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Urgent! Need Graphics Card advice, and soon!

jammertk10jammertk10 Member CommonPosts: 88
in Hardware

Howdy! I'm looking at several cards on newegg, my budget is around ~$100. I have looked at the Radeon HD 3870, Radeon HD 4850, Radeon HD 4650. I wanted to know which is the best, or what card is best for my price range.... I need to know soon as I need it by X-Mas and shipping is.... well shipping. If you think there is a better card for my money let me know! I'm looking to play games like Dragon Age:Origins, EVE, EQ2, LOTRO, MW2 all at maxed out settings, or close, with a playable frame rate :) Thank you so much!

 

P.S. - I'm using http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html for my benchmarks. Is this accurate? Also, I'm looking for a more user based opinion on these cards :)

“The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.” - Voltaire
i5-750 OC'd to 4.0Ghz - PNY GTX 470 Performance Edition - Western Digital 2X2TB in RAID 0 - Samsung BD Drive - 4GB DDR3 2000Mhz - CM Storm Scout

Comments

  • noquarternoquarter Member Posts: 1,170

    Originally posted by jammertk10
    Howdy! I'm looking at several cards on newegg, my budget is around ~$100. I have looked at the Radeon HD 3870, Radeon HD 4850, Radeon HD 4650. I wanted to know which is the best, or what card is best for my price range.... I need to know soon as I need it by X-Mas and shipping is.... well shipping. If you think there is a better card for my money let me know! I'm looking to play games like Dragon Age:Origins, EVE, EQ2, LOTRO, MW2 all at maxed out settings, or close, with a playable frame rate :) Thank you so much!
     
    P.S. - I'm using http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html for my benchmarks. Is this accurate? Also, I'm looking for a more user based opinion on these cards :)

    The 4850 doesn't really exist anymore, the cards you should be looking at are the 4770, 4830, 9800GT and GTS 250.


    The best card at ~$100 right now is a 9800GT 512MB. You can find the GTS 250 512MB for about $115-$120 which is a good buy, worth it over the 9800GT imo. It seems ATI has pretty much cleared out their ~$100 price range to make room for the upcoming 5670 but it's running late because of manufacturing problems at TSMC - should be out by January, but not soon enough for x-mas.


    If you prefer the ATI cards there is an XFX 4770 is on Newegg for $115 and it's almost a match with the GTS 250 in most games. The other option at ~$92 is the HIS 4830 which is pretty good too. I wouldn't go down to a 4670 unless you're really budgeting but it is a better option than the 9600GT at that price.


    There's something off about the benchmark you're looking at btw. The 4770 is actually faster than the 4830 in most games and ALL of the dual GPU cards on the benchmark are obviously not benching correctly.


    http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/mainstream-cards-mmorpg.html covers most of the cards we're talking about here and 2 of the games (EVE and LOTRO), I wish they including the Radeon 4870 but they left it out for some reason. At maxed out settings at 1680x1050 resolution the 4770 beats the GTS 250 in LOTRO but the GTS 250 and 9800GT beat the 4770 at EVE.


    So my suggestion, not in order of speed but what I think is the best deal:
    1. $120 GTS 250
    2. $100 9800GT
    3. $115 Radeon 4770
    4. $92 Radeon 4830

  • jammertk10jammertk10 Member CommonPosts: 88

    Thank you so much! This is exactly what I needed to know, and the website is great! I think I'm going to follow your suggestion and go for the GTS 250. You've been a great help. Your time was appreciated :)

     

     

    Have a good one!

    “The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.” - Voltaire
    i5-750 OC'd to 4.0Ghz - PNY GTX 470 Performance Edition - Western Digital 2X2TB in RAID 0 - Samsung BD Drive - 4GB DDR3 2000Mhz - CM Storm Scout

  • noquarternoquarter Member Posts: 1,170

    Hrm double checking the prices on newegg I didn't realize most of the major brand ones are up to $135.


    If you do go with the GTS 250 keep an eye on the core clock + shader clock, the best deal is probably the ECS Black clocked at 760/2200 for $125, but this is getting further over budget when you add in shipping and stuff so you might have to take a step back, the $115 4770 has free shipping making it a better deal than I thought.


    edit:
    ugh, sometimes it pays to check sites other than newegg.
    XFX Radeon 4850 512MB for $113 with free shipping from Zipzoomfly, owns everything suggested and woulda cut down on a lot of typing lol

  • CleffyCleffy Member RarePosts: 6,414

    Here are the price ranges ATI is at right now:

    HD5770 - $150

    HD5750 - $140

    HD4870 - $125

    HD4850 - $110

    When you think about its nVidia competition, there is nothing that can beat those prices.  When you go above $150, its purely an ATI dominated market, and when you go below $100, its once again dominated by ATI.  This week is pretty pivotol.  Last week, you could warrant a nVidia purchase in the $100~$130 range, now you just cant.  ATI has the best buy in every category until nVidia's next generation.

  • noquarternoquarter Member Posts: 1,170

    Originally posted by Cleffy
    For nVidia, they are now all officially worthless investments.  HD4850 are selling for $100.  The only problem is you have to find one before its sold out.

    Yea I hope he gets that update before he buys the GTS 250, there were no 4850's at Newegg or Tigerdirect and I didn't check Zipzoomfly till after, $113 is a pretty sweet deal. I still wouldn't say the GTS 250 is a bad buy at least, just can't beat the 4850 while they last.

  • MazinMazin Member Posts: 640

    I'm not sure what their price range is now, as I got mine almost a year ago, but I have a Sapphire 1G 4870 and I haven't had a problem running any game at max settings with it.

    Just make sure your case is pretty big, as the card itself is a monster, it barely squeezed in my Antec 900

     

  • Agricola1Agricola1 Member UncommonPosts: 4,977

    Pony up for an ATI 5770 and be DX 11 ready and have an awesome card, I got one and am very happy with it.

    "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"

    CS Lewis

  • jammertk10jammertk10 Member CommonPosts: 88

    Hey there! I'm glad you caught me in time! I just bought the 4850 off of zipzoomfly, and it should be here before x-mas! Thank you so much noquarter, and everyone else who posted! My issue has been resolved!

    “The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.” - Voltaire
    i5-750 OC'd to 4.0Ghz - PNY GTX 470 Performance Edition - Western Digital 2X2TB in RAID 0 - Samsung BD Drive - 4GB DDR3 2000Mhz - CM Storm Scout

  • DeathreatDeathreat Member UncommonPosts: 143

    9800Gt lower power edition is 100 dollars on newegg and doesnt require a PSU with power connectors.

    I just upgraded from 2 8600gts in SLi to two 9800gts in sli and get 100x the performance.

     

    EDIT: Forgot to add that I max out dragon age at 1920x1080 in HDMI. Its friggin awesome how much better my PC runs all games.

    http://www.facebook.com/DEATHREAT

  • dfandfan Member Posts: 362

    Multiple gfx is stupid choice in everything else than high end, where you got no other choice for performance increase. 

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