What to do with $220?

[xnin3]

So, I'm not sure what to do with it, I am debating whether I should get an EVGA GTX 660 for $230. Or, should I get a new wireless gaming headset with a game or two? Help please! My current GPU btw is the GTX 550 Ti, and my current headset is the Turtle Beach X11, but all the wires are in shambles and are tangled everywhere.

 

[andrewcarr]

What is your resolution. I'd say get a 7870 but if it isn't 1080 then that'd be overkill.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131466

 

[samuelohagan]

Yeah I agree with andrewcarr, a 7870 might be overkill

If you upgrade, get a 7850

http://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Radeon-Express-Graphics-900505/dp/B007KJ1URG/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1349577144&sr=1-1&keywords=hd+7850

only $185

You could also sell your 550 ti on ebay for around $70; with that money you could get another headset also

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826816005&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-NA-_-NA

7.1 $95

 

[andrewcarr]

And the 7870 will eat the 660 for lunch

 

[xnin3]

What is your resolution. I'd say get a 7870 but if it isn't 1080 then that'd be overkill.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131466

My Resolution is 1440x900

I wanna be pretty future proof, not have to buy a new card for a while. So, 7870 it is?

 

[andrewcarr]

Yep if you want to keep the card about two years 7870 it is. I would recommend a monitor upgrade the next $155 you have though just for how much nicer this one is.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-vs238hp

Just to make sure though what PSU and CPU do you have?

 

[xnin3]

Yep if you want to keep the card about two years 7870 it is. I would recommend a monitor upgrade the next $155 you have though just for how much nicer this one is.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-vs238hp

Just to make sure though what PSU and CPU do you have?

I've got an i5 Clarkdale right now, and it should last til the next gen of games, and my PSU is an OCZ 600w Mod Extreme

 

[andrewcarr]

Okay then go for the 7870 you're system can handle it just fine.

 

[luciferano]

Even on a lower resolution display, a 7870 can be great. Just pump up the AA to make up for the low resolution. Of course, upgrade the monitor if you want to, but it's not like the 7870 would be wasted there unless you play games that simply can't be made very intensive on the graphics and other than a few lower end games such as Diablo 3, I can't think of many such games that aren't pretty old.

I also wouldn't say that the 7870 eats the 660 for lunch. I think that they compete very well, but that 7870 is one that I found earlier myself and I can't find any 660 less than like $30 more expensive right now and I'd recommend it. Now if it was something like a 660 Ti versus 7950, then I'd say to avoid the 660 Ti like the plague, but I like how well the 660 competes with the 7870. I consider the 660 to be the best value of the GTX 6xx generation right now.

 

[andrewcarr]

Only game I know of is BF3 that according to benchmarks the 7870 loses to the 660. Overall it outperforms it by ~10%
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-geforce-gtx-650-benchmark,3297-24.html

 

[luciferano]

Only game I know of is BF3 that according to benchmarks the 7870 loses to the 660. Overall it outperforms it by ~10%
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-geforce-gtx-650-benchmark,3297-24.html

Overall, the 7870 outperformed it by ~7%. That's comparable to the difference between the 670 and the 680. We don't say that the 680 eats the 670 for lunch, do we?

 

[andrewcarr]

My simple point was that the 7870 is better for the same price. When I look at them I look at price for performance. Spending $100 extra for 8% better performance isn't worth it. Spending $15 less and getting a GPU 8+% better is worth it (thus the comment).

I have a hard time recommending any NVidia GPU at the moment. Last generation I recommended the 560Ti for an upgrade like this. Now I'd get a 7870, it just performs better for the same price as the NVidia. AMD was smart releasing sooner than NVidia. They got cards out that were better by quite a bit than both old generations and were able to make a large profit. When the NVidia cards did come out yes they had a better price to performance (and the highest performance of any single GPU card). Then comes the price cuts alone with new drivers and once again it's hard to beat the good deals that AMD has to offer. Because of this and better overclocking for the AMD cards I just don't recommend any NVidia at this moment.

 

[xnin3]

My simple point was that the 7870 is better for the same price. When I look at them I look at price for performance. Spending $100 extra for 8% better performance isn't worth it. Spending $15 less and getting a GPU 8+% better is worth it (thus the comment).

I have a hard time recommending any NVidia GPU at the moment. Last generation I recommended the 560Ti for an upgrade like this. Now I'd get a 7870, it just performs better for the same price as the NVidia. AMD was smart releasing sooner than NVidia. They got cards out that were better by quite a bit than both old generations and were able to make a large profit. When the NVidia cards did come out yes they had a better price to performance (and the highest performance of any single GPU card). Then comes the price cuts alone with new drivers and once again it's hard to beat the good deals that AMD has to offer. Because of this and better overclocking for the AMD cards I just don't recommend any NVidia at this moment.

One last question, in the past, I've heard PowerColor isn't such a good brand, but since you recommended it, I'm gonna go ahead and assume it's good?

 

[luciferano]

One last question, in the past, I've heard PowerColor isn't such a good brand, but since you recommended it, I'm gonna go ahead and assume it's good?

They vary be model more than some other brands do in my experience. I think that some of their recent non-reference models are very good, but I don't like a lot of their older cards. Going by brand isn't a perfectly accurate way to say what is the best and worst and some brands such as Power Color and XFX prove this all the time where some of their cards are excellent and some of them are garbage.

 

[andrewcarr]

Personally I would have recommended the HIS card I know is good but the price jumped up $30 so the PowerColor is a better deal and I've heard good things about that specific model.
But now that you waited and It's out of stock you can either get this one or just wait until another comes down to that price (seems newegg has one every week and it starts and ends in stock with about a three day gap in the middle).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102983