Olaf Vikingsson

Posting this here so that others may benefit. This is seperate to the other thread because my case size is not abnormal.

What's today's equivalent of the 9600GT a year ago or so? I have a decent PSU and no other problematic areas.

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oneinchwunda

Circa 5670 I suppose?

Although, IIRC, they weren't exactly praised for value-for-money.

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abc

I'd guesstimate/recall that circa one year ago the 9600GT was at the £80 ish mark. These days you have:


£65 - GT 240 (this is supposed to be the same target market as the 9600GT was)
£70 - HD5670 (well, it IS faster than the GT 240 but it's "average" value for money at best)

£85 - HD5750 (this card offers 130% to 200% of the FPS of the GT 240. Makes said GT 240 look very poor value for money)
£90 - nVidia GTS 450 (significantly closer in performance to 5750 than 5770)
£99 - HD5770 (comfortably 5 - 15% ahead of the GTS 250 in the vast majority of FPS tests)

£125 - GTX 460 786MB (arguably a fully fledged card as opposed to a "stop gap" - sits just ahead of the HD5830 so this is pretty serious gaming performance. Yes the 1GB is faster, but this one is better value for money and by no means a slouch)


Class is a difficult thing to define when those cards are within £5 - £10 of the next model up/competitor but the 5750 to 5770 is a clear step above the 5670/GT240 (regarding performance) Likewise the GTX 460 is a cut above the 5700/GTS 450.

The picks of the bunch for "I have a flexible budget but want the most sensible value for money" are probably the 5750 & GTX 460 (GTX 460 value for money far exceeds the other cards, but then the price is a different level)

If you had a cheaper stop gap in mind, the 4670 is old enough to have had big price cuts & we know it works. Graphics cards always seem to be released at inflated prices. Value for money in the cards 1st part of it's life is usually defined by how quickly it drops to it's real value, in the 2nd stage of it's life (no longer "current" but still widely available) value for money is defined by how far below the real-value the card drops. E.g. the 8800GT was so good/popular because it was released at a market changing price, then reached it's "real value" very quickly and within a year it was ~half it's original price whilst GFX card performance hadn't moved on that much.

Hope that's sufficient & got the correct idea. I didn't bother including benches because you know where to look if you did want them & you also know to look at a few different games to get the real picture (what with the COD engine absolutely flying with AMD, Far cry/crysis significantly preffering nVidia) so that saved me embedding a million images.

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"I don't like new Linkin Park, I don't like old Linkin Park... I JUST LIKE LINKIN PARK"

COD owner - COD expansion pack owner - COD2 owner - COD2: BRO player - COD3 owner - COD4 owner - COD:WaW owner - COD: MW2 owner - COD: BO owner

This is getting repetitive.

GhostHands

This may be a noob question, but is there a difference in a "stop gap" card and a regular gfx card? I've only recently heard people referring to them as stop gap?

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abc

Stop gap is merely what you use it for, no technical differences/specialities etc.

To you & it's intended market a 4670 might be a brilliant performer for the budget, but I'd only touch one myself if I knew I'd be upgrading in a few weeks/months... not that I actually get to play games much anymore...

Likewise there are actually people who classify a £200 HD5850 as a stop gap between two £500 HD4970s!

__________________
"I don't like new Linkin Park, I don't like old Linkin Park... I JUST LIKE LINKIN PARK"

COD owner - COD expansion pack owner - COD2 owner - COD2: BRO player - COD3 owner - COD4 owner - COD:WaW owner - COD: MW2 owner - COD: BO owner

This is getting repetitive.

Olaf Vikingsson

Exactly what I was looking for. If I can't pick up a 4850 that I saw for £40 at a semi-local, it'll definitely be the 5750. Just saw the benches and am fairly impressed.

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abc

yes the boundary between proper gaming cards seems to have got very blurry and very cheap all, IMO, sparked off by the 8800GT...

__________________
"I don't like new Linkin Park, I don't like old Linkin Park... I JUST LIKE LINKIN PARK"

COD owner - COD expansion pack owner - COD2 owner - COD2: BRO player - COD3 owner - COD4 owner - COD:WaW owner - COD: MW2 owner - COD: BO owner

This is getting repetitive.