Best Graphics Card i can get for under 350?

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coolmarquis97

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Mar 27, 2012
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I currently have a GTX 550ti. It plays most games on medium settings at 70 FPS, to me that is just too low. What is the best I could do without paying over 350? Could I sli my GTX 550ti and get better performance? Could i buy a cheap card and OC it to get better performances that more expensive cards? What can i do?
 
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Robert Pankiw

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Mar 26, 2012
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The problem with SLI is that it doesn't give consistent performance. If you are willing to OC, is your 560ti already OCed?

What resolutions on you playing on, which games do you play most, and how many frames is "enough" for you?

560ti 448 core review

BF3%201920.png
Note the 560ti getting 40 Frames minimum, which should give you fluid game play.

GTX 670 Review

battlefield%201920.png
The 670 gets more than 70 Frames here while the 7950 gets just shy of 60 Frames.

Other important things are, what CPU are you running? It is possible that this can bottleneck you.

P.S. This is my first post with embedded images / text as a link, sorry if I messed it up.

Edit: One of the two images didn't display properly, attempting to fix this.
 
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gamerkila57

gamerkila57

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Feb 23, 2011
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http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/08/23/galaxy_gtx_660_ti_gc_oc_vs_670_hd_7950
 
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Robert Pankiw

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I skimmed the article, not to be rude, I am just a little lazy and do that sometimes.

What I understood of the article, compared to the results I posted, is basically that driver improvements have boosted frame rates of the 7950 by a fair amount. This was explicitly stated in one of their comments. I was negligent in not mentioning driver improvements. Sorry if this is not what you were trying to show / mention. I do take note that these results are with the OCed cards, and the stock card results, at least in the article you provided, are not mentioned.

Another thing I didn't point out is that the 560ti results I posted were under "good" detail settings, while the 670 / 7950 were under ultra. Still, the OP mentioned medium.

It is important that, at least in Canada, the 7950 comes just under your budget, while the 670 is over your budget. Newegg.com confirms this for the USA.


To gamerkilla57, I'd appreciate it if you actually included a few sentences, at least one. I don't ask for rambling on like I tend to do (though I think everything I say is relevant), but I do take insult that you won't even attempt to say what it is you are trying to convey.
 
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Razec69

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If you have the $350 now and the GT550 still, sell that and get a GTX670 or a 7950Ghz Edition.

You can easily get roughly 80-120 for that 550ti. So that will definitely put you over the mark.

Hell if you get the extra $100 you can easily buy a 7970 and possibly a used 680.

But personally I'd get a nice after market cooled 670.
 
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Robert Pankiw

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It seems I read 550ti as 560ti, thus why I was referencing the 560ti. I apologize for that.

I guess I didn't make an outright claim as to which one I would buy, but I do actually favour the 7950, bias included.

About getting the 7950Ghz edition, it is not called the 7950 Ghz Edition for 2 reasons, it isn't clocked at 1 Ghz, and it is just a bios change that, not a new card, as long as an old card isn't fully custom, the new bios will work with the old card. (Maybe closer to should rather than will).
 
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JackNaylorPE

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These fit ya budget

$300 GTX 660 Ti gets 1387.4 in Techpowerup Game Test Suite ($0.22 per frame)
$300 MSI 660 Ti Frozr gets 1468.2 in Techpowerup Game Test Suite ($0.20 per frame)
$330 7950 gets 1348.2 in Techpowerup Game Test Suite ($0.24 per frame)

$300 MSI N660 Ti PE 2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB w/ free Borderlands game
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127696

Keep the 550 Ti as a PhysX card

if ya can swing $420, the 670 DCII TOP is untouchable....it';s fatser than the reference 680, the 7970 and even the n7970 Ghz edition. The DCII TOP and DCII are the same card except the TOP purportedly used specially binned chips....Using Guru3D Test Suite this time

GTX 680 - $500 gets 989 fps @ $0.51 per frame
GTX 670 - $400 gets 917 fps @ $0.44 per frame
GTX 670 TOP - $430 gets 999 fps @ $0.43 per frame
7970 - $420 gets 872 fps @ $0.48 per frame
7970 Ghz Edition- $470 gets 952 fps @ $0.49 per frame




http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_670_Direct_Cu_II/33.html
http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-geforce-gtx-670-directcu-ii-top-review/24
 
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bigcyco1

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Feb 11, 2012
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I recommend R7950 it can oc like a beast!And would be better bang for buck if gaming on his res monitors or if you can find a 660 TI cheaper then by all means buy it basically other than Toms Hardware other professional reliable review sites consistently have the GTX 660 Ti beating a 7950 at 1920 resolution.
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/56090-nvidia-geforce-gtx-660-ti-review-23.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_660_Ti_Power_Edition/28.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6159/the-geforce-gtx-660-ti-review/20

Quote:
"As it stands, AMD’s position correctly reflects their performance; the GTX 660 Ti is a solid and relatively consistent 10-15% faster than the 7870, while the 7950 is anywhere between a bit faster to a bit slower depending on what benchmarks you favor. Of course when talking about the 7950 the “anything but equal” maxim still applies here, if not more so than with the GTX 670. The GTX 660 Ti is anywhere 50% ahead of the 7950 and 25% behind it, and everywhere in between." Coupled with the tight pricing between all of these cards, this makes it very hard to make any kind of meaningful recommendation here for potential buyers. Compared to the 7870 the GTX 660 Ti is a solid buy if you can spare the extra $20, though it’s not going to be a massive difference. The performance difference is going to be just enough that AMD is going to need to trim prices a bit more to secure the 7870’s position.

On the other hand due to the constant flip-flopping of the GTX 660 Ti and 7950 on our benchmarks there is no sure-fire recommendation to hand down there. If we had to pick something, on a pure performance-per-dollar basis the 7950 looks good both now and in the future; in particular we suspect it’s going to weather newer games better than the GTX 660 Ti and its relatively narrow memory bus. But the moment efficiency and power consumption start being important the GTX 660 Ti is unrivaled, and this is a position that is only going to improve in the future when 7950B cards start replacing 7950 cards. For reasons like that there are a couple of niches one card or another serves particularly well, such as overclocking with the 7950, but ultimately unless you have a specific need either card will serve you well enough.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6159/the-geforce-gtx-660-ti-review/21
 
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