Best Graphics card for around 160?

[illegalrugalah]

ATM im deciding between two cards. one is 10$ cheaper and the other is faster.
here are the cards: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162084
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130664

with that extra 10$ id use it to go from 12gb of ram to 16gb.
and im not sure if the faster card is worth 10 bucks more?

and if there are any better cards in this price range feel free to show me (i am NOT tied to nvidia, if theres a better AMD card feel free to tell me about it)

also, i cannot save up for a better one, my parents are giving me a STRICT limit on price.

 

[purple stain]

What are your full system specs?(CPU,RAM,etc.)

At 12GB of RAM you won't see any performance gain with adding more RAM.It's just a waste of money,imo.

Out of those 2 cards I would say the the EVGA card is the better.They charge $10 more basically for the O.C. but EVGA has great warranty support and a trade up program.

This is out of your standard budget but if you consider the MIR I would suggest going for this card instead.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500196

 

[firedice]

I'd get 6870 for that price.

 

[illegalrugalah]

well its a fresh build, but here are my specs:
psu corsair builder cx600 v2 600w
gskill ripjaws 3x4gb ddr3 1600 ram
intel core i5-200k sandy bridge at 3.3ghz
asrock z68 pro3 gen3 1155

and, could you link me to a good 6870 for that price? im not too good at picking between them

EDIT: and would it be worth it to downgrade to 8GB RAM in order to get a slightly better gpu? my current ram is this : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231358
and if its worth it to go to 8GB for a better gpu could you link me to cheaper than what I have but good RAM and a better gpu than the 560 TI you linked me to?

EDIT 2: arent 1155s dual channel? doesnt that mean i have to buy my RAM in pairs? which would mean id either need 2x6gb ram or downgrade to 8gb?

 

[purple stain]

Why do you have a triple channel kit anyway?

8GB of RAM is plenty.Save yourself some money and go for 8GB instead of 12GB or 16GB.It's the same RAM just packed in a triple channel set.You will only be able to use 2 sticks in dual channel.The other stick will just be single.

The GTX560 is actually slightly faster than the 6870 and they seemed to be priced about the same so it wouldn't really matter.

 

[vilenjan]

I second the 6870, and the 560(non ti) is not overall faster than the 6870, its beats in some games and gets beat in others. I think you buy a 6870 for less than a 560gtx atm, so 6870 is a better deal.

 

[illegalrugalah]

scatch everthing. apparently my parents meant 140ish...

i know... they are like that...
sorry guys. but could you help me find the best 140ish card? if its around 150 but has a game thats cool, but thats the only reason to go higher


i found these two.. one is 120 after mail in rebate, the other is OCed..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500217
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130629

i dont know how to do manual OCing, so how important is that extra juice?

 

[dudewitbow]

140 would be like, a good 6850 after rebate, a gtx 460 or radeon 7770. if you end up choosing a radeon 7770, tigerdirect has one on sale for 110-15$ rebate.

I highly do not recommend using a 550ti. better off with a gtx 460

 

[illegalrugalah]

wow, that 7770 is looking awfully cheap and nice...
i think i might go with that. because at that price i could get a better cpu.. i was thinking i would have to go with AMD, but i think i can get intel now! thanks!

 

[blazorthon]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102968

About $140 with MIR and shipping. This 7770 is very highly factory overclocked and is almost on-par with the Radeon 6870 and GTX 560. Coming with a free copy of Dirt Showdown (a $60 value) is a nice bonus and the lower power usage saves a few bucks in the electric bill. For manually overclocking, that MSI one linked above might be a little better than this one, despite this Sapphire's clear win at stock.

 

[illegalrugalah]

alright. thanks for the second one, but i was able to get a i5 200k intel cpu with the other one due to its price. otherwise id have to go with a AMD most likely (i cant find a good intel+mobo set for 250). unless i do, ill go with the cheaper 7770.

 

[blazorthon]

Just thought that I'd throw this out there... Unless you must have a greater than 4GHz overclock on the i5-2500K, you can get the cheaper i5-2400. It can be overclocked to about 4GHz reliably through Turbo Core and a small BLCK bump and it can do this on stock cooling, although I'd rather get a very cheap after-market cooler anyway.

 

[illegalrugalah]

Just thought that I'd throw this out there... Unless you must have a greater than 4GHz overclock on the i5-2500K, you can get the cheaper i5-2400. It can be overclocked to about 4GHz reliably through Turbo Core and a small BLCK bump and it can do this on stock cooling, although I'd rather get a very cheap after-market cooler anyway.

honestly i doubt imma OC at all. i dont know how to and my cooling isnt the best... in that case though, ill look for a 15 2400k with mobo for cheaper.
thanks! if you must, link me to an OCing tutorial. i dont want anything to die, though...

found a cpu/mobo combo with the i5 2400 (not 2400k, couldnt find that...) for 30$ cheaper

 

[blazorthon]

Overclocking is easy, especially with modern processors. There are many, many guides and Google is your friend for this. Yes, the i5-2400 is the right model number, there is no i5-2400K. Like I said, it's cheaper and can still do a decent overclock, although not an extreme overclock.

 

[illegalrugalah]

alright cool. ill do the 7770 you linked me too and i should be good?
wait, do i need a new cooler? i think you mentioned that

 

[blazorthon]

No, you don't need a new cooler. I'd get one, but you don't need one. I'd only get one because I'd want to push it even further than that 4GHz, but that's me. You probably won't notice an improvement in games because the 7770 isn't fast enough to be bottle-necked by even a stock i5-2400, but it will improve non-gaming performance substantially. If you only wanted to consider overclocking because you thought it would improve gaming performance, then don't bother with it at this time.

A stock i5-2400 is already an excellent gaming CPU that can handle significantly faster graphics configurations. You'd get much more out of overclocking your 7770 and that it can do on stock cooling with ease. That's even easier than overclocking a CPU because you just install AMD's CCC and move a few sliders in Overdrive, or use a different overclocking utility, but moving a few sliders is usually all that you'd have to do. The 7770 could hit up to 1200MHz GPU and 1300MHz memory clocks with a basic overclock.

 

[illegalrugalah]

Best answer selected by illegalrugalah.

 

[illegalrugalah]

awesome. im not gunna be ocing that far, so ill stick with stock. im getting the cheaper gfx because you said its better for ocing and im not really a racing game fan...
ill deff oc them both, but not too far.

 

[blazorthon]

awesome. im not gunna be ocing that far, so ill stick with stock. im getting the cheaper gfx because you said its better for ocing and im not really a racing game fan...
ill deff oc them both, but not too far.

Alright then. Don't shoot for more than 1150MHz to 1200MHz on that Radeon 7770's GPU and don't increase the BLCK beyond 104MHz.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey