Which ones should i get, I dont plan on plaing too many games. Mostly WoW, Star Craft 2, and Civ 5 when it comes out. Maybe some of the FOS like crysis not sure. What would be better to get?
What are you looking to spend? What are the prices like where you're from? Do you overclock your cpu? How much memory do you have? Your power supply cant even handle a 5770. Please fill out your specs and budget.
well im building a new computer. Planning on spending around $300 canadian on graphics. Going to have a i5-760 which i plan to OC. 4gigs of gskill ripsaw ddr3 1333 ram. going to have a 650W PSU
5850 of course; it's a decent bit faster than a 4870 and has DX11. Between the 5850 and 5870, I'd still choose the 5850 albeit a 2GB version that comes pre-overclocked (which has a better chance of overclocking further, too, due to cherry-picking of cores). If anything, I'd get a better CPU; an i7 860 minimum. Anything less will probably be an underwhelming upgrade seeing as you're already on a Q9400 which in itself is a pretty decent quad-core. I never understand why people only upgrade one generation to begin with... Q9xxx --> i5 is a waste of money in my opinion. PS: You may want to choose the GeForce GTX 470 instead of a 5850 if you can afford it.
i am upgrading because i had an older computer sitting in the basement that got water damaged and insurance is covering it. But i can only spend a limited amount of money. I dont plan on upgrading this new computer im building for years minimum. So just trying to figure out the best graphics card or combo that i can do for around 300
The 5850 is a very decent card to get. Overclocks very good and you can always get another one in the future if you require more performance.
if you dont plan on upgrading often... get a single 5850/5870. then if games get more demanding, all you need to do is slap in another one for crossfire.
OK, things to consider: Going from a Q9xxx to an i5 will only deliver a marginal performance increase, as will switching from a DDR2 platform to a DDR3 one. Furthermore, the i3, i5, i7 along with their respective platforms will soon be phased out by a new socket as Sandy Bridge launches, and they will effectively reach End Of Life, meaning that you will be no better off getting an i5 platform now than you would be sticking with your LGA775 Q9400 since neither platform will offer future upgradeability to Bridge-based processors. You can get a good ATI GPU for $289 USD from Newegg... ... OR you can get a better NVIDIA GPU for $299 USD from Newegg (I would go with the NVIDIA). Is the 650W PSU you are getting from a reliable manufacturer? Do NOT skimp out and go the cheap route with your PSU! Reliable manufacturers include, but are not limited to Corsair, Antec, Seasonic [<-- the best of the best, but also preposterously expensive]. In your case, I would actually recommend my PSU, the Corsair TX650W, or perhaps the HX650W if modularity is important to you.
