Recommend a graphics card

[jubbi]

Dabs had the 4850 for £72 a bit back. Ask about open box items too. And it pc pro's A-list graphics card.

[Maz]

Dabs had the 4850 for £72 a bit back. Ask about open box items too. And it pc pro's A-list graphics card.

4850 is a cracking card for the price. It's what I'd recommend all day long. I'm going to put one in my new build I think - on a 8600GT at the moment, cost maybe £60 I think... and this was a good few months ago now.

[russdev]

Thought would start this thread up again as need some updated advice.

As I need to get card for L. Main thing needs to run Sims 3 after really looking for something in £60 to £80 prefer the bottom end of that

Any advice.

Russ

[Dos_Box]

I belive the ATI 4770 are very highly regarded.

Computer Hardware - All - GPU - ATI - Scan.co.uk

ATI Radeon HD 4770 | Components | Reviews | PC Pro

And in your price range.

[Maz]

EAH4850/HTDI/512M/A - 512MB Asus HD 4850, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), 1986 MHz GDDR3, GPU 625 MHz, 800 Cores, 2 x DL DVI-I/HDTV - Scan.co.uk

4850s are great cards too.

[Michael]

Personally my overall experience of Nvidia is much better than ATI. I've had an 7800GTX since it was released (all those years ago) and still run it today.

Given the choice, look at the speed/type of memory rather than the quantity. 256MB-512MB high speed rather than 768MB-1GB lower speed. I think very few games would use more than 512MB; unless you were running at an extremely high resolution!

[Michael]

Sims 3 requires a 128MB graphics card. As a comparison I also looked at CoD 5 and this requires 256MB. CoD 5 is a nice game all round which proves my quality over quantity theory

[Fatmas]

It's worth spending a bit more on graphics cards to get one that lasts. I got my 8800gt 1024mb over a year ago for £100 - £150 (Can't remember exact price!) and it runs everything on high - highest settings. Even Crysis..

[dgsmith]

I'm currently considering an XFX 4850 1GB card for around the £80 mark. I believe GTA5 prefers more than 512MB else I would be quite happy going for a 512MB model! I agree about going for lower, faster graphics memory than just looking at which looks "the biggest", which isn't always necessarily going to yield better performance.

[ahuxham]

Just got a XFX 4890 1GB - Lifetime Warranty, including warranty due to damage by overclocking. Perfect card, Cost just short of £120 and is absolutely outstanding value for money compared to the 2** series Nvidia.

[dalsoth]

Got a NVidia GTX 285 Black Edition and it sends my computer into outer space. Was pricey though when i bought it. Before that i had a XFX 8800GT which was good but not going to handle a 28 inch monitor on the highest resolutions at full settings.

Also bought a XFX ATI 4870 which was a lot cheaper and not a massive difference even on a big screen with Fallout 3 set to the highest settings. I expect the best bargains will be the ATI stuff at around £70-80 quid.

[richard_s]

If you can stretch your budget have a look at a GTS250 or even a GTX260. I have 2 words of warning though regarding the GTZ60 and they are 1) Make sure you case is big enough and 2) Make sure your SATA ports are not directly behind the PCI-e slot as the card will obstruct them if they are.

[OutToLunch]

I find the chart at PassMark Software - Video Card Benchmarks - High End Video Cards pretty handy when it compares to comparing £££ vs performance - have a look at your price range on Ebuyer (or your site of choice) then see which card out of that has best performance, then go off googling for some real world reviews. For my money, I went for the 4830 at the sub £60 mark.

[sted]

has anybody any experience with the ati cards that have onboard 7.1 audio and hdmi out? I was thinking of simplyfing my setup by getting a hdmi amp as well so pc to amp 1 cable then hdmi-dvi to screen (and as my 360/wii are also using the same screen it simplifies my wiring quite a bit). But as i havnt got the amp yest can the output "normally" to either optical or coaxial audio?

[ahuxham]

has anybody any experience with the ati cards that have onboard 7.1 audio and hdmi out? I was thinking of simplyfing my setup by getting a hdmi amp as well so pc to amp 1 cable then hdmi-dvi to screen (and as my 360/wii are also using the same screen it simplifies my wiring quite a bit). But as i havnt got the amp yest can the output "normally" to either optical or coaxial audio?

I have an Asus Xonar DX2 Sound Card which processes all my Audio, however when playing Blu Ray movies via PC into TV, I set the HD4890 to process the HD Audio. Can't fault it at all, processes like a dream, no stutters, poor quality etc.

I've the same setup DVI -> HDMI into TV. The 4890 upscales to 1080p as well, so I get full resolution on my 47''. Watching movies is absolute enjoyment. It also seems to-do well upscaling the desktop as well, and certain games that run at different resolutions due to graphic hungriness.