The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

But how come the XFX is cheaper than EVGA? And why is it that that the XFX has 2 versions? What is the core edition? And why is it cheaper??? I really don't get it. But anyway, thanks for the input!

It's official. I'm going to buy the corsair 550w as my PSU and the XFX gts250. Any thoughts on that?

 

As far as I'm aware the Core Edition label was just something to signify XFX's version of the product. Normally such a term would indicate higher clock speeds, but not so here.
Buy the GTS250 if you must, but I obviously have to remind you in each post you're paying $40 for an nvidia badge.

 

I would get the XFX 4850 instead of the Sapphire one or either of the GTS250s.

 

The Sapphires were the last batch in production though, so are much cheaper, and that's all the HD4850 really has on the GTS250. It's not a great deal faster. The HD4850 is now out of production hence the good value deals cropping up.

 

All true; I just prefer the cooling and warranty on the XFX, which is still cheaper (by a little) then the GTS250.

 

True, I own an almost identical card, and love it.

 

So I guess I'll just add the XFX core edition to my shopping cart since its cheaper than the normal XFX and is basically the same graphic card.

Out of curiosity, when was gts250 released?

 

March 2009 I think, quite a while ago.

 

Out of curiosity, why are you ignoring our suggestion of using the HD4850 instead?

 

You guys are all having some quite interesting discussions with Schwaber and Kevin about hardware.

I'll weigh in on hardware issues as soon as the money rolls in, in the meantime, I'm glad I spent that $30 to put the extra 1 gig of ram in my P4.

(Which is now at 4ghz courtesy of that other $70 I invested in the 670 cpu - which at one time retailed for $800, lol. For Schwaber - that old 4ghz netburst architecture I'm still on equates to one core of core 2 duo running at 2 ghz because of the increased throughput of core 2 duo versus old p4 netburst, not to mention that you get two of those cores with dual core, and four with quad core - so basically my p4, at about as fast as you can get a p4 to go, still sucks!)

LOL

But it has to last until my new rig - yeah I know Sam I've been saying that for a year now, haha.

But all I really want to say in this post, now, is that after two more days of BF2 - that game rocks! Thank you Jeff for talking about Dragon Valley!!

I added all the patches and dropped resolution to 1920x1200, and now I get all the textures, and about 40 fps, with 2xAA. There are some great maps I never saw before - like the boggy map with the Fish Market capture site, the map where the Chinese invade the northeast U.S., the map where they invade Alaska, and that rocking incredible multi-level map with the dam under construction!

Some of these players are REALLY GOOD! Until I start to fatigue after 10 hours straight I can sometimes keep up with some of them - but it amazes me to score two to one, kills versus deaths, and be the 20th or 21st player out of 21 on the chinese team. I am always glad just to have a one to one ratio, so two to one is GREAT for me, but for some of these guys, I just follow along with any of them, telling myself - "everybody on this team is better than I am so just follow any of them and learn!" Hahahahaha.

I am doing a lot of playing around with weapon classes. The engineer mode is interesting and enables you to jump out and fix the health of your vehicle, if you want to drive your tank around a lot (unless the air superiority of the enemy ensures that your driving experience will last all of about 40 seconds before the next deadly bomb run or helicopter TV-guided missile coming at you from that thing up in the sky about a quarter mile away - all of that quick death making you think you might be better off sticking with a fast-moving jeep.)

Fast-moving jeeps in fact is the strategy used by a bunch of flag-capturing guys on that fabulous chinese team I was talking about. They'd get three or four in the jeep - FLY to the next capture site - get it handled - then fly to the next one. It's all about holding more capture sites than they other team, so that was a winning strategy!

The engineer class does give you the option to mine your flag - sometimes that is helpful. In single-player, for example, I can almost guarantee a marine win on the map that the demo was based on - Gulf of Oman - by mining the road down to the little outpost next to the train - until you start consistently mining the road, the MEC always attack that first. Prior to choosing that strategy, MEC almost always won.

But I hated the engineer shotgun, always lying under the train with pistol trying to kill some MEC and take his automatic rifle.

On multiplayer, same thing - but a couple of times the shotgun worked out well. Once I spawned where a U.S. guy had just come into the building behind me getting ready to take the flag on that awesome dam construction map - he started firing first just as I got up and I didn't know what the hell was going on! I jumped and wheeled around and blasted his white suit with the shotgun - forgetting for a split second that it wasn't an auto shottie like left 4 dead - but then remembering in time to get off about 5 more blasts which ensured his untimely demise.

