Graphics card choice.

Saeten

EGO Zealot
Joined
Mar 16, 2009
Messages
1,417
Well Christmas is coming up and i really want to get a new GPU. i REALLY want to be able to run BF:BC2 at good settings and 40+FPS. I was looking at the GTX275, or maybe a GTX260. I was thinking of an ATI card but i don't know if my Dell XPS630I is ATI compatible.
 
As long as you have enough room, enough power, and a PCI Express slot, you can run ATI or Nvidia.

GTX 260 and 275 would be well over 40 frames. Most likely in the 100s.

What's the budget?
 
If you get a XFX 260GTX like I did off Newegg ($190), you get a free copy of COD4 as well. And it runs it flaaaaaaaaaaaaaawlessly.
 
Budget is around $240? There's a forum that i have seen all about Dell XPS 630I's and it say's many people have had problems with ATI cards running on the stock 650I Mobo. I know i have enough space (I have measured the size of the GTX260 and it fits by like 2 cm) and have enough power. (750w)
 
Well the best card to get would be a 5850 but its gonna be hard to find one for your budget.

If you can't cough up the extra money to get a 5850 then get a GTX 275 or ATI 5770, the GTX 260 is not worth getting at that price. They were like $130-150 before the ATI 5 series came out, now they're like $190. The 5770 is like $165, crossfiring them would give you best performance for money but its out of your budget too.

You shouldn't have a problem running an ATI card, you might need to clear all the old drivers though and do a fresh install of the new ATI drivers to avoid problems. As long as you have a PCI-e slot it should run fine.

5850 is best option if you can pay the extra money, it beats a GTX 285 and its cheaper. GTX 275 performs around same as ATI 4890 which is faster than the 5770 by ~10 FPS. ATI 4890 isn't a bad choice though, they can overclock super high which make them much faster than the GTX 275 if you can overclock it to around 1000mhz core which many have been able to do amazingly.

1) ATI 5850
2) ATI 4890
3) GTX 275
4) ATI 5770
5) GTX 260
 
Last edited:
Hmm. I may wait to see if my 9800GT can pull of BF:BC2, if i'm not satisfied i will upgrade.
 
You can run a single GPU ATI card on any mobo, just can't run crossfire since most XPSs are SLI ready, but not Crossfire ready. I would go for either of these two:

1. 4890 1GB - Really good bang for buck, it runs almost any game a max settings flawlessly. It goes for about $200, well in your price range.

2. 4870 1GB - Goes for about $175, can run most games a medium high settings really well.
 
You can run a single GPU ATI card on any mobo, just can't run crossfire since most XPSs are SLI ready, but not Crossfire ready. I would go for either of these two:

1. 4890 1GB - Really good bang for buck, it runs almost any game a max settings flawlessly. It goes for about $200, well in your price range.

2. 4870 1GB - Goes for about $175, can run most games a medium high settings really well.

Hmm I like the look of them 4890's.. I was looking at the 5850 but it is wayy to expensive.
 
Hmm I like the look of them 4890's.. I was looking at the 5850 but it is wayy to expensive.

not if you wait ;) the 5850 started at $260 but ATI being *** raised it to $300 retail. If you wait till like january or Q1 next year, im sure the prices will drop hopefully.

You will have plenty of time to watch 5850 prices fall before you get BF:BC2 when it comes out in March
 
I wanna know who has a 4870 and runs on Medium settings? O.o


And that's the exact card my brother is having trouble with :/
Well, I used to have only 1 4870, but now I have 2 in Crossfire. I ran on medium settings, at 1440x900 reso. What are the issues your brother is having?
 
http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=025645&cid=VDC.243.272

I was looking at this 4890 and they have a crap load of them at the store near my house.

what the hell. where do you live? cause thats my local store as well, tho i assume you're in the toronto area cause ya thats where most of the stock is at. but ya im thinking bout getting the 4890 instead of the 5850 myself, but i dunno...i don't want to have to get another vid card in another year

also when more drivers come out for the 5850 you'll start to see that thing take off in performance
 
Last edited:
what the hell. where do you live? cause thats my local store as well, tho i assume you're in the toronto area cause ya thats where most of the stock is at. but ya im thinking bout getting the 4890 instead of the 5850 myself, but i dunno...i don't want to have to get another vid card in another year

also when more drivers come out for the 5850 you'll start to see that thing take off in performance

id spend the extra money on a 5850.........newer tech, better support, faster, better overclocking potential.

Overclockersclub managed to get an XFX 5850 all the way up to 1000mhz core and 1200mhz on the memory. This is far past the Catalyst Control Driver limit in ATI overdrive but it may be because they Crossfired with a 5870 enabling the option to overclock to those speeds. It's pretty amazing though that the 5850 managed to get an overclock that high, XFX seems to be doing well now in the ATI sector.
Read it for yourself
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/xfx58705850/4.htm
 
Well, I used to have only 1 4870, but now I have 2 in Crossfire. I ran on medium settings, at 1440x900 reso. What are the issues your brother is having?

What game were you running on medium?

Even with my old 8800gt, I never ran anything on medium.


His card idles at 70c even with 100% fan speed, and I'm gonna say some of his shader processors arrived dead on the card because his frames are alot lower than usual (4850 speeds)
 
What game were you running on medium?

Even with my old 8800gt, I never ran anything on medium.


His card idles at 70c even with 100% fan speed, and I'm gonna say some of his shader processors arrived dead on the card because his frames are alot lower than usual (4850 speeds)
I only ran COD4 and Crysis on medium, because I wanted at least 60 FPS in both. And there is a problem with the 4870 that clocks it lower than what you have set in CCC, but I'm not sure how to fix it. As for the heat problems, sounds like there isn't enough cool air getting into the case.
 
I only ran COD4 and Crysis on medium, because I wanted at least 60 FPS in both. And there is a problem with the 4870 that clocks it lower than what you have set in CCC, but I'm not sure how to fix it. As for the heat problems, sounds like there isn't enough cool air getting into the case.

when the card idles, it downclocks......it only goes to the speeds in CCC or ATI overdrive when you run games or graphic intensive apps
 

Latest posts

Back
Top