Interim video card recommendation?

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Dr. X

Supreme [H]ardness
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Oct 27, 2000
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I'm looking to pick up a vidcard to get me by until I build a new rig at the beginning of next year. I'd like to be good to play mw3, deus ex and skyrim. My current rig is in my sig, and I was thinking of picking up a 560ti. Does this sound good? Any specific card or just the cheapest one?
 
Thanks for the input. I don't really mind if it's used or not. I guess a better question would be what GPU is going to max out my CPU but not be overkill? I'm willing to spend a couple hundred bucks, maybe a little more.
 
I beg to differ when it comes to your cpu being a bottleneck. Every modern benchmark I've seen shows moderately clocked core 2 duos/quads and high clocked phenom II/athlon II still performing well enough to not bottleneck any single gpu high end setup as long as the framerate is below 70 fps and with the exception of a few strategy games that are very cpu demanding (super run on sentence, I know). When you get into the 75+ fps range you start to see a difference with modern cpus.

If you overclock your Q6600 to 3.2GHz I guarantee you won't see any cpu bottlenecks with the exception of a few very cpu heavy games (mostly rts games). High end multi-gpu setups on the other hand show a huge difference between i5/i7 cpus and core 2/phenom II.
 
If your willing to try AMD a 6950 would be a better choice over a GTX 560 Ti, and AMD cards have shown to be a little less cpu dependent than nvidia cards. Or I should say from some recent articles I've read AMD cards are cpu bottle necked a bit less than geforce cards. I hope I'm making sense with what I'm trying to say.

However with whatever solution you go to, get that Q6600 to 3.2Ghz for sure. Your CPU is a limiting factor in that the higher it's clocked the better you'll feel the improvement of your next GPU upgrade.
 
Currently, the 560ti is the best bang-for-the-buck IMO. I would go for that, it will easily play MW3, Skyrim, and Deus Ex at max settings/1080p with 60fps.
 
Ohmycaptain said:
Currently, the 560ti is the best bang-for-the-buck IMO. I would go for that, it will easily play MW3, Skyrim, and Deus Ex at max settings/1080p with 60fps.
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Actually your right. I didn't know they went down so much in price. Some can be had for $189.99 after MIR. At that price that's the way to go. If your gonna pay $210 for one you definitely might as well get a 6950 as they are faster overall.
 
I don't think a 6950 is worth spending the extra if he's going to upgrade in a year, the 560ti is a perfect card for someone who needs it temporarily for not-so-demanding games like MW3 and Deus Ex. I'd even say a 6770 may actually be a better choice.
 
Ohmycaptain said:
I don't think a 6950 is worth spending the extra if he's going to upgrade in a year, the 560ti is a perfect card for someone who needs it temporarily for not-so-demanding games like MW3 and Deus Ex. I'd even say a 6770 may actually be a better choice.
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Or a GTX 460 (not 768MB or SE)
 
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