Brian The Dog on 16/6/2011 at 23:01
Quote Posted by Ostriig
ATI's frustrating naming conventions aside, I'm confused, is there a desktop 6830 card? I've only seen a 6830M on that list. On the desktop side, if we're talking about the 6850 vs. the 6770, the former seems to have a more impressive sheet of tech stats, wouldn't it outperform the latter?
Yes, I've only seen a 6730M chip, which is indeed a Mobile chip. I've no idea if the 6850 is better than the 6770. It certainly looks so on specs, but there may be other stuff going on (e.g. nvidia's problems with OpenGL on the 460's for instance). I don't know too much about ATI cards to be honest. The 6850's Wiki page says it is equivalent to an nvidia 460 card, which would be good enough for most gaming for the next few years or so.
Ostriig on 17/6/2011 at 00:14
I'm not overly familiar with ATI's current lineup either, that's why I was asking. A friend recently pointed me to(
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/index.php) Passmark's benchmark lists and I've been using those to get a bit more up to speed. I can't seem to find the 6770, unfortunately, but as for the 6850 on its own it seems like a pretty solid deal.
inselaffe on 17/6/2011 at 00:15
Thanks for the information about the ram speed, that certainly makes the 'choice' a lot easier :)
Okay, okay, i think i was confusing it with 5830 :$ hahaha. Also apparently ati have shifted the number conventions up a notch when you get to the 6850 and so.
For example, the 6870 is equivalent to the 5850.
A 6870 at £125 seems quite good from what i can see. Dunno whether better value than a £90 6770. Considering the 6750s are actually around the same price or more as that 6870 then i see no reason for them.
Actually you appear to be able to get a gtx 460 for
£110 (edit no you can't it's the se!) £125 too.
From looking at this: (
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/radeon-hd-6870-radeon-hd-6850-barts,review-32028.html) the gtx 460 is about the same as the 6850 (although sometimes worse) and the 6870 seems to be a bit (reasonable amount?) better. Except on a few games where nvidia seems to be favoured a fair bit. Those appear anomalies though.
Apparently aria were doing a 5850 for £100 at one point (now £115 so not as worth it as the 6870 elsewhere) but considering dealings with them in the past we wouldn't be buying from them anyway.
Hmm the 550 ti seems worse than the 460. The 560 (let alone ti) is a rather lot more though on the other hand.
In terms of physx, what kind of model second hand ebay card would be good enough for it, assuming he ended up getting an ati? Cos apparently although nvidia have disabled it in their drivers, you can get a "fan" (haha) patch that allows physx on that gpu even when an ati or other non-nvidia one is present.
Ostriig on 17/6/2011 at 00:38
I really don't think there's a straight answer to what card is the best "value" until it's clear what you want to use the rig for. If it's a games machine, I would go for either the 6870 or the 460 of the three you mentioned, I likely wouldn't pick the 6770. But really, I think any advice is to a great degree just grasping at straws until we know what you want the PC to do.
Regarding the PhysX hack, Bikerdude covered it in (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130774) this thread. I don't know the details, but off the top of my head I, personally, would be reluctant to go that route. Seems fidgety, I don't like the idea of running around with hacked drivers, it adds functionality that the manufacturer has shows interest in blocking in the past, and after some issues with stability I'm never too eager to try nVidia's own Beta drivers, let alone third party ones. As for what would suffice for PhysX processing if you did decide to go hybrid, I'm afraid I don't really know. I'm hoping to get a new PC relatively soon too, and my plan is to install my current 9800GT as a physics accelerator, but that's because this is the card I'll have available for that function. Other than that I'm sorry to say I haven't looked into the topic.
