GTX 570 or GTX 480 or Alternate Graphics Card Below 300$

[gidgiddonihah]

I have hit about 3 threads in the past couple days where this question has come up and wanted to see what the community thought.

My opinion is simple: The GTX 480 may be old and run hot/power hungry but it still beats out the 560Ti and comes close to the 570. When OC'ed it can beat out the 580, which is priced ~250$ more. It will still, at stock, be able to compete with the GTX 660/660Ti, which if NVIDIA keeps up their pricing, will easily be priced higher. Seems like the obvious budget friendly choice for those who still want some power.

Some might call up the issue of heat and power consumption, but for me they usually are nonissues. You should still have a 600 watt+ PSU running if you choose the 570 or any of the 600 series out now and most people have sufficient air circulation in their cases.

If you pick an alternate let us know what it is and why you choose it. If you choose the 570 don't be afraid to destroy my reasoning .

 

[dudewitbow]

if you are at the very end of the price line, thats where the HD 7870 is, and will be the card to compare to when the gtx 660/ti will come out most likely.

price estimate wise, the 660 will probably fall in between the 7870(300-320) and the 7950(340-360)

 

[Ironslice]

I have a feeling the GTX 660 ti will perform like a 7950 at stock speeds.

 

[dudewitbow]

I have a feeling the GTX 660 ti will perform like a 7950 at stock speeds.

more or less of what i expect, but i also expect the trend to work out on the resolution side as well as nvidia cards will push out 1920x1080 generally better while AMD will push out 2560x1600 more efficiently. I mean the better the card is, the more price drops on the cards below it, so its always welcome to go past what I expect.