Looking for a new Graphics Card

[Greatguardian]

Hiya Tech,

I'm looking for a new Graphics card for my little brother's computer for Christmas. I have a Nvidia 9400GT myself, but I'm looking for something that'll last him at least a few years and which can play newer games on at least decent settings as they come out.

Right now my budget for the card is between $200-$400, with $400 being the extreme highest I will pay for a present. I typically shop Nvidia, but browsing around I've heard that right now ATI is more bang for your buck. The rest of his computer's stats are as follows:

Pentium Dual Core E5300 @ 2.6Ghz x64
64-bit Vista
6GB RAM
Current GPU: Intel GMA 3100 @ 256MB VRAM

I'm not sure exactly what model his Mobo is, since I'm still up in the dorms for now. I do believe he has a PCI-E slot for his machine, based on the somewhat blurry pictures he's managed to send me.

What would BG recommend?

[Blubbartron]

I'd skimp on the card (ATI's 5750(70)) and get him windows 7 to boot. Vista needs set on fire.

[Olo401]

I'll second the 5770, though with your budget you could comfortably bump up to the 5850.

[Greatguardian]

I can get him Win7 free from my school, as I already own a copy, so that shouldn't be a problem. The 5850 looks pretty nice, thanks a bunch

[njitjk68]

Go with a 4870, it is around same price point as the 5770. The 5700 are bottlenecked by the 128-bit bandwidth. There are numerous benchmarks out that has the 4870 leading against the 5770.

Also I would not go for a 5850 with the PC he is using now. He won't be able to take full advantage of what it has to offer unless he upgrades his CPU, especially if he is not OCing his CPU. There is no doubt the 5850 will provide a bit more performance over the 4870 for his system, but when you take into account the price and severe bottleneck issue you will run into, the 4870 is the winner here.

[Deadgye]

Go with a 4870, it is around same price point as the 5770. The 5700 are bottlenecked by the 128-bit bandwidth. There are numerous benchmarks out that has the 4870 leading against the 5770.

The benchmarks that I've been looking at show the 5770 and the 4870 being pretty much equal. Combine that with eyefinity ability, dx11, and drastically lower power consumption, and I'd rather get the 5770. If only the 5850 was within my budget! ; ; The 5770 draws 51 watts less power than the 4870 at idle, and 68 less at full load. That's huge imo. The GPU is also much cooler at idle, and still slightly cooler at full load.