Best graphics card for 1680x1050 resolution gaming

[Tylerryan79]

Im looking to play at games at 1680x1050 res, maxed out everything, power supply i have now is 400 watts so ill need to upgrade regardless, and my cpu is quad core q8200 at 2.33. Any thoughts and help, id be very grateful. Thank You!

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Well maxed out everything = HD5870/5970 , but a good fit that might not need a new power supply if that 400W is a solid power supply would be a HD5770, it's quite capable @ 16x10, but you will of course always get more from more, so if you don't have a budget, then the 5870, if you want good value and still want to replace the PSU then maybe a cheap HD4890.

 

[jay_l_a]

I would say the 4850, although I think you need a 450W PSU for those. You might get away with 400W...
For 16x10 take a look at the GTX250, I think that would be good for that resolution, but you need to look into the specs for the power requirements.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

I would say the 4850, although I think you need a 450W PSU for those...

But the HD4850 is slower than the HD5770 and requires more power, so not a good choice unless his only concern is price.

The bare minimum for 'maxing everything' for the HD4K series would be the HD4890, the 4850 is too far below everything else, and especially the HD5770 which uses about 50W less power while consistently outperforming it.

 

[Tylerryan79]

I was leaning more toward a nvidia card, but i guess i should ask A)will these cards be good for a few years B) If i get a hd5870/5970 will this make twimtbp games run slower? thats why im leaning towards nvidia. Thanks also for lightening responses.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

The HD5K series will be best for longer terms, and TWIMTBP games only matter when they try to pull shenanigans, and then the community figures out how to work around it, and then they go to the box for 2 minutes to feel shame. You might see slight differences, but they are not major, and the amount of difference doesn't negate the performance differences of the better hardware.

Right now, there's nothing you can buy from nVidia that will last as long, and only the GTX295 is in the same league as the HD5870 with the GTX285 being in the HD5850's league, when the HD5970 comes out it will be in a league of its own, but ALL of those require a new PSU for sure, and you may want tweak your CPU to get the most out of them.

 

[jay_l_a]

But the HD4850 is slower than the HD5770 and requires more power, so not a good choice unless his only concern is price.

The bare minimum for 'maxing everything' for the HD4K series would be the HD4890, the 4850 is too far below everything else, and especially the HD5770 which uses about 50W less power while consistently outperforming it.

Fair point, although I would lean more to the HD5xxx if there wasn't a budget CPU in play.

to the OP:
I'd definitely recommend doing some research to make sure the slowish CPU is not going to bottleneck the system.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Fair point, although I would lean more to the HD5xxx if there wasn't a budget CPU in play.

I understand, that's why I mentioned he should tweak his CPU.

 

[MARSOC_Operator]

Im looking to play at games at 1680x1050 res, maxed out everything, power supply i have now is 400 watts so ill need to upgrade regardless, and my cpu is quad core q8200 at 2.33. Any thoughts and help, id be very grateful. Thank You!

You should get a Radeon 4890. Anything above it will be bottlenecked by the rest of your hardware. And you don't have enough PSU to power a faster card. A 4890 and your Q8200 at 3.0+ will handle 1680x1050 nicely.

 

[anarchy4sale]

Without a new power supply I would get a 5770, with one i would go with a 5850, and some cpu clockin.

 

[Tylerryan79]

Thank You All... still thinking what im going to do, with my psu im gonna upgrade it for sure, and i can get my cpu up to 3ghz(so i read on a oc site) just not sure what gfx card to get, but i think im gonna go with what the great ape saids, thanks again everyone.