but I have questions as to whether or not its compatible with my motherboard. I have a standard foxconn motherboard, nothing fancy, but it does have a PCIe slot. I'm not quite a noob to computers, I've been around them my whole life and have always enjoyed tinkering and learning new things. but I'm not quite sure if there are certain specifications a motherboard requires for such a high-power card. thanks blades
You'll need a power supply with the right connectors and enough power, but i should think your MoBo will be fine. Just to be sure can you post the model number for it? Also for your PSu.
the requirements you will need to meet: 1) pci express x16 2.0 slot on your motherboard(pci express x16 is VERY slow. 2.0 is a necessity) 2) 6 pin power cord or 4 pin to 6 pin converter What is the model of your motherboard?
^^PCI-E 2.0 is not a necessity. Even modern graphics cards don't make full use of the bandwidth available by the 2.0 standard, a 1.x slot (which runs at 2.0 x8 speed) should maintain 98% performance which is more than acceptable. Any PCI-E version except 1.0a will also be compatible with 2.0. AMD Radeon HD 5870 PCI-Express Scaling Review - Page 25/26 | techPowerUp Trying to offer an opinion on hardware compatibility is like a doctor trying to diagnose without a medical history. Motherboard model number please, "standard Foxconn board" means nothing. Current CPU model and power supply rating would also help.
I've used my hd 5870 in a motherboard that uses pci express x16 1.0. got 7 fps. put it in my motherboard that supports 2.0, 170 fps. guess what? the difference between 1.0 and 2.0 is real.
Because you likely used a motherboard with a 1.0a spec slot that has significant compatibility problems with 2.0, like I mentioned. EVERY boot issue with compatibility I've come across points to 1.0a. The issue ranges from very low FPS to not being bootable at all. But I too have used a 2.0 card in specifically a 1.1 slot and it works fine. Which makes it more important the OP mentions the motherboard model.
Thank you for the responses guys, I fully plan on getting a nice PSU with the card, no worries on that. Next time I shut my PC down I'll open her up and check the model number of the mobo.
NOOOOO!!! Please don't get a 5000 model. The new 6000 series came out a few days ago. Get the best card man so you won't have to upgrade for at least 2 years. Just spend that extra 100 on like a 6850 and you will be golden.
haha I just want a card that will play more up to date games, and that will be good enough to run diablo III.
If that's the price range you are looking at, spend a little extra and get the Nvidia Gtx 460 instead. Trust me.
I'll give it a look. can anyone educate me on the difference between manufacturers? I mean there's EVGA, Gigabyte, PNY, msi, etc. if quality is a factor between manufacturers, can I be pointed in the direction of solid quality?
I have this card and its a beast. I almost got the HD 5770 but i didnt because i heard a lot of shit about the ATI drivers and such, and i was already familiar with Geforce. anyway i have the GTX 460 1gb. Just got it a couple weeks ago along with a whole slew of parts to build a new gaming comp. I play games like Fallout 3, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Left 4 dead 2, counter strike, Crysis. my rig is AMD Phenom II 3.2ghz 4 gigs ram Geforce GTX 460 1gb 650w Power Supply I can run Fallout 3 on ultra high, getting really really smooth framerate, as well as LFD2 and Bad Company 2. On crysis however, i have to overclock my CPU to either 3.4 or 3.6 to get above 20-30 frames, but then its like buttah, and real nice
I think my next rig will be a quad AMD with the top level ATI card currently dual core 2.13 with 1gb NVIDIA GT 230m and 6gbs of ram. It's ok, but next one will be perfect
Crash course in video card technology... ATI Sucks, don't buy one. Seriously, ATI is now AMD (as has been for the past several years), AMD is botching the development and branding, and basically screwing everything up. AMD can't make a stable graphics driver to save their butts. AMD doesn't have a proper GPU-compute architecture like nVidia's CUDA, showing their immaturity. AMD's model branding is as follows: "Radeon" followed by a random number and optionally some letters. AMD is red, I just don't like red. (for the comedically slow: this is sarcasm intended to dilute the credibility of the above statements) nVidia Got their shit right. Power management, drivers, etc. Has CUDA so games can take advantage of PhysX hardware physics processing (takes a load off the CPU, meaning MOAR FRAMERAETZ - even though anything over 60FPS isn't actually shown on screen) Has Optimus in laptops which lets the GPU turn on and off on demand, sweet little power saving function. Branding is as follows: "GeForce" followed by two or three letters that start with "G", like "GT", "GS", "GTX", means nothing. Followed by the model number, which consists, in the current generation, of 3 digits: the first is the family (2, 3, 4, are they up to 5 now?), then the pricepoint or "class" (2 = low end, 8 = OMG over the top high-end, I think 9 is "godmode"), followed by a "0" for good measure (sometimes a 5 for half-brands). For example, a GeForce GT 325M is a "3"-family chip, "2" class, "5" meaning some kind of alternate revision (I believe it's actually a high-end 2-series chip, rebranded), "M" for mobile. Older models, "9000-series" and below, used a 4-digit code that's the same as above but