# Computer upgrade, work vs gaming clash of titans



## Greenmousa (Apr 30, 2010)

Hi guys!! You already helped me once so i came back for more usefull tips!!

So this is the thing, i gather up some money recently and came into a bit of a crossroads...and boy do i hate crossroads...

I have some choices to make regarding a PC update, my system it's  really satisfying for me so far, it's a good working platform (Photoshop, Corel, InDesign, Corel Painter) and gives me great gaming too (GTA IV, BC2, Ass.Creed2, etc) the only thing is, i would like both faster program response times (saves, etc) and my games to perform better in 1920x1080, my poor 4850 512mb can't handle THAT much resolution without loosing some quality, so heres the thing....

For the same money i can do one of this 2 things:

1- Buy a 5850 and be a happy camper gaming wise.

2- Buy a 64 GB SSD for my OS and Design software alone and use my actual drive for games downloads and such, and with the extra money toss in 2 more gigs of RAM.

3- Buy a really smart monkey and train him to steal and murder so i can earn more and more money to buy more hardware.

So asuming the monkey it's not viable law-wise i would really apreciate the input on the subject ;D! You guys rock in advance yeah!! XD

_(Consider the following, a 64GB SSD Drive in Argentina costs *u$s 300* (KINGSTON SSD V SERIES) and an ATI 5850 costs around *u$s 420* and the 2gb DDR3 @1600 RAM (OCZ gold) *u$s 85*)_


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## assaulter_99 (Apr 30, 2010)

I'd say buy a 5850, but I'd also fancy an ssd, it depends what you do more on your pc : is loading times more important than uber high graphic options? I'd personally take a 5850, especially at 1080", so then you can game with eye candy and whatsoever. My vote goes to 1#, 5850 ftw!


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## afw (Apr 30, 2010)

I would suggest that you go for the Video card (HD 5850) .... and also buy an aftermarket cooler and overclock the CPU ....


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## MT Alex (Apr 30, 2010)

That's a tough one.  The 5850 runs a lot cooler than the 48xx series cards, which would be a plus in your neck of the woods.  I am more of a grasshopper than an ant, so I will play and party whenever I can, the hell with work or the future.


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## Greenmousa (Apr 30, 2010)

God damn 3 - 0 for the 5850 XD

You are NOT helping me to become a productive worker

Just to make things more interesting and for those who doesn't feel like posting but wants to let me know, i added a poll ;D! so use it!


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## afw (Apr 30, 2010)

Greenmousa said:


> God damn 3 - 0 for the 5850 XD
> 
> You are NOT helping me to become a productive worker
> 
> Just to make things more interesting and for those who doesn't feel like posting but wants to let me know, i added a poll ;D! so use it!



as assualter mentioned ... u need a good graphics card to handle 1080p ...  and overclocking the CPU will help with the response times ... but not by much though ....

having a good VGA will also help if any of the softwares which uses GPU acceleration ....


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## Frick (Apr 30, 2010)

SSD for teh win.


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## Greenmousa (Apr 30, 2010)

Frick said:


> SSD for teh win.



lol i remember you!! The criptic one sentence dude!! You rock!


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## Greenmousa (May 4, 2010)

Hey guys! It's me again! So, this thing came up, i've been offered a relatively Cheap XFX 5770 (about Us$ 110 LESS than the 5850) here in argentina thats A FREAKING HUGE difference, what do you guys think?? Ill note the change from my 4850?? And also hows W7 performing for ati 57XX series??? Im still in vista 64.

Thanks in advance you guys rock ;D!


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## Dazzeerr (May 4, 2010)

I'd personally get a 5850 and overclock my CPU further.

But then I've learned to live with slow loading/rendering/saving times after editing hours and hours of footage on Core 2 Duo E4400's with 1GB RAM :/


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## Fourstaff (May 4, 2010)

Greenmousa said:


> Hey guys! It's me again! So, this thing came up, i've been offered a relatively Cheap XFX 5770 (about Us$ 110 LESS than the 5850) here in argentina thats A FREAKING HUGE difference, what do you guys think?? Ill note the change from my 4850?? And also hows W7 performing for ati 57XX series??? Im still in vista 64.
> 
> Thanks in advance you guys rock ;D!



I take it as the 5770 being $310, and the 5850 35% more expensive at about $420. Seeing as the 5850 is about 140% more powerful than 5770, I think the 5850 is a slightly better buy. I recommend selling the 4850 for more money to upgrade


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## NdMk2o1o (May 4, 2010)

5850 here


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## GSquadron (May 4, 2010)

Looks like a lot of people vote for 5850... me too


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## Kreij (May 4, 2010)

A compination of 1 and 2. Get the 5850 and more RAM.
That will help gaming and productivity.


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## GSquadron (May 4, 2010)

If you want to game man just upgrade to x64 OS


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## Greenmousa (May 4, 2010)

@Dazzerr:

I see your point, but mmm i think my CPU it's fine @3.2 i know i can squeeze more out of it but, it's brand new, when it gets older then ill overclock the hell out of it  Besides let's face it, CPU Oc doesn't give you THAT much game performance, GPU it's key there.

@Fourstaff:

Actually the pricing goes like this:

5770: $250
5850: $430

So as you can see, there's a big difference and in my country a normal pay check goes for $550 dollars a month so...we're talking big big money here...

@NdMk2o1o

You have a 5770 according to your Specs, you are not happy with it?? Don't you recommend it??

Thank you all for your answers, i will wait a little longer if the 5850 doesn't drop...well...let's cross that bridge when we get to it 

Thanks again guys!


