengl ofcourse. Though i didn't understand "However,you motherboard has PCI E x16 slot.So,I would check before buying PCI E x16 2.1 (6850) and 3.0 (7750)." this part. can you elaborate it pls? and do you think 7750 has uphand over 6850 in term of gaming??? all i want is maxout any game with a resolution of 1024*768. for example BF3, SKYRIM etc. is it possible with 7750?if 6850 can give that much of performence then a new PSU won't be a problem. but i want to know whether i'm investing on a correct gpu or not. due to my lack of technical knowledge i won't able to understand some of the technical terms. so i came to this forum. anyway, and what i need to check before buying GPU and PSU? thanks in advance.

 

[absxiith]

No problem,sourav_1988. What I meant by the statement was PCI Express has different versions or rather ,it has many revisions.Quoting from Wikipedia,there are 4 revisions of the original PCI Express V1.0a--->v1.1,v2.0,v2.1 and v3.0.You can read more about PCI -E here-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express
if you want.However,the crucial part in your query is the fact that PCI-E revsions are generally backwards compatible,meaning ,say,a 2.1 card can (not should)
work in a PCI-E v1.0a Motherboard x16 lane,though I have heard people saying that there is some loss of performance,although I am not sure of that.So,compatibility wise,3.0 is backwards compatible with a 2.1 or even a 2.0 Motherboard and so on.But,and this is important,
while purchasing my 6850,I was told that there can be problems getting my 2.1 PCI-E card to work on my MSI MS 7525 ,which,according to CPU-Z,a software for knowing your hardware,is reported as PCI Express only,which I assume is V1.0.So,first thing you should do is check your Motherboard's PCI-E X16 lane version.I looked it up on Google,and it is probably v1.0.So,it's better to download CPU-Z and find out the exact version of your Motherboard,It will be under the 'mainboard' tab in CPU-z.
IF your Motherboard supports PCI-E v3.0,then you should go for the 7770,not the 7750.It will be faster than the 7750,consume less power than the 6850 (80w) and has newer tech than the 6850.Plus ,it's cheaper than the 6850,thoguh I am not sure,you have to check. But you have to purchase a PSU for that.A corsair CX430V2 from Flipkart will do fine.And do you have a monitor that is 1024x768 by default,or do you force that resolution?If you have/plan to buy a higher resolution monitor,go for the HD 6850.If not,the 7770.
So,before buying GPU and PSU,make sure of-
a)PCI-E x16 lane version.(most of the times newer cards are backwards compatible with older motherboards)
b)amps on the 12v rail in the PSU(you should be fine with the corsair)
c)Graphic card size(physical).
d)Number of PCI-E power connectors from the PSU to the GPU.
These(a,b,c and d) are some points you must keep in mind while buying a new GPU/PSU.

 

[sourav_1988]

PEX16_1: PCI-Express x16 Slot
- PCI-Express 1.0a compliant.
- Maximum theoretical realized bandwidth of 4GB/s simultaneously per
direction, for an aggregate of 8GB/s totally.
- PCI-Express supports a raw bit-rate of 2.5Gb/s on the data pins.
- 2X bandwidth over the traditional PCI architecture.


This is what mentioned in the manual.

graphic card size???? is it required so that the graphics card can be fitted in the cabinet or some other reason?

the monitor i am using is very old. SAMSUNG SyncMaster 798mb plus. generally i play games in 1024*768 resolution. so i mentioned that resolution. when i checked with nvidia i found it can goes upto 1280*1024.
correct me if i am going wrong.

thanks for your reply. so, what do u think now? which one i should buy?

6850
7750
7770

or any card from nvidia section??

day by day m turning out to be more greedy.

today suddenly i found 5850 is better and 7850 also. ha ha ha ha..

anyway, what i want is max out gaming experience( 1024*768 will do work for me) within the budget. the way i am moving now surely rise up my budget.

thanks again friends.

