HD 6850 or GTX 460?

[brandon_c993]

Hey community, I've been bumping my head against a wall trying to figure out which of these two cards is the better choice. Currently the two I'm looking at are only about $10 apart the 6850 at $139 and the 460 1GB at $149. All of the benchmarks, review, head to heads, etc. Have these cards relatively neck and neck. So I was wondering if anybody had some input for me. I have a feeling it is going to come down to which brand I feel most comfortable with. Any advice or input on this would be most appreciated!

 

[monsta]

Can I confuse you more?

You could also go for a 6870 which will before better for around $145 after rebate and free game
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150561

 

[brandon_c993]

Can I confuse you more?

You could also go for a 6870 which will before better for around $145 after rebate and free game
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150561

Haha thanks a lot, there's a few more hours of research. I do remember reading the 6870 got quite a bit louder and hotter than the 6850 and the 460, don't remember where though. I was starting to lean towards the 6850 because of less power consumption but it looks like it would be stupid to purchase a power supply with only 1 PCIe connector since most new cards need at least two. So that's another thing for me to consider.

I actually enjoy how much research this stuff is requiring, I just got into all of this about 2 weeks ago, so I'm still learning lots of new things daily lol. I'll definitely look into the 6870 as well. I may be able to spring above $200 for a GPU, but that is something I'm not sure on yet. I'll know for sure in the next week or two.

 

[monsta]

Could I ask what resolution you are playing at and what your pc specs are?

 

[esrever]

the 6870 uses less power than the 460 and given an ok design of the card should not be hot.

As for the 460 vs 6850, you have to look at the 460 memory bus, if its 192 bits its worse than the 6850 and will perform like a 6790. if its the 256 bit bus, it will perform like the 6850 and I would choose which ever is cheaper. The 6850 does use less power and does better at higher resolution compared to the 460. The 460 does better at lower resolution and also has physx.

 

[brandon_c993]

Could I ask what resolution you are playing at and what your pc specs are?

Well I'm building a PC with the following specs:

Intel Core i5 2400 3.10GHz
At least 4GB of RAM
Z68 Mobo, possibly with Crossfire/SLI support if the price is right
Power supply dependent on which GPU I decide on probably at least 600 watts

I am running an old 1280x1024 LCD monitor right now, I will be upgrading to a 1080p monitor soon enough though. I think that covers everything

 

[esrever]

I'd suggest getting the 6870 as its an worthy extra few dollars for the performance, especially at 1080p.

 

[brandon_c993]

the 6870 uses less power than the 460 and given an ok design of the card should not be hot.

As for the 460 vs 6850, you have to look at the 460 memory bus, if its 192 bits its worse than the 6850 and will perform like a 6790. if its the 256 bit bus, it will perform like the 6850 and I would choose which ever is cheaper. The 6850 does use less power and does better at higher resolution compared to the 460. The 460 does better at lower resolution and also has physx.

That helped a lot actually, the 460s I was looking at were only 192-bit and the 6850s all 256-bit

 

[manu 11]

^^you can say it have a performance like a 550ti or a little better, o with the6870, best value for money.

as for the brand, i like sapphire much better than xfx

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948 165$

 

[sunnk]

if u wont better performance in higher resolution hd 6870 is one of the best gpu its on the par with gtx 560 which is med high ranged based gpus it performs very well in the resolution of 1080p in every game so in my opinion hd 6870 will be the best choice and if u cannot afford that much then go for the hd 6850 instead of gtx 460 because it uses less power then gtx 460 it has the better performance in higher resolution and even its cheaper and performs above the price.

 

[monsta]

The 6870 is a great performing card and its within your budget, well the one I linked to you earlier.

 

[sunnk]

here is the reviews of gtx 460 vs hd 6850 vs hd 6870 here u can see that hd 6870 is the better performer in higher resolution and even hd 6850 performs better in higher resolution then gtx 460.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/37499-hd-6870-hd-6850-vs-gtx-460-1gb-overclocking-study-8.html

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6850-6870-review/13

 

[Gordon Freeman]

Any of the cards OP listed are powerhouses @ OPs small resolution on 1280x1024 and all things considered it goes 6870 = best, 6850 = 2nd best, GTX 460 768mb 3rd place. The 6850 only takes one 6pin and has a very small 125Watt Max TDP which means general it could do CF on the same PSU that the GTX 460 could only solo it just FYI for down the road future expandability.

 

[monsta]

Definately the 6870 for that resolution

 

[brandon_c993]

Haha, well it seems to be about unanimous that I should go after the 6870. Thanks for the help everyone

 

[brandon_c993]

Best answer selected by brandon_c993.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey