The Age Old Question: Which GPU?

[Bitmap]

So after agonizing over component choices for the past few weeks, i've settled on most things, except the video card, for a new build.
For completeness sake, I'm going with:
i5-2500k
4gigs of whatever ram happens to be good at time of purchase,
Mobo which works,
120g Vertex 2 (already have)
~500g HD
no change in monitor, only running 1280x1024 though, not sure when an upgrade would come in this department.

Now i had pretty much narrowed it down to either a GTX 460 SE, or a 460 hawk. Then i saw this chart up on Tom's Hardware: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...rd,2857-7.html . Which raised several questions.

Firstly, the 5770, and 460 SE are on the same level, however price-wise, the 460 SE is quite a bit more expensive, are they really that close in performance?

Second, assuming they are on the same level, how much of a gap is there between there, or just the SE, and the full fledged 460, especially the hawk after OCing (which as I`ve heard it`s very good at)?

And last, newegg.ca put up a deal today which seems, very good based on the above chart : http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-913-_-Product . It`s $200 CAD for a 6870, after mail in rebate. This card is placed on the GTX 560 level, which from what I`d previously heard, it was not (lower). So, how does the 6870 come up in this bunch? I`m really not familiar with any of the ATI (just AMD now though, right?) cards, or their power levels.

Help would be really appreciated, as even through tons of searching through benchmarks and such, I really can`t seem to get a straight answer.

[Asera]

The 460 would mop the floor with the 5770 in most games, but not WoW. the 460 would be better yes, but not by a whole lot.

I find that the 5770 is where you want to be for optimal performance in WoW. Going up to a 460 or better yet a 560Ti or 6870 would yeild improvements, and going past that for WoW is a total waste.

[vesseblah]

This should help you put graphics cards in order.

But... with 1280x1024 monitor it doesn't matter one bit if you buy $100 or $500 graphics card, both will be totally fine. Difference between $100 and $200 cards is getting notable at 1680x1050 and higher screen sizes.

[Bitmap]

Thanks for the input, one more question though. How much difference is there between the same cards, but from different manufacturers. I'm aware that factory overclocked makes no difference, other than having to OC yourself, but how much of a difference do the coolers make? Is it pretty much just a "whatever's on sale" sort of deal, or is the cooler that the different manufacturers put on important to consider? How important?

[Cows For Life]

Thanks for the input, one more question though. How much difference is there between the same cards, but from different manufacturers. I'm aware that factory overclocked makes no difference, other than having to OC yourself, but how much of a difference do the coolers make? Is it pretty much just a "whatever's on sale" sort of deal, or is the cooler that the different manufacturers put on important to consider? How important?

The only differences between coolers are temperatures and noise levels. Generally you'll pay more for ones that keep things cooler or ones that run quieter.

Cards like the GTX 460 and up, HD6800 and up will be faster than the lower model numbers like the 450 or 5770 but any of them will run at high/ultra settings at 1920x1080 without sweating much. To be honest you'd only need the extra horsepower if you're planning on using 2560x1600 or multiple screens in Eyefinity.

[sozic]

This should help you put graphics cards in order.

But... with 1280x1024 monitor it doesn't matter one bit if you buy $100 or $500 graphics card, both will be totally fine. Difference between $100 and $200 cards is getting notable at 1680x1050 and higher screen sizes.

OMG yes! Finally someone else that understand resolution.

It's annoying listening to people brag about hooking up to their 42" TV and not understanding anything about resolution.

[Stefy]

The 460 would mop the floor with the 5770 in most games, but not WoW. the 460 would be better yes, but not by a whole lot.

I find that the 5770 is where you want to be for optimal performance in WoW. Going up to a 460 or better yet a 560Ti or 6870 would yeild improvements, and going past that for WoW is a total waste.

Why the hell go for a 5770 when you can get the 460 for nearly the same price? And it's totally a much better card.

[Kuja]

I'm using 6870 atm and it sucks. Though that might be just the drivers. Just removed the old one, plugged in the new one, removed previous drivers, installed new drivers. Think I did that in wrong order :P Now it gives me "Display driver AMD has stopped working" and either blue screens or resets the display driver once in a day or so.

But at least the graphics are fast and pretty *Drool*

[Stefy]

I'm using 6870 atm and it sucks. Though that might be just the drivers. Just removed the old one, plugged in the new one, removed previous drivers, installed new drivers. Think I did that in wrong order :P Now it gives me "Display driver AMD has stopped working" and either blue screens or resets the display driver once in a day or so.

But at least the graphics are fast and pretty *Drool*

Try this: http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/ You're just unlucky, the 6870 is a great card.

[Deleted]

. . gtx 560 ti is the best choice . .

[Deleted]

I prefer Nvidia cards, GTX 460 is good enough for wow, I reach 166fps on my Bravia on ultra settings. I've bought an Ati 6870 card to replace the Nvida, however after 5 days of trying I concluded it sucked and could not handle full shadow detail, whereas the gtx 460 easily can, so I changed the card back in for a better processor.

[Stefy]

I prefer Nvidia cards, GTX 460 is good enough for wow, I reach 166fps on my Bravia on ultra settings. I've bought an Ati 6870 card to replace the Nvida, however after 5 days of trying I concluded it sucked and could not handle full shadow detail, whereas the gtx 460 easily can, so I changed the card back in for a better processor.

Rofl, the 6870 and GTX 460 are nearly even in performance in some games, it's not really a worthy update. Also, the 6870 is slightly more powerful than the 460, should run WoW better than the 460. So you're lying.