Did I make the right choice buying XFX 6870 2GB or was it a mistake?

salh

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Here's my sad story, please give suggestions wether i should return or keep it

I was planning on getting a new graphics card for about 3-4 months while securing funds(actually just making excuses to get dad to pay) so he took me to the market to buy one this week and he was in a hurry, and I got confused about the pricing and peformance of different cards as all the selespeople were really not helpful


And I got a 6870 2GB XFX for about 700AED ($190.5848 USD). And when i came home and checked it turns out that the 6xxx series is more outdated than I thought and seems to be around since 2010! ANd another thing I didn't know it was actually lower performance than the 5870(or is it?)

So i dont have much time and not sure wether to return and exchange or not. Also my budget is limited so suggest alternatives along with a recommended price and no links to online stores please

Thanks a lot
 
I suggest you return it, then do some research on graphics cards. Look at benchmarks for the games you like and purchase the card that can play them well at the resolution you use. The 6870 is not a bad card, but I would have got a 7850 as its the best bang for the buck out there.
 

COLGeek

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Yes, the HD5870 has more raw performance capabilities than the HD6870. However, the HD6870 is still a very good video card.

To make a better assessment as to whether it was a good choice for you, we need to know the specs of your current system as well as providing us some info about how you use your system (what games, what resolution you game at, development, web/email, etc).
 

madbiker

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A 6870 overclocked will run close to a standard 5870... but, you overpaid for that card! Your other option is to find a second 6870 with 2GB of memory and a similar clock speed and run the 2 cards in crossfire mode, which will slightly outperform a stock clocked 7970...
 

+1

It really depends on the games you play. Getting 2GB VRAM was a good call - the card will last longer because of that headroom, and you can still play all of the games out today on High settings @1080p.

The HD 7850 is a better card, but is slightly more expensive.
 

Do you know the local hardware prices in... wherever that is? It's possible that it's a reasonable price.

Still, a 7850 should give more performance per dollar (or per AED etc.) in most places. Even the 1 GB version.
 

thedimsum

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A bit overprice for that card but I think the bigger issue is purchasing a xfx. My previous experience with their RMA system left a bad taste. The card I had from xfx stopped working and was still under warranty so I sent it bad for repair. However xfx decided on giving me a replacement with a lower end model that is missing the copper heat sink on the card that I had and their justification for it is they have the same GPU even though I paid extra to get the card with the copper heat sink. So IMHO I would stay away from xfx in general.
 

salh

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Forgot to mention, I have a 1280x1024 60Hz stock acer monitor and occasionally* I connect to a 400Hz 3D LED TV

Also, I don't have any practical experience of messing with frame rates (I do know what a lag is, but dont know teh numbers) depending on what website you go to acceptable is anywhere from 25-60FPS (lolwut?) not that I want acceptable, I want the absolute best for my budget (which is 200$ or under local prices taken into account.



*no excuse for not expecting top performance even then

Extra detail: This is the super rare non existent online Dual Dissipation version(I've seen two fan versions but they're not exactly the same) I'm not sure that matters though

And also some people say that 7850 costs almost the same, note that the rip off-ist was asking for 850 AED 2GB
 

salh

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AED/Dhs means Dubai (and Morocco too I think) Sakkura chan :)
And when it comes to PC components Dubai can be a really expensive city :pfff:
 

Then you got a good card. You will have a very good gaming experience on that card in all games on High (maybe not Ultra) settings.
 

salh

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+I found out that 6870 doesnt support Dx11.1 and openGL 4.2 ( :'( very evil of you AMD)

The price difference is 675 AED and 850 AED so can someone tell me if the performance difference matches(exp those saying it's good bang for the buck)
 

salh

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That's the point, Ultra and high arent the same, and on older threads on this very forum people said that it can run games on Ultra


http://www.hwcompare.com/12078/radeon-hd-6870-vs-radeon-hd-7850/
 

COLGeek

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You have a choice, keep the HD6870 which is a pretty solid GPU. Or return it for either a HD7XXX series or GTX 6XX series video card, within the same price range.

Given the resolution you game at, the HD6870 is more than enough to meet your needs. You still haven't provided the specs for the rest of your system.
 

Well, DirectX 11.1 is brand new and probably won't be too important. OpenGL isn't used much these days.

With those kinds of prices you weren't ripped off compared to the 7850, though the 7850 would still have been a better buy. For 1280x1024 though, the 6870 should be plenty powerful.
 

patrucker

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I can understand wanting a card that supports the latest and greatest. Due to the age of the Barts core on the 6870, you can expect DX 11 and tesselation. 11.1 is just too much to hope for.

Again, the 6870 is a robust card. I play Left 4 Dead 2 on ultra high settings with a solid 60 fps. I played World of Warcraft on this card for a LONG time with no lag. BF3 on high settings at 1920x1080 would give me an AVERAGE of 45 fps - 1920x1080. In some places, it would drop a LOT, but I think that was mostly dueto my older e8500 processor.

1280x1024 should be nothing for this card. I will say that no matter which way you go, Nvidia will do some things better and ATI will do other things better. (Brink was horrible on my 6870, as was Rage.)

This honestly sounds like a case of buyer's remorse. I recognize it because I suffer from it a lot. Here's some things you can do to get past it.

1.) Install MSI Afterburner or Rivatuner - something that will get you an onscreen FPS display.
2.) Fire up your favorite game. Set the resolution and crank up the detail as high as it will go.
3.) Play it for about an hour.

Now ask yourself; based on that little meter and how much fun you had playing the game, are you happy? Cause in the end, benchmarks don't gauge happiness. You kinda need to determine that for yourself. If it does what you want it to do, then nothing anyone else says matters.
 

salh

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Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.9GHz(sometimes 4+) 4GB 1600MHz RAM (can upgrade if necessary) and PSU havnt bought yet
Is that enough? :)
 

jaideep1337

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also just to put it out there AMD actually changed their numbering system from the 5000 series to 6000 series cards so in reality a 5870 is the top dog of the 5000 series and its counterpart in the 6000 series is the 6970. The 5970 was a dual gpu card and in the 6000 series the 6990 was a dual GPU card.
 

salh

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You're giving them away for free?

Here's a link to get an idea of local prices(not accurate at all because there can be huge differences b/w sellers, but it's something)
http://uae.souq.com/ae-en/gtx660/video-cards-98/a-t/s/
 

Dude, he just said the 7850 costs significantly more. And a 6870 really is plenty for 1280x1024.