Graphics Card advice

[strange6]

I really need to upgrade my computer with a better graphics card! It currently has a Radeon HD 5450 which is well below par for today's games. Other than that, the computer is a decent bit of kit with 6Gb of DDR3 RAM, an Intel i5 650 processor running at 3.2GHz (with plenty of overclocking potential) and a Dell 0T568R motherboard. (It's a Dell Studio XPS 8100 model)

I'm thinking of buying a Radeon HD 6850 card for 120 quid off Amazon. For the price, I believe this card is excellent value for money and a really strong performer coupled up with these Intel processors. What do people think?

 

[Yew]

Custom Pc is currently reccomending ; ATI sapphire Radeon HD 5850 Xtreme 1GB

Its an intresting case of an older card being more powerful than a newer card.

Its available from yoyotech for £113

 

[strange6]

Custom Pc is currently reccomending ; ATI sapphire Radeon HD 5850 Xtreme 1GB

Its an intresting case of an older card being more powerful than a newer card.

Its available from yoyotech for £113

Thanks. I will need to upgrade the power unit of my PC to 500W. It's only got a 350W installed which I think is ridiculous for a new PC. That looks like the better card!!

 

[starrymarkb]

Dell use the cheapest components possible hence the low wattage PSU

 

[strange6]

Dell use the cheapest components possible hence the low wattage PSU

I've stuck a Radeon HD 6850 in it and it works just mighty fine but it was a tight squeeze. Dell now own Alienware so they don't want to be making their systems that can potentially take away sales from that brand. Hence the components they use and the ridiculously small cases for most of them. They deliberately restrict upgrading potential. I will not be buying a Dell again, that's for sure

 

[chris89]

The HD6850 is a very good card, the sizes of all graphics cards are rather big now.

Im still using 4870's (The 1GB Verison) in crossfire and run brillantly, and those won't be changed till i can't run games on medium/ low settings.

If you do get another computer in the future i suggest self building

Chris

 

[strange6]

The HD6850 is a very good card, the sizes of all graphics cards are rather big now.

Im still using 4870's (The 1GB Verison) in crossfire and run brillantly, and those won't be changed till i can't run games on medium/ low settings.

If you do get another computer in the future i suggest self building

Chris

The card is only good if you're mobo and processor are up to the job of feeding it otherwise it's a nice and costly bottleneck
Yeah, I have thought about that but never really considered myself OEM. If I have enough spare time on my hands, I may consider it for the future but right now I have quite a nice little set-up for the next few years of gaming Roll on Elder Scrolls 5!

 

[chris89]

That is true, nearly always is the CPU Bottlenecking.

Upgraded my desktop in Feb from a Dual core AMD Chip to quad and new motherboard and ram (Main reason MB was dieing and could only use 2 strips on ram in it)

And restesting many games ran even better, but 8gb of ram helps.

Chris