Recomend me a video card

[deuxhero]

My "current" card is dead.

My motherboard has a PCI Express x16 slot.

 

[Sceptic]

Budget? Also, ATI or Nvidia fanboy, or willing to go for whichever has the best performance for your budget?

 

[deuxhero]

Budget? Also, ATI or Nvidia fanboy, or willing to go for whichever has the best performance for your budget?

Price/preformance should be what the recomendation is based on. My old card was a Nvidia (lasted for quite a few years), but no preferences.

 

[circ]

Nvidia 7600 GT.

 

[Sceptic]

Well since you're not forthcoming with details...

ATI HD 5970 is currently the king of the hill. Costs around $700.

If you're looking for something more reasonable then you get to pick between Nvidia GTX 470 and ATI HD 5870. Cost should be between 350 and 400. The 5870 is more powerful but more expensive. I don't recommend either, as you can get the same performance by using 2 HD 5770 in Crossfire, for around $300. If your motherboard doesn't support Crossfire/SLI then you can get the HD 5850 for about $300 too.

If this is still too expensive for you then you can go for the HD 5830 at $220. Very good price/performance ratio and all features of next-gen/DX11 if you care about this shit.

Finally if you're reall short on cash, the HD 5770 is only $150. Same performance as a GTX 275 but cheaper.

Really, at this time getting an Nvidia card makes no sense unless it's the GTX 470 (and even that) because they're more expensive and more power-hungry than the ATI cards with matching performance.

 

[deuxhero]

Ok, didn't realize "price range" was that big for video cards (My limited checking had yet to return a result over 100), so under 100 would be a price range preference.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: June 2010

 

[a budda]

what are you going to play?
what monitor you have?

would make more sense

in that price get a used r4850 or 8/9800gt(x)
new ones in that price range are overpriced at least twice (min. gts250 makes sense)

 

[Mangoose]

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: June 2010

Yep, Tomshardware is also where I look for a general recommendation.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Not particularly related to the thread, but I'm waiting for Nvidia cards to get cheaper myself. My 8800GS is starting to drag ass a little at 1920X1080 and it has been particularly good for me compared to my last two ATIs, so I'm an Nvidia fanboy at least for my next card since I've been impressed by it.
Plus I kinda like the PhysX on the card even though it's not used all that often. The general good behavior and performance from the 8800 plus the small addition of PhysX has me favoring 'em.

 

[Twinkle]

I'd recommend 5770. Or good old 9600gt if you are looking for a cheaper option.

 

[racofer]

Go for a GTS250. In my opinion it's the most underlooked card yet cheap and quite powerful. It's exactly the same as the 9800GTX+ except with a newer, smaller core, which means less heat and less power requirements. Runs everything I've tried so far great at 1600x900 with at least 4xAA and always 16xAS. And this is on the 512mb model, although the 1GB one is only useful if you go full hd or play GTA4, otherwise the 512mb goes just fine.

But still, you're an asshole for asking such a question without specifying what you plan to use the card for, what card you had and price range (at least not until a few posts ago).

 

[oldmanpaco]

I'd recommend 5770. Or good old 9600gt if you are looking for a cheaper option.

I have two 9600gt in SLI mode. Works good.

Play everything in 1680 x 1050 max resolution.

 

[nomask7]

Get an older ATI card, such as HD3870, if you can find one. They are stabler with older games (if you use older drivers). They're stable with newer ones as well (with new drivers), since ATI still updates them (at least for the one I mentioned).

 

[Achilles]

ATI HD4850 and Nvidia GTS250 are both fine choices for a 100$ budget.

 

[Konjad]

ATI HD4850 and Nvidia GTS250 are both fine choices for a 100$ budget.

I agree, though idk if $100 is enough, but it probably won't cost more than $150 and these are great graphic cards. And as far as I know ATI's drivers are more old-games-friendly, or at least that's my impression after using several ATI and Nvidia cards. I always had problems with at least two or three old games on Nvidia cards, while I never had any on ATI. Though it could change now, idk.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

If you're looking for something more reasonable then you get to pick between Nvidia GTX 470 and ATI HD 5870. Cost should be between 350 and 400. The 5870 is more powerful but more expensive. I don't recommend either, as you can get the same performance by using 2 HD 5770 in Crossfire, for around $300. If your motherboard doesn't support Crossfire/SLI then you can get the HD 5850 for about $300 too.

