Which graphics card?

hannoja

Hi :wave:

I've been quite content with onboard graphics for well over a year now, but I'd like to add a graphics card, and hope someone can suggest a good one that doesn't cost too much (maybe one that's been recently superceeded so I can get one off ebay for £50 or something..)

System:
Asus M4A78T-E Motherboard AM3 AMD 790GX
AMD Phenom II X3 (720) 2.8GHz 3x512KB
OCZ OCZ3G13332GK - OCZ DDR3 Gold 1333Mhz 2 GB
Antec EA-500 GB - Antec EarthWatts EA 500 -GB 500 Watt PSU

Was thinking something like a Radeon HD4870. Might get another one day (crossfire?) but just 1 for now. I've read ATI seems to have conflicts sometimes (e.g. games), but don't know enough to prefer Nvidia/ATI. Want something worth getting: if it's not much better than the onboard graphics, not much point...

Thanks for any advice

moonbeep

hannoja wrote: »

Hi :wave:

I've been quite content with onboard graphics for well over a year now, but I'd like to add a graphics card, and hope someone can suggest a good one that doesn't cost too much (maybe one that's been recently superceeded so I can get one off ebay for £50 or something..)

System:
Asus M4A78T-E Motherboard AM3 AMD 790GX
AMD Phenom II X3 (720) 2.8GHz 3x512KB
OCZ OCZ3G13332GK - OCZ DDR3 Gold 1333Mhz 2 GB
Antec EA-500 GB - Antec EarthWatts EA 500 -GB 500 Watt PSU

Was thinking something like a Radeon HD4870. Might get another one day (crossfire?) but just 1 for now. I've read ATI seems to have conflicts sometimes (e.g. games), but don't know enough to prefer Nvidia/ATI. Want something worth getting: if it's not much better than the onboard graphics, not much point...

Thanks for any advice

A HD5770 is basically a 4870 with DX11,can be picked up on ebay or gumtree for about £60 (",)

spakkker

Your onboard graphics is radeon hd3300 - http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/chipsets/7-series-integrated/Pages/amd-790gx-chipset.aspx
This scores 177 here - http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php
This article is a bit old now - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-radeon-hd-6870-radeon-hd-6850,2782-2.html
Best to watch out on somewhere like hukd as the comments can be valuable
eg. http://www.hotukdeals.com/search?action=search&keywords=graphics+card
If a card is on offer the cost/performance is clearly better .
If you don't game you are wasting money.

Hammyman

What are you wanting to do that is different? People are bandying around all kinds of cards but until we know what for it is just a stab in the dark.

hannoja

Thanks for the responses

Good point Hammyman. I wanted to keep it short and sweet and see if I got any replies before waffling on
Gaming really I guess. Current setup has no problem with most games I've tried/played (GW, LOTR, etc..), but recently played a bit of 'Thang', which has areas with player shops: can get crowded, as you can just park yourself there and go off out shopping/whatever and was VERY laggy. I assumed a better graphics card would help..? Don't think we're gonna keep playing that, but made me think it might be time to get a GPU... GW2 is on the horizon too, so I'd like to have a go at that when it comes out

Thanks for the links Spakkker. I've read stuff on tomshardware before: they give good advice. I've looked at the GPU benchmark thing before too, but had forgotten where it was. I'll have a browse of those links.

HD5770 looks good. Will check it out.

Just wanted to save myself some time really. Spent a lot of time researching when I put this 'rig' together, but sadly I don't remember a lot of it once I've got the thing running nicely Got good info. to get my teeth into now though, so should save me some time.

Thank you :beer:

Hammyman

OK, with all that in mind...a Radeon 6790 should give you 40+ FPS even in Crysis 2 at full HD with detail to high. You may need a PSU upgrade though.