New card for gaming ~500 MAX Budget

[mhansen23]

Hello,

looking to buy a new graphics card this week. It will be used for playing games (bf3, skyrim, swtor)

As of right now i have one asus display 1920x1080.
40% chance of adding a second monitor within 6 months.


I haven raven rv03 case
corsair ax850 psu
i5 2500k cpu
asus p8p67 evo rev 3 b3 motherboard
16gb corsair vengeance ram
180gb force 3 corsair ssd
H80 water cooling.

So far I am considering:
evga 570 classified.
2gb saphire toxic ed 6950 x2 in crossfire
some gtx 580.

Up for new suggestions and comments.

I prefer newegg, amazon, or frys.com

thanks in advance for your help

 

[Swolern]

For $500 the GTX 580 is the best out there. EVGA has the best cutomer service period!

 

[mhansen23]

Can the evga 580 be overclocked up to what the classified is?

 

[Swolern]

The evga 580 classified is $600 and it's amazing. It's not out yet but heard to be able to overclock to 1.5Ghz. Need some extreme water cooling for that though.

 

[lemlo]

I'd go with a reference card. I've heard good things about evga. I love my pair of zotac 580's. Grab msi afterburner for free off the web and then you can use the voltage regulator to up the overclock. On reference cooling I wouldn't go too high without testing on furmark or fluidmark for heat issues before you go on a gaming binge. I found that 1 580 could handle anything at 1920x1080 with superior settings with ease.

Don't forget to clean up after you poop yourself, you will love the 580.

 

[Rizlla]

At that budget I would say go for The GTX 580. Nothing can come close to it unless you are thinking of dual GPU and upping your budget the you can go for GTX 590 or HD 6990.

 

[cats_Paw]

Id get some quiet 580. I heard that thing sounds like a jet taking off while gaming other way.

So either watercool or reference+aftermarket cooler.

I think already build aftermarket coolers are generally far more expensive, and you still need to reapply the thermal paste anyway, so the work has to be done.

 

[Memnarchon]

This one is for 499$ after rebate at newegg MSI N580GTX Lightning GeForce GTX 580: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127579
review:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-geforce-gtx-580-lightning-review/1
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_580_Lightning/

 

[Memnarchon]

edit oops miscalc: Also for [strike]538[/strike]$ 578$ (a [strike]little[/strike] over 500) 2x Galaxy 57NKH3HS4GXK GeForce GTX 570 after rebate 289$: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162075.
By the way, have you considered to wait for gtx 6xx? (buy one gtx460 1GB at 120$ and wait for the new cards)

 

[Swolern]

Id get some quiet 580. I heard that thing sounds like a jet taking off while gaming other way.

So either watercool or reference+aftermarket cooler.

I think already build aftermarket coolers are generally far more expensive, and you still need to reapply the thermal paste anyway, so the work has to be done.

U must be talking about the 6990, because my 590 is whisper quiet.

 

[mhansen23]

edit oops miscalc: Also for [strike]538[/strike]$ 578$ (a [strike]little[/strike] over 500) 2x Galaxy 57NKH3HS4GXK GeForce GTX 570 after rebate 289$: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162075.
By the way, have you considered to wait for gtx 6xx? (buy one gtx460 1GB at 120$ and wait for the new cards)

When are those gtx 6xx cards supposed to release? I might consider it

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

End of this year, beginning next year ( is the word at least ) Buy second hand 460 now and wait for 6xx and 7xxx series ?

 

[Swolern]

When are those gtx 6xx cards supposed to release? I might consider it

AMD 7xxx in December in limited supply. Nvidia 6xx next year first quarter maybe. My advice is find the best deal on a used card that you can deal with. They just had a deal on Amazon for 6970 for $203. That was new.

 

[mhansen23]

There is a 3gb zotac gtx 580 at my local frys store for $509. What do you think about that?

 

[gnomio]

EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX 570 1280MB – $339.99
It will run nearly any game at 1920 x 1200 (or 1080 for 1080p) maxed out, with less or more AA/AF, depending on the game, as well as most games at 2560 x 1600, although with lowered details in some games.