Advice on new video card

pigflipper

So the XFX 5850 I have been using for a few years now has finally started to die, or rather, the stock cooler is pretty much shot; the bearing is shot and the fan makes an awful racket above 30% power and is extremely hot to the touch. I am going to take this as a sign to get a new card, as I need a bit more juice in this system but cannot afford to do a complete rebuild right now.

Looking for an AMD or Nvidia card in the $150-$200 range that would be a good replacement for this old 5850.

Current system specs:

Phenom II X4 945
8gigs ram
Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H (890 GX chipset; onboard video that is ok for posting this, but not much else)
850W Antec PSU

PirateNinja

Just in case you decide you want to fix the old one, you can take the sticker off the fan, put a drop of 3-1 oil in the bearing, reseal the sticker, and call it a day.

pigflipper

@PirateNinja Already went that route a few weeks ago and its right back to it, I think moving across the country twice, various LAN trips and the age of the card are finally kicking in...right as comcast fixes our internet and I have a day off work, just my luck.

Cliff_Forster

Don't the XFX cards have a lifetime warranty?

For around $200 I'd say 7870 Ghz edition, love you long time.

Thrax

7870 GHz Edition will indeed blow that 5850 away, and if you read around on some reviews, you can find some that'll overclock so high they'll blow a 7950 away.

pigflipper

Is the 7870 Ghz a larger card than the 5850? I have about 1.5" to spare in the case with the 5850 so anything larger than that would be a no go.

Cliff_Forster

The 5850 was a long card. Any 7870 should not be longer.

Thrax

7870 is microscopic by comparison. Several inches shorter.

NullenVoyd

Yanno what? Just take a stock CPU cooler you probably have laying around (I know I gots like 5 just in my room alone) and drill and tap holes in it to bolt it right onto the GPU. For the vid memory, pull some old mainboard chipset sinks off and thermal glue them on. This is how we mod in the wasteland!

pigflipper

Seeing as how I have ghetto rigged a spare Sunon 80mm 50cfm onto the 5850, I can now play games again (check out pics on FB) but it still runs full load at 75-80C.

I am also probably not going to get the 7870 as it is just a tad bit out of my price range, so unless the price drops in the next week or two, I am most likely going to end up getting a 2gig 7850 instead, since I can find those for less than $200.

Really this is just all a stop gap until I can afford a new(er) rig this spring.

Cliff_Forster

I got a Sapphire 7870 on special for $209 with a rebate that got it to $195. Hopefully those promos will become more competitive approaching the holiday. I can tell you, it's everything I hoped performance wise at that price range. Really good deal.

Thrax

The gap between the 7850 and the 7850 is really large. In overclocking, you can get the 7870 into 7950 territory.

I really, strongly recommend you swing a 7870 if at all possible. It's a good long-term GPU, so you won't have to upgrade a year later.

Not saying the 7850 is a bad card, Meghann has one now and it runs like a champ, but if you're in for the long haul...

pigflipper

Yeah, thinking more for the long haul since I will probably upgrade the rest of the system mid-late spring. Oh and here is the pic of the ghetto cooling setup I am running on the (now) overclocked 5850 which is providing me with quite a good card, even this late in its life cycle. It is, however very loud, those Sunon 80mm 50CFM fans are quite noticeable after years of using lower RPM 120mm and 140mm fans.



(Ignore the huge amounts of dust, I took the entire rig apart after this photo to clean it for the first time in almost a year)

MiracleManS

@pigflipper that looks like some of the shit they used to inspect E.T.

fatcat

dust bunnies from hell...