Search
Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in

BF3 video card on $200 budget?

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
Share

Hello All,

I'm looking to buy a sub-$200 video card for my system in next week or so. Not looking at SLI anytime soon. The sole purpose of this is to let me play battlefield 3 (multiplayer) "budget-style". Meaning 1280x1080, "medium" quality, whatever that means for the game, but most importantly, minimum 30 fps when there is absolute chaos while playing, (and more like 60-80 fps normally). Hope you know where I'm coming from on these settings...

In any case, after some considerable reading, I think the best cards for me based on my budget are either the GTX 560, or the Radeon 7850. Below are my current system specs. I know it's a bit weak, and wondering if it's even possible to get the performance I want, with the system I currently have.

Celeron G530 @ 2.4
8G RAM (normal timings)
750W PSU
A few 7200 RPM HD's.
Windows 7 64-bit

Which would you choose if you were me? I saw a couple of cards around $160 after rebate on newegg...but wonder if I should hold out for another month for prices to drop a little more.

More about : bf3 video card 200 budget

Register or log in to remove
Graphics card Expert

GTX 650ti for $175 on new egg is available and it will be very good for playing on medium in BF3.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

However, if you want to play on high or even Ultra, go with the GTX 660. Its just 30 more dollars and its exclusive with a free copy of Assassins Creed III here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

GTX 560 is phased out, the 650ti will be great but I am afraid your CPU might be a bottleneck for it.
Graphics card Authority

What brand is the PSU? A link to it would be perfect.

Also consider upgrading to an i3 in the near future.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

As for the GPU here are a few options.
7850 1 GB- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
7850 2 GB- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
7870- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Each is a bit better than the last. You have to decide how much you want to spend.

The Nvidia cards are another option but the only one relevant is the 660 and it costs almost as much as the 7870 but performs in between the 7850 and 7870.
Graphics card Expert

andrewcarr said:
What brand is the PSU? A link to it would be perfect.

Also consider upgrading to an i3 in the near future.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

As for the GPU here are a few options.
7850 1 GB- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
7850 2 GB- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
7870- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Each is a bit better than the last. You have to decide how much you want to spend.

The Nvidia cards are another option but the only one relevant is the 660 and it costs almost as much as the 7870 but performs in between the 7850 and 7870.


BF3 favors nVidia even with a slight performance advantage over the AMD ones.
Related ressources
Ask the community
Graphics card Authority

+1 to the Commander's post. GTX560 and GTX650 Ti are near enough identical in performance, but the GTX560 is a bit harder to find now. GTX660 is a far better option. Interms of framerates it's less than 5% behind the 7870 (so for all intents and purposes the same) but has other benefits in its favour that the 7870 lacks. You are looking at $200 then though.

Commandermadi said:
The 7850 is better than the 660? From where did you come up with that?

Check these benchmarks results for both of them
http://www.techspot.com/review/572-nvidia-geforce-gtx-6...


Sir, I never said that the 7850 outright beats the gtx 660. I simply listed the order that I would purchase the cards in if i had the money and the means to do so. The gtx 660 does beat the 7850 in pretty much all the benchmarks, but the card is like 230 dollars us. while the 7850 is only 180 dollars. it has wayyy better price to performance ratio. the original question was simply a card under 200 and plays gains at 720p ish.

gtx 660
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

7850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Graphics card Expert

super_teabag said:
Sir, I never said that the 7850 outright beats the gtx 660. I simply listed the order that I would purchase the cards in if i had the money and the means to do so. The gtx 660 does beat the 7850 in pretty much all the benchmarks, but the card is like 230 dollars us. while the 7850 is only 180 dollars. it has wayyy better price to performance ratio. the original question was simply a card under 200 and plays gains at 720p ish.

gtx 660
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

7850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...


Ok I apologize for misunderstanding, but you should have said that these bigger than ">" marks are according to the price-to-performance :) ) And actually Sam_p_lay just found a one at 209, so I guess any "sane" person will pay 9 more bucks to get an overall better card :) 
Graphics card Authority

You could draw the sand line after GTX660 ;-) I know what you mean - I've thought this especially with Intel's CPUs - moving from an i5 3450 to 3470 to 3550 to 3570, there's no real difference between them, but there's only a tiny price increase each time... it encourages you to keep stepping up little increments to get a higher model number and before you know it, you've spent quite a bit more.

For graphics though, I'd consider the GTX660 that point. Beyond that, you're looking at sizeable price increases for fairly minor gains. Whatever you decide to go with though, have fun with it and post back if you have an issues getting it set up :-)
Register or log in to remove
Ask the community
Read discussions in other Graphics & Displays categories
!