Radeon 5770 vs. Radeon 5830

[akiraQ]

Radeon HD 5830 $270
Radeon HD 5770 $195
Radeon HD 5750 $160

Trying to find out what is worth my money. I mostly use my computer for Photoshop, 3ds Max, After Effects and the like, but I would also like to be able to game. I'm by no means a hardcore gamer but I'd like to try current games sometimes with decent settings and resolution.

What I'm asking is, as a student with little cash, what card would be most worth it for me.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

That depends on your resolution. The 5830 is a hard sale at its current price. The 5770 offers much higher bang for the buck. I would get a 5770 for your intended use as long as your resolution is 1920 x 1080 or lower.

 

[shadow187]

If you're considering the HD5830, why not consider the HD5850 which is only $10 more than $270? You'll get a very good amount of performance, and it'll last you for awhile.

 

[Slayer697]

It really depends on what games you're looking to play and at what resolution. From what I've seen, the 5770 is simply the best value per dollar of all the cards mentioned. Especially if you're not looking to OC your card.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/EAH_5850_TOP_DirectCu/30.html

This is a review of the ASUS DirectCU 5850 and the page I've selected is one that shows performance per dollar and how a number of cards stack up. Since it compares all these cards at stock setting it's highly relevant to my previous point.

If you decide to go with a 5830, you should listen to shadow's advice and get a 5850 instead. I'd even suggest going one step further if you can afford it and get an ASUS DirectCU version, but only if you're planning on overclocking it.

What are your system specs? The money you save from getting a 5770 over a 5830 might be best put into upgrading something else in the future.

 

[jerreece]

Those prices seem high. Are you outside the United States?

You can pick up an ATI 5770 through NewEgg.com for like $150-$160 US. And ATI 5850 for about $309 US.

I have to agree with Shadow with regard to the 5850 over the 5830. If the price is fairly close, the 5850 is a much better card. Depending on what your monitor resolution is, the ATI 5850 will max out current games @ 1920x1080 (1080p) very well. It would be comparable to running 2 x 5770 cards.

 

[akiraQ]

I live in Canada. The prices suck. Hmmm, I guess I have a bit more of an idea now. I think that I should maybe go for the 5770 and upgrade other things.

Right now the rest of my system looks like this:

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Processor
Ripjaws 12800 4GB DDR3-1333
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 Motherboard
Noctua NH-U12P cooling
1TB 7200RPM Hard Drive
600W power supply


I'm a little concerned with the memory and power supply, maybe I should put the graphics card money into that? Do I need more memory or watts?

 

[jerreece]

4GB of RAM is plenty for gaming purposes right now. I would not worry about adding more. And the Ripjaw RAM is good stuff. So no worries there.

If you're in Canada, there is a NewEgg.ca website you can order parts through.

As an example, you can get a PowerColor ATI 5770 for $147.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131328&cm_re=ati_5770-_-14-131-328-_-Product

It's a basic model, with a fairly basic cooler. But it's cheaper than you've been seeing.

Here's an ATI 5850 for $306 + shipping
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814141115&cm_re=ati_5850-_-14-141-115-_-Product

Or an ATI 5830 for $225
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150481&cm_re=ATI_5830-_-14-150-481-_-Product

Any of those cards will work with a 600W power supply, assuming it's half way decent. Do you have more details? Brand, model number? It needs to have a good rating on the 12V rail(s) amperage wise. Also make sure it has at least two PCI-E 6-pin power connectors, as you may need two of them for a single graphics card in some cases.

 

[Raidur]

600w is plenty, but the quality(high 12v Amps, efficiency, capacitor size, etc) of the PSU(Power Supply Unit) is more important.

Exactly what PSU did you pick out?

 

[akiraQ]

@ Raidur + jerreece
It's a "Seasonic SS-600ET 600W EPS12V 24PIN ATX Power Supply PFC 80PLUS Bronze 6PIN 8PIN PCI-E 120MM Fan OEM"

(Thanks for the links jerreece, didn't even know newwegg.ca existed, haha)

 

[jkwonman]

i'd go for 5770 and then crossfire if you need to later on.
i have a 5770 atm, and i can max out crysis & all the recent games (with the exception of metro 2033).

 

[Slayer697]

@ Raidur + jerreece
It's a "Seasonic SS-600ET 600W EPS12V 24PIN ATX Power Supply PFC 80PLUS Bronze 6PIN 8PIN PCI-E 120MM Fan OEM"

(Thanks for the links jerreece, didn't even know newwegg.ca existed, haha)

I also live in Canada and at first I was very depressed about the pricing for some components. I did find a couple of things have cut down the cost of my system considerably. First and foremost is this site:

http://www.shopbot.ca/

It lists a number of Canadian retailers and when you find products you can sort them by price to easily see who is offering the product at the lowest cost.

My second strategy has been to go to local shops. At first I was upset that I'd have to get an ASUS DirectCU for almost $350 from newegg.ca, but I found a local shop that was willing to sell it for $325. That's only $5 more than the american newegg site and very reasonable for the performance I'll be getting out of the card once it's overclocked.

Don't let Canada get you down! There's still cheap components here if you're willing to find them.

 

[jerreece]

@ Raidur + jerreece
It's a "Seasonic SS-600ET 600W EPS12V 24PIN ATX Power Supply PFC 80PLUS Bronze 6PIN 8PIN PCI-E 120MM Fan OEM"

(Thanks for the links jerreece, didn't even know newwegg.ca existed, haha)

I can't personally say anything quality wise about Seasonic PSU's. The Extreme Systems forums have a list of PSU's according to quality. They rank them in tiers. They've got a few Seasonic models (though not yours) in the Tier 2 category. So it can't be too bad.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108088

However, here's the brochure/spec sheet from the manufacturer.

http://www.seasonicusa.com/PDF/Catalog/NEW/Bulk/PC/ATX/SS-XXXET-Active-PFC.pdf

They say your SS-600ET has a combined 46A on the +12V, with a max output of 552W. So that should be plenty to fuel any graphics card you want.

Side Note: The SS-600ET is part of Seasonic's "Bulk" product line. So it's an OEM type part, not sold at retail generally. Their site lists Bulk and Retail products separately.

 

[jyjjy]

Seasonic is a good brand but even a crappy 600w could handle these cards. The HD5770 would be the best performance for the money and you can definitely get better prices online as people have already pointed out. You also never mentioned your resolution which would help us tell you what card is appropriate for your situation.

 

[akiraQ]

@Slayer697
Thanks, that's great advice. I actually love Canada btw, haha.

Can someone tell me the difference is between different (brands?) that distribute the same graphics card? (ex. powercolor 5770 and msi 5770) The fans are different, but does that really change things much? How important is GPU cooling?

@jyjjy
I'm a bit embarrassed to admit I don't understand resolution in this instance. I have a 21.5 inch 1080p monitor that I will use if that helps. Sorry for my lack of knowledge. I feel like I'm taking advantage of everyone’s helpfulness, haha.

 

[jyjjy]

Yes, 1080p is 1920x1080. At that resolution basically an HD5770 will be good, the HD5830 a little better and the HD5850 would be great. I probably wouldn't go for the HD5830 unless you are going to overclock the card. At stock speeds it isn't really worth the extra money over the HD5770 but it OCs a lot making it a decent choice if you do so.
If you aren't a hardcore gamer I'd recommend the HD5770. Really there's only a handful of games that will give it problems and even then you'll just have to turn off AA and maybe turn a setting or two down a lil.
As for the various brands it doesn't matter all that much. Mostly they differ in warranty and fan/heatsink. These cards are rather low power and don't give off too much heat so the cooling isn't a big deal.

 

[akiraQ]

Thanks so much everyone, I've learned a ton!

 

[jerreece]

I'm a graphic oriented person. So if it were me, and I had the money, I'd go ATI 5850. That way you can play @ 1920x1080 (1080p) with all the eye candy turned on. That's why I'm running an SLI setup with GTX 260's. It's essentially equivalent to an ATI 5850 or Crossfire ATI 5770's. Because I want high FPS while running 1080p with all high settings.

The ATI 5770 is a great card for most games, but if you want the best settings from all current titles, I'd go ATI 5850 when playing at 1080p. But that's just me.

I just built my brother a gaming system from the ground up (he had absolutely no PC before this). Put $1,500 into an entire system, and the ATI 5850 was the GPU we chose. He's using a 1080p monitor, and the i5-750.

 

[Slayer697]

Thanks so much everyone, I've learned a ton!

You're very welcome. I sincerely recommend if you go the 5850 route that you research the different models to see which is a better fit for you. As far as overclocking goes though, I haven't been able to find any negative reviews for the ASUS DirectCU 5850 and mostly stellar overclocks all around.

 

[akiraQ]

Best answer selected by AkiraQ.

 

[tcashin79]

I am trying to decide if I need a full upgrade, or if a small upgrade will keep me happy and be worth the money. I'm thinking either the 5770 1G or the 5830. Current set-up: E2180 OC'd to 3.0ghz, 2G ram (going to add 2G more), asus P5K, HD3870, and 1920x1200 monitor.

I'm worried that if I upgrade one thing, I would need to upgrade everthing once I started down the upgrade path, but I'd rather just build a new set-up if I go that route.

My question: will my current CPU bottleneck what the 5770 or 5830 can do?
If I went with the 5770 my plan would be to add another 5770 in xfire down the road as well...

I'm thinking if I need a new CPU for these cards, I might as well go with the new "i" series, which means a new board and new ram and new............ which means I'll be waiting awhile to put some cash together...

 

[jerreece]

At the 1920x1200 resolution, I'd opt for the ATI 5850 if you can afford it. As I stated to the OP of this thread, you'll be able to turn on all the eye candy that way and still have high FPS levels.

Your E2180 @ 3Ghz probably would be a limiting factor. Since you have a socket 755 motherboard, you'll either want to upgrade to an Intel Q9xxx processor, or you'll want to upgrade to a new i5 cpu (i5-750 + P55 mobo is a GREAT option). That would likely require upgrading/replacing your RAM as well (don't do less than 4GB DDR3).

The cheapest upgrade path would be a Q9xxx processor, 2x2GB DDR2, and an ATI 5850 (or your choice of GPU). Again, it all depends on budget though.