Video Card for My Specs - 200$ Budget

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glowtraq

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Mar 10, 2006
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Hi guys, what video card would you guys recommend as and upgrade based on my specifications below (signature)?

I have a 200$ Budget and can't really go over that threshold. I plan to do some bf3 mp and sc2 mp.

OCing the 4850 is also acceptable, however I doubt even at O/C levels I'll be able to play sc2 or bf3.

Thanks!
 
just got me a 560 but a 6870 is probably better price wise for the same performance. 160-175ish. maybe you could get a 560ti that cheap with rebates.
 
There's a deal on for MSI 6950 TwinFrozer for 199.99...one of the two best 6950 cards out there. IMO. Excellent design.
 
alanon said:
There's a deal on for MSI 6950 TwinFrozer for 199.99...one of the two best 6950 cards out there. IMO. Excellent design.
Click to expand...

Please post a link for the deal! :cool:

Not only are MSI's coolers good, I also like how they support hardware enthusiast sites

I searched the hot deals section, Newegg and amazon quick , didn't see it and probably looked right over it
 
6950? lol. His resolution is 1280x1024. A 6850 will be great for that. My brother uses that to play BF3 at 1680x1050 with ultra everything but MSAA off. Runs great. Get the 6850 and pocket the savings. Maybe put it towards a used quad core.
 
If you are running 1280x1024 get a 460 or something and spend the extra money on a new monitor.
 
Here is a Powercolor 6850 for $105AR:

http://us.ncix.com/products/?usaffi...+1GBD5-DH&manufacture=PowerColor&promoid=1301

No idea on the quality or whatnot so you have to do your own research on that.


Here is a Sapphire brand for $120AR if the coupon code XRUSH (for $15 off) still works:

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=AT-6850_1G&c=CJ


XFX 6870 for $150AR:

http://www.amazon.com/XFX-Radeon-MINIDP-Video-HD687AZHFC/dp/B005C31F2M


Sapphire brand 6870 for $145AR:

http://www.amazon.com/SAPPHIRE-Radeon-6870-GDDR5-Graphics/dp/B005C8RTTU
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Silverghost said:
6950? lol. His resolution is 1280x1024. A 6850 will be great for that. My brother uses that to play BF3 at 1680x1050 with ultra everything but MSAA off. Runs great. Get the 6850 and pocket the savings. Maybe put it towards a used quad core.
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Very true @ 1280x1024 an HD 6850 should be plenty. I am surprised your HD 4850 isn't enough for you .. I had an HD5770 running @ 1920x1080 and was able to play Stacraft II at max settings averaging 45 FPS.
 
MSI Radeon 6870 Twin Frozr......best card for under $200 PLAIN AND SIMPLE

I downgraded from a GTX 590 and barely noticed the difference from an 800 dollar card to a 200 dollar card, ive been nothing but happy with this card, I play all games on MAX settings without a hiccup save extremely graphically demanding games like BF3 or crysis which still get like 40ish FPS in bad areas on MAX

Sexy, isint she?

2z8cgv6.png



$199 out the door all day
 
I'd get a used 5850 over a 6870. Most 5850s will do close to 1GHz and the 6870 needs to be around 1.2GHz to match it which obviously is impossible.
 
gurusan said:
I'd get a used 5850 over a 6870. Most 5850s will do close to 1GHz and the 6870 needs to be around 1.2GHz to match it which obviously is impossible.
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I've got a 5850 and it can handle BF3 at Ultra at 1080p. Would more than handle it at 1280x1024. Although I run it at Medium to get a silky-smooth 60fps. They are going for about $130 used last I checked. Great card. :)
 
RaZoRbLaDeD said:
MSI Radeon 6870 Twin Frozr......best card for under $200 PLAIN AND SIMPLE

I downgraded from a GTX 590 and barely noticed the difference from an 800 dollar card to a 200 dollar card, ive been nothing but happy with this card, I play all games on MAX settings without a hiccup save extremely graphically demanding games like BF3 or crysis which still get like 40ish FPS in bad areas on MAX

Sexy, isint she?

2z8cgv6.png



$199 out the door all day
Click to expand...

Could I run one of those with the specs in my sig? The major limiting factor would be my 520 Watt power supply. It's a very good 520 Watt, but, with the current generation of cards, I worry about its ability to power them.

I'm purchasing a Silverstone FT-02 with some of my christmas money. It's my dream case, and will allow room for greater expansion and better temps in the future as I'm going to be sticking to air cooling for sometime to come. My plan was to save the rest of what I got from christmas, and to stockpile a little extra, sit on it, and see what happens with the upcoming generation of ATI cards. The upcoming cards are very appealing to me because of the reduced heat and power consumption resulting from the 28nm manufacturing process, but the price point is the primary decider as I want to spend $250 or less. I pay for school out of pocket, so there is typically very little cash to spare. A GPU typically lasts me a couple of years. My gaming at this point is limited to Skyrim(at low settings because of my old ass card), but I'd like to play Arkham City at a decent resolution, with good texture detail.

I had been considering nVidia cards so that I could use my old one as a physx card, but with the power draw required, and the fact that, pound for pound, ATI cards seem to be beating the pants off of nVidia cards, it's hard to justify going with one of them barring an incredible deal on one of their high end cards.
 
I think the 6950 2gb actually uses slightly less power than a 8800 GTS 512 mb.

If I remember my reviews... at full load it's like 200 watts for the 6950 and 225 watts for your current card.

