nzr_sdk

hi guyz my bro's birhday is close i want to buy him a nice gaming video card... my max budget is 200€ and i wanted it dx 11 and pixel shader more than 4.0 and at least 1 gb ram ddr3 at about its speed im not so familiar with good speeds so what should i choose????? nvidia?? amd??? which is perfect to buy??? what is its specification??? by the way he has windows 7 system 64x i need one thats driver dont make a conflict with it thx guyssss

blibbax

It's important to know before we can make a reccomendation what CPU and PSU he has. It would be pointless to put an epic GPU in a system that can't power it or keep up with it.

What games he plays and at what res might also be useful.

As for what counts as good speeds, the actual clock speed is only relavent when comparing otherwise identical cards. Things like shader count are far more important, but even then you cannot use them to compare different architectures.

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BlueMak

Give us as much info on what his PC is.

For that money, you can probably get a AMD 6870 which is a very good card, but it depends on his computer.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

blibbax

Furthermore, I don't know when his birthday is, but if possible it might be an idea to wait a week or so in case the 560 launch drops prices in that sector.

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nzr_sdk

his birthday is on 8 feb. guys give 2 days to gather his system specification i will visit him tomorrow anyway i think his psu is not more than 550 watt and he has an amd cpu not sure what is it yet!!!

BlueMak

Don't forget the model of the mainboard.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

synthesis204

Get the wattage, amps on 12v rail, psu model, motherboard model, and cpu model for us to be able to accurately recommend something.

We have plenty of lurkers, so don't worry -- 2 days sounds more than enough for us to recommend something.

nzr_sdk

guys sry for being late but till yesterday till i went to his place... anyways he has a 2 partition one xp 64 bit and one is 7 also 64 bit his cpu is dualcore AMD Opteron 185,2600 Mhz(13x200) his motherboard is Asus A8r32-MVP Deluxe(socket 939) his motherboard chipset is AMD 580x Crossfire,AMD Hammer his graphic card now is an Ati radeon HD 2900 xt 512 ddr3 ram and his pc rams are 2 gb ddr2 ,
psu:be quiet golden eddition 520 watts

nzr_sdk

so guys what should i choose?? i liked the nvidia gts 450 and the amd HD 6850 but can his pc handle it or is there an another graphic card more suitable for him???? thx guys

blibbax

I don't know what that PSU is like, but a GTS450 is probably the right kinda ballpark for that system, and probably a worthwhile upgrade from the 2900XT, although not a huge one.

You could look at a GTX460SE or GTX460 768, but that's likely to be bottleknecked by the CPU unless he plays at a fairly high resolution.

Also, another 2GB of RAM would be a nice upgrade for that sytem.

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BlueMak

I would go for a 6850. Just don't get one with the AMD stock cooler.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

blibbax

I'm thinking even a 6850 might be overkill.

Also, I thought you liked said cooler?

OP: That's a fairly high end rig from a few years ago that your bro has. It's ripe for replacement. It would be bad if you bought him an upgrade just before he bought a whole new system, and a new flagship GPU to go with it (seeing as that's what he did last time).

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BlueMak

If he upgrades he can keep the 6850. Spending up to 200 for a new GPU and not getting something powerful, it would be a waste of money.
It's not that big of an overkill and it is IMO the best card for the money.
I am 1000000% sure I never said I like the stock cooler of AMD/ATI. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever.
I hate it. HATE IT.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

blibbax

Ok, my bad :P

Your XFX card isn't reference, then?

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BlueMak

Yes.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

blibbax

I swear you were raving about how quiet and cool it was vs the card it replaced?

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nzr_sdk

should i choose the sapphire radeon HD 6850 toxic(1 gb ram Gddr5???

BlueMak

Yes, and it still is, your point?

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

blibbax

I dunno man, I've confused myself. I just thought you were really happy with the cooler on your card, yet you're reccomending against it to others. Evidently I am confused or have misunderstood. Don't worry about it.

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BlueMak

I am very happy with the cooler on my XFX 6850 card...I never said otherwise. How did you get confused? lol

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

synthesis204

I had a similar misconception. Oh well -- whatever.

Anyway, I would recommend the XFX 6850:
Newegg.com - XFX HD-685X-ZNFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Or the EVGA GTS 450:
Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1450-TR GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Both would exceed your needs given the system, imho -- I would also recommend the EVGA GTX 460:
Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1370-TR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

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Donate the spare computing power of your PC to help to cure alzheimers, ALS, huntington's, parkinson's disease and cancer:
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blibbax

What's sensible depends a lot on the monitor size tbh.

1024x768 and his current GPU is already overkill.

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synthesis204

I don't think an HD2900 is overkill for 1024. It definitely could not run COD:BO or BFBC2 at med-high at 1024 -- assuming he will be partaking in new games.

It also lacks DX10 and DX11 support, so that's also a plus.

__________________
Donate the spare computing power of your PC to help to cure alzheimers, ALS, huntington's, parkinson's disease and cancer:
Fold for HH!

blibbax

Surely though an HD2900 will be held up by an Opteron 2.6GHZ dual at 1024x768?

As far as I understand, the HD2900XT is similar performance wise to a 9600GT. When I had an E2220 at 3.0GHZ (similar to the Opteron, right?) and a 9600GT at 1440x900, that was a balanced setup.

I dunno about newer games ofc, not had time to play much recently

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BlueMak

If you are going to buy a new card, you can spend up to 200 and go for a HD2900, you are.....making a mistake. It doesn't matter if his current CPU isn't fast enough (it is), it is a stupid move to buy anything new which is already obsolete. Plus, it is not going to look good to the person receiving the gift.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

blibbax

Lmao

Dude. The 2900XT is the card that his brother already has. I'm not suggesting that one should be purchased for £200 now. I'm saying that there might not be a huge upgrade from a 2900XT to a more modern card if his rig is already held up by the CPU, which could be the case at lower resolutions and in older games.

I know that a CPU of that standard still works fine, I use one myself, but I am also aware of the bottlekneck that it presents in many scenarios to my not particularly awesome GPU.

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synthesis204

Look at it like this, though: if he has the budget now for the card and would notice an improvement, why NOT upgrade, and when the computer is replaced keep the gfx card?

__________________
Donate the spare computing power of your PC to help to cure alzheimers, ALS, huntington's, parkinson's disease and cancer:
Fold for HH!

blibbax

Because the new graphics card would be cheaper/faster when the computer is replaced, and he gains nothing from having it earlier.

Gaining nothing is an extreme (and purely hypothetical) situation, but you get my point.

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BlueMak

Even if (it won't) the two cards give the same performance due to the CPU, only one of them will be able to provide certain things, like, Oh I don't know, DX11 and the 1GB of RAM he wants etc.
What I said stands just fine.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

blibbax

Yes it does, it just happens to be entirely compatible with what I said :P

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