Hardware lurkers - help me find a new video card!

[DeeBye]

6770 is a little slower than the 4890... it's pretty close. If you're looking at reviews to compare, look at the 5770, since it's the same card as the 6770. There should be plenty of reviews that have a 5770 head to head with a 4870 and some with a 4890.

6850 is the definitely faster, 7770 is kinda in-between 6850 and 6770, but uses less power. 7750 is about the same as the 6770, but uses less power. A 6770 alone is a very significant power consumption difference. 5 series had much better idle power consumption than 4 series. 7 series is again better, but not as significant as 4 --> 5/6. 6850 should still use significantly less power than a 4890.

Thanks for this. I used to keep up with video card hardware and how certain series stack up against others, but I've not been in the loop for a long time. Checking around various online vendors, I think I might look for a decently priced 7750. I see a few for under $100, and I really want something low-power and quiet.

If your 4890 isn't cutting it, a newer card may not help you. Core2Duo will probably not feed a better card very well.

I'm still using a 4870 just fine, but with a much beefier processor.

It's your money, but be aware. For any game that a 4890 isn't doing well, a Core2Duo probably isn't either. So, yeah, don't buy anything 'great'.

It isn't that my 4890 isn't "cutting it" - it does just fine and is probably overkill for the games I play. The fan is dying a slow and horribly loud death. It sounds like a jet engine when it spins up, and makes a nasty clicking noise when it spins down. I spent an hour or so yesterday cleaning up my case and checking that all of the cables and dust were squared away, and it's definitely the video card's fan that is having issues. It served me well for a good long time, so it doesn't really owe me anything. It's time to move on.

I think I also have some issues with a 120mm case fan, but that one is easy to fix.