HD 6950 or wait for an HD 7950/7970?

[Arrionso]

Hello,

I was hoping to get some advice regarding a few Radeon graphics cards. I currently have an XFX HD 6770 that I bought a few years ago and was looking to upgrade.

Initially, I was planning on waiting for the thanksgiving sales to see if anything good came up during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I was mainly hoping to pick up an HD 7970 for around $300 if there was a deal for it, but I was browsing my local Craigslist and found an HD 6950 for $150.

It is an XFX HD 6950 so I'm pretty sure it has a transferable lifetime warranty. The card looks clean and the seller claims it is in perfect working order. I also feel like I may be able to haggle it down to around $125~130. Possibly even lower.


How well would an HD 6950 perform compared to an HD 6770 as well as an HD 7970? Would it be worth picking this up for around $130 and saving those $170 for other things? I mainly play on a single 1920x1080 monitor right now but was also looking to grab another one or two later on. I want something that will handle most new games at my current resolution in high/max settings for a few more years to come. Will this do that well? Or should I wait on the HD 7970 to come down low enough?


I believe this is the HD 6950 that is on sale:
http://www.buy.com/prod/xfx-hd-695x-cnfc-radeon-hd-6950-graphic-card-800-mhz-core-2-gb-gddr5/221030643.html?listingId=228027559

Any insight or advice on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[amuffin]

This will tell you everything.

The 6950 would be a great upgrade from your 6770, and well worth the $150. However, the 7970 is a much more expensive card.

 

[logicbomb666]

I currently have a XFX HD6950 that I got from newegg for about $170 with 2 free games. I have enjoyed it so far. I have only played minecraft, Battlefield 3, Tribes: Ascend and Deus Ex: Human Evolution on it so far. I have been pleased with its performance for sure. I have not tweaked any settings or ini files for these games, so I have experienced small visual glitches, but definitely nothing to worry about.

Tribes Ascend plays max settings flawlessly.
Minecraft has issues, probably due to it being a Java game, but when you play minecraft your not necessarily looking for "performance."
Battlefield 3 looks beautiful, but i have noticed small objects that load late. (i.e. I walk up to a fence, and a cardboard box magically appears once i get close to the fence)
Deus Ex: Human Evolution looks beautiful and runs flawlessly.

My setup:
Intel i7 860 @2.80GHz
8GB DDR3 1066 (cas 9)
500 GB 7200 RPM SATA/300 internal hard drive with 32MB buffer

Summary - For the price, I would definitely recommend this card. If you are a purist, shell out the $300+ for your peace of mind.