Best Card for around $160

Dude your pretty good at this, your on like all the posts for gpus. Thanks for the quick response!!

Ehh, I just cross reference benchmarks with shopping sites, nothing special. You're welcome though.  

HD 5850 > HD 6870 since the former costs less and is more overclockable.

Tamz, 6870 can still be well OCed and when compared to 5850 (OC vs OC) then it will still be ahead. Btw, this is a good deal:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/ite...

only 140$ for a great card...

Yeah, but the HD 5850 is almost identical in performance with the HD 6870, and you can get good deals like that on it.However, if the OC is planning on doing Crossfire in the future, the HD 6870 is a better option.

How can the 5850 be almost identical to the 6870 but the 5850 have slighty not as new technology and be priced $40 cheaper?

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/295?vs=290
The difference is at most 3-4 FPS in most games.

OP: 5850 has a lot more stream processors, that's why and it's (and most of 5000 series') price is low because of older technology and not so good as 6000 series CF scaling.

so if i want a card to last me for a while, which should i go with

A little less power, but a card that will play well at your resolution ===>Sapphire 5830

Great price and free shipping, otherwise look to the 5850.

There's a coupon code for that 5830 to get it down to $99.99: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/101722-8-radeon-5830-...

It's actually the best bang for your buck out there now, but it's a bit underpowered. It's still worth it though if you intend to crossfire later this year. Two of these in Crossfire should best GTX 570/Radeon 6970 performance for under $200 total (assumed since two GTX 460's handily trump a GTX 480, which is more or less a GTX 570's equal).

EDIT: I'd also consider the $190 (after $40 rebate) Galaxy GTX 560Ti on Newegg.

GTX460 1GB non-SEs beat GTX580 in some cases

@shrkbay, you forgot to mention SLI.

Well I just purchased the xfx 6870. Hopefully it will work out ok!
Thanks everybody.

Best answer selected by Tlechem.