What's the best card money can buy for about 250$?

[mrbeanladen]

7850, 560, etc, which one? I want to upgrade from my 450 to a decent card that can play ALL games at perfect settings at 1920x1080. Max is about 250$ and I'd like of course to get one as soon as possible, under 2 weeks (for personal reasons).

Never had an ATi, only had nvidias and, a voodoo and a card with a weird name i can't remember... back in 1996. But I heard they're good and they're generally cheaper but have bad drivers is this true? Are they worse like amd is vs intel? or comparable to nvidia?

sorry for the generic question that you may get here a lot I bet but I wan't to decide once and for all... should I wait for a nvidia or buy a 7850 right away... OR should I get something else...?

 

[gamerkila57]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127662

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130613

 

[mrbeanladen]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127662

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130613

would a 7850 be just as good?

 

[gamerkila57]

yes if overclocked

 

[lt_dan_zsu]

If you wanna go higher risk but better performance per dollar use ebay. A 7870 sold for $225 with an 80+ psu last night. Also there is a 580 on ebay for 260 free shipping right now. But remember it is a little higher risk because you are buying used but there is a good chance it comes with a lifetime warranty.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/Graphics-Video-Cards-/27386/i.html?LH_BIN=1&_sop=15&_nkw=gtx+580

 

[jake_larkee]

7850, 560, etc, which one? I want to upgrade from my 450 to a decent card that can play ALL games at perfect settings at 1920x1080. Max is about 250$ and I'd like of course to get one as soon as possible, under 2 weeks (for personal reasons).

Never had an ATi, only had nvidias and, a voodoo and a card with a weird name i can't remember... back in 1996. But I heard they're good and they're generally cheaper but have bad drivers is this true? Are they worse like amd is vs intel? or comparable to nvidia?

sorry for the generic question that you may get here a lot I bet but I wan't to decide once and for all... should I wait for a nvidia or buy a 7850 right away... OR should I get something else...?

I'd have to agree with gamerkila57 on this one. Try and save for the 570 if you can, it's a beast.

 

[bigcyco1]

MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr II GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $249.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127682

 

[stickg1]

Go with a GTX 570: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127682

or a HD7850: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127663
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150617

The 570 is a little better but consumes more power. What PSU do you currently have?

 

[verbalizer]

GTX 570

 

[bigcyco1]

The 570 i linked is your best bet at that price point i have two of those and they kick ass!

 

[verbalizer]

I'd even go with a GTX 560Ti-448 over the HD 7850....
(just saying...)

 

[stickg1]

I'd even go with a GTX 560Ti-448 over the HD 7850....
(just saying...)

I need to wake up to the king tomorrow, I'm expecting French toast sticks. I'll leave the window cracked.

 

[bigcyco1]

I'd even go with a GTX 560Ti-448 over the HD 7850....
(just saying...)

+1

 

[Maximus_Delta]

Get the 7850. Its on a completely new process, 28nm vs 40nm. In terms of performance efficiency the difference is massive and it does over clock. Funny how the strong recommendations for the 570 are from owners of 570s... try running your cards in OCCT stress test guys, they artificate on default clocks, yeah great cards.

 

[verbalizer]

:/

 

[bigcyco1]

:/

:lol: fan boys will be fan boys

 

[Maximus_Delta]

Me a fan boy ?? You're the guys advising our friend here to pick up old tech... he might be paying his own power bills so be better off with something new, fresh and energy efficient.

 

[bigcyco1]

Me a fan boy ?? You're the guys advising our friend here to pick up old tech... he might be paying his own power bills so be better off with something new, fresh and energy efficient.

He would be better off waiting for 660 then IMO

 

[batty251]

what about a 560ti dose good performance and dose even better sli

on bf3 if u go a msi 560ti hawk and on a rez of 1920x1080 ur gunna get good fps and its even better when overclocking because of the awesome cooling on it

 

[Maximus_Delta]

you dont want to SLI low powered cards like that... Crossfire / SLI on the high end stuff works well but almost always better off getting the highest performing single GPU card you can... CrossFire / SLI is for when there is no one card out there that can do the job at 60fps IMHO. SLI aiming to hit 30/40fps bad idea. There is an article on Tom's about microstutter and the like.

 

[amuffin]

GTX 570!

 

[mrbeanladen]

Go with a GTX 570: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127682

or a HD7850: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127663
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150617

The 570 is a little better but consumes more power. What PSU do you currently have?

It's a Gigabyte 620watts 2 rails I think It could handle it perfectly (a psu calculator told me I'd only consume 444-494w) but i don't know about the 570... it's almost 50% more expensive in my country, not cheaper. I know It's pretty weird, but this card is cheaper than a 560 for example (the 7850) so I thought IT would be the best deal.


And the 660 too, i don't know... people say it will be 300$+ and its performance about the same as this card.

my psu: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3606#sp
I see it has 18amp on each rails and 36 for both of them is that important?

 

[verbalizer]

you dont want to SLI low powered cards like that... Crossfire / SLI on the high end stuff works well but almost always better off getting the highest performing single GPU card you can... CrossFire / SLI is for when there is no one card out there that can do the job at 60fps IMHO. SLI aiming to hit 30/40fps bad idea. There is an article on Tom's about microstutter and the like.

low powered cards like what.?
your trying to be logical but honestly bro, it's not working...
a few things you have said are traits of fanboism and just not knowing completely..

 

[gamerkila57]

just get this best bang for your buck

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127662&nm_mc=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r&cm_mmc=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r-_-Video+Cards-_-MSI-_-14127662

 

[stickg1]

Get the 7850. Its on a completely new process, 28nm vs 40nm. In terms of performance efficiency the difference is massive and it does over clock. Funny how the strong recommendations for the 570 are from owners of 570s... try running your cards in OCCT stress test guys, they artificate on default clocks, yeah great cards.

Did you ever consider the fact that they own gtx570s because they are well informed buyers, did their research, and bought the stronger card? I'm not talking down AMD Graphics, I would consider myself an AMD Graphics fanboy. I wouldn't buy anything else unless nvidia dropped their prices on all models about 15%-20%. I would suggest a 570 over a 7850 though. I would not buy a 7850 unless it was $200. At that price point it is a great card. At $250? MEH. I would go get myself a used HD7870 (like I did) for $250. THATS a good bang for buck deal.

Also I rather have 10% better performance for a whole year than a .25% less power bill for the whole year.

Not every card overclocks like a monster. Out of the 6 Radeons I have tinkered with in the past month(4 of them being 7000 series) 3 of them achieved great overclocks. (2 of those were 6950s)
Overclocking is a luck of the draw type scenario. Unless the OP wants to up his budget for a 7870, the gtx570 is the way to go.