 

[absxiith]

So,your Motherboard has a PCI-E x16 v1.0a,the very first version.I would double check before buying any PCI-E x16 v3.0 card.The best way is to start a new thread and ask the more experienced members of the forum whether a newer generation card would work on a Motherboard of the very first PCI-E generation.Just a suggestion.
By graphic card size ,the dimensions are usually mentioned on sites like newegg.I am asking you to check so that you don't end up with a massive card that can't fit in your case.
For 1024x768 or even 1280x1024,a 6850 is overkill.You asked about it,that is why I mentioned it.So,a 7850 is way overkill for that resolution.A 7850 costs INR 18550.For that kind of money,you can safely get a 6850 and this-

http://www.flipkart.com/samsung-20-inch-led-s20b300b-monitor/p/itmd8mcfhab6jfxn?pid=MOND8V4YHGZZZZBH&ref=a8b030a9-a176-42e6-adaf-1be557c7ac31

though at that resolution,you are sure to face bottleneck with your processor.A 5850 is more powerful but the 6850 and 7770 come with newer tech.Don't you want that?From the NVIDIA side ,there is this-
http://www.flipkart.com/sparkle-nvidia-geforce-gtx-560-1-gb-gddr5-graphics-card/p/itmd5ynemktknzgc?pid=GRCD5YNDDZH4AZRQ&ref=b7a7547b-3936-4041-bc24-8e1f75b60fc8
Though ,again,overkill for your resolution.Plus ,I don't know whether sparkle is a good company or not.For maxing out your gaming experience,I would suggest going for a 7770 plus a new psu if your Motherboard supports it or a 6850/GTX 560 with a higher resolution monitor plus psu and then upgrade your processor after some time.Hope this helps.

 

[harishphk]

Go for gt 440 1gb ddr5 it will do great for you.....

 

[sourav_1988]

http://www.pcisig.com/news_room/faqs/FAQ_PCI_Express_4.0/#EQ6

this is what i found about pci lane. please verify it.

please clear me about the bottleneck. and what would be the amount of bottleneck. suggest me how to avoid the bottleneck.

i don't want to buy a new processor and monitor right now.

and lastly thanks to harish and other members for your kind reply.

 

[absxiith]

The link you listed above suggests that even PCI-E v4.0 will work in a v1.0 Motherboard.But,take a look at this thread-
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/296413-33-will-mobo-slot-work-card
So,as I said before,it's best to start a new thread,where users who have used 2.1/3.0 cards in 1.0a Motherboards can relate their experiences about whether such a combo will work or not.
Also,if your motherboard supports 3.0 PCI-E without any problems,which is a bit doubtful,I would go for the 7770 over the 6850.About Bottleneck-At lower resolutions,the CPU is the bottleneck and at higher resolutions,the GPU is the bottleneck.It works like this-
1)At lower resolution,an expensive and fast GPU (like the 7850) is pushing out more frames per second than what the CPU can process/handle,so the CPU becomes the restraining factor.With a smaller monitor,this is the scenario.So,the CPU is the bottleneck.
2)At higher resolutions,the GPU is pushing out less frames per second and takes more time (comparatively) to make up the image on the screen.So,the CPU has more time to process the data and is comparatively idle.So,the GPU becomes the limiting factor.
The amount of bottleneck cannot be measured in physical terms.However,the faster the CPU/GPU and slower the GPU/CPU ,more is the bottleneck.You can still play games but in your case,at 1024x768,the CPU will be at 100% all the time you are gaming with,say a 7850.Whereas,the 7770 is slower than the 7850,so it will be pushing out lesser frames per second and the CPU has lesser amount of data to process,so the bottleneck will be less.
I have tried to explain it best as I could.Hope you get it.

 

[sourav_1988]

Best answer selected by sourav_1988.

 

[absxiith]

Wow,thank you ,sourav_1988! So,you went finally for the 560?Great!