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Best GPU? ~$150.

A

antiv6

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Messages
297
Hey guys, rig is in my sig.

What GPU would y'all recommend for around $150? My 8800GTX shut down a few months back, and I would really like to play Crysis 2 and TW: Shogun.
 
Would it be worth if to spend an extra $20 for the 6870?

Also, I didn't realize there was the exact same thread posted today. *whoops*
 
For 20usd extra you can get the EVGA SOC Gtx 460 1gb version or you can go for a 6850.

But OP what resolution do you play at
 
Yeah, pretty much. You may also be able to find previous generation gtx465 and HD5830 for 150 but they are not as good as the gtx460 and hd6850
 
Yes it's worth the extra cash for a 6870, and it is the best of the bunch in all aspects.
 
Cool guys. I haven't been active with computers for years(Probably close to 4, ugh).

I'm thinking I may bite off on a new Mobo, DDR3 RAM, and a i5 or w/e AMD offers also.

Damnit, getting sucked back in.

EDIT: One last question. The cards are PCIe 2.0 and 2.1, would those work on a legacy(lol) PCIe 1.0 slot fine?
 
antiv6 said:
1680x1050.

So, GTX460 or 6850?
Click to expand...

yip they would be perfect. And they both scale awesomely in sli/cf if you decide on that later down the line. But you'll have to think about adding more screens or a resolution upgrade if you ever decide to add more
 
antiv6 said:
Cool guys. I haven't been active with computers for years(Probably close to 4, ugh).

I'm thinking I may bite off on a new Mobo, DDR3 RAM, and a i5 or w/e AMD offers also.

Damnit, getting sucked back in.

EDIT: One last question. The cards are PCIe 2.0 and 2.1, would those work on a legacy(lol) PCIe 1.0 slot fine?
Click to expand...

if it fits then it will work. But it won't work well. Get a better mobo
 
PCIe 1.0 will work with PCIe 2.0. The card will work at 1.0 version speed, which is half of 2.0. That is fine though because 1.0 provides enough bandwidth. You won't be able to tell the difference. I was in similar position and decided on the 6870. I got it for $170 approximately. The 6850 would be great also, and then you can add another later when you need more vga perf.
 
DooKey said:
GTX 460 1mb
Click to expand...

I didn't know there was a 1mb card O:

Anyways, back to the point. HD6850 or 6870, or the GTX 460. I would lean more towards the 6870 if you can afford it. Better value in my opinion.

No, you will not be restricted in any way by PCI-E 1.0. PCI-E 1.0 is approximately equivalent to PCI-E 2.0 at 8x speeds. [H] testing has demonstrated that even the most powerful graphics card (GTX 580) is barely restricted by PCI-E 2.0 at 4x speeds (half the speed of PCI-E 1.0). And this restriction becomes apparent only at extremely high resolutions (triple monitor 1920x1200 or above). If I had the link off the top of my head, I would put it here, but I don't. I'm sure a simple search can take care of that. So you can just keep your current motherboard for now.
 
Very cool guys, thanks for the information. I guess I'll buy a GPU this week, and a new computer next week. :D

Still can't decide... XFX 6850 Black Edition or XFX 6870... $20 bucks difference... Ugh
 
flexcore said:
PCIe 1.0 will work with PCIe 2.0. The card will work at 1.0 version speed, which is half of 2.0. That is fine though because 1.0 provides enough bandwidth. You won't be able to tell the difference. I was in similar position and decided on the 6870. I got it for $170 approximately. The 6850 would be great also, and then you can add another later when you need more vga perf.
Click to expand...

the bandwidth will never be reached coz it works like a network. And yes he will notice it if he uses it on a board with a X8 or x16.
 
Spooony said:
the bandwidth will never be reached coz it works like a network. And yes he will notice it if he uses it on a board with a X8 or x16.
Click to expand...

No, he will not notice a damn thing. The GTX 580 can barely saturate PCI-E x8, let alone x16. And it's only marginally restricted by x4. Do your research, will you?

Actually, let me do it for you.

x16/x16 vs x8/x8

As you can see, the GTX 480 suffered no performance degradation with two cards in single-monitor high resolution gaming. And minimal performance degradation with nVidia surround.

x16/x16 vs x4/x4

Once again, minimal differences. OP doesn't need to upgrade his motherboard just for a new graphics card, especially one on the 68xx level.

Benchmark-wise, he might notice some more significant differences, but then again... his goal is not benchmarks, his goal is gaming, most likely on a 1080P monitor, not even the 2560x1600 monitor [H]OCP used.
 
Tsumi said:
I didn't know there was a 1mb card O:

Anyways, back to the point. HD6850 or 6870, or the GTX 460. I would lean more towards the 6870 if you can afford it. Better value in my opinion.

No, you will not be restricted in any way by PCI-E 1.0. PCI-E 1.0 is approximately equivalent to PCI-E 2.0 at 8x speeds. [H] testing has demonstrated that even the most powerful graphics card (GTX 580) is barely restricted by PCI-E 2.0 at 4x speeds (half the speed of PCI-E 1.0). And this restriction becomes apparent only at extremely high resolutions (triple monitor 1920x1200 or above). If I had the link off the top of my head, I would put it here, but I don't. I'm sure a simple search can take care of that. So you can just keep your current motherboard for now.
Click to expand...

you are making assumption by comparing 2.0 running at 4x to 1.0 which wasn't tested am I correct. Well if you have knowledge of ver 1 and ver 2 you will know its not the bandwidth but the efficiency and latency that makes the difference. That's why you won't see a performance difference 2.0 x4 X8 and x16 because their efficiency and latencies are more or less the same. but 1.0 its worse. Forget about the speeds the thing that plagued Pci-e is the efficiency and latency. Latency alone cuts bandwidth in half. So your assumption that x4 have half the bandwidth than 1.0 are of as latency hits 1.0 hard. Pci-e works like a network wrapping packets with a overhead then sending to the otherside.
 
Spooony said:
you are making assumption by comparing 2.0 running at 4x to 1.0 which wasn't tested am I correct. Well if you have knowledge of ver 1 and ver 2 you will know its not the bandwidth but the efficiency and latency that makes the difference. That's why you won't see a performance difference 2.0 x4 X8 and x16 because their efficiency and latencies are more or less the same. but 1.0 its worse. Forget about the speeds the thing that plagued Pci-e is the efficiency and latency. Latency alone cuts bandwidth in half. So your assumption that x4 have half the bandwidth than 1.0 are of as latency hits 1.0 hard. Pci-e works like a network wrapping packets with a overhead then sending to the otherside.
Click to expand...

PCI-E 2.0 x4 makes nearly no difference at all in single-screen gaming. And it only makes a difference with a 2560x1600 monitor. I don't care how high the latencies are, PCI-E 1.0 at full speed is definitely faster than 2.0 at x4 speeds. Check out the links I posted above.

And what the hell are you talking about, latencies? All that matters is the bandwidth. PCI-E 2.0 has a bandwidth of 500 MB/s per lane, while PCI-E 1.0 has half that. Pure and simple. The overhead does not make that big of a difference, especially when you have room to spare.
 
Last edited:
Bought the 6870 if anyone cared. :p

Good to know PCIe 1.0 is fine for 2.x cards.
 
antiv6 said:
Bought the 6870 if anyone cared. :p

Good to know PCIe 1.0 is fine for 2.x cards.
Click to expand...

Good luck and have fun with that.

For what it's worth, I saw some guy go from an X58 platform to a P67 platform with dual GTX 580's I think? or was it 570's? w/e, it was some high-end card. The P67 of course has x8/x8, while X58 has x16/x16. His 3DMark points went from slightly above 17k to slightly below 17k, if memory serves me correctly. Less than 200 points difference.
 
antiv6 said:
Bought the 6870 if anyone cared. :p

Good to know PCIe 1.0 is fine for 2.x cards.
Click to expand...
am I missing something? you have a four year old 2.13 Core 2 duo. you will never see the difference between a 6850 or 6870. you will not even get but around 50% of what a 6870 is capable of at 1680x1050 in most games with your cpu. in cpu intensive games you will get even less. heck that cpu is not even going to give you playable framerates in many games at settings a 6870 can run.

why did no one even pay attention to his cpu???
 
cannondale06 said:
am I missing something? you have a four year old 2.13 Core 2 duo. you will never see the difference between a 6850 or 6870. you will not even get but around 50% of what a 6870 is capable of at 1680x1050 in most games with your cpu. in cpu intensive games you will get even less. heck that cpu is not even going to give you playable framerates in many games at settings a 6870 can run.

why did no one even pay attention to his cpu???
Click to expand...