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## NdMk2o1o (May 4, 2010)

Aleksander Dishnica said:


> If you want to game man just upgrade to x64 OS



Oh dear


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## Greenmousa (May 4, 2010)

Aleksander Dishnica said:


> If you want to game man just upgrade to x64 OS



See my specs??? VISTA ULTIMATE 64

@Kreji

Man it's about budget, if you make a poll it's because you are trying to choose XD i would take the 2 options like THAT! but i can't that's why i gotta choose.


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## NdMk2o1o (May 4, 2010)

5770's are great, I have gone from 2 in crossfire to a single one due to having no pennies  but It games just fine and at 2048x1152


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## Greenmousa (May 4, 2010)

Buying a 5770 will give me some spare money to buy 4gigs more of ram ;D what do you think about That combination??

5770 + 4gigs of ram instead of the 5850 alone??


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## NdMk2o1o (May 4, 2010)

Greenmousa said:


> Buying a 5770 will give me some spare money to buy 4gigs more of ram ;D what do you think about That combination??
> 
> 5770 + 4gigs of ram instead of the 5850 alone??



Well the extra ram would only help in photoshop etc not gaming though you would also get a nice boost in your games with the 5770, win win situation


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## Greenmousa (May 4, 2010)

Im ok with the 4850 performing it's just the 512mb kills her in 1920x1028  so maybe a 1gig card with DX11 support will be a nice addittion  we'll see


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## Fourstaff (May 4, 2010)

Greenmousa said:


> @Fourstaff:
> 
> Actually the pricing goes like this:
> 
> ...



In which case, get the 5770 but it might not be able to pump enough pixels in the near future. Save the extra money for the anticipated 5770 CF then.


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## Greenmousa (May 4, 2010)

That sir it's a good idea


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## Deleted member 67555 (May 4, 2010)

Greenmousa said:


> Buying a 5770 will give me some spare money to buy 4gigs more of ram ;D what do you think about That combination??
> 
> 5770 + 4gigs of ram instead of the 5850 alone??


++++++++++++++++++++++++++Infinity on that option


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## n-ster (May 7, 2010)

5770 + 4gb of ram for sure...

a 50gb Vertex 2 would be nice though


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## enaher (May 7, 2010)

Go go killer monkey













Now seriously id take the SSD and save some money and get a 5770 or an Nvidia GPU(usually better option for photoshop and other applications), then again you live in Argentina, so you get the Nvidia tax and a GTX260 is probably more expensive than a 5850


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## n-ster (May 7, 2010)

Hey, where will you be buying from? (I mean, what store or website)


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## AhokZYashA (May 7, 2010)

go for the 5850 and save some more for 4gig more RAM
that'll help in most games


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## sexyboy699 (May 7, 2010)

5850 ftw


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## Greenmousa (May 7, 2010)

Hey guys thanks for the ton of answers and good advices ;D!

About the GTX 260, yeah, in argentina it's equally expensive 260 = 5850 and that makes no sense...

About where am i getting the card, a local supplier that no one knows...he doesn't even have a web or so, it's just a guy i know that brings stuff from Buenos Aires to my house 

The thing is, im swarmed by college papers at the moment so i went for a quick buy i orderer the 4 gigs and the 5770 and the guy tells me, "We're completely out of stock" D:!!! i took that as an omen and decided to sit on my money till im done with all the papers i need to do.

So basically im still hearing advices , and i thank you all for being so kind  ;D!


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## CDdude55 (May 7, 2010)

Depends what you need more, an SSD will definitly help boost your respone times. But if you feel you really need to get the most out of the res, then go with the 5850.

I do agree with the above post though, a 5770 and some more RAM should do you some good.


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## GSquadron (May 7, 2010)

For the monitor you have man, the card is extremelly important. So 5770 and ram is the best choice if you are stuck.


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## Fourstaff (May 7, 2010)

Concentrate on college papers first. They will help you get the money to buy more warez!


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## GSquadron (May 7, 2010)

What does that mean??? :S


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## Greenmousa (May 7, 2010)

Hahah i know i know, im on it ;D! I've been doing Packaging for 2 weeks now, i just HATE any form of bread!!!

Thanks again for all the valuable input!!!


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## fritoking (May 7, 2010)

bump that cpu up man... my 720 does 3.6 24-7 on a scythe cpu cooler i got for 18 bux.... 28to 30 * c  idle


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## driver66 (May 8, 2010)

I say get ram 1st (help with work and productivity) Then save for a month?.... to get the extra coin for a 5850........... then save some more (LOL) to but an SSD.


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## Greenmousa (May 13, 2010)

Guys! News!!

I found for the same money i planned on the 5770  this one :

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_5770_HAWK/34.html

So i took it!! I plann to get it to a minimun 980mhz Core and 1300 mem so i can pair it up with a 4890 in terms of performance gain over my old and beloved 4850, and i still have to money to pump my ram up to 8gigs ;D!

Im actually really happy with this formula, let me hear what you think ;D!


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## Greenmousa (May 18, 2010)

Yey!! News!! I received my 5770 HAWK and boy am i happy!!!

heres the validation at default volts

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/uygyq/

as you can see that's a nice overclock and im just begining to scratch the surface someday i will cross the 1ghz line but i will add some volts and wel...it's too new to start volting her up 

Besides my cooling solution of just a pile of fans seems very effective!! The review in tech power up gave in 45º celcius where im getting 33º and 60º gaming.

Anyway i will wait for the ram now, just wanted to say thank you all for your kind advices!!!


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