Noob Here Is a 6870 or 6950 for me?

[moondeville]

Heya folks. New guy here. Hows it?

So I'm preparing myself for Skyrim and Swtor. I built me a fair gaming machine a few months back. And I'm now getting around to replacing theis stand by graphics card. Here is my current setup.

AMD Phenom II X4 840 @ 3.2 w/ Cooler Master Hyper 212 and Haf 912 case
8 Gigs G.Skill Ripjaws
Asus m4a79xtd evo mobo
500 gig sata2 WD drive
Win 7 64 bit
PSU is a Antec truepowerr quattro 850 watt modular
Oh and a 8800 GTX 756mb lol.

So I game on a 22inch Acer monitor @ 1680x 1050 @ 60hz Mostly MMO's Fallout, Oblivion stuff like that.

I have only 240 to spend. And it's someone elses money. So I dont want to abuse that. So here is what I was thinking.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125385

Or am I just being wasteful? I mean I'm legally blind in 1 eye, The monitor is what it is untilChristmas or lottery happens. Or should I just grab a 6870 reference card and later ad a second? So if you can help please do!.

Moon

 

[Supernova1138]

For your resolution and the games you listed a 6870 will be just fine, it will easily be able to max out those games. Even at 1080p the 6870 would have no problem maxing out the titles you listed. If you intend to play some of the more graphically demanding titles such as Crysis 2 or Metro 2033 and you intend to upgrade to a 1080p or higher monitor it might be worthwhile to get the 6950. I'd say the 6870 is better suited to your needs and you don't need to spend the extra money on the 6950.

 

[Cygnus x-1]

If you're going to go the crossfire route being on a budget, I would recommend two 6850's. The two together are faster than a single 6970 and will be close in performance or maybe a little faster than a gtx 580, not bad for around 300.00 for both of them. So you can grab one now and add another later on for a performance boost when the games mentioned come out.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/302?vs=305

 

[moondeville]

I do intend on going to a HD monitor at some point in the future. Most likly after the new year. Ok so 6870 it is. Should I grab a fancy OC'd one or just a reference? I don't OC nothing normally.

Moon

 

[New2Pcgaming]

I do intend on going to a HD monitor at some point in the future. Most likly after the new year. Ok so 6870 it is. Should I grab a fancy OC'd one or just a reference? I don't OC nothing normally.

Moon

If it matters I have a 6950 on my system my specs are similiar to yours. I went ahaead and took a plunge and got a 6950 but i spent $250 on the 2gb edition because i got three screens and i love it. I can play all games very smoothly the only game i have trouble with is crysis 2 but that because im trying to do eyefinity with 3 screens with the directx11 and high res texture update but i still get about 20fps. with one screen on 1080P its so sexified and runs at 35-40 fps so its a very good card. I think it would be better to take the plunge now get a good card and be prepared because once the consoles go "next gen" (and they will soon) i think the 6950 will be more useful. Also i have been in this situation before and you can tell yourself your not going to play these pretty games but once you run into one you like the performance will not be optimal and you wont be happy just MHO.

 

[morgoth780]

maybe you should try buying a non-oc'ed 6950, cause you could then flash the bios and essentially have 6970, which i don't think you can do with an oc'ed 6950...but then again, it voids your warranty, and if it dies during or after flashing the bios, that would be kinda...idk...ingrateful, maybe? but still, if you don't want to try doing that, you should probably go for your oc'ed 6950

 

[Supernova1138]

Most of the 6950s that can be flashed into 6970s are off the market at this point. Manufacturers have begun laser cutting the locked shaders so they can't be unlocked with a BIOS flash.

Frankly, an OCed 6950 is completely overkill for this guy's needs, unless he wants to try the ultimately futile futureproofing game. We may see a new console generation sometime soon, but the Wii U is only going to be as powerful as current consoles, unless Sony and/or Microsoft can rush something out for 2012 or 2013 that is significantly stronger than that, by the time the next console generation comes out, and games are released that can actually push that kind of hardware, the HD 6000 series cards will probably be considered largely obsolete and it will be time to look into an upgrade anyway.

A stock 6870 would be fine for the games the OP listed, you can go for a factory overclock if you want, but I wouldn't pay a large price premium for a factory OC. The rather small performance boost (5 to 10% at best) isn't worth more than an extra $20.

 

[jjb8675309]

all I can say is that Ive bought several 6870s off ebay for around 130 if the OP is trying to save money...

although you cannot bank on it, some of the XFX models still carry the lifetime warranty since its a "double lifetime" warranty and it can be transfered to a second user if the seller already registered... might be worth looking into if your spending someone elses money, just an option

 

[moondeville]

Best answer selected by MoonDeville.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey