# Graphic Card suggestion



## suyashpandit (Apr 11, 2011)

Hi Guys,

Let me tell you my short story first, after that I need suggestions for a nice graphic card.

I bought a Compaq Pc with 256mb Ram, P4 2.66 about 4-5 years ago, I played lots of games that time using a 256mb cheap nvidia AGP graphic card, 2 years back my PC failed to run new games because of configuration issues, so my gaming bug dead that time.

Recently I upgraded my PC, I replaced almost every hardware with:
Core2duo 2.93
Asus Motherboard with combo RAM function
24" LG Monitor (1920x1080)
Creative Sound Card + 4.1 sound system
2 GB DDR3
Above things I purchased new
now old things I am using are listed below
Cabinet + SMPS
80 GB Samsung IDE HDD (Master)
160 GB SATA WD HDD (Slave) I purchased it 1 year back



I installed windows XP and i feel that everything is super fast but graphics quality is bit low (I guess i am using VGA, thats why) 
I felt happy, but at this point my gaming bug born again so i downloaded Need For Speed Undercover, Game ran without any problem, only graphic quality is bad otherwise game running smoothly.
I downloaded Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands, now I pissed off, What The Hell Man? why this game is running too slow I put lots of money in my PC and its not performing well, why? ......  I realize that Graphic Card is missing  then I started analyzing thindigit for graphic card suggestions, my journey ends on Redeon HD 5670 because everybody suggesting this card and my budget is 5-6k, while searching GPU's I also seen a PSU issue thats why I opened this thread.

Now my questions are:

1. Which card should I buy in range of 5-6k rupees I can spend bit extra for a good option, I want to say no to VGA and wanna welcome DVI as my monitor supports both. (I live near Nehru Place so i can get whatever I want)

2. Shall I change my SMPS? My Motherboard's power slot is smaller than SMPS's power connector, 16 pins are connected and 4 pins are in air  I dont know you get it or not.

3. Shall I purchase new HDD? i feel my file transfer is very slow it take 2 mins to move a 1 GB file.

Thanks for you precious time, any other suggestions are welcome. 

Regards,
Suyash


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## Piyush (Apr 11, 2011)

can you mention the brand and model number of you SMPS


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## furious_gamer (Apr 11, 2011)

suyashpandit said:


> Hi Guys,
> 
> Let me tell you my short story first, after that I need suggestions for a nice graphic card.
> 
> ...



Mention the Motherboard Model Number. And for 5-6k, *get HD5670 @ 4.5k + FSP Saga II 400W @ 1.7k.*

You have to purchase a new HDD with higher cache. SO better get a 500GB or 1TB HDD with *32+ MB cache.*



Piyush said:


> can you mention the brand and model number of you SMPS



Cabinet+SMPS = generic PSU,


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## Piyush (Apr 11, 2011)

furious_gamer said:


> Cabinet+SMPS = generic PSU,


i guess you are right
then your recommendation is perfect

btw that 160 gb HDD is running at what rpm?


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## suyashpandit (Apr 11, 2011)

Piyush said:


> i guess you are right
> then your recommendation is perfect
> 
> btw that 160 gb HDD is running at what rpm?



I dont know, but this 160 HDD is worse than my 80 GB one, thats why i made this 160 as slave.


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## Piyush (Apr 11, 2011)

suyashpandit said:


> I dont know, but this 160 HDD is worse than my 80 GB one, thats why i made this 160 as slave.



so now you might need to add a HDD too
you have to increase your budget to 2k so that you can get a good 500gb HDD

go for rajkumar's suggestion for GFX card and PSU and add seagate/WD 500GB HDD @ 1.7k


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## furious_gamer (Apr 11, 2011)

^^ Just see the top of the HDD. It will give you all the details you want to know about that HDD.


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## suyashpandit (Apr 11, 2011)

furious_gamer said:


> Mention the Motherboard Model Number. And for 5-6k, *get HD5670 @ 4.5k + FSP Saga II 400W @ 1.7k.*
> 
> You have to purchase a new HDD with higher cache. SO better get a 500GB or 1TB HDD with *32+ MB cache.*



Thanks,

I am in office right now, will tell you motherboard model number tonight, I am planing to purchase things you have mentioned.



