560 Ti, 6950, or 7850?

[HarrisonTZ]

Hey guys... I am thinking about upgrading my GFX from my current 260, but I can't decide between a 560 Ti, 6950, or 7850. I am looking to play games like Crysis, Skyrim, and BF3 at a smooth 50-60 FPS on max settings. The Ti is the cheapest, plus I've read that it can be OC'd to about the same performance as the 7850, but I'm not too sure if I should still go with it. I don't want to fry any of my parts by overclocking, but if it isn't too much of a risk, I'd be willing to do it. What would you guys recommend? My specs are in my signature. Thanks!

 

[s3anister]

I'd only suggest the 7850. Here's the reasoning: both the 560 Ti and the 6950 are end of life cards and as such it will be hard to find another of those cards for cheap if you ever decide to crossfire/SLI. Plus both those last generation cards use a lot more power to achieve what the 7850 does.

However, if you can spend a little more, I'd tell you to get the 7950, it's only $60 more on average than the 7850.

 

[unksol]

7850. or 7950 if you want to stretch.

FYI raidmax makes junk PSUs

 

[fritz7]

+1 for the 7850

 

[HarrisonTZ]

Well since my mobo doesn't support SLI or CFX, I'm going to be using a single card for now. I really want to spend as little as possible, as well. I am quite fond of the 7850, but it's not the cheapest card. Hm...

 

[s3anister]

Well, you can get the ZOTAC AMP! 560 Ti for $180 after MIR and it's factory overclocked to 950MHz. (Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500196 )

The 7850 is the superior card, however, and will use significantly less power than any 560Ti (especially so with the overclocked Zotac model).

 

[HarrisonTZ]

Well, you can get the ZOTAC AMP! 560 Ti for $180 after MIR and it's factory overclocked to 950MHz. (Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500196 )

The 7850 is the superior card, however, and will use significantly less power than any 560Ti (especially so with the overclocked Zotac model).

What kind of performance do you think I'd get with the games listed in the OP?

 

[vilenjan]

7850, runs cooler, uses less power, runs faster, has a 2gb frame buffer (useful for future games in Xfire mode).

 

[HarrisonTZ]

7850, runs cooler, uses less power, runs faster, has a 2gb frame buffer (useful for future games in Xfire mode).

I think I'm gonna get a 7850. I am planning on overclocking, but I don't actually know what kind of cooling I need. I am going to overclock to about 1200-1250, but I don't want to fry my system.

 

[s3anister]

Crysis: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7870-review-benchmark,3148-9.html
Skyrim: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7870-review-benchmark,3148-15.html
BF3: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7870-review-benchmark,3148-6.html

Here's the unfortunate thing, it's really hard to find benchmarks that are (now) accurate because the latest 12.7 driver from AMD significantly improves performance for all 7 series cards. Plus, if you get a stock overclocked 7850 like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125419 or reach an overclock of 1000MHz it will perform similar if not the same as a vanilla 7870. As for overclocking, if you buy a graphics card that is factory overclocked really high like that Gigabyte 7850 you'll have a much better chance of reaching a higher overclock because it means that chip was binned higher for those overclocked cards. It's totally possible that in any case you'll never reach 1200MHz, however.

EDIT: Something to keep in mind is that one can now find 7870s for $270 after MIR. I personally hate MIRs but still, it's something to keep in mind.

 

[HarrisonTZ]

Crysis: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7870-review-benchmark,3148-9.html
Skyrim: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7870-review-benchmark,3148-15.html
BF3: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7870-review-benchmark,3148-6.html

Here's the unfortunate thing, it's really hard to find benchmarks that are (now) accurate because the latest 12.7 driver from AMD significantly improves performance for all 7 series cards. Plus, if you get a stock overclocked 7850 like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125419 or reach an overclock of 1000MHz it will perform similar if not the same as a vanilla 7870. As for overclocking, if you buy a graphics card that is factory overclocked really high like that Gigabyte 7850 you'll have a much better chance of reaching a higher overclock because it means that chip was binned higher for those overclocked cards. It's totally possible that in any case you'll never reach 1200MHz, however.

EDIT: Something to keep in mind is that one can now find 7870s for $270 after MIR. I personally hate MIRs but still, it's something to keep in mind.

Thanks for those links. The benchmarks aren't completely useful to me, because my max resolution is 1280x1024. That just tells me that I should expect much better performance on ultra settings than what was in those benchmarks.

 

[s3anister]

Thanks for those links. The benchmarks aren't completely useful to me, because my max resolution is 1280x1024. That just tells me that I should expect much better performance on ultra settings than what was in those benchmarks.

Ah yeah if your monitor resolution is 1280x1024 than even a 7770 (maybe a 7750) would work. However, if you get a better graphics card, you'll be enabling a future upgrade to a higher resolution monitor if that's something you'd ever want to do.

 

[HarrisonTZ]

Ah yeah if your monitor resolution is 1280x1024 than even a 7770 (maybe a 7750) would work. However, if you get a better graphics card, you'll be enabling a future upgrade to a higher resolution monitor if that's something you'd ever want to do.

Meh, I'd still get better performance with a 7850.