Best gpu for 160

[knguyen2525]

Hey all. I'm kinda out of the loop for gpu's at the moment and felt like upgrading anyway for some new upcoming game releases and I was wondering whats the best gpu I can get for 150-160?

Current specs:
H-67m
i5 second gen
4 gigs ram
650W PSU

Let me know if you guys need any other info!

thanks thanks

 

[carlosb]

US dollars? There is always the GTx 560 and the GTX 560 SE. The GTX 560 performs better than the SE.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162084
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130770

 

[_zxzxzx_]

The HD 6850 or HD 7770 are also decent cards at around the same price but I'm not sure whether the GTX560 will perform better than it.

 

[knguyen2525]

Hmmm, okay, thanks for the suggestions. Do you guys think that it'd be worth it to save up and spend more on a higher end 250-260$ card or stick with something around 160ish. For those of you who know how fast new gpu's come out and prices drop, is it worth using the extra 100 so that I won't have to replace it for a long time? thanks. btw, the gpu is mostly for gaming but i dont expect to play bf3 or crysis on ultra settings or anything

 

[vmem]

Hmmm, okay, thanks for the suggestions. Do you guys think that it'd be worth it to save up and spend more on a higher end 250-260$ card or stick with something around 160ish. For those of you who know how fast new gpu's come out and prices drop, is it worth using the extra 100 so that I won't have to replace it for a long time? thanks. btw, the gpu is mostly for gaming but i dont expect to play bf3 or crysis on ultra settings or anything

it's hard to future-proof yourself while staying within a budget.

That said, assuming all you want to do is play any games that come out over the next couple of years at whatever setting that works, saving up for $250-ish and getting yourself a GTX 560 ti (448core) or AMD HD 7850 would be a good choice. it's also worth waiting for Nvidia to release their GTX 660, it should be amazing judging by the preformance of the 670. word on the street is that the 660 won't come out until Q3 tho

for something around 160 or so, my feeling is that you'll be playing games well into 2013, but sometime in 2014 or 2015 you'll definitely be wanting a better video card for gaming.

 

[knguyen2525]

Thanks so much. I'll keep everything you said in mind

 

[_zxzxzx_]

for something around 160 or so, my feeling is that you'll be playing games well into 2013, but sometime in 2014 or 2015 you'll definitely be wanting a better video card for gaming.

Don't mean to hijack but how long do you think before a HD 4850 + HD 4870 CrossFire won't be able to run modern games? Or is it already dead?

 

[vmem]

Really hard to say... I'm not that familiar with HD4850/4870. but looking at raw benchmarks, below is a comparison of the 4870 vs the 6850:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/304?vs=291

and a comparison of the 6850CF compared to Nvidia's GTX 580 (best of 5** series)

as you can see, 6850 CF is definately on par with 580 preformance, while a 4870 gets about 2/3 of a 6850's performance, so my guess is performance wise you're probably close to a Radeon HD 6870. if that's the case, you'll see plenty of people recommending the 6870 for gaming on a budget. The caveat is of course you won't be maxing out the newest and greatest games.

BUT, and this is an important BUT, the 48** series are much older tech, as such, you're more constrained on the VRM front, hardware's also not optimized for newer engines such as DirectX 11. if I were you I'd start saving up now, and upgrade either to AMD seaislands (HD 8*** series), or Nvidia's GK110 (GTX7** series) sometime in Q4 2012 or Q1/2 of next year '

Edit: BTW, I hate telling people their system's already dead because you're obviously still using it without too many issues. and generally, if you're on a budget (which almost everyone are), the best strategy is to make your current system last as long as possible before the next upgrade.

 

[_zxzxzx_]

Thanks. I was thinking the same thing about the DX11 and not supporting newer tech. I am on a budget like everyone else so I think I'll save for the HD8xxx series