Best graphics card for my rig?

[sehs33]

Hello dear members; need your help please

I am wondering what is:
1. The best video card in general for my rig
2. The best video card for my rig that would occupy one slot and not cover the PCI slot beside the video card slot

My rig:
Intel Q9450 with stock cooler
Asus P5G41T-M LX motherboard
2 X 4GB DDR3 Twinmos Ram
Cooler Master Superior 720 watt
Hitachi 2TB 7200rpm Sata3 64MB Hdd
Lexa Blackline with the standard four fans it come with

I currently have a Saphire HD 4870 512MB and I understand that my rig is from last decade so I want to know what are the best cards that will not be bottlenecked with my current specs.

I will soon buy a new monitor so I am not yet sure what resolution will I be gaming on + I might be adding an SSD for the OS later in 2012 if that would make a difference.

I don' want to spend $200 more just to get a 2% increase, I want a good return on investment for the money I will be spending and I hope you guys can help me

Thanks in advance

 

[borden5]

i doubt there's anything better than 4870 with single pci slot unless you go water cooling

 

[diec4st]

^^ what he said. If you can get past that I suggest the 6870 which is the best card for the money on the market right now and will play any game smoothly.

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

 

[87ninefiveone]

It's going to be tough to find a better video card than what you have in a single slot design, especially with your price requirements. There are a couple 6770 and lower cards with passive single slot cooling, but those don't represent much of an upgrade over your current card. I think Power Color and Sparkle make some single slot 6850 cards, but they're really hard to find on the market.

http://www.techpowerup.com/144481/PowerColor-Officially-Launches-First-HD-6850-Single-Slot-Graphics-Card.html

This article may also be of use...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4429/computex-2011-silent-and-single-slot-gpus

 

[sehs33]

Thanks guys but just to clarify: the HD 4870 is already occupying two slots

I want to know what's the best single slot (even if it was worse than the HD 4870) suitable for my rig
+
(and this is the most important of the two questions) what's the best double slot card that would replace the HD 4870

No max price in mind, only condition I don't spend extra with no reasonable return on investment.

 

[diec4st]

It's going to be tough to find a better video card than what you have in a single slot design, especially with your price requirements. There are a couple 6770 and lower cards with passive single slot cooling, but those don't represent much of an upgrade over your current card. I think Power Color and Sparkle make some single slot 6850 cards, but they're really hard to find on the market.

http://www.techpowerup.com/144481/PowerColor-Officially-Launches-First-HD-6850-Single-Slot-Graphics-Card.html

This article may also be of use...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4429/computex-2011-silent-and-single-slot-gpus

http://www.amazon.com/PowerColor-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-AX6850-1GBD5-I2DH/dp/B004ZH13K0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1330878266&sr=8-3

I personally wouldn't pay 2x the price of a regular 6850, though.

 

[diec4st]

Best affordable single slot card : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150574

A little less powerful than your current 4870.

If I were you I'd get the 6870 I linked earlier as it would be a great match for your CPU. You should overclock that CPU as well.

 

[borden5]

what game will you be playing ? What setting you want to play ?

 

[sehs33]

Stopped playing recent PC games since a very long time so I am not sure what exactly will I be playing. I enjoy FPS and 3rd person platformers + am to my neck into emulation.

For the single slot thing I was considering the 6770 diec4st and 87ninefiveone mentioned, seems like they are the best from what's available in the market now. The single slot 6850 87ninefiveone pointed out are really interesting, highly doubt they will be worth their price + the shipping to where I am now...

So do we all agree that the 6870 is the best to get now? I saw the 5870 with 2GB instead of 1GB yesterday for a good price in a local store (trust me, you really don't wanna know what a good price here it, such parts cost a fortune in my country ) but am still not sure.

Will my setup be a bottleneck for anything higher than the 6870/5870?

 

[hyperreader]

you should wait for AMD to release their HD 7750 .
its a single slot card , very low power requirements , cheap( somewhat) , really quiet.
disadvantage is that it is a bit of a downgrade.

 

[sehs33]

The HD7750 would be a better option than the 6770...

HD 5870 seems to be out of stock, looks like it is something between the 6870 and the 6950. The difference in benchmarks I saw between the 6870 and 6950 is not huge and I assume that with my system the difference would be even lower...

Hd 6870 it is (unless anyone else has a better suggestion/concern...)
+
What about the other guys (Nvidia) do they have anything better in that price range/specs?

 

[sehs33]

@hyperreader thanks a lot for pointing out the HD 7750, that one will mostly end in my HTPC... Very interesting card

 

[diec4st]

5870 is better than 6870 so if you can get one for a good price, go for it! (Performance should be similar to a 6950)