Piyush said:


> so now you might need to add a HDD too
> you have to increase your budget to 2k so that you can get a good 500gb HDD
> 
> go for rajkumar's suggestion for GFX card and PSU and add seagate/WD 500GB HDD @ 1.7k



hmmm...
Budget is not an issue for me, all I need is a good gaming pc, i defined 5-6k for graphic card only.

Yes, i am adopting rajkumar's suggestion



furious_gamer said:


> ^^ Just see the top of the HDD. It will give you all the details you want to know about that HDD.



will tell you, I planned to buy a new 500gb HDD

here at Nehru place I can get it in 1.4k brand Seagate/WD


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## furious_gamer (Apr 11, 2011)

suyashpandit said:


> Thanks,
> 
> I am in office right now, will tell you motherboard model number tonight, I am planing to purchase things you have mentioned.



Not needed, it if have a PCIe x16 slot.... 



suyashpandit said:


> hmmm...
> Budget is not an issue for me, all I need is a good gaming pc, i defined 5-6k for graphic card only.
> 
> Yes, i am adopting rajkumar's suggestion



If budget is not a constraint, then get HD6850(~9k)+VX450W(~3.6k)



suyashpandit said:


> will tell you, I planned to buy a new 500gb HDD
> 
> here at Nehru place I can get it in 1.4k brand Seagate/WD



cheap HDD = low buffer IMO. So try to get a HDD with 32MB buffer atleast


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## Piyush (Apr 11, 2011)

suyashpandit said:


> T
> Budget is not an issue for me, all I need is a good gaming pc, i defined 5-6k for graphic card only.



since budget is not an issue
you can check out for these options

FSP sagaII 500W @ 2.2k (will be suited for all gfx cards below)

*suited for 1600x900 high settings and 1920x1018 low-med settings*
HD 5670 512mb @ 4.5k
GTS 450 1gb @ 6.4k
HD 5750 1gb @ 6.4k

*suited for 1920x1018 med-high settings*
HD 5770 1gb @ 7.4k
GTX 460 768mb @ 8.4k
HD 6790 1gb @ 9k
HD 6850 1gb @ 9.8k

since you have 24" monitor you need _at least_ 5770 card
better to go for 6850 if possible


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## furious_gamer (Apr 11, 2011)

^^ 6850+FSP SII 500W will be good choice IMO.

@OP

Since you resolution is 1920x1080, just get at least 5770 to get a decent performance, or get a HD6850 (which is just 2k more than 5770) will be good enough to play games in you 24" monitor.

Now Sapphire HD 6850 1gb @ 9.5k + FSP SII 500W @ 2.2k will be good choice. If you can't spend 9.5k on GPU, get 5770 @ 7.4k instead of 6850.


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## suyashpandit (Apr 11, 2011)

furious_gamer said:


> ^^ 6850+FSP SII 500W will be good choice IMO.
> 
> @OP
> 
> ...




I seen on my board its written PCI Express Gate something, i guess its PCIe x16 

I am sticking with HD5770 + FSP SII 500W


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## furious_gamer (Apr 11, 2011)

TBF HD6850 will be a bit future-proof then 5770 and if you don't mind splurge extra 2k, it will be a sweet deal for you. If you're not *hardcore gamer*, then 5770 will do the job for you.


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## damngoodman999 (Apr 11, 2011)

Its really a funny short story !


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## furious_gamer (Apr 11, 2011)

damngoodman999 said:


> Its really a funny short story !



I guess you are really frustrating now a days.  BTW What seems to be funny for you.


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## suyashpandit (Apr 11, 2011)

damngoodman999 said:


> Its really a funny short story !



I am curious to know fun part in my story 
please enlighten us



furious_gamer said:


> TBF HD6850 will be a bit future-proof then 5770 and if you don't mind splurge extra 2k, it will be a sweet deal for you. If you're not *hardcore gamer*, then 5770 will do the job for you.



U r right, 2k is not a big amount. I'll think about it.


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## damngoodman999 (Apr 11, 2011)

suyashpandit

u  played almost all games with P4 & AGP card - thats the fun part !

