Upgrapding to an ATI 6850. Which should I get?

A

Alequin

New Member
Hey,

Over the past couple of years I have been playing my games on a computer that used an onboard Nvidia geforce 8200 graphics card. The card is not really made for gaming but has done ok for a while and I haven’t minded low graphic settings. However, skyrim is literally just around the corner so I think it’s time to upgrade to the ATI 6850.

Only question now is which version of this card do I buy? I have never really understood the difference between sapphire, XFX, Asus, Gigabyte and any others which I may be unaware of. All I can see is the price, which implies to me that different versions perform on different levels.

So really my question is which of these companies would you recommend buying the 6850 from.

I have a budget of £150 (should be fine as I haven’t seen any over that price) however I have been told that I will need a new PSU. If you could also recommend one (based on the spec of my current pc including the new graphics card at the bottom) that would be much appreciated.

Thanks for any help.

Also when I buy it I will most likely go to amazon.co.uk but if there are any other good sites which will do it cheaper and will be reliable with shipping the part that would be great.

Current system (I did not build this)

Athlon II X4 2.9GHz
4gb ram
Nvidia geforce 8200 shared memory 1gb
Windows 7
Unsure of current psu sorry
 
Alequin said:
Hey,

Over the past couple of years I have been playing my games on a computer that used an onboard Nvidia geforce 8200 graphics card. The card is not really made for gaming but has done ok for a while and I haven’t minded low graphic settings. However, skyrim is literally just around the corner so I think it’s time to upgrade to the ATI 6850.

Only question now is which version of this card do I buy? I have never really understood the difference between sapphire, XFX, Asus, Gigabyte and any others which I may be unaware of. All I can see is the price, which implies to me that different versions perform on different levels.

So really my question is which of these companies would you recommend buying the 6850 from.

I have a budget of £150 (should be fine as I haven’t seen any over that price) however I have been told that I will need a new PSU. If you could also recommend one (based on the spec of my current pc including the new graphics card at the bottom) that would be much appreciated.

Thanks for any help.

Also when I buy it I will most likely go to amazon.co.uk but if there are any other good sites which will do it cheaper and will be reliable with shipping the part that would be great.

Current system (I did not build this)

Athlon II X4 2.9GHz
4gb ram
Nvidia geforce 8200 shared memory 1gb
Windows 7
Unsure of current psu sorry
Click to expand...

Depending on your current PSU (someone should be able to come along and tell you how to find out what it is)

You could go with this

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-039-HS

(overclockers.co.uk is a good site, i bought my hd 6850 from there just last week)
 
I have the Asus version myself, it's a nice card. Expect a massive stepup in performance if you're using an integrated solution for video. If you have at least 500-700watts for a good power supply you'll be set for the upgrade. Make sure you have room in the case for the card, as the 6850 is where they start to get big! As far as brand to brand, you'd have to either research or have experience with each of them to make a well informed decision. If it was me, i'd get this one for it's good cooling solution:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125353

With that kind of budget though, you could aim for a 6950 2gb instead and get even more performance, but again you will need a power supply that can push out enough watts to handle the processing power of the card.
 
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Russ88765 said:
I have the Asus version myself, it's a nice card. Expect a massive stepup in performance if you're using an integrated solution for video. If you have at least 500-700watts for a good power supply you'll be set for the upgrade. Make sure you have room in the case for the card, as the 6850 is where they start to get big! As far as brand to brand, you'd have to either research or have experience with each of them to make a well informed decision. If it was me, i'd get this one for it's good cooling solution:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125353

With that kind of budget though, you could aim for a 6950 2gb instead and get even more performance, but again you will need a power supply that can push out enough watts to handle the processing power of the card.
Click to expand...


Heres that card from dabs in GBP for ya OP http://www.dabs.com/products/gigaby...le&utm_medium=product+search&utm_content=Q200
 
ok, if that computer is just bought from a store all factory stuff not customized or anything then the sucks, pretty much guarenteed, and if it doesn't suck it doesn't have enough watts, so i picked 2 gpus and 2 pdusn obviously i'm going to say the more expensive of each is better but both are great

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-253-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-087-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-007-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1497

http://www.ebuyer.com/269259-corsair-600w-cx-series-v2-psu-6x-sata-2x-pci-e-cmpsu-600cxv2uk
 
Practically any card will do, as long as it is a good company behind it. If you prefer Nvidia, you could buy a GTX 460 although I think it uses a little more power than a 6850. That said, Try these:

Sapphire 6850
MSI 6850 Cyclone
The Cyclone heatsink is wider than the PCB so I'm not sure if it would fit in a normal width ATX case.

The difference between lets say a Gigabyte, XFX, or ASUS card is the brand name (obviously) whether or not the PCB is reference, and the cooler on the card.

For Power Supplies:
XFX Pro 550w Core Edition
Corsair CX500
Corsair CX600
Antec TruePower New 550w (modular)

Edit: What case do you have?
 
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