As I congratulated myself, I thought "well, shotgun is sure strong in close range."

Some other fun moments: I remember guys talking with disdain about noob tubes on COD4, I even saw some servers say "No noob toobs!" But the assault mode of BF2 gives you that grenade launcher. So, Man, I have to confess, for BF2 I often AM that noob tuber!

Shaff what do you think about that? We know you're a mad killer with high kill-to-death ratios on COD4 mp - I've seen some of your xfire stats - but do you like the noob tube, or are you one of the guys who looks down on the grenade launcher guys? LOL

Anyway, I am trying to get better at gauging distances with the BF2 grenade launcher sights - it's a quick one-shot kill if you can get the nade within five feet of the guy. I don't think anything feels better than suddenly spotting a guy about 80 feet away and launching one before he even can think about going prone - then seeing him fly through the air DEAD AS A DOORKNOB. Hahaha!

One time a dude, whom I had missed with two nades, was running around a building to get me while the stupid nade was reloading, and was virtually on top of me before I had a chance to think about switching to my rifle - so I blasted the nade at the ground about 6 feet in front of me.

I thought I'd be spawning in 15 seconds, but amazing - he was dead and I wasn't. LOL.

Other fun moments - spawning at a capture site with no vehicles, so I was out hoofing it to get to the action, when suddenly I saw a red-enemy jeep stop a ways in front of and below me on the left as I was running up a hill in the right fork of the road. I turned to look down and I saw the now-empty jeep below.

"Damn - he's out, and around here very close!"

All of a sudden the fool is RIGHT BEHIND ME rushing in with his knife! YIKES!!! I back pedaled and full-autoed on him just in time!

"Dead cocky sonovab*tch try to humiliate me, will you!"

I took his jeep! He don't need it - he's waiting for his spawn countdown. No more walking for me! Hahahahaha

Rich

 

We did tell you so, several times over...
If everybody on the team has 2:1 or better KDR then that sounds like a rather one-sided game

 

Aha glad to see you found the magic Rich. BF2 is one of my most played games of all time. I alternate between a designated transport chopper pilot for my clan(piloting with a Saitek X45 HOTAS) and special forces if we have too many open slots. Also spent quite a bit of time as a sniper. Best part is that the Ghillie suits really work too

The game really starts to make sense once you find a squad that communicates. Look for teamplay servers that require use of a mic. That way you can be sure to find a good squad. I've had the privilege to serve under some excellent squad leaders and even lead a few myself. The game transforms from an all-out war to an intense exercise in real-time tactics.

It gets really intense when you have a good chopper pilot(like myself) and a full size squad of friends who know eachother. We've all piled on and made a precision drop on their artillery site. The chopper lifts off to circle and cover the squad with the mini-guns. After the explosives are set I drop back in and pick up the whole squad. Then as we are leaving the special forces guys detonate the C4. It's especially satisfying when you get away with everyone alive and even have time to RTB and repair and heal before doing it all over again.

 

ouch another over priced ATI card, this time the 5570

not even $10 under the 4770. ouch, very ouch

 

The HD5570 retails for $83-$85 in the US, £72-£74 in the UK.
The HD4770 retails for $92 (MSI) or $115 (XFX) in the US, 1GB versions are rare and cost $140.
The HD4770 is still rare all round in the UK and when you can get one it costs £86-£89.

The HD5570 is therefore appreciably cheaper than the HD4770, easier to find, substantially more efficient (it uses less power than an HD4670), and can be crossfired easily.
However, its 3D performance is very weak, sitting between that of an HD4650 and HD4670. Given how efficient the HD4670 already is, the HD5570 seems a complete waste, and should really cost 60-65% of what it does.

The HD5450 makes reasonable sense, as it's nice and cheap and is twice as powerful as AMD's best IGP, and if you call 1280x800 low settings playing, it can play MW2 with a nice frame rate.
The HD5670 is not especially good value, but it's the most powerful graphics card you can buy with no PCIe connector on it, so is worth its price for that I suppose. The HD5570 is truly baffling though, as it has neither the benefit of good performance per watt, or a low price to make it worthwhile.