Raj - am not frustrated , OP just played all games with AGP card !


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## furious_gamer (Apr 11, 2011)

^^ lol. i thought Liverpool_Fan hacked your account and started spamming... 

BTW you can see many users still using AGP card and try to play games like Crysis, GTA 4 with that...


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## suyashpandit (Apr 11, 2011)

damngoodman999 said:


> suyashpandit
> 
> u  played almost all games with P4 & AGP card - thats the fun part !
> 
> Raj - am not frustrated , OP just played all games with AGP card !



I  played NFS carbon and POP t2t with AGP, when i installed undercover I got shattered.

AGP is history  really I tried my best to play more with that, LoL one day it finally blasted off



furious_gamer said:


> BTW you can see many users still using AGP card and try to play games like Crysis, GTA 4 with that...



Right.. I know some peoples like that 

1 quick question, How could I find that HDD has 32Mb cache?


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## furious_gamer (Apr 11, 2011)

*img.tomshardware.com/us/2007/07/13/should_you_care_about_hybrid_hard_drives/samsung-hm16hji-top.jpg

As i said earlier, all HDD's comes with specs written on top side of the HDD. Just like the above one. Here you can see the details.


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## suyashpandit (Apr 11, 2011)

furious_gamer said:


> *img.tomshardware.com/us/2007/07/13/should_you_care_about_hybrid_hard_drives/samsung-hm16hji-top.jpg
> 
> As i said earlier, all HDD's comes with specs written on top side of the HDD. Just like the above one. Here you can see the details.



I guess WD wont show this information *www.hafeezcentre.pk/ads_images/1294393307_su82/hc129722047574.jpg


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## furious_gamer (Apr 11, 2011)

Look at MDL, it's like WD1000BB-32CCB0

Here the 32 means, 32MB buffer. (Guys, correct me if i am wrong)

And @OP They will not mention it just like Buffer : 32MB, it will be hidden along with any of the serial number or whatever number is there. We have to check it carefully.


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## suyashpandit (Apr 11, 2011)

furious_gamer said:


> Look at MDL, it's like WD1000BB-32CCB0
> 
> Here the 32 means, 32MB buffer. (Guys, correct me if i am wrong)
> 
> And @OP They will not mention it just like Buffer : 32MB, it will be hidden along with any of the serial number or whatever number is there. We have to check it carefully.



Thanks,

How important is motherboard in gaming?


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## Piyush (Apr 11, 2011)

i think its cache memory of 32mb


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## suyashpandit (Apr 11, 2011)

I play movies in MPC and VLC, quality sucks on 720p but it looks good in my laptop.

Graphic Card is gonna improve quality of movies as well?


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## furious_gamer (Apr 11, 2011)

suyashpandit said:


> Thanks,
> 
> How important is motherboard in gaming?



Much like proccy/GPU/PSU. You simply can't pair a low-end mobo with uber high end Proccy. A decent mobo will come with lot of features which seems like small, but will be useful. 

Good mobo = Original CF/SLi (Pure x16 mode PCIe slot, Guys Correct me if i am wrong)

Also Lots of Memory Lanes with higher speeds, and blah,blah, blah.



suyashpandit said:


> I play movies in MPC and VLC, quality sucks on 720p but it looks good in my laptop.
> 
> Graphic Card is gonna improve quality of movies as well?



Yes, GPU will play an important role in video. For a smoother HD playback, a decent HTPC card needed.


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## suyashpandit (Apr 11, 2011)

Thanks, I guess cards suggested above has that capability


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## furious_gamer (Apr 11, 2011)

^^ Yes, it is. So what's your decision? Go with 5770 and increase 2k and get 6850?