with trailing "0" for "OMG THOUSANDS", and ended at the 9000-series (and started over at the 200-series). So by just knowing "GeForce 8500 GT" you can tell it's an 8000-series card, mid-range. Sometimes a trailing letter is added, like "M" for "Mobile" used in laptops. nVidia is blue, and I like blue*. Common to all Video cards generally don't need to be too ballsy. A "6" class card would play pretty much anything without sucking power out of the wall. an "8" series card is only necessary if you actually will be constantly playing Crysis on dual 1080p big-screen TVs or something. Otherwise just go for a mid-class card, you'll be fine. You wouldn't be posting on a forum for advice if you really needed one of those over-the-top cards. Power requirements. If the card has a 6-pin "PCIe" power connector on the edge of the card, your power supply must have a cable for it too. Most cards that have this connector have an included adapter for a 4-pin drive power connector, though, that'll work too. Use it. Never leave it unplugged. Ever. PCIe standards never change. They improve, but there's really no need to pay attention. If the slot fits, shove it. If you're actually engineering this shit, or building a new system and have comparison options, that's when you pay attention to PCIe revision numbers. If you're just upgrading a card, don't make card decisions based on the PCIe rev shit. It means nothing. You can actually plug a PCIe 16x card into a sawed-off PCIe 1x slot. The wiring is the same - the long edge of the connector is just multiple PCIe lanes to provide bandwidth. So a 16x card will just run at reduced bandwidth (still faster than standard PCI) in a 1x slot with the end cut off the slot. I've done it. It's a pretty slick trick. Heat is the #1 killer of video cards. Many video cards put out as much heat (and hence consume as much power) as the CPU in the computer driving it. That's why I don't recommend ballsy video cards unless they're necessary - they'll BURN OUT if you don't care for their cooling. Keep the heat sink clean, and watch out for seized-up fans over time. In my years I've rarely seen a dedicated video card in a person's computer that wasn't either dead or dying due to cooling issues. Hope it helps. (edit: * - actually I remembered, nVidia isn't blue, it's green, but "red vs blue", you know.)
If your motherboard has a PCI-e slot it will work, I'm pretty sure. If it's an old one is probably won't be 2.0 but there isn't too much of a difference. It may be worth looking at upgrading your motherboard if you are wanting to replace other components. As for your choice, the 5770 is a really good card but you may want to check out AMD's newly released card, the 6850 Newegg.com - HIS H685F1GD Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity (or 6870 for a higher price) although they are priced quite a bit above the 5770. AMD will also be releasing higher end models, in particular the pricey 6970 some time this month. However it has been rumoured that they will also be releasing a lower end GPU which I would guess will be a slight upgrade from the 5770 so you may want to wait. As for the nvidia vs ATI post on the previous page, the way I see it: ATI is cheap and effective, a few stability issues especially on new releases but nothing that can't be fixed. Nvidia is pricey but better for newbies who just want to plug it in and leave it.
OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY ACTUALLY WENT THROUGH WITH IT. AMD rebranded ATI to be AMD now as well. WTF. I can't believe they'd be that dumb. See the product name? Neither ATI nor AMD anywhere. No search hits. No brand recognition. WTF. I'm totally shocked. I thought they'd wisen up and some marketing guy would slap some overpaid AMD exec upside the head and wisen them up to the name recognition of ATI. I just don't get it... how could they let that happen. Augh. My head hurts. Augh. Augh... True... but I mean, after what I went through tonight trying to get an ATI All-in-Wonder 9000 card up and running, I mean, the card's old and all, but I mean dang, some legacies, you just can't kill... lol. ATI's modern driver installer is just all-around terrible too. It injects false dependencies into the installer, like installing Visual C++ 2008 runtime on Windows 7 even though it's already built-in, then failing when the runtime installer fails due to already being installed, leaving a half-baked installation that ends up screwing up Windows files upon uninstall and just "OHMYGOD how did this stuff ever make it out of beta", kinda thing. 'S kinda why I don't recommend AMD. Purely software. Oh, and all those baked 9800's back in the day too
Heh yeah I was pretty surprised by the rebranding too. There was an article I read on the internet though which explained that they pretty had not much choice other than to rebrand, I forgot the reason but I'll try find it again. Yeah ATI's driver installer is really poor, I had so many problems with my 4870 when I first got it that I even considered taking it back and putting my 9600gt back in haha I do give credit on nvidia for the 460 too, probably one of their best value for cards however the 6870 oversteps is quite a bit in the reviews I have read. Going to wait until Christmas to get my new card as I'm hoping prices will go lowwwww
GTS is less powerful than GTX. NVidia and ATI also have the same model number scheme. ATI's has an extra 0 at the end of the model name(instead of GTX285, you have Radeon HD5650)