I understand where your coming from, but if you go back and read his posts, you will see that he is getting a new comp next week. Possibly i5 or AMD.
 
flexcore said:
I understand where your coming from, but if you go back and read his posts, you will see that he is getting a new comp next week. Possibly i5 or AMD.
Click to expand...
yeah I see that now. its still perplexing that no one even mentioned the cpu before he said that though. tbh it doesn't really sound like he is all that serious about the mobo/cpu upgrade though which will make the 6870 a massive waste on his current pc.
 
cannondale06 said:
am I missing something? you have a four year old 2.13 Core 2 duo. you will never see the difference between a 6850 or 6870. you will not even get but around 50% of what a 6870 is capable of at 1680x1050 in most games with your cpu. in cpu intensive games you will get even less. heck that cpu is not even going to give you playable framerates in many games at settings a 6870 can run.

why did no one even pay attention to his cpu???
Click to expand...

Yea, I was wondering that, but since nobody mentioned anything... My CPU is at 2.6 Ghz, if that changes anything. :p

I was thinking about grabbing maybe a Q8300 to hold me over for the next year or two. Would the CPU still be a major bottleneck with a quad core over clocked?
 
antiv6 said:
Yea, I was wondering that, but since nobody mentioned anything... My CPU is at 2.6 Ghz, if that changes anything. :p

I was thinking about grabbing maybe a Q8300 to hold me over for the next year or two. Would the CPU still be a major bottleneck with a quad core over clocked?
Click to expand...
yeah most people on these forums just don't even pay attention. with that older Core 2 at 2.6 it would help a bit but it would still be a massive waste in many newer games. a Q8300 is not a very good quad core compared to more modern cpus and they have a fairly low multi making high overclocking more challenging. a Q8300 oced to 3.0 would be okay and would not bottleneck near as bad as your current cpu. I would cancel that 6870 order and get the cheapest 6850 or gtx460 though as that would go much better with a Q8300 especially at 1680x1050.
 
Not really. The Core2Quads and Core2Duos have about the same IPC as the Phenom II's, and lots of people get by with a X2 555 or x4 955 for gaming. Just see how far you can overclock your current processor, if you can get it to about the 3.2 - 3.6 ghz range, then you should be set. If you get a Q8300, same thing.
 
My e6420 was one of the awful batches, and wont go much past 2.8 Ghz without pouring extra juice into it.

Right now, I'm looking at:
- Intel i5-2500k + Shogun 2. $219.
- MSI P67 Mobo. $149.
- G.Skill 8 Gigs DDR3. $75.

I've tried everything short of Water cooling the 6420. Hmm, I should be able to swing everything. Might have to cut out a week of drinking though, damn.

EDIT: Shame on y'all for being enablers.
 
6870 gtx 470 or 5770 crossfire. u can find used 5870s for that price too if u look hard
 
antiv6 said:
My e6420 was one of the awful batches, and wont go much past 2.8 Ghz without pouring extra juice into it.

Right now, I'm looking at:
- Intel i5-2500k + Shogun 2. $219.
- MSI P67 Mobo. $149.
- G.Skill 8 Gigs DDR3. $75.

I've tried everything short of Water cooling the 6420. Hmm, I should be able to swing everything. Might have to cut out a week of drinking though, damn.

EDIT: Shame on y'all for being enablers.
Click to expand...
yeah you get that cpu/mobo/ram/ setup and with a 6870 you will tear through games at 1680. make sure to get an aftermarket cooler for some cpu overclocking later. best bang for buck cooler seems to be this one. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065&Tpk=212
 
Tehpwnzah said:
6870 gtx 470 or 5770 crossfire. u can find used 5870s for that price too if u look hard
Click to expand...

seen 5870 used going under $200....

just sold my last 5870 today $240 shipped with a few boxed games. under $200 very possible.


460gtx & 6850 around $150, also seen 768 mb 460gtx under $120. those are my pick for op. sli or xfire would be sweet
 
Alright guys, I'm going to bite off on the CPU/MOBO/RAM combo tonight I'm thinking.

Anything else I *need* for a good PC?
 
256gb SSD and a 2tb Western Digital Black, along with the Corsair AX1200. And the Asus Maximus IV Extreme.
 
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