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## suyashpandit (Apr 11, 2011)

6850 of-course


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## furious_gamer (Apr 11, 2011)

^^ Wise decision TBF


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## bonny (Apr 11, 2011)

hmmm....well my suggestions are that u should hv consulted first before buying the new rig.  dnt feel bad coz i went through a crysis dis bad too once. the thing is after a year or two, the gaming world wll out-run ur current pc spec. again! den wat will u do?? thatz the real question....!
neway ur current spec is good enough to run all the games at present. The only things missin are a good Graphics Card, Storage Module and A Power supply Unit.
Listen carefully then you wont hv to spend much....
1. Graphics Card - XFX Radeon HD5670 [1GB DDR 5]
    -yes the very same Graphics your friends suggested. this is by far the best G.Card in the indian markets now...its cheap,its dd5 technology, its 1GB, and doesnt use an external power source! (around Rs.5600)
2. HArd Disk - WesternDigital 1TB sata-2(around Rs.2700-tax free)
3. SMPS- get the Corsair TX650W. it might be a bit pricey but its a wise choice because       in future you can avail its features. it hs al kids of outputs,supports SLI and Crossfire for   graphics.multiple ports for hdd's.( its around Rs.6400)

and any querries u can contact me.

happy gaming...


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## Gaurav Bhattacharjee (Apr 11, 2011)

bonny said:


> hmmm....well my suggestions are that u should hv consulted first before buying the new rig.  dnt feel bad coz i went through a crysis dis bad too once. the thing is after a year or two, the gaming world wll out-run ur current pc spec. again! den wat will u do?? thatz the real question....!
> neway ur current spec is good enough to run all the games at present. The only things missin are a good Graphics Card, Storage Module and A Power supply Unit.
> Listen carefully then you wont hv to spend much....
> 1. Graphics Card - XFX Radeon HD5670 [1GB DDR 5]
> ...



What the hell??


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## bonny (Apr 11, 2011)

Gaurav Bhattacharjee said:


> What the hell??



did i say anything off the topic here???...i guess this is the best spec. u can offer to the guy here.


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## Gaurav Bhattacharjee (Apr 11, 2011)

bonny said:


> did i say anything off the topic here???...i guess this is the best spec. u can offer to the guy here.



Not off-topic. But your info is misleading. Better configs can be suggested. You cannot spend less and get great gaming performance.

5670 is not _"by far the best G.Card in the indian markets now"_.
it is a previous-generation, entry level card. not recommended for highly enjoyable gaming. 

a storage device is not a measure of gaming performance.

a PSU can only be properly chosen when one is sure of the GPU that one is gonna buy.


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## bonny (Apr 11, 2011)

Gaurav Bhattacharjee said:


> Not off-topic. But your info is misleading. Better configs can be suggested. You cannot spend less and get great gaming performance.
> 
> 5670 is not _"by far the best G.Card in the indian markets now"_.
> it is a previous-generation, entry level card. not recommended for highly enjoyable gaming.
> ...



yeah...the points u mentioned are realy justifiable. But we should not forget the options this guy has...thats y i mention earlier that year or later the guyz currrent spec ll expire...! 
there are many awesome cards available with the latest technology...u can afford wid good money! as long as the money is an issue..u cannot but help choose the cheapest n best. thatz wat i told him.
and ya you are correct wid wat you said.
PSU depends on ur graphics as its the main priority..
but if he follows that den he ll hv to buy everytime if he buyz a new G.C.
650W is fair enough for a PSU....wat u say?


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## furious_gamer (Apr 11, 2011)

bonny said:


> yeah...the points u mentioned are realy justifiable. But we should not forget the options this guy has...thats y i mention earlier that year or later the guyz currrent spec ll expire...!
> there are many awesome cards available with the latest technology...u can afford wid good money! as long as the money is an issue..u cannot but help choose the cheapest n best. thatz wat i told him.
> and ya you are correct wid wat you said.
> PSU depends on ur graphics as its the main priority..
> ...



WTH, He is not having a user high specs and even a VX550W is too much for that rig. For just running 6850+his rig FSP Saga II 500W or VX450W is enough.

And finally, he already concluded what he needs.


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## bonny (Apr 11, 2011)

furious_gamer said:


> WTH, He is not having a user high specs and even a VX550W is too much for that rig. For just running 6850+his rig FSP Saga II 500W or VX450W is enough.
> 
> And finally, he already concluded what he needs.



guess i missed dat....coz i replied prior 2 his 1st post...!!!! 
neway ya VX450W is enough...!!! but i mentioned it 4 future use..since he is a gamer. coz l8r he might get a G.C. which ll need above 450 or 500W...!!!
datz why getting 650W with a few extra cash wont harm u...!!