Got interested in this sugestion.

I have a quad core 6600 2.4 Ghz. Intel motherboard, 4GB RAM.

My current videocard is Geforce 8500 (piece of shit). I'm going to the states on june 23, and i'm considering buying a new card, and the GTX 470 has a reasonable price for me.

Will my computer be ok enough if I buy a GTX 470? Or does this videocard demand a more powerful computer in order to take advantage of its features?

And just buying and swaping the videocards myself is simple or do I have to make some hardware configuration?

I don't recall the specs of the power supply, if I recall its 700W or something like that.

EDIT

Oh, I believe the slots on my mother board are PCI express 1.0. Is this going to be a problem?

 

[Sceptic]

Will my computer be ok enough if I buy a GTX 470? Or does this videocard demand a more powerful computer in order to take advantage of its features?

In terms of CPU power? It'll be fine. 700W power supply should be able to handle it too. It's hungry, but not THAT hungry. Unless you have an insane number of drives in your system (like something connected to every single SATA and IDE port)

And just buying and swaping the videocards myself is simple or do I have to make some hardware configuration?

Swapping yourself should be fine. You should go into the BIOS and make sure everything looks the way it should, but I don't anticipate problems. I don't know how the drivers will react, it may be a good idea to wipe out the drivers and reinstall them after the new card is in if you notice anything suspicious. You always MUST do this when going between ATI and Nvidia cards, but staying with the same company shouldn't cause trouble.

Oh, I believe the slots on my mother board are PCI express 1.0. Is this going to be a problem?

I don't know. Problems, maybe not. Underperformance, possibly. I'm surprised though, if you have a quad core then 2.0 was already around. You may want to check your motherboard manual (or send me the exact model number and I'll look it up)

 

[Darth Slaughter]

The motherboard is intel dp35dp.

I have two Hard drives. is that insane?

 

[Sceptic]

2 drives is fine for 700W.

I did some checking and I think it's PCIe 1. But it's 16x, and from what I found 2.0 cards work perfectly fine in 1 slots. So it'll work, and I don't even think you can notice loss of performance.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Well, so gtx 470 will do.

 

[Micmu]

700W is actually too much if you don't plan to have two GPUs. Don't fall for the recent big-numbers-are-better fad for PSUs. Just make sure it can provide enough current on 12V rail.
I have 650W psu on overclocked i7 and gtx 285 (both are extreme power guzzlers), no problems.

Hard drives don't draw that much power comparing to CPU and GPU (shouldn't be more than 20W).

 

[Melcar]

I don't give a fuck about nvidia, so my recommendations for a ~$100 card:

HD5670
HD4850
HD5750

The HD5750 will run you a bit over your price mark, but it's the best card from the red team you can get at that budget. The HD4850 is still a good card and since it's the old shit you should be able to get one for $100 or so. Most HD5670s are below the $100 mark, are power efficient (more than the other two), small, and not nearly as fast as the other two. The HD4850 would be your best bet.

For the shit team you got the GTS250 and the GT240. You will not find a GTS250 for $100 unless you go for a used one. GT240s can be had for around $90, but these cards suck ass compared to the others.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Disconsidering price, and comparing the cards on the same level of performance, what are the advantages/disavantages of ATI or NVIDIA cards?

I'm more into nvidia since I'm used to it's drivers and making games run on it, especially some oldies. Is there any noticeable difference besides biased wars?

 

[Gerrard]

Hope your house is insured.

 

[Sceptic]

Disconsidering price, and comparing the cards on the same level of performance, what are the advantages/disavantages of ATI or NVIDIA cards?

In an absolute sense? None whatsoever. At specific times one or the other will have upper hand because they will have the same performance for cheaper than the competition, or have overall better cards, or both. Nvidia went through this when their 8000 and 9000 series ruled supreme, ATI now rules supreme with their 4000 and 5000 series. It'll switch back eventually. As for drivers, both have the occasional fuckup (Nvidia's being the most recent but it's been fixed) but both have had pretty solid drivers for the past 5 or so years. Really you can't disregard price because, at the same level of performance, that's the deciding factor. Picking one or the other because "ATI drivers suck" or "Nvidia are shit" is just fanboyism.

Edity edit: forgot about power. Nvidia's cards are enormous power consumers. More power consumption = more heat generation. The GTX 480 is insane in this regard.