What graphics card?

[sammyboy2]

Hey there, I was wondering Im going to purchase a new graphics card and have been looking at the XFX RADEON HD 5830 (the long card), XFX RADEON 5770, XFX RADEPN 6790,6850 or the XFX GF GTS250

Are they a good choice for a first card and budget pc?

Please, list any cards around the £60-£120 mark or any other ideas

Also im running 4gb ddr3 and a AMD Athlon X3 triple core (3.2ghz, 1.5mb cache)

Thanks, Sam

 

[inzone]

Of the cards that you listed the 6850 would be your best bet , then the 5770 , 6770 and the 5830 are all on the same level with the 250 pulling up the rear. You can get the 6850 for a resonable price and it is a good performong card.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I'd try and squeeze the budget a bit to a 6870 which should go for about £135 on your side of the pond.

 

[photonboy]

There are newer HD7xxx cards coming out. One of them is a little more powerful than the HD6870 and set to cost $150 to the best of my knowledge.

Aside from new architecture, these cards run much, much cooler and thus quieter.

NVidia's new cards will bring down prices on AMD's but the $150 new HD7xxx (forget the number) price is unlikely to change much since it's such a great value.

 

[sammyboy2]

There are newer HD7xxx cards coming out. One of them is a little more powerful than the HD6870 and set to cost $150 to the best of my knowledge.

Aside from new architecture, these cards run much, much cooler and thus quieter.

NVidia's new cards will bring down prices on AMD's but the $150 new HD7xxx (forget the number) price is unlikely to change much since it's such a great value.

Do you know when these cards may be coming out? Thanks

 

[someguynamedmatt]

The 5830 is getting outdated at this point, although there are some good deals on them. I'd recommend the 6850 over it, though, as it offers pretty similar performance only with newer technology. The HD 5770 and 6770 are the same card only rebranded; I myself have an HD 5770, and while it does acceptably well in most games, it just isn't able to max out modern games at 1080p. Both cards are a great value, but are quite a bit inferior to the 6850. The GTS 250 is essentially an outdated low-mid range card; avoid it.

This might help some:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=627&Itemid=72&limit=1&limitstart=10
The GTS 250 doesn't even make it onto that list, and for good reason.

Edit:
While I understand that there are newer cards coming out, you can only wait so long. Once they come out, there will be new ones after that, and then more; aside from that, any performance claims on these new cards are nothing but speculation as there aren't any legitimate benchmarks out on them anyway.
If you want to wait until then (I don't have a date... sorry...) to see if something exceptional comes out, then go ahead. If you want a card now, though, then go with the 6850.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/AMD-Radeon-HD-7000-gpu-video-card,14596.html
They claim to be releasing the 7750 and 7770 cards after Valentine's day; it's pretty close, so I'd wait and see how they do... in all honesty, though, I don't expect to see one of the new 77xx cards beating the 6850, and the 78xx cards are going to be way out of the OP's price range when they're released.

On another important note, you need to be sure your Power supply can run a modern card. Can you give us a make, model, and/or rating on it? The 6850 isn't exactly a power-hungry card, but it isn't going to run on a no-name 380w power supply, either...

 

[sammyboy2]

The 5830 is getting outdated at this point, although there are some good deals on them. I'd recommend the 6850 over it, though, as it offers pretty similar performance only with newer technology. The HD 5770 and 6770 are the same card only rebranded; I myself have an HD 5770, and while it does acceptably well in most games, it just isn't able to max out modern games at 1080p. Both cards are a great value, but are quite a bit inferior to the 6850. The GTS 250 is essentially an outdated low-mid range card; avoid it.

This might help some:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=627&Itemid=72&limit=1&limitstart=10
The GTS 250 doesn't even make it onto that list, and for good reason.

Edit:
While I understand that there are newer cards coming out, you can only wait so long. Once they come out, there will be new ones after that, and then more; aside from that, any performance claims on these new cards are nothing but speculation as there aren't any legitimate benchmarks out on them anyway.
If you want to wait until then (I don't have a date... sorry...) to see if something exceptional comes out, then go ahead. If you want a card now, though, then go with the 6850.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/AMD-Radeon-HD-7000-gpu-video-card,14596.html
They claim to be releasing the 7750 and 7770 cards after Valentine's day; it's pretty close, so I'd wait and see how they do... in all honesty, though, I don't expect to see one of the new 77xx cards beating the 6850, and the 78xx cards are going to be way out of the OP's price range when they're released.

Thankyou very much It seems il be going with the 6850 but is there much of a performance change between the 6850 and 6870? If there is a reasonable amount I will be able to stretch out the price a bit, but also Il be able to get more money at the end of april and would be able to purchase a much more suitable card but I want to complete my rig and honestly dont want to wait much longer, I would be able to purchase the 6850/6870 at the end of February so in your opinion ( As Im only a beginner) what do you think i should do? Keep my money and wait till april? or buy the 6850/6870 at the end of February? Thankyou

 

[sammyboy2]

Im running an Alpine 650w Silent PSU (off amazon)