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## suyashpandit (Apr 12, 2011)

Thanks for you suggestion bonny, as rajkumar said I already took decision.

As you said gaming world will out run my current spec after a year or two so installing a costly SMPS is not a good idea, I should stay with 500W as its much cheaper than 650W, 5670 is good GCard but it supports 1600x900 resolution and  I am having 1900x1080 here, thats why 6850 is being a best option for me.


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## bonny (Apr 12, 2011)

suyashpandit said:


> Thanks for you suggestion bonny, as rajkumar said I already took decision.
> 
> As you said gaming world will out run my current spec after a year or two so installing a costly SMPS is not a good idea, I should stay with 500W as its much cheaper than 650W, 5670 is good GCard but it supports 1600x900 resolution and  I am having 1900x1080 here, thats why 6850 is being a best option for me.



5670 supports 1920 x 1080 resolution. I use it,so can tell you that. Neway 6850 is a better choice over 5670,dat you have already bought it. 

happy gaming.


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## furious_gamer (Apr 12, 2011)

bonny said:


> 5670 supports 1920 x 1080 resolution. I use it,so can tell you that. Neway 6850 is a better choice over 5670,dat you have already bought it.
> 
> happy gaming.



Ofcourse 5670 will support 19x10 resolution but at what settings you are playing the games, does matter. I am using CRT monitor + HD4670 and i can play GTA 4 @ 1024x768 but the FPS will dip down to <10 fps. When i change the resolution to 800x600 it will go to a decent 20+ fps. Now you understand that my card can handle that resolution, but the playability is questionable. So anyday if medium/hardcore gamer, get a decent mid-range offering rather than entry level card.

Got the point.


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## bonny (Apr 12, 2011)

furious_gamer said:


> Ofcourse 5670 will support 19x10 resolution but at what settings you are playing the games, does matter. I am using CRT monitor + HD4670 and i can play GTA 4 @ 1024x768 but the FPS will dip down to <10 fps. When i change the resolution to 800x600 it will go to a decent 20+ fps. Now you understand that my card can handle that resolution, but the playability is questionable. So anyday if medium/hardcore gamer, get a decent mid-range offering rather than entry level card.
> 
> Got the point.



you are right, for CRT its useless. but for my spec. the card seemz ok u knw.
i hv got i7 950, asus sabertooth x58, 4gb ddr3 ,a 22" benq lcd and hd5670..as u knw.
so games lyk far cry 2 and crysis 2 runs smoothly on my pc...! 

fps comes around 40 to 60..i guess. no lagging..coz i hv played both the games with high resolution.
for that price..the card is great.


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## suyashpandit (Apr 26, 2011)

Hello Again,

Finally I purchased 3 new things,

1. Coolermaster 600W - 3.5k
2. MSI R5770 - 6.8k
3. Gigabyte G41 - 2.5k

I chosen HD 5770 because 6850 is worth 10k and Mobo drag my budget for 5770.

Everything is fine, *But* things are not running like what i expected.

Let me tell you the whole scene, I installed XP, all gears and drivers. Now system is running smoothly like never before  DVI gave more more clear graphics.
Then i installed 2 games POP FTS and NFR Undercover, POP ran bit slower but game was playable but undercover is running like I dont have any Gcard installed, I got sad so I decided to check Driver versions and I found that Drivers are outdated Version was 6.0 something, I go through MSI website and download latest drivers V 8.6 (175MB) something for XP, now my POP is running good also undercover running better than before but I still having FPS problem in undercover.

I wanna play Hot Pursuit and GTA4 and I am sure this situation wont help me to play those games.

I am sure that issue is Driver so i looked AMD.com for drivers and found this ATI Radeonâ„¢ Video Card Drivers I can see driver versioon is 11.3 here, I am confused that size is only 50MB.
Now my questions are.
1. If 11.x version released then why MSI distributing 6.x and why they didnt updated 8.x greater on their site?
2. This issue is driver related or not?
3 After spending this money will I able to play such games?

I am shattered  please help me out here.


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## furious_gamer (Apr 27, 2011)

suyashpandit said:


> Hello Again,
> 
> Finally I purchased 3 new things,
> 
> ...



