Help choosing a graphics card!!

[lucasrivers]

Hello Guys,

I could use some help choosing a good graphics card for around $150, i have picked a couple but i'm not sure which one will give me the most for my money. The first card i'm thinking about is the HIS IceQ X Radeon HD 6790 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 , The second is ZOTAC AMP! GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 .

My second questions is does Hybrid SLI actually help? I choose this board ASUS M4N75TD, but im not sure it will actually help if i choose an Nvidia card.

Thanks for any help you may be able to provide.

 

[bluesc]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127576&cm_re=6850-_-14-127-576-_-Product

$154.99 with rebate. It is better than both of those cards

 

[lucasrivers]

That didn't answer my question. First the Geforce 550 TI i choose have a faster Core clack and double the memory clock, so i dont see how the card you choose is better. Yes it is 256-bit as apposed to 192-bit but that's about it.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Hybrid SLi is next to useless from what I've seen, that said I would still go for an Nvidia card.

 

[lucasrivers]

Ya i have heard the samething about hybrid SLI. I'm leaning twords the NVidia card as well. I just want to find the best card for the price.

 

[bluesc]

That didn't answer my question. First the Geforce 550 TI i choose have a faster Core clack and double the memory clock, so i dont see how the card you choose is better. Yes it is 256-bit as apposed to 192-bit but that's about it.

If you have your heart set on a gtx 550 ti, go ahead and get it. I'm not saying that it's a bad card, I'm just saying that the 6850 is a better card, and it is around $150.

As you can see, the 550 ti is more comparable to the 5770.

If you really want to go Nvidia, you can get a gtx 460 1gb for around the same price as the 6850. The 460 and the 6850 are pretty much on par with eachother.

EDIT: Put the chart with your version of the 550 ti in.

 

[lucasrivers]

Thats another question, why is the 460 better then the 550 TI? Im not set on Nvidia or ATI i just want the best card.

 

[bluesc]

Well the 550 ti has 192 shaders vs the 460's 336.

If you want the best card for $150, I would go for the gtx 460, or the HD 6850.

Then again, something cheaper may be sufficient for your needs, depending on what they are.

 

[lucasrivers]

I do a lot of gaming, so i'm looking for a card in the $150 range that will sute my needs. I'm currently running an 8800GTS 512, so i'm looking for something that blows it out of the water.

I play, COD black Ops, Homefront, BF2142, BFBC2, BF3 (when released)

 

[bluesc]

Well then, I'd definitely recommend the 460 or the 6850.

After looking at the motherboard you chose, it only supports SLI, so if you are planning on getting a 2nd graphics card in the future, go for the 460.

Other than that, the 460 runs cooler while the 6850 uses less power. The Cyclone edition 6850 that I linked to on newegg will run quite a bit cooler than a reference 6850, while bringing the power consumption up a bit.

So both cards have tradeoffs, and are both great cards for the price

 

[lucasrivers]

Thanks for the tips. Before i make my decision, if i go for the 460, how much extra graphics performance would a second card add if i choose to add one in the future.

 

[bluesc]

460 scaling in SLI is awesome. Scaling in Crysis is 95%, which means 95% improvement. It's usually around 80-90% in most benchmarks I've seen.

 

[megamanx00]

Sli scaling just depends on the game. The thing is, you have a 750a board so you must have some kind of AMD CPU. Most reviews demonstrating the benefits of SLI use a an overclocked i7 which is much better clock for clock than current AMD chips and beats AMDs with higher clock speeds. Even if you have an AMD Phenom II X6 @ 4.0Ghz you may not see the same results if the game and it's settings are CPU limited. If you have already bought the board and CPU keep that in mind, but if you haven't bought the board yet I would say get an AM3+ board with SLI if you want to stick with AMD and perhaps get bulldozer later or switch to an Intel Setup (it pains me to say) if it's within your budget

 

[lucasrivers]

Best answer selected by lucasrivers.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey