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Best Sub $200 Nvidia Card

C

Cbl12886

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 7, 2007
Messages
357
Just like the title says, looking for a card under $200. I am planning on doing some overclocking but nothing major.
 
Not sure if I agree completely with the above posts. I feel the 560 ti MIGHT come under $200 with a rebate, and if you dont have to pay tax and/or shipping.

The GTX 560 (minus ti) will definitely get you under ($180 range before shipping/taxes).
 
Dealing with this myself right now. I'm going to splurge and get the 560ti 2GB card from EVGA. The extra memory is going to help in BF3.
 
if you can find a deal on one

The 560Ti would be the best. Right now it would likely be with a rebate but it might include batman arkham city.


that said, the 560Ti is a poor value for the money.
 
needmorecarnitine - What is a better value? Would the 560 be on par with the ti with moderate overclocking?
 
For a new card - GTX 560 Ti after rebates, GTX 560 no rebate necessary for sub 200. Either one OC's pretty effortlessly. At around 930-950 Mhz the GTX 560 is equal to a GTX 560 Ti stock. The GTX 560 Ti at those clocks is sitting between a GTX 480 and 570 in performance.
 
Cbl12886 said:
needmorecarnitine - What is a better value? Would the 560 be on par with the ti with moderate overclocking?
Click to expand...


The regular 560 has less shaders so you would have to clock it higher to be on par with a Ti. I'm not sure how much higher but someone here will probably know. I don't think the regular card is a good value either.

I don't really look at msrp. I look at what the best sale prices are. The lowest I recall seeing a Ti for is $180 after rebate.

I've seen 6870 for $130AR and I think that will come around again at a similar price. I've seen MSI GTX 460 Hawk recently for $100AR and it is at $115AR right now. I think they come clocked at 780MHz.

I bought my EVGA 460 SSC+ (850MHz) for $85 net and I kept the Mafia 2 that came with it. Those are the reasons I don't think the Ti is a good value. Its a good card and the best performing in the $200 n less (maybe the 1GB 6950, anyone? I don't really know) but it hasn't dropped in price like most other cards have.
 
How does the GTX 460 perform in BF3? All I am really looking for is something that can play it on medium settings.
 
needmorecarnitine - Where did you find that deal for $85?

If I can find a GTX460 for around $100, ill be happy. I just bought one of the Crucial M4 64GB SSD's so that lowers my budget. I will also be trying to find a cheap 9xx series motherboard with SLI capabilities for future upgrade potential.
 
Main issue for this game is going to be vram. Make certain you get a card with at least 1.5 if you want to use msaa in particular. This game is gpu hungry.
 
Cbl12886 said:
needmorecarnitine - Where did you find that deal for $85?
Click to expand...


EVGA had a promo that lasted about a month and a half or two months where you got a "digital creativity pack" that included photoshop elements when you bought certain cards. I sold that on ebay. I posted a thread about it here in the hot deals sections.

Like I posted above, there is a MSI Hawk for $115AR from a store that is banned here but sounds like n see eye x

That same store had it for $100AR about a week ago. Problem with the 460 deals now is that they are not coming up that often like before so I'm not sure if this $115 deal will be the last best deal of if another better deal is coming soon.
 
I picked up a Zotac GTX 460 a couple weeks ago for $115 shipped (no rebates) from a link in the hot deals section.

It is sitting at 800/4000 without batting an eye. I'm not sure what my framerate are, but BF3 @ 1080p feels good at medium settings.

Of course, I'm running a 2500K.. I would imagine your X2 is going to be holding you back a bit.
 
I played the BF3 Beta with a GTX460 1gb with everything on HIGH, 16x AF and 2x MSAA with almost no lag(I think it was mostly at 40ish FPS or so, dipping down into 25 at least I think) at 1920x1080. It was playable for me, my K/D at the end of the BETA was about 1.6 or so and I was level 20 after 7 hours.(Just added that so people don't say these settings somehow made me play like shit)
 
25fps is not to everyone's taste, but if you can live with frame rates that low, you can get away with pretty cheap hardware. The 560Ti will do a lot better though, with high detail (but no AO) and 2xMSAA probably getting something of the order of 55fps average and 40fps minimum at 1920x1080, maybe slightly less. Maxed out (at beta settings) you'd be down to about 37 average and 27 minimum with the 560Ti and 28 average and 20 minimum with the 460.
 
My GTX460 768mb handled the BF3 Beta beautifully on mixed med/high settings. If I wasn't recording gameplay I set it to High but Ultra lagged a fair bit. I was able to play Ultra without Blur, AA, or HBAO/SSAO but there was a decent hit in the heavy tank fights with a lot of particle effects.

1080p, of course :D
 
Yeah without AA or AO the 768MB GTX460, assuming no graphical concerns, should manage 45fps average and maybe 30 minimum on "Ultra" detail from the beta, so not too bad.
 
I grabbed the MSI GTX460 1GB Hawk deal for $115 after MIR. I will probably go SLI in the future.
 
My 460 OC'd a touch was playing fine at high settings @ 30-45fps. For what these guys go for it's a great value.
 
That is a good deal since it is pretty close to the GTX 580. I already bought the 460 though.
 
samuelmorris said:
Cheap, but pretty restrictive use. In an nvidia-only world, you may as well buy a GTX560Ti for a similar price that's within 5% of its performance a lot of the time, and in a non-brand-specific world, an HD6950 1GB is an even better performer, for the same price.
Click to expand...

gtx480 is 99% as fast as a 6970/gtx570, what would do you live in?
http://forums.anandtech.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16
read the thread.
 
I meant better than the GTX560Ti, not better than the GTX480. Point was, the 560Ti would be the better alternative if you wanted to stick with nvidia, but the HD6950 would be a superior alternative if you did not need to do so. It is interesting though how traditionally, the most defensive and impolite members that do have a bias almost universally only show it for nvidia, not the other way round. Speaks volumes about how effective their marketing methods are I suppose...
 
560Ti after rebate or 6870. You can also get used 5870s and GTX480s for under that price as well.
 
560Ti's can only be had for under $200 after mail in rebate and almost never come with free shipping when at that price. If that is okay with you Cbl12886 here are 2 at the egg for $199 after MIR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125401

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162074

If this is not okay then I'm going to vote for a GTX 560 regular as it IS under $200 sometimes before rebate and basicaly a bug fixed GTX 460 that can overclock to over 1ghz many times creeping very close to GTX 570 performance.
 
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