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What would you choose

R

rgMekanic

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I'm in need of a new card, been out of PC gaming a bit (HD4850) so I'm rebuilding my rig.

Locally, there are 3 cards for sale that I'm torn on (and debating waiting till the end of the month to see what drops)

I game at 1920x1080, and I also am doing reviews and first looks on youtube, so I do video editing as well.

Heres the 3 local deals, been out of the game so long I need to know what you would consider a must buy.

BNIB Sapphire HD7850 1GB OC Edition - $150

Used XFX HD7870 Black Edition - $220

And a pair of Giga HD6850's 1GB - $200

Trying to keep the budget around $200 while maximizing performance, would love a pair of Titans for the memory goodness for video rendering, but right now that is NOT happening.

Looking at benchmarks the 6850CF setup seems beast, but thats a lot of driver issues I don't know if I feel like dealing with since I'm reviewing/playing/recording 20 or so games a month now.
 
Should mention, system is a P5Q3 with an E8500 at 3.9 on water, 1200w psu so no issues there. New build is a Formula V and a 3770. Starting with the video card now on the upgrade path.
 
If you are doing video reviews of games, I would strongly suggest a single card solution. You want to review the game, not how two specific cards play it in xfire or SLI. It also adds a variable that can skew the results if the drivers aren't optimized for the game you are playing and many games don't receive driver optimization for xfire (or even SLI) as quickly as they do for single GPU's. And there are NEW 7870's for sale in the $200 dollar range, so none of those local options look great to me.

Things can change pretty quick with new gpu releases and pricing changes, but looks like the 7870 is the best deal in the 200 dollar range, and the gtx 650 Ti Boost is the best deal in the $150 price range. There have been deals on the 7950 with game bundles (that are worth some money if you choose to sell them) in the $250 to 300 dollar range. That could work out to about $200 total with rebates and then selling the games. The [H]ot deals subforum has had some really great deals and so have websites like fatwallet.com and slickdeals.net so if you dont mind buying online your have better and cheaper options.
 
I would pick the strongest single gpu card I could afford. You don't want the headaches of crossfire.
 
Direfox said:
If you are doing video reviews of games, I would strongly suggest a single card solution. You want to review the game, not how two specific cards play it in xfire or SLI. It also adds a variable that can skew the results if the drivers aren't optimized for the game you are playing and many games don't receive driver optimization for xfire (or even SLI) as quickly as they do for single GPU's. And there are NEW 7870's for sale in the $200 dollar range, so none of those local options look great to me.

Things can change pretty quick with new gpu releases and pricing changes, but looks like the 7870 is the best deal in the 200 dollar range, and the gtx 650 Ti Boost is the best deal in the $150 price range. There have been deals on the 7950 with game bundles (that are worth some money if you choose to sell them) in the $250 to 300 dollar range. That could work out to about $200 total with rebates and then selling the games. The [H]ot deals subforum has had some really great deals and so have websites like fatwallet.com and slickdeals.net so if you dont mind buying online your have better and cheaper options.
Click to expand...

Excellent info Direfox, thank you. Don't mind buying online at all, my current rig was all bought from newegg. You had my exact thought on the crossfire setup, I would hate to loose out on money because of a dumb driver issue. ESPECIALLY as I mostly do small indie games.

My main (current) debate has been between the 7870 Tahiti, and the 7950, but then my brain kicked in and remembered that in about a week or 2 all the new cards should be coming out, which threw a wrench right in my whole plan haha.

~Rich
 
Direfox said:
If you are doing video reviews of games, I would strongly suggest a single card solution. You want to review the game, not how two specific cards play it in xfire or SLI. It also adds a variable that can skew the results if the drivers aren't optimized for the game you are playing and many games don't receive driver optimization for xfire (or even SLI) as quickly as they do for single GPU's. And there are NEW 7870's for sale in the $200 dollar range, so none of those local options look great to me.