So you should be able to pop in the card and hit the ground running. The returns will be somewhat diminishing due to your stock speeds cpu but any overclock you could do would help significantly. As it stands, a 6950 2gb for $199 (!) is really the best single upgrade you can do for your system right now.
 
But where can I get a Twin Frozr 6950 for $200? I'm seeing closer to $300 for these cards, at least at the egg and amazon.
 
that E8400 is barely going to get the job done on higher settings in more cpu intensive games and will severely limit a 6950 at 1280x1024. btw 5:4 is the most horrific aspect ratio for gaming and you will literally miss out on 1/3 of a modern game's field of view.
 
RaZoRbLaDeD said:
MSI Radeon 6870 Twin Frozr......best card for under $200 PLAIN AND SIMPLE

I downgraded from a GTX 590 and barely noticed the difference from an 800 dollar card to a 200 dollar card, ive been nothing but happy with this card, I play all games on MAX settings without a hiccup save extremely graphically demanding games like BF3 or crysis which still get like 40ish FPS in bad areas on MAX

Sexy, isint she?

2z8cgv6.png



$199 out the door all day
Click to expand...

Are you running 1080p with 16x/16x with that 6870?

That's not a bad deal at all if that's so.
 
Move up too a 1920x1080,and then get a gtx 460.Could do that for around 2 bills.
 
downgraded from a GTX 590 and barely noticed the difference from an 800 dollar card to a 200 dollar card
Click to expand...
We'd all have 6870 if that were the case. I understand you're trying to justify your downgrade but....
 
heatthegreat said:
We'd all have 6870 if that were the case. I understand you're trying to justify your downgrade but....
Click to expand...

He said he barely noticed the difference, which could very well be true. Not that there isn't a difference.

I tend to agree, with so many console ports around few games stress a GPU. My 4890 still runs most games fine...

To the OP question, I wouldn't buy anything right now. Wait a month or two if you can for the rest of the 7000 series. Personally I just returned a 2GB 6870 for that very reason. There should be something might tasty coming soon at the 199 point...
 
So......... Is anyone going to link us to the $200 6950 that keeps getting posted about or are you just going to keep posting pics of it and saying how great it is?:confused:
 
Shark974 said:
He said he barely noticed the difference, which could very well be true. Not that there isn't a difference.

I tend to agree, with so many console ports around few games stress a GPU. My 4890 still runs most games fine...

To the OP question, I wouldn't buy anything right now. Wait a month or two if you can for the rest of the 7000 series. Personally I just returned a 2GB 6870 for that very reason. There should be something might tasty coming soon at the 199 point...
Click to expand...

If I recall, AMD isn't releasing the mid-range cards until late Feb/March. I believe it's high-end cards first, and from there on out, the price point drops. You may be waiting a little longer than you might have anticipated.

Figured I'd drop $170 now, and instead of having nothing for 3 or 4 months. If something worthwhile comes out from AMD then I'll upgrade at that time.
 
I have a 6850 in my 2.33ghz E6550. 1440x900 CPU bottleneck whoo!
 
Lys said:
I have a 6850 in my 2.33ghz E6550. 1440x900 CPU bottleneck whoo!
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why would you buy a 6850 with your cpu especially at just 1440x900? you could have bought a 5770/6750 or 5750/6750 and never known the difference with that cpu bottleneck. not to mention your cpu is a bit slow in general and does not even meet requirements for some games.
 
If the OP is budget-conscious, which it seems he is, then a mid-range sub-$200 card would be fine. I would think his upgrade path would be this: new case (as he mentioned), new processor/mobo, new monitor. Why should he be advised to buy a GPU which would choke a future CPU? Likewise, being budget-conscious, his future CPU will obviously not be the top line.

A balanced solution has been mentioned upstream. There are several good options. The elusive used 6950 2Gb, the MSI 6870, or a 6850, are all good choices which would allow him to upgrade in the future without having wasted his money on an interim GPU.
 
New 5870's are ~$170 on ebay, and would obviously run what he has now, plus any future upgrades to a 1080p monitor. 5870 still beats 6870 at just about everything in single card form.
 
Easy answer to the OP's question. For the specs he has, the 4850 is perfectly fine and upgrading the GPU is wasted cash.
 
You could always get a used 4850 for ~$40 and do crossfire. That should give you performance close to the 5850/6870. Then when the next generation cards are released, you'll be able to do a real upgrade.
 
Used 6950, new 6870, used 5870. All sounds good to me. I currently run an e8400 (OC to 3.6Hz) and a 5870 2GB. Works well for any single monitor resolution. Hell it could probably play games at QuadHD with only some details going away (AA being the main thing).
 
I'm sure the 5870 works reasonably well on a single 30" 2560x1600 monitor and that's even more reason to NOT upgrade to any of those options. Ditto for xfire. At 1280x1024, it's just a waste of cash. He should spend it on a decent monitor (or anything else except a GPU upgrade) first.
 
How much of a bottleneck is a Q9550? Should I be limiting what I'm looking at because getting something like a 6950 won't produce greater results than a less expensive card due to my CPU?
 
one swell foop said:
How much of a bottleneck is a Q9550? Should I be limiting what I'm looking at because getting something like a 6950 won't produce greater results than a less expensive card due to my CPU?
Click to expand...
your cpu is oaky but really needs to be oced to get the best use out of a 6950 or so. and you left out your res which is an important factor.
 
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