Morning Guys,

I was just looking around for a decent graphics card, my friend has offered me a nearly new HD5770 1GB Graphics card for just £50, I currently have the VTX Radeon HD 5450, and it's RUBBISH. My FPS in every single game is terrible, later did I realise that it's not actually ATI, haha! It's a cheap firm called "VTX". Should I get the HD5770 1GB? And what are your views on it?

Many thanks,

PCGeekable.The Radeon HD5450 is not really a gamer's card. When it came out around the END of 2009 the reviews generally said that it is aimed at the HTPC (Home Theatre PC) market. That is, it is OK for playing HD video etc and is not really designed or meant for demanding GAMING use. It is a low power card, some models using this chipset are passively cooled with just a heatsink, and no fan. At the time it was the cheapest of the 5000 range. I actually bought one to put in a Shuttle mini PC that I was building because (a) it was cheap (£29.95 in UK money) and (b) it was quiet (no fan). I kept getting freezes which turned out to be the HD5450 overheating and I took it out and just used the Shuttle's onboard video chipset (nVidia GeForce 8200) which is quite ENOUGH for my needs.

The Radeon 5770 is a higher level card, still in the budget range, it came out around the same time, and was priced at around 160 US dollars, and was much more of a (budget) gamer's card. So you'd be going from a low-end card to a mid-range card. However you'll need to make sure your computer is up to the job. The power supply needs to be a good stable 500 Watt (minimum) type and unless your cpu speed and memory size are suitable, you may not see very much improvement. You can buy new 5770s from around £70 upwards.

Plenty of cards with ATI chipsets are "POWERED by ATI" rather than "made by ATI" - my own one was actually a Sapphire, and this does not always mean they are rubbish.
nVidia and ATI/AMD license their GPUs to other companies, as above, "powered by ATI."

something like the GTS 450 would be good for high end gaming at probably a resolution of 1600x960 widescreen, high details, to give you an idea of what you want for "Gaming."


Putting 1GB into a low-end gfx card is practically of no use-the low mem clock speed won't do much.


The GTS 450 is slightly lower in price to the Radeon 5770 ~$30 USD cheaper.