You should've purchased Corsair VX450W instead of that CM 600W. Anyway congo for the purchase.

1. Don't rely on distributors site. They will not update drivers very frequently. So better download drivers from ATi site itself .. ( AMD Graphics Drivers & Software â€“ Download the latest drivers for your graphics products )
2. Might be driver issue coz you are using pretty old drivers. Try update 11.x and see if that helps.
3. You can play these games easily. *What's your monitor resolution*?


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## Skud (Apr 27, 2011)

Wait till tomorrow for the driver update. AMD will publish the 11.4 Catalyst drivers which are supposed to be much much better than 11.3. And never rely on manufacturer's site for driver updates. And before installing the current driver uninstall the MSI drivers.


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## Piyush (Apr 27, 2011)

which resolution were you playing at?
what is the speed of your cpu?
and how much ram is in use?


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## suyashpandit (Apr 28, 2011)

Resolution is 1920x1080
Ram - DD3 2GB
OS- Windows XP
CPU- C2D 2.93

After installing driver version 11.3 I see clear graphics. POP TFS is running more smoother now, but Undercover still sucks even i drop resolution it still giving me 5-7 FPS

I guess there is an issue with the game, I am crawling around game stores to get GTA IV bcoz its out of stock right now, lets see what happen when I install other games.


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## furious_gamer (Apr 28, 2011)

suyashpandit said:


> Resolution is 1920x1080
> Ram - DD3 2GB
> OS- Windows XP
> CPU- C2D 2.93
> ...



Undercover, better download some fix/patch/updates.

Try flipkart.com for GTA IV/EFLC


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## Skud (Apr 28, 2011)

suyashpandit said:


> Resolution is 1920x1080
> Ram - DD3 2GB
> OS- Windows XP
> CPU- C2D 2.93
> ...




1. Install Catalyst 11.4 which has been released yesterday.

2. Download the latest patch for Undercover (v 1.0.1.18) from here:- 

*dlh.net/cgi-bin/dlp.cgi?lang=eng&sys=pc&file=nfsu_v1.0.1.18_enus.zip&ref=ps


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## Piyush (Apr 28, 2011)

yup...11.4 is a must and so is patch updates of undercover

11.4 seem to have solved lots of problems this time
in other words latest driver from AMD are good this time


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## Skud (Apr 28, 2011)

11.3 was bad


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## suyashpandit (Apr 28, 2011)

Will give a try tonight, flipkart allow cash on delivery?

I can see this everywhere "Out of Stock", Now this situation is forcing me to use pirated version 

anyway I'll try to get Original game rather using pirated.


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## furious_gamer (Apr 28, 2011)

suyashpandit said:


> Will give a try tonight, flipkart allow cash on delivery?
> 
> I can see this everywhere "Out of Stock", Now this situation is forcing me to use pirated version
> 
> anyway I'll try to get Original game rather using pirated.



Try landmark, will take order and they will get the game within a week and notify you.


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## suyashpandit (May 5, 2011)

I bought brand new GTA IV, but I am Getting extremely low fps.

I dropped effects from High to Low and resolution 19x10 to 1024x768 then 800x600 but still low fps.

I cant even play the game


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## furious_gamer (May 5, 2011)

well, it sounds different. Even with my E7400+4670 @ 800x600 i am getting playable FPS. Which OS are you playing it?


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## arko1983 (May 5, 2011)

suyashpandit said:


> I bought brand new GTA IV, but I am Getting extremely low fps.
> 
> I dropped effects from High to Low and resolution 19x10 to 1024x768 then 800x600 but still low fps.
> 
> I cant even play the game



gta 4 is cpu intensive but its playable with ur current cpu. i think ur system have some issues ie virus,driver issue,  etc


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## suyashpandit (May 5, 2011)

I am on XP, shall I need overcloaking ?


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## suyashpandit (Jun 13, 2011)

I suspect that my processor is devil, Its performing badly 

I did a test on windows 7 hardware ratings, RAM,GPU,HDD got 7+ score and CPU got only 2.7 

What should I do now? Overcloacking or CPU replacement ?


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