Whats the best gaming GPU right now

[willdav]

hi i own a MSI 6870 gpu. i'm lookin got sell and upgrade to another one. can u help me pick one.

 

[hellfire24]

what's your budget?

 

[quilciri]

You need to be a little more specific; i.e., what is your budget?

Best, period would be the GTX 690. If you happen to have $1,000 to spend on a card.

Best for the money would be a GTX 670 ($400), an HD 7850 ($240), or an HD 6950 ($200).

 

[Ironslice]

The best GPU is the GeForce GTX 690, but it costs over $1000.

We need a budget...

 

[photonboy]

While not in stock yet, I did a lot of research and finally chose this card which was $540 at the time but apparently $560 now. It takes up three slots, but the advantage is it is not only overclocked but runs far quieter than stock:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-geforce-gtx-680-asus-directcu-ii-top-review/

Asus DirectCU II GTX680

(the GTX670 is very close to the GTX680. Stock to stock average comparison is roughly 92%. The Asus DirectCU II version is only two slots but is very cool and quiet. It's probably the card I'd recommend to most.)

 

[photonboy]

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_670_Direct_Cu_II/21.html

(the GTX670 Asus DirectCU II version performs basically IDENTICALLY to a stock GTX680!!)

 

[willdav]

budget is $500

 

[hellfire24]

get a good custom cooled gtx 670 and oc it!gigabyte windforce x3 is a good deal for $400-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125423

 

[quilciri]

The 670 is the best bang for the buck single-card solution in that range.

If you're open to multi-card solutions, however, a pair of 7850's is better than any single $4-500 card.

http://www.firstpost.com/topic/organization/amd-amd-7870-7850-crossfire-single-gpu-benchmark-bf3-sky-video-7BeKb9M5zV0-48380-10.html

 

[photonboy]

The 670 is the best bang for the buck single-card solution in that range.

If you're open to multi-card solutions, however, a pair of 7850's is better than any single $4-500 card.

http://www.firstpost.com/topic/organization/amd-amd-7870-7850-crossfire-single-gpu-benchmark-bf3-sky-video-7BeKb9M5zV0-48380-10.html

The micro-stutter induced by dual-GPU Crossfire or SLI varies from minor to severely annoying. Even with a reported frame rate of 60FPS the experience might feel closer to 30FPS as well.

NVidia is well aware of this. They've even added "frame rate metering" technology to the new GTX600 series to help address this. The situation is improved but not fixed.

Micro-stutter with three cards is fairly minor though. For triple-monitor gamers, or possibly 3D gamers that's my recommend since no single GPU is generally adequate. You would probably want at least 3GB per GPU though (such as an HD7970 3GB, or GTX670 4GB).

 

[quilciri]

The micro-stutter induced by dual-GPU Crossfire or SLI varies from minor to severely annoying. Even with a reported frame rate of 60FPS the experience might feel closer to 30FPS as well.

NVidia is well aware of this. They've even added "frame rate metering" technology to the new GTX600 series to help address this. The situation is improved but not fixed.

Micro-stutter with three cards is fairly minor though. For triple-monitor gamers, or possibly 3D gamers that's my recommend since no single GPU is generally adequate. You would probably want at least 3GB per GPU though (such as an HD7970 3GB, or GTX670 4GB).

That's a little hyperbole right there. 60 fps won't ever feel like 30 fps, or even close. The higher your average framerate is, the less noticeable microstuttering is. This is why 2 card setups are more acceptable with higher end cards.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995.html

When Can Micro-Stuttering Be Seen?

In a nutshell, all of the time. The lower the average frame rate, the more the frame rate is perceived as being lower than the actual average frame rate. Thus, as bad luck would have it, a frame rate of 30 FPS may be perceived as merely 20 to 25 FPS. The human eye does, however, still notice differences in when frames show up on-screen beyond 60 FPS.

and from the article's conclusion,

Currently, it seems like cards less powerful than the Radeon HD 6950 are not well-suited for dual-card CrossFire. Even if the frame rates look decent, the slower the GPU, the more pronounced you'll see micro-stuttering during gameplay.

a 7850 is roughly equivalent to a 6970.

 

[Maximus_Delta]

Get a 7970 and overclock it a bit. That's my two cents worth.

 

[photonboy]

That's a little hyperbole right there. 60 fps won't ever feel like 30 fps, or even close. The higher your average framerate is, the less noticeable microstuttering is. This is why 2 card setups are more acceptable with higher end cards.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995.html

When Can Micro-Stuttering Be Seen?

In a nutshell, all of the time. The lower the average frame rate, the more the frame rate is perceived as being lower than the actual average frame rate. Thus, as bad luck would have it, a frame rate of 30 FPS may be perceived as merely 20 to 25 FPS. The human eye does, however, still notice differences in when frames show up on-screen beyond 60 FPS.

and from the article's conclusion,

Currently, it seems like cards less powerful than the Radeon HD 6950 are not well-suited for dual-card CrossFire. Even if the frame rates look decent, the slower the GPU, the more pronounced you'll see micro-stuttering during gameplay.

a 7850 is roughly equivalent to a 6970.

