Best GPU for 1600x900?

[taydee]

Hello, I was just wondering what the best bang for buck would be for a 1600x900 resolution. I'd like to max things out as much as possible without spending a butt load of dosh. I was thinking about getting a 6850 for a little over a $100 (can get one for 120 after a 15 mir atm) when one went on sale, or paying a little more for a 6870. The other thought I had enter my head, was waiting for the 660ti or whatever it is to drop next month and hope the 7850/7870 price would dive a little bit. Thoughts? Recommendations?

Here's my current specs btw:
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (C2, not yet OCed, but I got a 212+ so that I could try to bump it to 3.6+ when I upgrade the gpu)
G.Skill 16GB Ripjaws at 1300 9cas (just bought recently, spent more than I should have, going to bump to the 1600 its specified for eventually, or just tighten timings)
Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P mobo
1024MB GeForce 9800 GT
488GB Hitachi SATA II 3.0GB/s
PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II 750W (also bought recently and spent more than I should have, but its a nice psu for 70 after mir, and I'm hoping with a 7 year warranty I can use it for a long time to support any upgrades I make)

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Also been kinda thinking about buying a 560ti if one hits a nice low price. PhysX would be nice, but would an AMD card run better with an AMD cpu?

 

[Sunius]

HD 6870 would be a really decent buy if you can afford it. Otherwise I'd suggest HD 7770. It's a bit faster than HD 6850.

 

[renz496]

i think for now your best bet would be 6850 or 6870. as for GTX660 Ti some rumours suggest the price will be around 299-329 mark. the radeon just have price cut lately so unless the GTX660 Ti going to perform as fast as 7870 and cost for 200 i see little reason for AMD to drop their prices more

 

[taydee]

Huh, I hadn't really thought about that. Not a bad idea. Good price. Although I don't know if I would say it performs better. Seems like a mixed bag for the lead between the two.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/536?vs=539

 

[Sunius]

At stock clock speeds, HD 6850 relative performance is 2% higher.

However, HD 7770 may be overclocked much better than HD 6850, surpassing it in the process.

 

[taydee]

Hm, ok thanks guys, really great answers from both of you! Not going to select one yet, in the hopes that I can get more input while I search around for some stuff (especially that bit about 7770 OCing, that has me interested) based on the input I've already received.

 

[Sunius]

There you go, an article about the OC part

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7770/29.html

 

[Sunius]

Glad to help .

 

[taydee]

Wow, thank you sir, you are uber helpful!

 

[joedjnpc]

I really wouldn't go for a 7770 unless you're really strapped for cash, save some money and get a 7870, it will be relevant for longer.

No an AMD GPU does not run better when paired with an AMD CPU.

And yep it's probably wise to wait for the 660ti !

 

[taydee]

Ah mixed signals! Lol, jk. Thanks for the input, I appreciate it! I'll probably wait until August to see what happens to prices anyways (I'd wait til black friday if I had the patience, but I don't). I really would like to get a 7850 or better so I could max basically everything to come out for a while, but it seems like with 1600x900 it wouldn't be critical, especially since graphics probably won't see a huge jump until new consoles and I don't see that happening for a couple years (we PC gamers seem neglected as far as personal developer attention these days).

 

[panwala95]

id personally go for ahd 6850 if i were bent upon aa but if you arent into aa then hd 7770 is better

 

[taydee]

Can you explain why that is? Does the 7770 perform better sans AA, but the 6850 without? And I have been taking a hard look at the 6850/70. Here's two I found for a good price on amazon.

6850 for 135-15mir = $120 (newegg had it for the same price up until about 2 hours ago for some reason, they change their prices too often for my liking, its screwed me over a couple times when I thought I had what I wanted all figured out)
http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-PCI-E-Video-100315L/dp/B0047ZGIUK

6870 for 167-20mir = $147
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005C31F2M/?tag=pcpapi-20
(Edit found another cheap 6870 on newegg, considering I can do the free 2 day shipping instead of paying 8 bucks, but it doesnt get good reviews and I don't really care about the free game)
6870 for 160-20mir = $140
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161389

Good prices? I always take the mir with a grain of salt, since most of them almost seem like they are trying to scam you out of it. Leaning towards the 6870 since 30ish dollars for 20% better performance seems like its an ok trade off, even if some would consider the 6850 a better value.

 

[taydee]

Also, heres a 7770 at a good price if it is competitive with the 6850.

http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=72479&vpn=R7770-PMD1GD5&manufacture=MSI%2FMicroStar

120-15mir = $105

 

[panwala95]

because the hd 6850 has abus width of 256 bit as compared to hd 7770s 128 bit
as there more lanes on the highway aa on the 6850 will faster with aa on
but the hd 7770s gpu is faster than the 6850s and will performe better where its bus width doesnt bottleneck it !
hope this helped!

 

[taydee]

Thanks, very helpful indeed! I think I would go for the 6850 over the 7770, because I find at least 2x AA to basically be a requirement for me, even at this low resolution. Jaggies drive me nuts!

 

[panwala95]

good for you mate just make sure your cpu doesnt bottleneck your setup by o'c ing it a bit

 

[taydee]

Oh yeah, I am most def going to overclock my cpu, aiming for 3.6 but 3.8 would be nice. Probably stuck at 3.6 ceiling though, as mine is a c2 from a few years back, and those don't OC as well. Generally run hotter and need more volts to OC well, which is not a good combo.

Also, I heard that the 6850 has quite a bit more OC headroom than the 6870, which is kind of making me consider the 6850. Would an OCed 6850 be bottlenecked by a x4 955 OCed to 3.6?

 

[panwala95]

no a hd 6850 wont even be bottlenecked if you use a core 2 duo

 

[taydee]

Ok, really tempted to pick this one up and OC it as much as I can. Especially after one of the reviews said it was capable of playing skyrim on ultra at 1600x900.

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-PCI-E-Video-100315L/dp/B0047ZGIUK/ref=pd_cp_e_0

Is that a good price, or should I wait and see if it will dip lower sooner? Or aim for a better card, like the 6870, 560ti, 7850 etc when one of them goes on sale.

 

[MaxGardener]

thats a great price and probably for the best 6850 on the market. Just built my friends rig on thursday with that GPU and runs smoothly, its very quiet, you will love it.

 

[taydee]

Awesome, thank you very much! I think I'm going to go ahead and pull the trigger. Thanks to everyone for the help, gonna be hard to pick a best answer here, you were all so helpful!

 

[taydee]

Best answer selected by taydee.

 

[dansgas1000]

I'd get a Radeon 7870