Things can change pretty quick with new gpu releases and pricing changes, but looks like the 7870 is the best deal in the 200 dollar range, and the gtx 650 Ti Boost is the best deal in the $150 price range. There have been deals on the 7950 with game bundles (that are worth some money if you choose to sell them) in the $250 to 300 dollar range. That could work out to about $200 total with rebates and then selling the games. The [H]ot deals subforum has had some really great deals and so have websites like fatwallet.com and slickdeals.net so if you dont mind buying online your have better and cheaper options.
Click to expand...

I 2nd this opinion. I had 2 1GB 6870's in crossfire but got so frustrated with the Catalyst drivers that I went back down to a single card. In the future, I will look for the most powerful single-card solution I can afford. . . . possibly even switching back over to Nvidia. I have experience with both Nvidia and AMD cards and have had absolutely no issues running Nvidia drivers compared to the Catalyst driver headaches. Truthfully, the only reason I ever went with ATI (AMD) in the past was b/c they used to have better picture quality. Hope this helps.
 
There were open box 7870XT (7930) cards on newegg yesterday for $199, and 7950's for $239. Considering you can get a brand new 7870 under $200 if you look for a deal I would not pay $220 for it locally. You may still be able to snag one of those up too. I think your E8500 is going to be a huge limiting factor with any of those cards though for the time being until you upgrade the rest of the rig.
 
breal1 said:
I 2nd this opinion. I had 2 1GB 6870's in crossfire but got so frustrated with the Catalyst drivers that I went back down to a single card. In the future, I will look for the most powerful single-card solution I can afford. . . . possibly even switching back over to Nvidia. I have experience with both Nvidia and AMD cards and have had absolutely no issues running Nvidia drivers compared to the Catalyst driver headaches. Truthfully, the only reason I ever went with ATI (AMD) in the past was b/c they used to have better picture quality. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Good info, I remember the days when they were prettier too. I used to love Nvidia, but to show my age a bit heh, I remember when Nvidia got caught paying Futuremark for inflated results, after that I sold my last Nvidia card and have not bought another since.

LigTasm said:
There were open box 7870XT (7930) cards on newegg yesterday for $199, and 7950's for $239. Considering you can get a brand new 7870 under $200 if you look for a deal I would not pay $220 for it locally. You may still be able to snag one of those up too. I think your E8500 is going to be a huge limiting factor with any of those cards though for the time being until you upgrade the rest of the rig.
Click to expand...

Killer info, but Newegg seems to have changed their open box policy a lot in the last couple years, no warranty and no guarantee that everything needed will be in the box (at least that's what it said when looking at tablets)

If that's the case though, it's 7950 all day
 
I've had a 6850, Crossfire 6850s, and a 7850 2GB OC card somewhat recently... I would get a GTX660.

I thought the 6850 Crossfire was a pain in the ass. I needed to regularly disable Crossfire to play certain games and the stuttering was really apparent in most games I played. I usually don't even notice stuff like that, however it was bad with the Crossfire setup. It bench-marked well though...
 
ocellaris said:
I've had a 6850, Crossfire 6850s, and a 7850 2GB OC card somewhat recently... I would get a GTX660.

I thought the 6850 Crossfire was a pain in the ass. I needed to regularly disable Crossfire to play certain games and the stuttering was really apparent in most games I played. I usually don't even notice stuff like that, however it was bad with the Crossfire setup. It bench-marked well though...
Click to expand...

I guess I missed it when they dropped down below the price of the 7870. I see a gtx 660 can easily be had for $180 to $190 and they are pretty much neck and neck with the 7870. I would take the gtx 660 over the 7870 anytime when the prices are about the same.
 
Direfox said:
I guess I missed it when they dropped down below the price of the 7870. I see a gtx 660 can easily be had for $180 to $190 and they are pretty much neck and neck with the 7870. I would take the gtx 660 over the 7870 anytime when the prices are about the same.
Click to expand...

^ agree with the 660.
 
Hot deal for a powercolor 7870 Tahiti for $200 AR and the TR, Blood Dragon, Infinite, Crysis 3 bundle ....

Anyone know what waterblock will fit the 7870 tahiti?
 
Good deals on the 7870 XT's right now, That XFX card seems like it is a little too high for used and I wouldn't go with the 1GB card because you might use that vram up in some games.
 
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