Afternoon, chaps! With Skyrim pre-ordered and a free afternoon and evening on release day I feel it's time for a new GPU! Thing is, I'm totally out of the loop. Help! Current machine is a Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.83GHZ, 4GB RAM, an ageing 512MB HD4870 (which doubles as a under-the-desk feet heater) and a Dell monitor at 1680x1050. I can't remember the make of my PSU, but it's three years old, wasn't cheap and is rated at 500W. My budget is variable, but I'd rather spend less than £150. My 4870 plays most things on medium-ish without AA, but it struggles with Metro 2033 and Rage and DX:HR don't have shiny DX11. I'm not fussed about having the latest or greatest, just a decent upgrade from my HD4870 would be nice. Because I have a lower-than-average resolution, I'd like to see settings at the higher end, but open to suggestions and aware that my budget may not allow this. Any advice would be appreciated. Harv.
The 6870 looks like a very good choice for you, considering your budget. They cost roughly £150 and some models cost considerably less. If you've activated Scan's free shipping you can save an extra few quid. EDIT: I've not had a lot of experience with AMD cards, but I've heard that they are louder and hotter than the 500 series Nvidia cards. As above the 560 Ti would be a better choice.
A 560ti will eat almost anything maxed out at that resolution. Metro 2033 with all the AA being the exception! It also falls within your power-specification. I hope that CPU is going to get overclocked soon! TSB
HD6870 would be the perfect choice. Similar performance to the GTX560TI give your system and resolution (ie both will offer more than playable framerates in most games at high settings) but should save you around £30 or so.
I've heard that the 6870 and 560ti perform similarly. Is it true that AMD cards struggle with AA, which I've heard mentioned quite a lot around the interwebs. If that is the case, then I would go for the 560 ti.
Happy to overclock the CPU, but I have no idea where to begin! Thanks guys, I'll have a look at the HD6870 and 560ti this afternoon.
AMD is better with FXAA, Nvidia with MSAA. It depends on what you can use in the games you play. Parge posted an article about it, in the context of BF3, here somewhere, if I can find it I will link it. Edit: here: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?p=2863947#post2863947
Plus you can still get £30 / £40 for the old card on ebay, that will pay for your up-graded CPU cooler then we can give you an overclocking master class :=)
If you can stretch to it, this is a good offering. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-...gpu-900mhz-shader-1800mhz-384-cores-plus-bf3- 3 games with it. On today only for £192
Decided on the 6870 from Dabs as you get a free copy of Battlefield 3 and Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Not too shabby! Thanks again!