Upgrading 6870 Need Advice

[grassyuk]

If i decide to, i will be replacing my 6870 as soon as possible. I will mostly using the card for playing games such as BF3, Company of Heroes 2 and many more new games at max settings.

My monitor res is 1680x1050 however i will most likely upgrade to a 1920x1080 at some point.

I am not looking to crossfire or sli, i want to get the best value for performance card that i can that will last the longest.



Current Rig:
i5 2500k @4.3ghz
MSI Z68A-GD55
Exceleram 8GB @1600mhz
Corsair 650w
XFX 6870 Duel Fan

Other notes:

Im looking to upgrade now because theres a good chance i can sell my 6870 for about £70-90 hopefully and the money would help towards the upgrade.

If you think i should wait for the 8000 or 700 series please say and why, im tied between biting the bullet now or waiting.

Thanks

 

[drums101]

since you will be playing mostly bf3 go for the gtx 670...if you budget allows its one of the best bang for your buck cards at that performance level...you can give it a healthy oc and get it up to 680 levels and that would dominate any game at 1680x1050 and even 1080p

edit: dont wait for the next generation there is nothing solid on it yet I have a feeling you would be waiting a while

 

[Kamen_BG]

I really don't get it how a HD 6870 isn't enough for you at that resolution but if you really need more performance for BF3 you should just buy a second one.This way you'll have a setup that performs like a GTX 670 (or better) and you won't spend a lot on it.

 

[grassyuk]

I would get a second 6870 but i've heard alot about microstutter also there would only be 1024mb of effective memory.

 

[dscudella]

If you do decide to upgrade, what would your budget be? We can't recommend a GPU if we don't know your limits. The XFX 6870 ships for $188 ($150 MIR). At ~$250 you're looking at a 7870 2gb or a 560 TI 1gb and ~$300 it would be the 7950 3gb or the 660 TI 2gb.

 

[grassyuk]

My budget is about £300 which is about $480, sucks in the UK tax makes everything so much more.

 

[dscudella]

My budget is about £300 which is about $480, sucks in the UK tax makes everything so much more.

At that price range you have three options, Radeon 7970 3gb, GTX 670 4gb & 680 2gb. Here is the BF3 1080 Benchmark that shows the 7970 on top, but those are special edition cards. I don't know if you have a preference, but I would go with the Gigabyte 7970 3gb 384bit GDDR5 for $450 shipped (don't know if they charge you extra or how that works) and comes slightly overclocked.

Edit: Your 300 pounds is ~$485 USD, so that 7970 fits nicely in your budget. Gotta love that exchange rate.

 

[grassyuk]

Will the 670 or 7970 last for a while and be able to max out games such as company of heroes 2 and the new metro ?

 

[dscudella]

Both the 670 & the 7970 will last you awhile. Both cards will run you about the same $$.

The difference is that the 670 is faster in synthetic tests, 3DMark 2011 and such while the 7970 is faster in real world tests such as BF3. The 7970 also uses less power which means less strain on your PSU.

I think you'd be happy with either card. My personal choice? The one I linked, the Gigabyte 7970 Ghz Edition 3gb 384 bit.

One other thing to consider, GPU length. The 7970 is 11.5" long while your 6870 is 9.5" - 10.5" depending on the manufacturer. Do you have the room?

Edit: If you can find an Nvidia GTX 680 in your budget, I'd grab that, it's the fastest GPU Nvidia makes besides the $1000 GTX 690.

 

[grassyuk]

Plenty of room , got a old Lian-Li PC-70 Server case.

Also i keep seeing different results from different places but anandtech seems to be quite reliable and it says that the 670 is better in real world tests, by quite a bit actually.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/508?vs=598

 

[dscudella]

Go HERE and check them out on Tom's. I trust Anandtech but it does seem the sights are getting different #'s. Could also be the setups.

 

[grassyuk]

May i ask what graphics card you run?

 

[dscudella]

I currently use the Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 1gb 256bit which is overclocked to 980 core 1190 mem (775 core 1000 mem stock).

 

[grassyuk]

When are you going to upgrade your graphics card and which one?

 

[dscudella]

I honestly won't upgrade until this one starts showing it's age, which it hasn't even begun to. I haven't thrown BF3 or Crysis at it, but it runs (at 1920x1080) World of Warcraft Ultra, Starcraft 2 High, Skyrim High & Diablo 3 High and Black Ops 2 here in about 5 weeks, but that won't stress any Mid / High end GPU's on the market.

 

[zloginet]

Just go on ebay and get a used 7970 for under $400 and call it a day

 

[dscudella]

The whole thing is do you want to upgrade or not. You really have 3 options right now.

1. Keep your 6870 and wait ~ a year for the next line of GPU's to drop then decide.

2. Keep your 6870 and Overclock it, getting some extra FPS and performance out of it.

3. Bite the bullet and get a 7970 / 670 / 680.

Those three cards are at the top of the food chain and aren't going anywhere. We've provided you with insight, opinions & benchmarks to help you make the decision.

What are you going to do is the most important question that needs to be asked? If you have that $400-$450 laying around, not spoken for, then pull the trigger. Your call.

Edit: OC'ing your 6870 might not get you any noticeable performance increases. They don't OC nearly as well as the 6850's do.

 

[determinologyz]

Just go on ebay and get a used 7970 for under $400 and call it a day

I just dont feel to nice about laying 400 on a used gpu..just me tho

 

[dscudella]

I just dont feel to nice about laying 400 on a used gpu..just me tho

I love how many used i5-2500K's are on ebay and they all say the same thing "never OC'ed". No one buys a 2500K or 3570K to let them sit at stock clocks. It's the reason you bought a K model.

 

[SinisterSalad]

My i5-2500k is at stock. As well as my 7950. So, there.

 

[dscudella]

You're telling us you have an i5-2500k AND a CM 212 and you've NEVER OC'ed it??? I would have so much fun with your set up.

 

[SinisterSalad]

That's what I'm telling you. I got it for future-proofing. So, someday I will. I have no use to do it now.

 

[dscudella]

That's what I'm telling you. I got it for future-proofing. So, someday I will. I have no use to do it now.

Gotcha. I can respect that.

 

[SinisterSalad]

Plus, I need to read the OC section more so I don't smoke anything once I do need to do it, lol.