PCFormat Forum Archive

Hi,

I'm an old man who enjoys playing games, but my hardware expertise is very limited.

I need to have better graphics, but not really sure which graphic card to go for.

Here are my PC specs:

Motherboard: Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/UBS3
CPU: AMD Phenom 2 x 2 555 @ 3.2GHz
RAM: Mushkin 1600 4GB DDR3 1600MHz
GPU: NVIDIA Geforce 9600 GT
PSU: Liquid Silver 600W
Case: Antec 900
Monitor: ASUS VE228H 22" Full HD LED Monitor 1920x1080
OS: Windows XP Professional 32-bit (yes, will be upgraded to a 64-bit very soon)
HDD: Seagate ST3320620AS
Mouse: Logitech Mx-518

Thank you for your time.

You happy with NVIDIA or would you like an ATI card to go with your AMD CPU/mobo?

Whats your budget?
Thats pretty important or else we'll assume you have unlimited cash and we can suggest two Radeon HD 6990's since your board does support crossfire

Well, let's see.
You saw my PC specifications.
Do my PSU really handle these two 6990's?
You aware aware this is a budget PC. So, to suggest anything higher than 6950/570 is worthless.
You are a forum moderator. Therefore I would expect a more mature approach to my question.
If you really want to help, let's engage in a constructive way.

My PC will remain a budget one. I just need to improve the graphics. Therefore would be nice to have a reasonable budget/mid-range Card.
I will assume that, in this case, that my AMD Motherboard/CPU would be happier with an AMD Card.
I was thinking more in line of 5770/5850/6850.

Well in all fairness (and I cant believe I am defending him) mr spambot, forumtroll, jamin has a point when it comes to budget. We need to know how far to go. So here is my suggestions:
Less then R1500, Radeon 5770.
R1500-R2000, Radeon 6780 or Radeon 6850 or geforce 460gtx.
R2000-R2500, Radeon 6870 or Radeon 6950 or even a geforce 560 or 560ti.

Branding is your prefered choice. Although club3d is cheap, MSI is my baby, gigabyte is ok, asus is also ok. Ultimately your cpu will bring your experience down when going for the R2000 range cards.

If you really want to help, let's engage in a constructive way.

He was being constructive with his questions and made small joke. Why get up in arms about it? Budget is very important.

As StarBound said, that CPU will be beginning to hold your gaming performance back, due to it being ageing technology and because it has only two cores. More and more games are coming out with better multi-threading support.

But, assuming you are ok with it for now, Starbound's recommendations are good too. The 560ti should serve you well.

Where will you be buying the card from?

StarBound wrote:...Ultimately your cpu will bring your experience down when going for the R2000 range cards.

That's what I want to hear - suggestions according to my setup.

I have been thinking about this one: http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/produc ... s_id=38336

StarBound wrote:Branding is your prefered choice. Although club3d is cheap, MSI is my baby, gigabyte is ok, asus is also ok.

Don't forget EVGA if taking the NVIDIA route. Can't argue with the 10 year warranty on their cards.

*removed due to benchmark results*

Seems 5770 is better than 6850 in most benchmarks.

NvidiA doesn't scale too well with AMD, so I would suggest a 6850. Or A 5850 if you cAn find one for A decent price

OT52 wrote:I have been thinking about this one: http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/produc ... s_id=38336

For R1300 you can get a better card, 6790, from Rebeltech:

http://rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_p ... ts_id=7744

Or for a bit more @ R1791 for a 6870:

http://rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_p ... ts_id=5451

Or if you can go as high as R2000, a 560Ti:

http://rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_p ... ts_id=8515

Slimshaedy wrote:NvidiA doesn't scale too well with AMD, so I would suggest a 6850. Or A 5850 if you cAn find one for A decent price

Thanks. That's the reason I'm avoiding Nvidia.

So 5770 for you then?

+1. Brilliant little card

Huh, 5770 < 6850, believe me, I did all the research before getting mine. The 6850 is equivalent to the GTX460, which was top of the middle range when I bought, the 5770 was the top of the budget range or entry-level mid-range when I bought.

To be honest, no decision was yet made.