What's a worthwhile upgrade from 6950?

[MrHood22]

Currently I have an XFX 6950 2gb

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150549

I mainly play BF4 and I find that sometimes my FPS dips low enough for me to notice a performance hiccup. Granted this doesn't happen often and on some maps I even see it hit 140fps. This tells me it's time to start shopping for a new card but I don't need to be in a rush. I play on my 24" monitor (1920x1080) and also have a 2nd 24" active, usually just watching my temps. I notice that my GPU is usually pinged at 98% and my cpu is around ~90%. I have a H50 cooler coming for my 2500k and I'm going to OC it to around 4.5ghz so I can't see this as being an issue.

With all that being said, what is a worthwhile upgrade from my 6950 (new or used). I'm probably looking to keep it around $250 but if it's truly worthwhile I wouldn't be upset with going up to $300.

So far my research is showing that the GTX 760 (~$250) seems to be the favorite or I can take a ~15% performance decrease and go for a 7870 ($200). A few questions I have are...

1) Are there any other cards I should consider?
2) Since I'm not desperately in need for a card, would I be better off waiting?
3) If it comes down to one of those cards, which card is best? To explain more, there are multiple manufacturers and each put out different versions (clock speeds, coolers, etc).

 

[Pieter3dnow]

Yeah it does from time to time , but my 6970 performs well if you turn some stuff to low and some stuff on high and some stuff on medium
Quality High
Filtering High
lightning low
effects low
Post process medium
Mesh quality medium
Terrain quality high
terrain decoration low
AA deferred off
AA post off
Ambient Oclusion off

This works for me at 2048*1152 on a PII 960T on 4 ghz

If you still want to spend your money wait till you heard something about Mantle that could make things easier.

 

[ManofGod]

At $300, the R9 280 would be great.

 

[kushdawg007]

7870XT/LE (are the 7870 with the Tahiti cores like the 7950/7970) . I have one and it plays battlefield 4 great(50-60fps all ultra, and 60-80fps if you turn off hbao and AA) for the price that i bought it for ($130). Overclocks very well too. A 7970 will run most of your games max at 1080p as well. Since you play battlefield 4, i think amd is more optimized but its not by much so you could definitely go for the gtx770 as thats a decent one as well. As for brand, i usually go for dual coolers just so its less heat and less noise usually.

 

[raghu78]

OP the HD 7950 or R9 280X are your best options. GTX 760 is slower than both these cards and comes with 1GB lesser VRAM.

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=PC-7950_OC

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121803

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/10/21/asus_geforce_gtx_760_directcu_ii_oc_video_card_review/9

 

[geok1ng]

as you said, you are not in a hurry. also you can simply lower a few settings in those maps where you slow donw. Your money should wait for the release of 290 ( x?) with aftermarket coolers.