HD 6850 £95

[crober33]

http://www.ebuyer.com/321991-powercolor-hd-6850-1gb-gddr5-pci-e-graphics-card-axp6850-1gbd5-dh

was going purchase this for my new gaming budget system.

I have about £150 to play with for a graphic card but this looks like the best bang for the buck? unless anyone can recommend anything else?

 

[hellfire24]

that's a good card but if you have money you can get a better card.this is a good one -
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-xfx-hd-6870-4200mhz-gddr5-gpu-900mhz-1120-cores-eyefinity-hdmi-2x-mini-displayport-2x-dvi-i

 

[crober33]

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

i have been using that as a guide as to what to get, it doesnt seem much better for £40 more?

 

[hellfire24]

you are right.you may wait for HD 7000 series.

 

[crober33]

right i have decided to keep my q6600 8gb ram system and just upgrade the gpu.

my choices are as follows, whats the best one to take?

PowerColor HD 6850 1GB - £98

PowerColor HD 6870 1GB - £123

Asus GTX 560 Ti Battlefield 3 Edition 1GB + BF3 DOWNLOAD!! - £190

PowerColor HD 6950 2GB - £198

I will be buying battlefield 3 one way so i was thinking the 560ti was the best buy/value? but im tempted to go for the 6850 as its cheap?

 

[crober33]

or this forgot to link it

GeForce GTX 560 Ti 900MHz £180

 

[crober33]

some quick help please , just away to buy tonight. thanks

 

[hellfire24]

go with 6950 2GB.it's awesome and overclocks well.but if gtx 560ti @900 is for 180 then definitely the geforce!

 

[Rustyy117]

I'd go with the 560Ti as it trades blows with the HD6950 2GB, is cheaper and you get BF3. Unless you play at over 1920 x 1080 + you won't miss the extra VRAM the HD6950 has.
The HD6850 is a great deal, just depends what games you play and what settings you want to use.
Up to you man

 

[crober33]

Screen Resolution:1920 x 1200 is my monitor resolution, i only have a q6600 at the moment but im planning on upgrading to an I7 very shortly and i want to future proof as best as i can, im using a xfx 8800gts at the moment that i bought about 5 years ago for £350

 

[Rustyy117]

Ah right, well then if you want to max out BF3 with AA @ 1200P then you'd be better off with the HD6950's 2GB of VRAM.

Like I said before it depends if you want to max games out.

 

[crober33]

one final question...

i have been offered this for £500, would it be worth taking or should i stick to building my own? i think the parts in this alone are worth more than £500??

HP Pavilion Elite HPE-495uk Desktop PC
Intel Core i7 (870) 2.93GHz Processor with 8MB L3 Cache and 2.5GT/s Bus Speed
8192MB Memory
2TB Hard Drive
nVidia GeForce GTX 460 with 1GB Dedicated Graphics Memory
Blu-ray Player/SuperMulti DVD Burner Optical Drive with LightScribe
TV Tuner
Gigabit Ethernet LAN
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Wireless keyboard and mouse
1 year, pick-up and return

 

[Rustyy117]

I work it out to be just under £500 worth of PC bits if you were buying new, but that doesnt include a PSU or motherboard (not in your list)

Not a bad buy, but quite old tech, I'd personally opt for building my own around a 2500K system.

 

[crober33]

yeh i think the fun factor of building my own setup and seeing it working will be more fun also struggling to find cheap "nice" looking cases

 

[infernox_01]

If your motherboard supports crossfire and you have a good enough PSU, go for two HD6850s. Very good performance for just under £200.

 

[Rustyy117]

If your motherboard supports crossfire and you have a good enough PSU, go for two HD6850s. Very good performance for just under £200.

However still VRAM limited at 1200P

 

[Medicteddy]

yeh i think the fun factor of building my own setup and seeing it working will be more fun also struggling to find cheap "nice" looking cases

I was having this problem too, but I found the zalman z9 plus to tick all the right boxes:
- Looks good (though i guess this is subjective)
- Has plenty of desirable features in a case
- comes with four case fans, with capacity for 3 more (fans alone probably cost about £15...!)

This review website helped me decide whether I liked the features/how it looked: http://www.3dgameman.com/reviews/1211/zalman-z9-cases

It is £43.98 from www.novatech.co.uk, and delivery is free if you spend £50 or more (i bought an extra couple of case fans)

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/cases/cases/Zalman/Z9PLUS.html#utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=products


hope this helps! If you don't like this case though, check out that website for the other case reviews... so many reviews!

 

[Medicteddy]

Also, my thoughts on the graphics card situation:

If you get a hd6950, such as the msi twin frozr III 6950 , you can unlock it and overclock it reasonably easily to hd6970 (and gtx570) levels, with a spare bios to backup if the bios flash goes wrong.
However, make sure you find a good guide if you feel like trying this. By the way, the msi twin frozr III is £209.98 from dabs.com at the moment.

If not this card, then the asus 560 ti directcu ii looks like a good, cheaper alternative that overclocks very well:
http://www.pureoverclock.com/review.php?id=1201&page=18
http://www.ebuyer.com/254405-asus-gtx-560ti-directcu-ii-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-mini-hdmi-pci-e-engtx560-ti-dcii-2di-1gd5

 

[Rustyy117]

Just a Warning, don't bank on ANY HD6950's unlocking, even if other people have had success with the same model of HD6950... Its not a sure thing.

 

[Medicteddy]

Just a Warning, don't bank on ANY HD6950's unlocking, even if other people have had success with the same model of HD6950... Its not a sure thing.

I'm not really sure what to do to be honest considering the only reason I think the 6950 is worth ~£40 more than the 560 ti is the 'ability' to unlock to a 6970... Considering I'm new to overclocking and so on, should I just get a 560ti and overclock that (since it isnt too far behind an unlocked 6950 when oc'ed) instead of worrying about flashing bioses on the 6950?

 

[Rustyy117]

I'm not really sure what to do to be honest considering the only reason I think the 6950 is worth ~£40 more than the 560 ti is the 'ability' to unlock to a 6970... Considering I'm new to overclocking and so on, should I just get a 560ti and overclock that (since it isnt too far behind an unlocked 6950 when oc'ed) instead of worrying about flashing bioses on the 6950?

If it were my money I wouldn't gamble £40 on the chance of the HD6950 unlocking. From what I've heard the GTX560Ti overclocks well so that would be my choice (if I were gaming below 1080P).

 

[Medicteddy]

the GTX560Ti overclocks well so that would be my choice (if I were gaming below 1080P)

I'll be gaming at 1920 x 1080...

 

[Rustyy117]

Well then I'd suggest you'd opt for a card with more VRAM, that's if you plan on playing the latest games with maximum settings.

Just depends on your preference for eye candy.

 

[esrever]

you don't need the extra vram at 1080p. even at 1600p you won't need more than 1 gb.

 

[Rustyy117]

I disagree, have a read

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18284509