Best card for $300?

[h2l]

I need the best card I can find for $300 for my gaming rig. Eventually, I will get another and put them in an SLI config.

Anyways, here's my current system:

Asus P8H61
i3-2120
8GB Kingston HyperX Blu RAM
550W Ultra PSU

My monitor is a 19" Dell something or another with a 1440 x 900 resolution. That's the resolution I play on, and it's very comfortable for me. Most likely, for the next few years, I won't be playing on anything above that resolution.

The games I play are Battlefield 3, BioShock, BioShock 2, CoD, Dead Island, but basically, I don't want to be limited with what I can play. I don't play Skyrim or Metro 2033, and I don't play mmorpg's of any kind.

I've been looking at some cards recently though, and I REALLY prefer to stay within nVidia. It's not fanboy-ism, it's really just the fact that I've had a bunch of nVidia cards and ATI cards and I can honestly say that I like the nVidias much better.

So with that in mind, I think I really only have one option in the $300 range right?

This is what I'm looking at now: http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVGA-SuperClocked-02G-P4-3662-KR-GeForce-GTX-660-Ti-2GB-192-bit-GDDR5-PCI-E-/120970022707?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item1c2a600f33

What do you guys think?

 

[livingweapon]

if you want to keep that power supply and only do single card then defiantly the 660 ti I would suggest the msi card because it is the same price, has the highest clocks, and is the only card that can be voltage over clocked at this time, where as if you up graded ur power supply and wanted to do sli u could do 2 gtx 480 they are a little outdated but 2 of them in sli are better than a gtx 680 so take it as you will hope this helped

 

[alexdh01]

Your best option right now is the 660ti. The Radeon 7950 is supposed to drop in price shortly so that would be your next best option. You should also be able to find a 7870 in the 300 dollar range. I game with a 7870 on that resolution and the performance is amazing. BF3 runs perfectly at 60+ FPS. You may also want to know what the maximum refresh rate of your monitor is. You'll experience some tearing with these cards if your monitor can't keep up. I lock my games to 60FPS because my monitor only runs at 75hz. But anyway, if your partial to Nvidia, go with the 660ti for sure.

 

[h2l]

Yeah I actually just saw your thread after posting this one. All of my hardware is getting upgraded actually, I just don't have a graphics card at the moment which why I am upgrading that one first.

Also, you may be right about the 480's in SLI, but think about it, in a couple months you could have the 660 TI's in SLI, which surely, would be many times better then a 480 SLI setup. I'm most likely going with the 660 Ti though.

 

[h2l]

Your best option right now is the 660ti. The Radeon 7950 is supposed to drop in price shortly so that would be your next best option. You should also be able to find a 7870 in the 300 dollar range. I game with a 7870 on that resolution and the performance is amazing. BF3 runs perfectly at 60+ FPS. You may also want to know what the maximum refresh rate of your monitor is. You'll experience some tearing with these cards if your monitor can't keep up. I lock my games to 60FPS because my monitor only runs at 75hz. But anyway, if your partial to Nvidia, go with the 660ti for sure.

Good point. My monitor only runs at 75hz as well. Also, are you saying that the 7870 is better then the 660 Ti? I mean.. I may be partial to nVidia, but comprehensive benchmarks don't lie right?

 

[h2l]

Hmmm.. 7870 you say? http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2262856&CatId=7387

And then there's the XFX Core Edition for $260: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2318245&CatId=7387

I don't know what the difference between those two 7870's are, and whether they are better then a 660 Ti or not. Also, if anyone knows, which would be better in an SLI setup overall? The 660 Ti, or the 7870?

 

[alexdh01]

I believe the 660ti will beat out the 7870 slightly in stock benchmarks. Overclocking the 7870 will make it really close though. I still think the 660ti is the better value but you might be able to get a 7870 maybe 20-30 bucks cheaper within the next few weeks. And for a single monitor set up, you can't go wrong with any of the cards I mentioned. If you feel like bargain hunting, I'd look around for the 7870. But the 660ti will beat it's performance slightly. I think I'd still recommend the 660ti though, just giving you another option.

7870 crossfire is pretty beastly, I'm thinking about putting another one in soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BeKb9M5zV0

 

[livingweapon]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-480-3way-sli-review/1 for the gtx 480 sli

http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-geforce-gtx-660-ti-power-editon-oc-review/24 for the 660 ti sli

and i keep thinking exactly what ur thinking and then I look at the numbers and i cant believe it because for the same price as one of the 660 ti or half the price for sli I would be getting almost the same fps and that is just crazy in my mind and maybe im crazy but I think its a good deal also ya I just want people with first hand experience to post in my thread cause I want to see what there thoughts are

 

[h2l]

Idk, from what I am seeing, it seems like the 660 Ti is pretty much the way to go. I mean, if you go with the 480 SLI now, then you will have nothing to upgrade with in the future. If you go with the 660 Ti now, you can upgrade to an SLI, or maybe even a 3-way SLI in the future, and possibly the near future since prices drop when new cards inevitably get released months later haha.

I think I'm going to go with the 660 Ti.

 

[livingweapon]

no no if you want new then go for it im not trying to stear u away im just showing u but what im saying is both cards in sli preform about the same as shown in the articles and the thing is I can only run 2 way sli with my board idk with urs

 

[h2l]

In Battlefield BC 2, at 1080p, the 660 Ti with just a 2-way SLI gets 145FPS while the 480 only gets 98... That hardly seems like they run the same. I mean, that's actually a gigantic difference.

In Far Cry 2, the difference isn't as drastic as in BFBC2, but you get a 16FPS increase.

As for Metro 2033, they didn't show SLI benchmarks for the 660 Ti, but actually, the 480 in SLI only got 28FPS, while a single 660 Ti, got 30FPS. So the *single* 660 Ti beat out the 480's in SLI in a demanding game such as metro 2033.

 

[DarkOutlaw]

660 ti

 

[livingweapon]

actauly for metro the sli gtx 480 got 53 and the 660 only got 31

and u have to think of it from a price stand point too one 660 ti is the same price as 2 gtx 480s

 

[selayan]

Amd dropped prices so now you can probably take a look more closely. They offer sleeping dogs game too. Wait to see what nvidia does.

 

[DarkOutlaw]

1 big card is always better than 2 little cards...why are we comparing a 660 ti to a 480? Isn't that like comparing a camaro to a fiat?

 

[h2l]

actauly for metro the sli gtx 480 got 53 and the 660 only got 31

and u have to think of it from a price stand point too one 660 ti is the same price as 2 gtx 480s

Yup, my bad, I was looking at the wrong bar. The 480 SLI did beat the single 660 Ti.

 

[livingweapon]

not at all gtx 480 sli is better than gtx 680 so its a fair compare