So my friend is building a "gaming" PC, and the last component he needs to find is a video card.

The most he says he's willing to spend is $80.

Now what I'm looking for is I guess something with performance ~8800 GTS... I just have no idea what's equivalent to that with the newer ATI/Nvidia crap.

The end goal is he wants to be able to play Civ 5 on higher end settings.

Anyone know of a video card? lol

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ng,2697-2.html

Originally Posted by BlakeM

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ng,2697-2.html

Thank you sir, I think I shall look through this.

http://albertech.net/2010/08/best-gr...-card-for-100/

Radeon HD 4850
512mb GDDR5 (GDDR5 is much better performing than GDDR3)
256-bit (much better for high settings)
"Equivalent performance to nVidia's 8800 GTX"
It doesn't have DX11, but I assume your friend doesn't care.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product... E16814102901
$109
For the boost in performance he'll get, he might as well spend an extra $20-$30 dollars.

Does having 512 MB vs. 1 GB in a video card make a significant difference?

EDIT: I was looking at this http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product... E16814102834

My friend's monitor is 1920 by whatever, so I'm not sure if going for the 1 GB GDD3 is a better idea than going for the 512 MB GDDR5.

http://nz.answers.yahoo.com/question...65 959AA7GOzu

In reality I imagine he won't be seeing too much difference between the two. Generally though, faster memory outperforms more memory.

For Civ 5, 512mb of memory (and the fact that the card is 4800 series) falls right into the recommended requirements:



Recommended System Requirements

Operating System: Windows Vista SP2/ Windows 7
Processor: 1.8 GHz Quad Core CPU
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 8 GB Free
Video: 512 MB ATI 4800 series or better, 512 MB nVidia 9800 series or better

More memory in a GFX card doesn't always mean it is better. If you have a card with only 64bit or 128bit (pipeline?), but it has 1 GB of memory, most of the time, it can't even utilize it all. Another card I would suggest is the Radeon 5770, but it's probably out of his price range. Try to see if you can find a 1 GB version of the 4850.

When i read the title,

I'd recommand 5970 or 5870x2...

But after i saw "$80"...

i dunno

lol

Ya, the 4850 seems to be the best choice.

So it's down to these two:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product... E16814102834

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product... E16814102901

Thoughts?

Oh, and in case it matters, the system will have 4 GB 1600 MHz memory and some random Athlon II Quadcore.

1st one looks better lol

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

Ya, the 4850 seems to be the best choice.

So it's down to these two:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product... E16814102834

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product... E16814102901

Thoughts?

Oh, and in case it matters, the system will have 4 GB 1600 MHz memory and some random Athlon II Quadcore.

Wait...

2nd one is better i think

Because 2nd one uses ddr5 memory.

OP look up benchmarks for both cards.

id go with the first one
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product... E16814102834
cards are pretty much the same except different memory

orrrr you could get this: http://www.evga.com/products/moreInf...%20Family& sw but it may be a bit out of his price range

Originally Posted by GPat

orrrr you could get this: http://www.evga.com/products/moreInf...%20Family& sw but it may be a bit out of his price range

lol, I'm pretty sure the rest of the computer would be a bottleneck on that.

Anyway, I'm personally leaning towards the first as well... just cause it looks cooler lol.

How about two of this? lol
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-905-_-Product