Edit: having looked at sites that seem to know how to test hardware a bit better than Hexus, the HD5570 doesn't seem to perform as badly as suggested before. I'll try and draw up some estimates.

 

for htpc is seems great, but yes it does need to cost alot less. even then the 9800GT costs $90 ish aswell for a BFG model.

need new competition, hurry up nvidia

 

Because I read a review of the HD4850 stating: "Heatsink has a metal face on it and sticks way out, if this surface touches the back of a second card in crossfire it wouldnt be pretty. I would not suggest this card for crossfire because of the thickness of the heatsink fan, it might work but a paper thin gap between a metal plate grounding out the solder joints on the back of my second card would worry me." This scared me a little bit.

Hey, can you simplify this for me? lol
I don't really understand what you are saying here. And you are talking about my cpu right?

 

Average Frame Rate Thresholds
Company of Heroes Opposing Fronts [DX10Max]
HD4350: A08: 1920x1200, A10: 1680x1050, A15: 1440x900
HD5450: A10: 1920x1200, A15: 1440x900
HD4650: A20: 1920x1200, A25: 1680x1050, A30: 1440x900
GT 220: A20: 1920x1200, A25: 1680x1050, A30: 1440x900
HD4670: A30: 1920x1200, A35: 1680x1050, A45: 1440x900
9600GT: A30: 1920x1200, A35: 1680x1050, A45: 1440x900
HD5570: A30: 1920x1200, A40: 1680x1050, A50: 1440x900
HD3850: A30: 1920x1200, A40: 1680x1050, A55: 1440x900
HD5670: A40: 1920x1200, A45: 1680x1050, A55: 1440x900
GT 240: A40: 1920x1200, A50: 1680x1050, A55: 1440x900
9800GT: A45: 1920x1200, A55: 1680x1050, A60: 1440x900
HD4770: A60: 1920x1200, A75: 1680x1050, A90: 1440x900

Crysis Warhead [Mainstream]
HD4350: A05: 1920x1200
HD5450: A05: 1920x1200, A08: 1440x900
HD4650: A08: 1920x1200, A10: 1680x1050
GT 220: A15: 1920x1200, A20: 1440x900
HD5570: A15: 1920x1200, A20: 1440x900
HD4670: A15: 1920x1200, A20: 1440x900
HD3850: A20: 1920x1200, A25: 1440x900
HD5670: A20: 1920x1200, A25: 1680x1050, A30: 1440x900
9600GT: A25: 1920x1200, A30: 1680x1050, A35: 1440x900
GT 240: A25: 1920x1200, A30: 1680x1050, A35: 1440x900
9800GT: A25: 1920x1200, A30: 1680x1050, A30: 1440x900
HD4770: A30: 1920x1200, A35: 1680x1050, A40: 1440x900



STALKER Call of Pripyat (point score)
HD4350: 100 (baseline)
HD5450: 153
HD4650: 226
HD4670: 394
GT 220: 460
HD5570: 542
HD3850: 563
HD5670: 751
9600GT: 760
GT 240: 786
HD4770: 923
9800GT: 979


Quite a variable set of results here really. The 5570 equals the 4670 in the first two titles, but trounces it by 35% in Call of Pripyat, yet the Hexus test clearly shows the 5570 below the 4670 in almost all tests.

Amusingly, the 4470 comes out as 6-9 times as powerful as the 4350. No greater way of showing why using mega cheap graphics cards to try and play games is a false economy, an £80 card is 9 times as fast as a £30 card.

 

Schwaber: You're not intending to use the 4850 in crossfire, so that's irrelevant. You won't be using a second card alongside it, so there is no danger. On top of that, the guy reviewing it clearly doesn't know what he's talking about, because no graphics cooler can ever exceed the number of slots it states it requires, because that would mean you couldn't fit anything in the slot next to it and would be false advertising. If the HD4850 was not safe to use with another card next to it, it wouldn't be advertised as a dual-slot card. There is nothing to worry about using that HD4850. I have specified dozens of them in PC builds over time, and nobody has ever come back with a problem.

 

One of my friends has two 4850's in CF and there are no issues.

 

Price tag aside, would you still get the HD4850 over the xfx gts250? I'm really having second thoughts here..

I saw this and its pretty much the same but cheaper. The manufacturer is BFG though.