GTX 460 768 mb for 21.5" monitor

[widgetguy_th]

I recently purchased a acer 21.5" monitor 1900x1080 and am looking to get a video card for gaming.

I was told that with this monitor I should play games at the native resolution and now I'm wondering if the gtx 460 768 mb video card is powerful enough for that. I'm also considering a radeon 5850 but I don't know if my computer will bottleneck the gpu speed and I'll be wasting money. The price difference between the 2 cards is about $50-$60

I have

Phenom x2 555 processor
8gb 1333 mhz memory
corsair 500w builder PSU
Windows 7 64 bit

Currently using integrated graphics. I was told that getting a 1gb video card would be necessary for 1080p resolution. I'd like to play Crysis Warhead with the computer.

 

[wolfram23]

Depends just how much you care to play at high settings, really. The 460 768mb card is a nice one and should push medium settings at the least. The 5770 is also decent for 1080p, but both of them are the lowest spec card's I'd suggest at 1080p.

A 5850 is a big improvement, definitely pushes games at good settings. I was playing Crysis at High with a single 5850, but I've since upgraded to two of them.

As for a CPU bottleneck, it is possible. What speed is the 555 at? If you've got an aftermarket mobo you can probably try unlocking cores, or at least overclocking the CPU. Otherwise maybe look at upgrading to a quad core.

 

[widgetguy_th]

The processor is at 3.2 ghz. I've tried unlocking the cores in the past and it worked at 4 cores, but I just set it back to 2 cores since I didn't have a video card, so I wasn't doing serious gaming anyways. I mentioned the 5850 since at the moment it seems to be roughly the same price as the gtx 460 1gb.

I figured if I'm going to play an intensive game like Crysis, I should play it at high settings. And I probably won't be upgrading anymore after this for a year at least. If I have a bottleneck in the system though, maybe I should just stick with the 768 mb version.

 

[wolfram23]

If I were you, I think the 5850 is a great one to get.

But I would also unlock the cores and stress test it. You can't fry your CPU that way, and if it's stable at stock settings with 4 cores you're all set. Sometimes they disabled cores just to meet demand, and they're perfectly good. Sometimes they aren't as good and it won't pass stress tests.

Either way, as long as you're not overclocking with super high voltage or getting really high temps, it won't damage it.

 

[widgetguy_th]

Best answer selected by widgetguy_th.