Question about which GTX card to go with

[aayjaay]

My current computer is close to dying so I'm thinking of custom building a gaming PC. I'm pretty new to all of this which is why I'm asking about which GTX graphics card to get as there is quite a few. I'm planning on playing games like GTA V (when it comes out), ARMA 3 (when it comes out), BFBC2/BF3 etc. I don't know my budget for the graphics card, I just know the budget for the whole PC can go up to ~£700 but I'd like to get it as cheap as possible.


Basically:

-What is the difference between graphics cards with 1GB, 2GB and e.g. 1280MB of memory? Advantages? Worth getting 2GB over 1GB or not?

-Difference between GTX 560 and 560Ti?

-This one's pretty long but GTX 560 1GB vs GTX 560 2GB vs GTX 560Ti 1GB vs GTX 560Ti 2GB --VS-- GTX 570 1280MB

-What's the GTX 550 like in general? I've heard that the GTX 560s and above are much, much faster and it's worth spending a little more for the one's above the GTX 550.


Here's the other specs I plan on having:

Intel i5 2500k (I've heard this can outperform i7s when its OC potential is used + it's way cheaper)
4GB RAM
~80-250GB Hard Drive space + and external hard drive


Sorry for the long-winded question and thanks for your help in advance

 

[unksol]

HD7850 over a 560Ti any day

 

[aayjaay]

HD7850 over a 560Ti any day

What about HD7850 vs a GTX 570?

Also, what would a HD7770 be like?

I guess generally, for the games I'm going to be playing, in my price range, would I go with the ATI or GTX equivalent?

 

[jacknhut]

What about HD7850 vs a GTX 570?

Also, what would a HD7770 be like?

I guess generally, for the games I'm going to be playing, in my price range, would I go with the ATI or GTX equivalent?

At stock, GTX 570 is faster. When both moderately overclock, the gap gets smaller and HD 7850 starts to approach GTX 570. When heavily overclock, HD 7850 wins hands down since GTX 570 can't overclock as high.

 

[nforce4max]

7770 = gtx460 but only at stock clocks
560ti is good but I would be considering a 7850/70 instead
570= a bad idea considering how weak the overall power vrm phases are. Chokes that eventually short out and mosftets that tend to smoke when bad.

Safe bets 7700 or a 78x0 series. The 560ti is somewhat worth the extra expense over the normal gtx460 and gtx560 as it is fully enabled while still being able to hit 950mhz~

 

[aayjaay]

So as of now, I've got the impression that the GTX560 or the HD7850 are the best cards in the margin that I have mentioned.

HD7850's pretty expensive though. I'm wondering what the GTX460/HD7770s are like? Are they good for the games that I have mentioned above on high settings?

Also, are there any other ATIs on the market apart from 7850/7770 that could compare to others talked about in this thread?

EDIT: What about ATI 68x0 cards (e.g. 6850, 6870)? How do they compare? Are they good?
EDIT2: I forgot to put my screen resolution in the original post; at the moment it's 1360 by 768 but i may upgrade to a larger monitor later so I'd like to know how these cards perform with high resolutions.

 

[aayjaay]

[it says I can't edit my message so sorry for the double post]

Just thinking, without overclocking, which one one of all of the cards discussed would be the best. Also, how much does overclocking cost because I probably wouldn't be able to do it myself. Is it hard to do yourself if you don't know much about computers?