Help me pick a video card.

D

desmin88

Active Member
Im getting a job soon, so I'm going to have some money. My current card is my good 'ol PNY 9800 GT. It can play WaW on 1920x1080 at high with 2xAA. But its gonna be time for an upgrade.
Im caught between getting a GTS 450 Sonic Platinum,A GTX 460-465, some GTX 200 card, or a 5770. I want to spend around 200$, preferably less.

My purchase date is gonna be 1 - 2 months.

Any ideas?
 
Don't get a GTS 450 when you could afford a GTX 460. GTX 465 performs a little better in some areas I think, but gets a lot hotter and consumes more power. GTX 200 series is outdated, but if you can get a 275 cheap by all means go for it. I don't remember if the 5770 is better than the GTX 460 or worse.
 
EVGA has a good warranty I hear. Go with a reputable brand and get the best value for the money. Higher clock speeds are good but don't pay a lot extra for them. If a card has a non-standard cooler, look it up. Sometimes they are good, sometimes they suck, like this one that takes up not two but THREE slots.
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814121389

3 slot cooler. It may have better clocks and cooling performance, but IMO even two slot coolers are a bit much, but they are necessary now. 3 slots is just ridiculous, and chances are you won't be able to go SLI. Most motherboards have provisions for 2-slot but not 3-slot coolers. Anyway, on to some real suggestions.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814127512
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814127519
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130563

These are all decent to pretty good deals. The first one has a 2 slot cooler that's pretty high in the other direction and might not fit in your case. The second has a Twin Frozr cooler which I heard is pretty good. The third has a normal stock cooler. All are overclocked to about the same degree.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130562

Standard EVGA brand card, stock cooler and clocks. Not much to see here but it's cheap and the overclocking doesn't really increase performance that much. You might be able to push the clocks on this card a bit higher anyway.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130570
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814127510
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814500169

These are the cheapest 1GB cards. The first has a standard cooler, the second has the MSI Cyclone one and the third has one that looks like 200-series surplus. I believe you also get more shader processors in addition to more RAM. They'll run you around $230, though, for a small but significant increase in performance.

I can't do all of this for you, so do your research, read reviews, benchmarks, customer ratings and forum threads.
 
XCVG, Your post above my previous one saying "Which one?" said this


XCVG said:
EVGA has a good warranty I hear. Go with a reputable brand and get the best value for the money. Higher clock speeds are good but don't pay a lot extra for them. If a card has a non-standard cooler, look it up. Sometimes they are good, sometimes they suck, like this one that takes up not two but THREE slots.
Click to expand...

I meant which one was 3 slot, since there was no link. I didn't mean to make you do all that for me. Thanks though :D
 
Actually, looking at the pictures, the first one does not have a 3-slot cooler. It's an optical illusion- the cooler is back away from the slot bracket, so it looks higher than it actually is. It's still not a good deal though.

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=54106 ... ture=Zotac

This one has a 3-slot cooler. Looking at the slot picture, it may even take up 4 slots.
 
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