6950, 6870 and 6950 in gaming rig (1680x1050)

[Guest]

Hello, I have a question about graphic card in my future gaming rig. My original plan was XFX HD 6950 2GB, which costs $336 right now. However, I'm using Samsung SyncMaster T200 which has 20'' diagonal and 1680x1050 native resolution and I feel like HD 6950 would be overkill. Maybe I should go with XFX HD 6850 1GB, which costs $220 right now (dual fan edition), and upgrade in few years when HD 7000 or even HD 8000 gets released? Another option is Gigabyte HD 6870 for $245 (triple fan edition). What do you think? Obviously, by that time I will have 1080p monitor with bigger diagonal as well. I have a feeling my current monitor will die in 1-2 years.

The rest of my rig is:

Asus P8P67 PRO
Core i5 2500K
Zalman CNPS9900 MAX
XFX XXX Edition 650W *
Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB 1600MHz *
WD Caviar Blue 640GB 7200RPM 16MB *
Zalman Z9 Plus *
Scythe Kaze Q8 *
Additional 2 case fans (still trying to decide which)

(Components marked with * are already bought.)

I want this rig to be good in following 3-4 years. I will overclock and I might buy SSD when the prices drop down to something more reasonable.

Thanks for help.

 

[Guest]

Title is supposed to say 6950, 6870 and 6850, my bad.

 

[computadoro]

6870 would be fine, upgrade next gen if you want. 6870 can be found for $170, so i don't know where you are getting your prices from.

 

[Guest]

Lowest prices available in Croatia, unfortunately.

 

[Guest]

HD 6950 1GB is in $290-330 range depending on manufacturer, edition and store.

I know HD 6870 won't future proof me, but it should be able to run new games in few years at least on low-medium details at 1680x1050, shouldn't it?

 

[seriux]

Im running Skyrim and BF3 on high @ 1920x1080 with my HD6850 and an e8400.

And it runs smooth as butter.

 

[Guest]

That's definitely good to hear. If HD 6850 can handle 1080p on high details with weaker processor, HD 6870 should be good for at least 2 years.

 

[Guest]

From what I've read, you can't flash 6950 to 6970 on newer cards. That was possible only on early releases. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, this is a subjective matter because I used to game on a laptop (everything on lowest possible settings) and I'm currently on a computer from 2003. Imagine what will jump to above specified rig feel like. Even a card like 5670 would feel like a miracle to my eyes because I'm used to bad graphics.

 

[spentshells]

6870 gets my vote unless you can overclock a 6850 by buying a good model.
For the price of a good model of 6850 will get you a base model 6870 and just slightly less performance