I need a new graphic card

Ubereil

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Because my old card died I need a new graphic card. My computer is almost two years old now, and my shiny GF9800GX2 (which was a great $500 card back when I bought it) isn't with us anymore. And at the moment I'm trying to figure out a card that's kind of as good but not close to as expensive.

My system specs:

Intel Quad Core Q9300 2500MHz 6 MB cache processor
Western Digital Raptor HD 150 GB
Corsair Power Supply 750W TX
2*Kingston 2GB DDR2 (so, 4GB RAM)
ASUS P5Q Mainboard S-775 P45 ATX PCI-E Audio GbLAN 2x1394 SATA-II Raid DDR2

As I said, I'd rather not spend another $500 (375 euro) on a graphic card when the rest of the machine probably only have about two years in it (three if I'm lucky/stingy). Any suggestions on suiting cards? I went to a store today and they had the following two cards: MSI N2500 GTS (I suspect that's acually an N250) and an Asus EAH5770*. Any views on those two cards?

*Graphic cards is a jungle, why can't they get a naming convention that makes intuitive sense?

Übereil
 
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Dx11 ati cards are the only choice right now. Possibly 5850 if you have small budget. 5870 othervice. 5870x2 aka 5970 if you dont mind microstuttering.

If Id have to buy card now I would propably pick Sapphire Radeon HD5870 Vapor-X. It has the best cooler of all of the cards.
 
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Even the 5850 is still about $300, not exactly idea for a small budget.

@Ubereil: How much of a graphics whore are you?
 
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I'm not the kind of guy who lives for the graphics, but I also suspect that nice graphics is the kind of thing I only notice when they're not there.

I'm keeping an eye on ATI 5770's at the moment. I'm curious about what's different about Asus EAH 5770, and if that difference warrants a higher price (they've got one in the store on campus).

Another question is the reputation on PowerColor and Saphire (since those are the only two companies I've found in online stores that sells the 512 verision of 5770, which according to Tom's Hardware seems like all I need with my 19" 1280x1024 screen). They seem to make the cheapest cards, which I suspect means they use the cheapest components too.

Edit: Nevermind, I bought the EAH in the campus store. Apparently it's a 5770 with a good fan. Price was decent in line with what I'd have to pay if I ordered online (with shipping costs) and I got it today so it was a decent deal all in all.

Übereil
 
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A 4850 is more than adequate for every game currently on the market and should last at least another couple of years unless you are playing at insane resolutions.
 
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A 4850 is more than adequate for every game currently on the market and should last at least another couple of years unless you are playing at insane resolutions.


I was going to suggest a 4890, you can get them on Ebay now for around $150. It's a very fast card for that price, probably the best price/performance ratio right now imo.
 
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There is also Radeon 5830, which I just bought as my old card started malfunctioning. It was around 200 euros in Germany. The best 5770 cards are very close in what comes to speed, but as my card (Sapphire) is built on the bigger 5850 board with a large fan, it always stays under 65 degrees Celsius.

Funnily enough, I could not get any recent version of the Catalyst Control Center to install, but the drivers I could install with the 'Update driver' function under Vista. Only advice I've found in ATI/AMD forums is that I should install Windows again from scratch, but I do not accept that as a solution - should I install Windows every time there is a driver update? I suppose the application settings take over if CCC is not installed; at least they seem to work in games I have tried with.

In short: I'm happy with the card but not with the software.
 
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I was going to suggest a 4890, you can get them on Ebay now for around $150. It's a very fast card for that price, probably the best price/performance ratio right now imo.

Yepp. I have the 4890 and I am very happy with it. Together with the i7 CPU in my machine, it can run almost anything I throw at it at high/very high settings.

However, if I bought a graphics card today I would consider going for a DX11 card, or wait a while until they become cheaper.

EDIT: I see that waiting was not an option for you, since the old GPU was dead.
 
Get any ATI dx 11 card… no competition currently.

Those Nvidia drivers fried my card, and based on my experience, I would follow your advice as well and go with an ATI. The only reason I'm sticking with Nvidia right now is because I'm going to get a free replacement from EVGA because of the lifetime warranty. But after all this driver garbage, when it comes time for me to buy a new card, I'm going with ATI.
 
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Being an nvidia fan since the 90'ies even I am considering going with ATI for my next card, unless there's some awesome new card that appears within may. I want new cards for the summer because I plan to catch up on a lot of games once I am off the university. Of course, part of this is an identity challenge... I have forced myself to try to focus on utility before loyalty when it comes to brands.
 
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There is also Radeon 5830, which I just bought as my old card started malfunctioning. It was around 200 euros in Germany. The best 5770 cards are very close in what comes to speed, but as my card (Sapphire) is built on the bigger 5850 board with a large fan, it always stays under 65 degrees Celsius.

Funnily enough, I could not get any recent version of the Catalyst Control Center to install, but the drivers I could install with the 'Update driver' function under Vista. Only advice I've found in ATI/AMD forums is that I should install Windows again from scratch, but I do not accept that as a solution - should I install Windows every time there is a driver update? I suppose the application settings take over if CCC is not installed; at least they seem to work in games I have tried with.

In short: I'm happy with the card but not with the software.

Microsoft has a hotfix for this issue.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961894

I had a lot of problems with the ATI drivers recently and at least for me it was related to Visual Studio 2005 getting all done got blowed up on my computer, or something. But this is exactly what helped me recently with installing/reinstalling ATI drivers. This fixes some .dll that the ATI installer uses. It can't hurt to install this small file, but it worked for me.
 
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I recently upgraded my GeForce 8800GTS to a Radeon HD 4890, and I'm already regretting it. While the 4890 is definitely faster, I've already experienced some glitches with games. When I heard about the shadow problems with ATI cards and Gothic 3, I tested it out and also discovered that I can no longer force antialiasing.

Antialiasing is a big deal to me, and once you get used to it, it sucks to play without it. You can force antialiasing in any game, even games that supposedly don't support it, using an NVidia card and the nHancer utility. If you have an ATI card, and the game doesn't support antialiasing, then you're screwed.
 
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That is not entirely true, most games can be forced to do AA including G3 but in G3 you have to disable shadows in that case. For other games it can work perfectly. But is is troublesome.
 
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Trust me, you can't enable AA in Gothic 3 with an ATI card, it's not possible. Disabling shadows does nothing.
 
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yes you can, rename the Gothic3.exe to bioshock.exe which has an ATI profile, the same method work on drakensong, but you have to disable shadows in Gothic 3 like I said or they'll flicker a lot.
 
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I think you've confused that with a trick to enable it with nVidia cards. It doesn't work, I just tried it.

Ironically, every Gothic game has had problems with ATI cards at one time or another. I'm definitely going back to nVidia for my next card.
 
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