Recommend me a card

[silk186]

I sold my 5770 a while ago because a friend wanted to buy it and because I wanted to focus on my thesis. Now my thesis is finished I'm itching to get back to gaming. Before I was playing a lot of Borderlands, Dragon Age and Starcraft. I'm looking forward to playing dead island, kingdom of amalur, GTAIV, and Skyrim. I would assume that the most demanding game of the bunch would be Skyrim. I would like to play it with all the texture packs and a few mods at maximum eye candy. I was going to wait for the 660Ti to come out for price drops or possible purchase but it seems its release is far away.

I run an i5 2500k w/ OC 4.5 (stock voltage)
My screen is a 22" @ 1680 x 1050
the psu is a CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX

I want my best bang for buck card that can max out the games I play on my screen. I don't plan on upgrading my screen for a few years. I will be buying it off of taobao as I'm living in China so here are some US prices for comparison.

HD6770 SAPPHIRE $105
HD6850 MSI HAWK $152
HD6870 MSI HAWK $203
HD7850 SAPPHIRE $285
GTX 560 MSI N560GTX $144
GTX 560 Ti Gigabyte $235
*Prices include tax and shipping is only a couple of dollars.
I also ignored cheaper option from brands I'm not familiar with

I'm looking to stay around the 150-200 USD range. I'm not sure how much video memory would be useful for my resolution.

 

[DJ Big T]

If your budget is only $200 why list items that are above that? At that resolution you should be fine with a 6870 Hawk.

 

[silk186]

I listed them for reference. Depending on where you live the cards may be priced closer together. It is not uncommon for someone to recommend budgeting a bit more for a better value card. It is unlikely that many people on here are familiar with prices in China.

 

[Vapor1000]

at that resolution and with the cards you have listed
GTX 560 MSI N560GTX $144
would likely cover anything you wanted to run.

1680x1050 isnt very demanding by todays standards.

 

[silk186]

Ok, so based on your recommendation I'm looking into a bit more and the GTX560 performs on par with the 6870 but is cheaper. Last question before I purchase. Is 1gb enough memory for 1680 x 1050?
Also, any reason why it is so hard to find 560 reviews? All the search results are for the 560Ti

 

[Solomutt]

Ok, so based on your recommendation I'm looking into a bit more and the GTX560 performs on par with the 6870 but is cheaper. Last question before I purchase. Is 1gb enough memory for 1680 x 1050?
Also, any reason why it is so hard to find 560 reviews? All the search results are for the 560Ti

You specified texture packs for Skyrim. This invalidates any 1 GB card. The issue is texture memory, not frame buffer limits.

The 6870/6850 in 2GB version should have enough power, but the the Sapphire 6950 2GB is much faster.

 

[Vantec89]

MSI GTX 560 would be the better choice there...considering your budget. Should be able to do everything you want it to at that resolution. There's also a few 560ti's that you can get for $200 after MIR that would be slightly better performing.

 

[Business6]

Ok, so based on your recommendation I'm looking into a bit more and the GTX560 performs on par with the 6870 but is cheaper. Last question before I purchase. Is 1gb enough memory for 1680 x 1050?
Also, any reason why it is so hard to find 560 reviews? All the search results are for the 560Ti

I forget which site did it (maybe Tom's) but I've seen a few 560 round ups. Try using those terms in the search

 

[Solomutt]

Why does anyone here push the OP towards any card that has 1GB memory? Did you skim or read the first post? He said specifically Skyrim with texture mods.....

 

[MavericK]

Why'd you post this in the AMD section if you are looking at nVidia cards also?

Anyway, if new vs used is not an issue for you, I would check the FS/FT forum and pick up a GTX 570. They are going for ~$200 shipped right now (maybe not to China though). The VRAM is plenty for 1080p Skyrim with Ultra settings, HD textures, and 4x FSAA, so at your resolution you should be set.

Why does anyone here push the OP towards any card that has 1GB memory? Did you skim or read the first post? He said specifically Skyrim with texture mods.....

He's only gaming at 1680x1050. 1 GB is probably plenty for that even with Skyrim.

 

[silk186]

Because I was searching on a Chinese website and I can't read Chinese. I prefer ATI but the picture showed a 560 for the same price as a 6850. After getting someone to look over the Chinese I realized that it was a 560se. So now I'm back with choosing an ATI card as the best value. I'm down to two choices now.

MSI 6850 R6850 HD6850 HAWK 1gb - 148 USD
Powercolor 6870 1gb - 164 USD

 

[MavericK]

Might as well get the 6870 for only $16 more.

 

[Solomutt]

Why'd you post this in the AMD section if you are looking at nVidia cards also?

Anyway, if new vs used is not an issue for you, I would check the FS/FT forum and pick up a GTX 570. They are going for ~$200 shipped right now (maybe not to China though). The VRAM is plenty for 1080p Skyrim with Ultra settings, HD textures, and 4x FSAA, so at your resolution you should be set.



He's only gaming at 1680x1050. 1 GB is probably plenty for that even with Skyrim.

Again.....

Please note that -texture- memory is completely separate from -frame buffer- memory. There have been threads on this, where folks have seen textures in that game hit ~1GB. I am trying to be clear on this, so I will just throw this out there:
Show me a card that can do Skyrim with all available texture packs, without constant texture swapping, even at 1024x768, and I might buy into your view. This is a simple memory allocation issue. You can run a 1GB card in the given scenario, but only with unused textures being unloaded, and new ones being loaded in, which will cause jerky game play at many points.

 

[silk186]

I discovered that they are still selling 5870 cards around the price of a 6850 so I went with that. It should provide a nice upgrade over the 5770 I had previously. Thanks everyone for all the feedback
I was looking into 2gb cards but the price difference and availability is an issue. As an example there are no 5870 2gb cards available in China and a 6850 2gb is the price of a a 6870 1gb.