Hey, you're entitled to your opinion however:
- I've built many systems and can state for a fact that I've had parts of games perform worse at 60FPS than at 30FPS due to microstutter. I even tested on the same system with Crossfire then a single card.

And here's another quote I agree with, based on a lot of experience:
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/93908-understanding-micro-stuttering-bane-of-high-end-pc-gamers

"Contrary to what’s sometimes said, higher frame rates are not an automatic cure for micro stuttering, and can actually make the problem worse."

 

[quilciri]

Interesting. I didn't think that microstuttering varied by game engine. There's a good suggestion in that article to google the games you want to play to see if microstuttering is a problem in that engine, or if it's hardly affected at all.

The video in that link is also helpful you could take a look at it and see if the microstuttering even bothers you. Pretty much every article on microstuttering notes that some gamers don't notice it, and more aren't bothered by it even if they do.

 

[willdav]

ok thanks for the reponces and apologies for my delayed response. the problem that i have that makes me want to change graphic card is when i watch online streaming vids like youtube or game,my cpu jus shuts down after about 5-10 mins and restarts. when i boot to windows the windows screen starts off a little smaller than usual and after about 10 secs it returns normal size.

 

[willdav]

1) graphic card - MSI Radeon HD 6870 1024 MB DDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card 2PM2D1GD5

2) Windows Version - Windows 7 Sp1 64-bit

3) Drivers up to date - YES

4) Microsoft Automatic Updates Up to date - YES

5) Memtest passes - YES

6) Motherboard - ASUS Sabertooth 990FX TUF Series Motherboard AM3+ DDR3 1800 - 990FX

7) Processor - Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz (OC to 4ghz)

8) Ram - Corsair Vengeance Blue 16 GB DDR3 SDRAM

9) PSU - X4 Series 850W Atx Ps

10)Better Description of problem : simply put when i boot up,upon entering windows,the resolution of my display starts off at 75% and remains that way for about 10secs and then it expands to 100%. it is annoying and i am under the assumption it is a graphics problem but i am at a lost to being able to rectify such.

 

[celticnate123]

Check your power options and make sure you dont have it set to restart after X amount of minutes of inactive use.

 

[willdav]

how do i do that?

 

[iamcacao]

While not in stock yet, I did a lot of research and finally chose this card which was $540 at the time but apparently $560 now. It takes up three slots, but the advantage is it is not only overclocked but runs far quieter than stock:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-geforce-gtx-680-asus-directcu-ii-top-review/

Asus DirectCU II GTX680

(the GTX670 is very close to the GTX680. Stock to stock average comparison is roughly 92%. The Asus DirectCU II version is only two slots but is very cool and quiet. It's probably the card I'd recommend to most.)

I don't know what you mean by not in stock yet! I have 2 in my computer right next to me (well I do have the direct cu ii top, not sure if it makes a difference)

 

[jaguarskx]

how do i do that?

Go to Control Panel. You should see something called Power Options / Management. Within there you should be able to see if the PC is set to automatically turn off after a period of inactivity.

Sorry, I can't give you more precise instruction 'cause my work PC uses Win XP.

 

[photonboy]

I don't know what you mean by not in stock yet! I have 2 in my computer right next to me (well I do have the direct cu ii top, not sure if it makes a difference)

Check the dates on comments please. The graphics card was out of stock when I wrote the comment. I've had mine now for over a month and you just replied.

*Also, several of the comments are no longer quite accurate as things have changed slighty.

**Also, please note that while the "Asus GTX 670 DirectCU II" is a great card, it is the TOP version of this card that performs as well as a stock GTX 680 and NOT the non-TOP card that performs much lower (by about 10%). The TOP card contains a Kepler GPU that was tested and performed BETTER than the non-TOP versions (not all GPU's perform identically).

So Asus TESTS the GPU's to see which ones can overclock well and put those in the TOP versions. This is called "binning" (separating by quality/performance).

 

[iamcacao]

Check the dates on comments please. The graphics card was out of stock when I wrote the comment. I've had mine now for over a month and you just replied.

*Also, several of the comments are no longer quite accurate as things have changed slighty.

**Also, please note that while the "Asus GTX 670 DirectCU II" is a great card, it is the TOP version of this card that performs as well as a stock GTX 680 and NOT the non-TOP card that performs much lower (by about 10%). The TOP card contains a Kepler GPU that was tested and performed BETTER than the non-TOP versions (not all GPU's perform identically).

So Asus TESTS the GPU's to see which ones can overclock well and put those in the TOP versions. This is called "binning" (separating by quality/performance).

ah, right sorry, see that. For some reason someone revived this old thread :/

 

[willdav]

Best answer selected by willdav.

 

[Maximus_Delta]

7970 is the best now with 12.11 drivers.