Building a computer on a budget.. What do you guys think about the Radeon 7770 HD?

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Building a computer on a budget.. What do you guys think about the Radeon 7770 HD?

Posted: 11/22/2012 7:13:34 PM EDT

I am building a computer on a budget. Right now all i got is a toughbook and its not really working out for me.. I am thinking about this Graphics card.. I will be using the rig for pretty much everything; watching movies, surfing the net, Gaming, FSX, some light Photoshopping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121642

Its going to be paired with a i5 3.4ghz and 8 gigs of PC3 14900...

Posted: 11/22/2012 7:24:35 PM EDT

[#1]

Would go with a 7950 to avoid early obsolescence or better a 7970. Buy once, cry once.

Posted: 11/22/2012 7:24:38 PM EDT

[#2]

I definitely prefer nvidia cards. They've always just worked better for me.

I'd pay the 20 extra bucks for this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130758

You'll see a memory size difference, but note the memory speed difference, which more than makes up for the size difference.

The nvidia is a better card.

CJ

Posted: 11/22/2012 7:38:02 PM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:
Would go with a 7950 to avoid early obsolescence or better a 7970. Buy once, cry once.

Not really in the tech world. No matter what you buy, your components will be obsolete in a few years.

Quoted:
I definitely prefer nvidia cards. They've always just worked better for me.

I'd pay the 20 extra bucks for this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130758

You'll see a memory size difference, but note the memory speed difference, which more than makes up for the size difference.

The nvidia is a better card.

CJ

Terrible, terrible choice.

OP- If you can spend a bit more the 7850 is the best bang for your buck.
Newegg has some decent deals on them for ~$150-$160 after savings/rebates.

$160(after $30MIR) Gigabyte 2GB 7850 OC 975/1200
$150(after $20MIR) Gigabyte 1GB 7850 OC 900/1200

The HD7770 is a decent card but is going to struggle at higher settings/resolution, aka 1920x1080.

Posted: 11/22/2012 7:41:42 PM EDT

[#4]

GTX 560

Posted: 11/22/2012 7:42:55 PM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
GTX 560

Wow... I guess Nvidia has done a much better job brainwashing people than I thought.

Anandtech.com 7870/7850 Review

Posted: 11/22/2012 7:47:55 PM EDT

[#6]

Op, I'm running most modern games on my "shitty" 550ti at 1440x950 resolution on almost max settings, or a notch below. I'm sure the 7770 is gonna be great if you're not going to be demanding the absolute best visuals.

Posted: 11/22/2012 7:50:30 PM EDT

[#7]

My experiences with ATI have been terrible. I'll never buy another ATI product no matter what the reviews say.

I'm also not into cutting edge gaming that requires the latest and greatest card ever made, either.

Besides, the OP is specifying an i5-based system. There might be a good argument to be made for a top end video card if he were

getting an i7 based system, but not with an i5. Too limited to start with.

And, not enough RAM. I view 8 GB as a starting point. I have 24 GB in my work machine. And I don't even play games on it.

CJ

Posted: 11/22/2012 7:51:26 PM EDT

[#8]

NVIDIA IMO. If you plan on getting Borderlands 2 the Physx is worth it. And don't let the haters get to you, it's more than just pretty flags to shoot at.

Posted: 11/22/2012 8:04:05 PM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
My experiences with ATI have been terrible. I'll never buy another ATI product no matter what the reviews say.

I'm also not into cutting edge gaming that requires the latest and greatest card ever made, either.

Besides, the OP is specifying an i5-based system. There might be a good argument to be made for a top end video card if he were
getting an i7 based system, but not with an i5. Too limited to start with.

And, not enough RAM. I view 8 GB as a starting point. I have 24 GB in my work machine. And I don't even play games on it.

CJ

Both sides have had problems. Nvidia has been the worse of the two for the last couple years as far as single card drivers go...
A i5 3.4ghz probably means the i5-3750k, hopefully, which is basically a slightly lower speed bin of their fastest quadcore on the market...
The majority of games, at any recent monitors native resolution, are going to be way more dependent on the GPU than the CPU, aka a GPU bottleneck.
There is also no reason for 24GB on a gaming machine but I do agree that 8GB should be the baseline on any current system.

Quoted:
NVIDIA IMO. If you plan on getting Borderlands 2 the Physx is worth it. And don't let the haters get to you, it's more than just pretty flags to shoot at.

You mean the water is slightly more interactive with PhysX? Oh YAY!
PhysX is a marketing gimmick and nothing more until they actually start integrating it into gameplay.

Posted: 11/22/2012 9:37:13 PM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:
My experiences with ATI have been terrible. I'll never buy another ATI product no matter what the reviews say.

I'm also not into cutting edge gaming that requires the latest and greatest card ever made, either.

Besides, the OP is specifying an i5-based system. There might be a good argument to be made for a top end video card if he were
getting an i7 based system, but not with an i5. Too limited to start with.

And, not enough RAM. I view 8 GB as a starting point. I have 24 GB in my work machine. And I don't even play games on it.

CJ

I've owned just about every generation of ATI cards and they've all been flawless.

As a 3770K owner I will tell you the i5 2500k/3570k for almost every use is every bit as good as the i7 2600K/3770K.
The only difference is 6meg cache on the i5 vs. 8meg cache on the i7 and the i7 has hyper threading vs. the i5 has no HT.

If you're not using apps that take good use of HT an i7 is really a waste of money, put the extra $100 into the GPU.

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:06:50 PM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:

Quoted:
My experiences with ATI have been terrible. I'll never buy another ATI product no matter what the reviews say.

I'm also not into cutting edge gaming that requires the latest and greatest card ever made, either.

