Look, since your motherboard is stuck on DDR2, you might as well grab another 2 GB of RAM. It’ll buy you some breathing room. Honestly, if you’re sticking with your current resolution and this monitor, that GPU is total overkill—especially considering how much your processor is lagging behind. You'd be better off picking up an NVIDIA GTX 450, an ATI Radeon HD 5750, or even a 4870, plus that extra RAM. For that price, you can actually afford to think about hunting down a decent used CPU down the road.
The 460 only makes sense if you're stepping up to a 22"+ screen or hitting 1680x1050+.
Edit: Generally speaking, your best bet is probably just buying everything used. Grab a 4870, maybe a Core 2 duo E7500 or, ideally, an E8400, and throw in 2x1GB of DDR2. If you aren't planning on upgrading the monitor anytime soon, you'll be set for another few years.
Look, like I mentioned earlier, it’s not even the best value. Depending on what you actually need, the NVIDIA GTX 460 1GB or the 6870 are much better deals.
Picking up where I left off with the GPU talk. I pulled the TechPowerUp performance summaries for current cards at 1920x1200 resolution, cross-referenced them with the lowest prices currently sitting on Best Buy and Newegg, and put together this little roundup. It covers price, performance relative to the top dog—the 5970—and the "bang for buck" ratio:
Last column, obviously, higher is better. Of course, there are other variables—power draw, noise, heat, DX10/DX11 support—but this is a snapshot of the market showing what actually makes sense. The 5870 and 6870 are better buys than the GTX 470. The 6850 and GTX 460 1GB are neck and neck; you get better raw performance from the 6850, but the solid overclocking potential on the 460 keeps things interesting. Even with its low price, the 5850 isn't worth it; the price would need to drop even further before it becomes a logical purchase. Down in the lower tier, the HD4870 still shows surprisingly high value, even if it’s pushing the bottom limit of what you'd want for decent performance at this resolution.
Personally, I’d go with the overclocked version. It’s got superior cooling, which means you actually have some headroom left if you want to push it even further. 🙂
I spent some time digging through a mountain of reviews to see how current cards stack up against previous generations. My takeaway? It looks something like this:
I’d honestly just go ahead and add $17 the GTX 460 instead. It’s more powerful for basically the same price, so you might as well grab something that actually has some staying power for the future.
wiredmarlin5 said:Once the prices for the HD6850 and GTX 460 settle down in a month or two, picking up a dual setup for CF or SLI would be a smart move for anyone rocking decent motherboards paired with an i5 or i7.
And I’ve got some "luck" waiting for me... 😬 my chain snapped on my UD3, so now I have to time this perfectly to file a warranty claim and pay the difference to upgrade to a UD4 or UD5.😁
Things will shift once I hit around the $1,000 mark—$500I might actually see double the performance at that point, but I'll be waiting a long time for that to happen. 😁
Based on these benchmarks, it looks like the HD6850 might land right next to the GeForce GTX 460 768, while the 6870 will probably edge out the 5850. I expect pricing to follow that same hierarchy. Honestly? I think I’ll just skip this entire generation. My 4890 still holds its own, and the jump here doesn't seem worth the headache—especially since we all know the 69xx series is going to cost an absolute fortune once it hits the shelves.
But honestly, the whole thing feels a bit off. There’s talk about rebranding the 57xx series into this lower tier, which would mean the 6850 and 6870 actually perform worse than the old 58xx cards. Apparently, we won't see the true high-end stuff until the 69xx series finally drops.
Honestly, there’s gotta be better options in this price bracket... I was browsing Newegg and saw some guy complaining that his motherboard wouldn't even sit right because he had to hack away at the chassis just to make it fit. Apparently, the LCD screen is basically useless decoration, the power supply is hanging by a thread because the metal is all warped, and those stock fans sound like a jet engine. I think I'll pass on this one. 😬
Hmm. I’m running an i7 paired with a 4890—two high-end space heaters right there. My temps stay perfectly fine in my NZXT H series case. Just one intake fan, one exhaust, plus the PSU airflow, and I'm good. Besides, the GPU is already dumping hot air out of the chassis anyway... Honestly, we'll see how things hold up once I overclock, but I suspect it'll handle the heat without much of a struggle.
edit: You can set it up either way, but pulling air out is usually the smarter move.
The entire NZXT H series can fit a 212+ and cards up to 5870... I’d bet a 5970 fits too if you don't have a drive sitting right there at that height. It really just comes down to whether you’re into that obnoxious LED and acrylic nonsense 😬 then the 430 might be worth looking at . Then there’s this option: http://www.att.com/index.php?name=...kl=052.690.013 You could cram six fans in there if you really wanted to, but it looks hideous 😁 . I’ve got a Noctua NH-U12 in my 334 and it fits perfectly fine. Some tech over at the repair shop told me even a 14 would squeeze in there . The real question is how many fans you actually need—and what you're planning to do with them
The picture looks pretty much identical on both HDMI and DVI—differences are negligible. Honestly, you might be better off just grabbing two of the same thing, even if it means picking up an HDMI-to-DVI converter along the way.🙂