Pidesco Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 I still use a CRT, specifically to allow variable resolutions. I'm generally content to play most games at 1024x768, though Call of Duty 4 had me drop down to 800x600 for some small gains in performance (AA and AF were already off for instance). How important is the brand? The last card I bought was built by ATI hahaha. The brand usually doesn't really matter. Just get whatever is the better deal. Anyway, with the performance you are enjoying right now, you'd see a definite visual improvement if you bought the 4870. "My hovercraft is full of eels!" - Hungarian touristI am Dan Quayle of the Romans.I want to tattoo a map of the Netherlands on my nether lands.Heja Sverige!!Everyone should cuffawkle more.The wrench is your friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Rorie Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 I still use a CRT, specifically to allow variable resolutions. I'm generally content to play most games at 1024x768, though Call of Duty 4 had me drop down to 800x600 for some small gains in performance (AA and AF were already off for instance). How important is the brand? The last card I bought was built by ATI hahaha. A lot of crazy tech people say to get XFX and stay away from Sapphire. At least, that's what I soaked up over on Hardforum.com recently. But in the end they're all based on the reference boards. The main difference usually lies in length of warranty and quality of customer support. Matthew Rorie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Humanoid Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 XFX's main selling point isn't the card itself (it's identical to any other manufacturer's), but what they call "double lifetime" warranty - that is, lifetime warranty for you, and transferrable should you decide to sell it (which means it has higher resale value than equivalent brands). North America only, so I've never been able to consider it a selling point personally. Nothing wrong with Sapphire as far as I know, of all vendors they've been in the "red team" longer than any - in the old days, the ATi branded cards were actually made by Sapphire (and I suspect Alan's present card would be). L I E S T R O N GL I V E W R O N G Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoM_Solaufein Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Just read the comments of the buyers if you happen to be at Newegg. I went by their comments and reviews in MaximumPC before I buy any computer hardware. War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is StrengthBaldur's Gate moddingTeamBGBaldur's Gate modder/community leaderBaldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition beta testerBaldur's Gate 2 - Enhanced Edition beta tester Icewind Dale - Enhanced Edition beta tester Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanschu Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 (edited) I still use a CRT, specifically to allow variable resolutions. I'm generally content to play most games at 1024x768, though Call of Duty 4 had me drop down to 800x600 for some small gains in performance (AA and AF were already off for instance). How important is the brand? The last card I bought was built by ATI hahaha. A lot of crazy tech people say to get XFX and stay away from Sapphire. At least, that's what I soaked up over on Hardforum.com recently. But in the end they're all based on the reference boards. The main difference usually lies in length of warranty and quality of customer support. I had heard rumours about Sapphire cards way back before ATI was purchased by AMD. I tend to be an AMD (and to a lesser extent ATI) fanboy so that's likely the choice I will go with. This is likely going to be a pretty cheap card though, as I'm definitely not looking for something long term. I'm hoping that when I get my debt situation sorted out, and get more permanent employment, to do a wholesale upgrade of my computer. It looks like pretty much anything is a large upgrade over what I have haha. Edited October 10, 2009 by alanschu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pidesco Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Unless you are going for the "My hovercraft is full of eels!" - Hungarian touristI am Dan Quayle of the Romans.I want to tattoo a map of the Netherlands on my nether lands.Heja Sverige!!Everyone should cuffawkle more.The wrench is your friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morgoth Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 I'm quite happy with my 4870. I can still play all games maxed out. Rain makes everything better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanschu Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 I don't have a 64 bit OS at the moment. But I am still on XP and not Vista, so that saves me some memory haha. And yeah, I figure any upgrade now will tide me over until I am ready and able to properly upgrade. The only concern is that the CPU is a bit old, but my impression is that it's the graphics cards today that are the biggest bottlenecks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pidesco Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 Since the introduction of accelerated graphics, that video cards have almost always been bottleneck. Only with certain specific games is that not true. Your CPU is fine! "My hovercraft is full of eels!" - Hungarian touristI am Dan Quayle of the Romans.I want to tattoo a map of the Netherlands on my nether lands.Heja Sverige!!Everyone should cuffawkle more.The wrench is your friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkreku Posted October 11, 2009 Author Share Posted October 11, 2009 A lot of crazy tech people say to get XFX and stay away from Sapphire. At least, that's what I soaked up over on Hardforum.com recently. But in the end they're all based on the reference boards. The main difference usually lies in length of warranty and quality of customer support. That's kind of.. humorous to me. The last Nvidia card I bought was a Geforce 7900GS, made by XFX, and it sucked. Since then I've bought only ATI cards, all made by Sapphire, and the 4870 I am currently using (until I get my 5870 grr) was the best purchase I ever made. I will go with Sapphire for my 5870 too, preferably the Vapor-X edition. It rocks. Swedes, go to: Spel2, for the latest game reviews in swedish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoM_Solaufein Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 I just placed my order for the Sapphire 5870 and Windows 7. Sapphire was one of the cheapest of the 5870 cards and had good reviews at Newegg. War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is StrengthBaldur's Gate moddingTeamBGBaldur's Gate modder/community leaderBaldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition beta testerBaldur's Gate 2 - Enhanced Edition beta tester Icewind Dale - Enhanced Edition beta tester Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrath of Dagon Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 Funny, I always bought Sapphire cards before, and this time I got a 4850 from another manufacturer. Had tons of problems with games crashing, Vista and disk getting corrupted, although I think Vista and disk controller had something to do with it also, but perhaps only as effect not cause. Anyway, finally replaced it with an XFX GTS250, no problems so far, although the only game I've been playing is ETW and not that much. "Moral indignation is a standard strategy for endowing the idiot with dignity." Marshall McLuhan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pidesco Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 I had an XFX card for a couple of years and it never gave me a single problem. Anecdotal evidence is fun! "My hovercraft is full of eels!" - Hungarian touristI am Dan Quayle of the Romans.I want to tattoo a map of the Netherlands on my nether lands.Heja Sverige!!Everyone should cuffawkle more.The wrench is your friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrath of Dagon Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 The card I had problems with wasn't an XFX, in case I didn't make it clear. "Moral indignation is a standard strategy for endowing the idiot with dignity." Marshall McLuhan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanschu Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 It seems a defrag actually has helped out performance a fair bit. I'm surprised, but COD stutters a lot less now. Must be a confounding variable somewhere, but I'm not going to complain too much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoM_Solaufein Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 So far I don't see support for Windows XP. That will be a problem since I want to have a hard drive dedicated to Windows XP and another dedicated to Windows 7 on this machine. Bah internet rumors. I just got my card today and it has drivers that work with WinXP. War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is StrengthBaldur's Gate moddingTeamBGBaldur's Gate modder/community leaderBaldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition beta testerBaldur's Gate 2 - Enhanced Edition beta tester Icewind Dale - Enhanced Edition beta tester Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I want teh kotor 3 Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 (edited) The 380 cometh. Epic win. Edited October 14, 2009 by I want teh kotor 3 In 7th grade, I teach the students how Chuck Norris took down the Roman Empire, so it is good that you are starting early on this curriculum. R.I.P. KOTOR 2003-2008 KILLED BY THOSE GREEDY MONEY-HOARDING ************* AND THEIR *****-*** MMOS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mera Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 The 380 cometh. Epic win. Epic Fail - News Source: fudzilla FUDzilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Rorie Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 Bah, my 5850 still hasn't shipped from Amazon. I really want it before Borderlands/Modern Warfare 2. Maybe I'll go check out a Fry's or something this weekend. Matthew Rorie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoM_Solaufein Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 That 5870 is a sexy card. Its nice to play Fallout without having stuttering because of intense animations. This is at 1440*900 at Ultra settings and before with my 3870 at 1024 with low setting it would choke. War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is StrengthBaldur's Gate moddingTeamBGBaldur's Gate modder/community leaderBaldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition beta testerBaldur's Gate 2 - Enhanced Edition beta tester Icewind Dale - Enhanced Edition beta tester Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Rorie Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 That 5870 is a sexy card. Its nice to play Fallout without having stuttering because of intense animations. This is at 1440*900 at Ultra settings and before with my 3870 at 1024 with low setting it would choke. Isn't a 5870 a bit of overkill at that resolution? I mean, it's good to upgrade, but since you have a nice card now, you might want to think of getting a bigger monitor. My 4830 can run most games at 1920x1080 without a problem. Get a 24 incher! Matthew Rorie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoM_Solaufein Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Yeah the monitor is my next thing in the future. I only have a 19" wide screen. That will have to wait since I used what free money I have to buy a new motherboard for my other computer since that died. The only problem with the 5870 is its too perfect. It shows imperfections in WAV and MPEG movies. Even so called HD WAV movies. War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is StrengthBaldur's Gate moddingTeamBGBaldur's Gate modder/community leaderBaldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition beta testerBaldur's Gate 2 - Enhanced Edition beta tester Icewind Dale - Enhanced Edition beta tester Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoM_Solaufein Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 So far I don't see support for Windows XP. That will be a problem since I want to have a hard drive dedicated to Windows XP and another dedicated to Windows 7 on this machine. Bah internet rumors. I just got my card today and it has drivers that work with WinXP. Well works with XP some what. I find glitches in the games from time to time. There is no support at the ATI site in regards to the Catalyst drivers for XP. Well I'll see when I get Windows 7 and if I see these glitches again then it must be a faulty card. War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is StrengthBaldur's Gate moddingTeamBGBaldur's Gate modder/community leaderBaldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition beta testerBaldur's Gate 2 - Enhanced Edition beta tester Icewind Dale - Enhanced Edition beta tester Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Rorie Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 There are some 5870's floating around the office, so I'm going to take one home and try it out. Assuming it fits into my case, that is. Matthew Rorie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkreku Posted November 1, 2009 Author Share Posted November 1, 2009 And now an even bigger beast is coming.. http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/31/atis-du...the-wilderness/ I wonder what that'll cost. Swedes, go to: Spel2, for the latest game reviews in swedish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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