Besides, the OP is specifying an i5-based system. There might be a good argument to be made for a top end video card if he were
getting an i7 based system, but not with an i5. Too limited to start with.

And, not enough RAM. I view 8 GB as a starting point. I have 24 GB in my work machine. And I don't even play games on it.

CJ

I've owned just about every generation of ATI cards and they've all been flawless.

As a 3770K owner I will tell you the i5 2500k/3570k for almost every use is every bit as good as the i7 2600K/3770K.
The only difference is 6meg cache on the i5 vs. 8meg cache on the i7 and the i7 has hyper threading vs. the i5 has no HT.

If you're not using apps that take good use of HT an i7 is really a waste of money, put the extra $100 into the GPU.

yup most software doesn't take advantage of the extra cores and the card will be fine

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:29:40 PM EDT

[#12]

Video Card Comparisons

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:37:46 PM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:
My experiences with ATI have been terrible. I'll never buy another ATI product no matter what the reviews say.

I'm also not into cutting edge gaming that requires the latest and greatest card ever made, either.

Besides, the OP is specifying an i5-based system. There might be a good argument to be made for a top end video card if he were
getting an i7 based system, but not with an i5. Too limited to start with.

And, not enough RAM. I view 8 GB as a starting point. I have 24 GB in my work machine. And I don't even play games on it.

CJ

Where are you getting your info? In games i5's are right up there with i7's, infact in some cases the i5's do better unless the i7 has HT disabled!

I stopped buying Nvidia after some of their cards were randomly incompatible with motherboards. A GTX 470 worked on my Motherboard, but somehow the 460 was incompatible, and absolutly no help from Nvidia. Plus I've had to reinstall windows to get games to work with Nvidia.

Right now I'm on my first ATI card, and I'm loving it. No issues whatsoever.

Plus the ATI 7950 & 7970 will easily beat comparably priced Nvidia cards. I personally have a 6970, and at the time the only card that beat it was an Nvidia card that was $200 more!

Right now I personally have a i5 2500k and a ATI 6970.

The 3 other video cards i have owned were Nvidia....8800GT, GTX470, GTX460

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:44:17 PM EDT

[#14]

What kind of games do you play? Unless you're determined to run the craziest, newest games at max settings, the 7770 should be just fine.

I've got a couple year old 5670 (1 GB model) and honestly, it's just fine for my use. I can run any source engine game (including Portal 2) on full settings, and a friend has the same card but with 4 GB of DDR3 in his box (I'm still running 2 GB DDR2, which is my main limiting factor) and it runs Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 (including the Heart of the Swarm beta) at full settings all day long.

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:47:42 PM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
My experiences with ATI have been terrible. I'll never buy another ATI product no matter what the reviews say.

I'm also not into cutting edge gaming that requires the latest and greatest card ever made, either.

Besides, the OP is specifying an i5-based system. There might be a good argument to be made for a top end video card if he were
getting an i7 based system, but not with an i5. Too limited to start with.

And, not enough RAM. I view 8 GB as a starting point. I have 24 GB in my work machine. And I don't even play games on it.

CJ

An i5 will not limit any high end GPU. The 560ti 448 lacks video RAM and speed compared to the HD 7850. The 560ti 448 is far over priced, as is the 660 and 660ti. To top it off, the 560ti 448 with the stock cooler over heats very quickly. It can get up to 88C very quick in a nicely cooled system when playing ArmA 2. If you get AMD, get Sapphire. Their coolers are silent and cool very well.

Quoted:
[
I stopped buying Nvidia after some of their cards were randomly incompatible with motherboards. A GTX 470 worked on my Motherboard, but somehow the 460 was incompatible, and absolutly no help from Nvidia.

Same issue with my 560ti 2GB. Tried four EVGA cards (actually three, one had the PCI-E chip damaged out of the box). All brand new. All of them have power on issues unless I turn off the PSU. I have tried many other Nvidia and AMD cards including the 560ti 448 FTW which work fine in my system. Due to their issues and how over priced they are (especially for good cooling) and their shitty customer service and quality I won't go with EVGA/Nvidia next time. Or at least I doubt it.

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:53:59 PM EDT

[#16]

Not sure if its been posted yet but your gonna want to look at toms hardwares best graphics cards for the money section.

HERE YA GO

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:54:52 PM EDT

[#17]

It does depend on the games I suppose.
What I play-Flightsims (primarily IL2 modded) simply perform better with Nvidia-no ifs and or buts about it.

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:59:35 PM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
It does depend on the games I suppose.
What I play-Flightsims (primarily IL2 modded) simply perform better with Nvidia-no ifs and or buts about it.

I play flight sims. IL-2 CloD crashes no matter what.

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:04:26 PM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:

Quoted:
It does depend on the games I suppose.
What I play-Flightsims (primarily IL2 modded) simply perform better with Nvidia-no ifs and or buts about it.

I play flight sims. IL-2 CloD crashes no matter what.

http://filebeam.com/7b507b9322686d56a9892593deea8aff.jpg

God I hate Luthier and Co. for what they did to the franchise!

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:08:47 PM EDT

[#20]

Quoted:

Quoted:
It does depend on the games I suppose.
What I play-Flightsims (primarily IL2 modded) simply perform better with Nvidia-no ifs and or buts about it.

I play flight sims. IL-2 CloD crashes no matter what.

http://filebeam.com/7b507b9322686d56a9892593deea8aff.jpg

God I hate Luthier and Co. for what they did to the franchise!

I hope they fix it. It has not updated for about a year. I have a total of 63 minutes in game. The UI sucks, it crashes constantly, and it runs horrible. Luckily DCS and Rise of Flight are good.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Building a computer on a budget.. What do you guys think about the Radeon 7770 HD?

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