Which card for my new rig? 6870, 560-Ti, 7850?

[Tbrown37]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: 4/15

BUDGET RANGE: 150-250

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Games, video streaming, web browsing. Most demanding games i'll be playing is Skyrim ,Tera Online, Guild Wars 2 ,Diablo 3.

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: At the moment nothing I am selling my current rig and building a new one this week.

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS: i5-2400, Asrock extreme3 gen3, 8GB G skill 1333Mhz RAM, and getting either an OCZ ZT full modular 550w or a CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W. Leaning more towards the OCZ for full modular and therefore lesser system heat.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg, Amazon, Ncix, Microcenter, Tigerdirect. Wherever has the better deal

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: U.S

PARTS PREFERENCES: I don't care if it's AMD or Nvidia, just something that will play my games at high setting at the magic 60+ FPS. I do prefer the Frozr or Asus DCUII series cards though.

OVERCLOCKING: I'll probably overclock the card a little bit

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080

So far i've been looking at

560-TI Hawk: 1GB Ram 256-bit-384 Core: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127578&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4003003&SID=549svqcu451m -220 after MIB

6870 Hawk-1GB Ram-256 bit-1120 SPUs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127560&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4003003&SID=1xn4aodkcboc -185$ after MiB

Asus DCUII 7850 2GB Ram-256 bit-1024 SPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121623&Tpk=asus%207850 -260

560-TI 448 Frozr-1.2GB Ram-320bit-448 Core: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127615 -280 after MIB


Best bang for my buck without paying extra money for minimal performance increase I don't like paying 10 dollars per FPS.

 

[aicom]

I'd grab the 7850. It's cheaper even without a rebate and it's going to perform about the same as the 560 Ti 448 while having more VRAM.

 

[Tbrown37]

I've been reading that AMD has been having driver problems or is that on more of an individual scale then an overall general one?

 

[slicedtoad]

The 7870 is your best bet. Excellent value atm. It performs better than the 448 core even though it's cheaper.

It still won't give you 60fps on skyrim at max settings. It should on high though.

edit: sigh, you read the latest article on tom's i take it? Please read the conclusion. The problem will be patched soon and there is a fix already. It's also tiny. You would never notice without comparing blown up screens shots for hours.

 

[blazorthon]

The 7850 also uses a lot less power than any of those cards (except for the 6870, the 7850 only uses somewhat less than the 6870, but it is in a whole other performance tier), so it will save you money over time.

Oh, and that 6870 you are looking at is way overpriced unless it's a 2GB model and even then, that 2GB only matters for CF where it has the GPU performance to use resolutions/quality settings/AA to the point where 1GB is not enough.

A 6870 1GB should cost between $150 and $175. Going beyond that is treading into GTX 560 TI 1GB and Radeon 6950 1GB territory.

 

[aicom]

I've owned 2 AMD cards and I haven't had any driver issues with either.

 

[esrever]

I would say if you can afford it get the 7850. the driver problems have been cleaned up pretty well from the latest drivers from what I hear.

 

[slicedtoad]

^ i hate your avatar

 

[esrever]

^many people do

 

[slicedtoad]

if only gifs were programmable and you could make it random...

 

[esrever]

that would be pretty awesome lol

 

[aicom]

productivity would decrease by 30%

 

[Sonny73N]

Forget all the cards you've mentioned since Newegg got back in stock the Sapphire 6950 2GB for $249.99. May be you can even flash it to 6970. Either way, it's a steal.

 

[aicom]

The 7850 performs better than the 6950.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/549?vs=510

 

[blazorthon]

Forget all the cards you've mentioned since Newegg got back in stock the Sapphire 6950 2GB for $249.99. May be you can even flash it to 6970. Either way, it's a steal.

Like aicom said, the 7850 is faster than the 6950. Also, newer 6950s can't be flashed because instead of just disabling the cores in the BIOS, AMD also damaged them with a laser (no joke, look it up) to stop the flashing to get a 6970 at a 6950 2GB price.

 

[slicedtoad]

^makes me sad, i kind of wanted a cf setup.