Best video card sub $200

A

apopleptic

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 6, 2013
Messages
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My main system right now is still using the intel 4000 on board graphics which I have found to be surprisingly good for onboard.
The cards I currently have that I'm not using are a 8800GTX which was top of the line when I bought it I stopped using due to artifacting and a Quadro FX 5600 which was basically the same card with 1.5GB of ram.
The 8800 was artifacting due to fan failure and I think I've got that taken care of, and the fx5600 doesn't fit in this case.

I'm looking for feedback on the best sub $200 card that I can get, or if people think I should wait a bit more. I put this system together April 2012, and I've made it this far without the card, but it's getting kinda lame with the games. Seems like the cards really never come down in price like they used to.
Thanks!

**EDIT** this is one of the ones I was looking at.
http://microcenter.com/product/4006...erclocked_2048MB_GDDR5_PCIe_30_x16_Video_Card
 
You can find Radeon HD-7870 for that price too. I'd be inclined to pick that card up instead, as it will come with a games bundle too.
 
I also saw a used 580 on here for $130. No games with it, but I'm not so worried about the games.
alot of benchmarks seem to place the 580 at similar standing to the 660 or the 7870.
Any thoughts?
 
Not sure if you read sites like Slickdeals, but I was just looking through and remembered your thread from earlier today.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121660 Asus GTX660 168.99 after $20 rebate and 10% off promo code.

If you wanted AMD,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121651 Asus HD7850 153.99 after $20 rebate and 13% off promo code.

And here's a link to the page on SD. http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/969...gddr5-video-card-metro-last-light-game-coupon
 
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apopleptic said:
I also saw a used 580 on here for $130. No games with it, but I'm not so worried about the games.
alot of benchmarks seem to place the 580 at similar standing to the 660 or the 7870.
Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

More like the 660ti. A 580 is a damn good card, but the problem with them is that they typically have 1.5GB of VRAM. These days, depending on the resolution, you're definitely barking up the limits of that memory. And depending on the resolution, you can exceed that too. And the 3GB versions are too expensive for what they are. In other words - your mileage may vary.

I would wager that a 580 might not be a good purchase, especially depending on how long you want to keep the card.
 
Ditto what others have said about the 7870. There have been a few Tahiti versions here on the FS forums at the $200 price point.
 
I would hold out a couple weeks for the GTX 760 to drop. Even if you decide not to get it, it will force some price cuts on the other cards that were in its price range.
 
I'll hold off a little longer for now.
Currently would be using a 50" 1080p TV for the gaming.
I imagine the next upgrade will be to a 4k tv but that won't be for a while.
 
Buy a $250-275 card, sell all the bundles (expect to get ~$20 per game), Come out with total spent around $180-210
 
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So, interestingly enough, I drove down to Microcenter and hat them grab one of those open box MSI 7870s with it's default OC of 1050 which is fine. The only thing that was missing is the crossfire bridge, which I don't need.
The card seems to be brand new, still has the plastic covers on the connectors, and you can tell it has never been inserted into a motherboard since it doesn't have those micro scratches you get the first time you put it in.
It cost me $202 with the tax and it still qualifies for the $20 mail in rebate.
To top it off, they messed up when they were giving me the coupons for the games and gave me one coupon for Bioshock, Tomb Raider, Farcry 3 Blood Dragon, and a seperate card for Crysis 3. Then they also gave me another Tomb Raider, another Bioshock, and for some unfathomable reason, a coupon for Assassins Creed 3 which is supposed to go with an Nvidia card...
I'm a little excited to see how much better Bioshock Infinite looks on this card. I already played it through on the onboard Intel 400 graphics a while back. And now I have two more copies...
 
I wish we had a Microcenter over here on the East Coast.They seem to have a lot of good deals on Video cards,motherboard/cpu bundles.
 
Metformin said:
I wish we had a Microcenter over here on the East Coast.They seem to have a lot of good deals on Video cards,motherboard/cpu bundles.
Click to expand...

What part of the east coast? They're a midwestern based company, but there are locations in NY, NJ, MD, VA, Boston and Philadelphia.
 
You made a great choice for that price point. Especially with all the free games you received with it. You should max almost every game while maybe dropping 1 or 2 settings for upcoming games.
 
video looks good but I have some problems with the audio.
when I watch a movie, after a minute or two the audio gets tinny and then a few more minutes it POPs and clears up until that all happens again.
swapped the hdmi, tried official drivers, installed realtek audio drivers, locked pcie to 2x and 3x and still the same...
gunna see if I can find another MB to test it later on.
 
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