So my friend wants a new computer for Civilization V

[diluzio91]

found an 8800 GTX on craigslist locally for $50 if your interested. PM me if you are

[Twigsoffury]

If it were me I wouldn't be able to justify buying an 8/9xxx series card for that much at this point, just for longevity reasons. Sure, they're fine now, but will they be fine in a year? They might be, but I'm guessing probably not...whereas the 5750 probably will be.

My 8800GTS SSC edition was only 2,500 points slower then my 5770

[x88x]

My 8800GTS SSC edition was only 2,500 points slower then my 5770

In what benchmarking program? What's the context?

Another big factor will be how much DX11 is adopted by the industry over the next couple years.

[Twigsoffury]

In what benchmarking program? What's the context?

Another big factor will be how much DX11 is adopted by the industry over the next couple years.

oh haha oops 3dmark 2006.

the 5770 is faster on new games by a considerable amount, but the 8800 seems to be faster then the 57 on older d39/DX9 games.

kicks my buddies GTX260 on newer games as well.

DX11 does kick butt.

[x88x]

kicks my buddies GTX260 on newer games as well.

For clarification, I'm assuming this was in reference to the 5770, not the 8800, yes?

[ownaginatious]

I would also recommend going AMD for the pricerange it looks like you're looking at. If his budget now is (I'm guessing) ~$800CAD, chances are quite small that he will later want to drop $400 to upgrade the CPU to something crazy. Also, tbh, dropping a top-of-the-line CPU in a sub-$1,000 system is just gonna introduce other bottlenecks.

What is his budget now (if you know)? I'm not familiar with the requirements of Civ V, but any new game I would be very hesitant of running it on an i3.

I would recommend this combination instead:
AMD Athlon II X4 640 : $116
ASRock M3A770DE MBB : $65
Mushkin Blackline 2x2GB DDR3-1600 (7-9-7-24) : $99

While the Althon II x4 640 isn't exactly the most powerful thing in the world, it'll nicely outperform that i3 and later he could upgrade to a Phenom II x4 or x6 if he wants to. Plus, that comes out to $50 lower than the i3 config, so that $50 could be diverted to the GPU instead, upgrading to at least a 5750 ($140), or maybe even a 5770 ($167).

EDIT:
I found the recommended specs (I ignore 'required' specs, as generally if you only meet those, gameplay is useless). I would not want to run that with an i3 if it were my choice.
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/65031

After looking over this again, I think you're right; AMD is the way to go. I'm going to look more into this.

[x88x]

This had completely slipped my mind, but if you have a Microcenter accessible to you, they've been running a deal for a few months now where if you buy one of a few certain AMD CPUs you get a pretty nice Biostar MBB free (or for $9.99 in some cases). That would let him either get a much nicer CPU for the same amount or a slightly less powerful CPU for a lot less (taking the free MBB into consideration).
http://www.microcenter.com/specials/...ndlePROMO.html

Unfortunately, the deal is only available in-store, so you can't order it and have it delivered..at least not directly through them.

[ownaginatious]

Is microcenter a US-only company? I don't think I've ever seen one here (Canada) before.

Also, I've narrowed it down to two video cards to put in the thing. Every 8800 GTX/GTS I find online for less than < $100 appears to be a scam.

Anyway, the main differences between these two are 512 MB GDDR5 or 1 GB GDDR3. He uses a 1920 by w/e resolution monitor. The two are here:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814102901
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814102834

[x88x]

Ah, right, I knew there was a reason it didn't occur to me before.

As for which of the two cards, I would go with the 1GB GDDR3 one. They both have the same memory interface bandwidth (256-bit), and though I cannot find a frequency listed for the GDDR5 one, considering that the 4850 was designed to use GDDR3 I can't imagine that it would be a massive improvement. I'm sure there is some improvement, but how much I can't say. Also, for the resolution your friend is pushing, that extra memory will help, especially if he's also running a second monitor off the same card.

[Twigsoffury]

For clarification, I'm assuming this was in reference to the 5770, not the 8800, yes?

oh yea, that 8800 gets stomped by the GTX260

the cool thing about the 8800GTS SSC edition from Evga, it was the only 8800GTS card to have 112SPU instead of 96SPU, so basically its a really pissed off 9800GT before they released the 9800GT

if you can find a 8800GTS SSC, i'd really get it instead of a 9800GT. but a 9800GTX has 128SPU, and its the same as a new GTS250 series


8800GTS SSC was on the heels of a 8800GTX (128SPU) when i was benchmark waring against my buddy with a 8800GTX

I'd still recommend a 8000 series if his other options are a crap ATi 5000 series or a low end Nvidia card (sub 100$) most sub 100 nvidia cards have 64SPU and most sub 100$ Ati cards have 400SPU or even 320SPU and thats not something you would want to slap into a gaming computer and try to get a great gaming experiance out of it

seems most people think PC gaming sucks because they've only played on a crap store bought computer, or played on a PC with a super budget video card.

damn lemme tell you a quad core @ 3.8Ghz paired with a 5770 is pretty sweet, i can only imagine what a GTX470 or 5800 series ATi card would be like, i'm saving for another 5770 but i think what with my kiddos B-day and then christmas soon after that, i'm going to do the non selfish thing like always and spend it all on my kiddo

i mean seeing a huge giddy smile on my daughters face and getting super uber hugs and kisses while she plays with her new toys is 600x cooler then a new video card is, and besides there arn't any games i really can't play at maximum settings

I just don't like recommending something to someone thats not going to perform like i'd want it to perform myself you know : \


[edit] those sapphire cards are sweet, 800SPU, good core clock speed good memory speeds, it seems about on par on paper with what my 5770 is (except mines oc'd to the max) and i run 1920x1200 with any problems on all my games, even get to crank the detail to the maximum so im sure those 4800 series would be perfect and probably out perform what the 8800 would do.

I'd go for it man. 512MB is fine, 1024MB is awesome, i rarely use all 1024MB on my card except for GTA4 with the textures full blast.