Dear People, I've had a GeForce 8800 GTS (XFX 640MB) for a while now and it's beginning to show it's age, just! I have a £150 set aside for a new card and would love some advice on what to buy. Of course better performance than my 8800 and DX11 support would be nice. My rig has been upgraded recently with Intel's latest offering and is ready and waiting for a new family member so I would really appreciate your help.
For < £150 it has to be either a gtx 460 or a radeon 6850. Take your pick which. Link! Link! I'd personally go for either of them if you choose the 460, dual fan cooler seems to work great at keeping it cool and quiet. 6850 is just as good though, I can't comment on models as I dont know!
I replaced my 8800GTS about 5 months ago now, with an MSI GTX 460 1Gb for £160 (same card is now available for £135). I'm very happy with it so far and it would no doubt be a good choice for you also. Or try a GTX 560 if you can stretch your budget nearer £200.
if you use the dreaded ebay and don't mind buying second hand a 5870 is a very good buy at the moment, and without meaning to steal the thread but I'm going to be selling one next week sometime, so get posting and you'll unlock the marketplace (75 post) I think?
My vote is with a HD 6850, I picked one up for $220~ CAD, they overclock good, stays between 65-70 degrees while gaming, decently quiet and takes next to nothing for power. Edit: If you're looking for performance figures, I can play Bad Company 2 @ 1920x1080 with everything maxed out, HBAO on and 8x MSAA and it won't dip below 30 frames, even in intensive fights, usually averaging around 40-45~ FPS.
Thanks for all your replies. Just one more bit of advice before I press the buy button: What do you guys think of this - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-259-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1711 over the ones you advised above? Again all your help and advice is greatly appreciated.
The HD5850 isn't a bad choice, either. It isn't going to do DX11 as well as the newer cards, but in older titles it's faster than the HD6850.
If I was you I would try to scrape together another 30 quid and get a 560. The're regularly on scans today only and for 180 quid. Plus whilst you are saving up the extra cash you can make more posts here so you can get the free delivery from scan! I went from 8800 gts to 560 a couple months ago you definitely won't regret it.
Agreed again, the GTX 560 Ti IS the card to get in roughly this range.. But even on the "today only" special it's still £70 more...
A GTX 560 will last you longer than a GTX 460, especially a 1920x1080 resolution, so adding £35-£40 to your budget will be worth it. KFA2 GeForce GTX 560Ti EX OC Edition 1024MB - 56NGH6HS4IXZ - £184.99 EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB 1GB - 01G-P3-1561-KR - £191.47 Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti OC 1GB - GV-N560OC-1GI - £197.47 MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti TWIN FROZR II 1GB - N560GTX-TI - £209.47 However, you are then into HD 6950 territory and these can be easily flashed to HD 6970 levels of performance. XFX HD 6950 ATI AMD Radeon Graphics Card - 2GB - HD-695A-CNFC - £189.23 Keep an eye on Scan's Today Only page for daily deals. This is a tough decision, something that I am struggling with at the moment. Let the arguments begin... Free delivery for being a forum member here (after 20 posts): CCL: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=187959 Scan: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=186923
That, ladies and gentleman, is an absolute bargain. I have the very same card, flashed to a 6970 and it absolutely tears through BFBC2. It'll outpace a 560ti in just about anything, and there is a 98% chance it'll unlock to a 6970.
exactly this then go look at benchmarks as in some games gtx 560 is as fast as a 6970, but it varies from game to game, so gtx 560 or 6950 are both good choices, especially if you don't mind overclocking the 560 or flashing the bios of the 6950. also take into account which features you might prefer eyefinity is way better than nvidia's equivilant at the moment, or do you prefer and play more games that have physx or maybe you'd like to do some gpgpu folding? In which case nvidia is better, at the end of the day all we can do is advise you, while its up to you to make the final decision.
The 6950 is a great card especially when unlocked to 6970. I have the 6950 unlocked to 6970 and it's a bargain for that price.
I was shopping for the 560 until the above posts To be honest, I've had more fun with nVidia drivers but more joy with ATI/AMD overclocking and physx or eyefinity is a 'don't mind which one' and I don't do any folding. So is it the XFX HD 6950 or the 560 then??????? I can scrape the 40 quid together but I'll have to get it next week now! £190 is the absolute maximum I can afford and must stick to that price point. I can wait for the 'today deals' so perhaps which card is on special first. Decisions decisions.
I'm trying to make this dession too, I have a 4870 at the moment still doing well on 1920x1080 but it's about time I got DX11 and smoothed out the more intence BC2 fights. One thing that could sway it for me, does anyone know if the cooler design has changed much from 4800 to 6900? I've got a water block it would be nice to re-use. If I were to go eyefinity in the future would a flashed 6950 be able to handle 3 screens in a decent resolution? Or is there another card that comes to mind if I'm going to water cool it and overclock it? I could be persaded up to £300 for something special as the tax man gave me negative tax this month.
if you've got up to £300 I'd personally get a gtx 570, evga one is £269 i think on scan and sometimes they have it on today only, also means you should be able to use evga's precision tool to overclock it with, it won't support 3 way monitors on its own, but if your board supports it you can get another one in future so you can run 3 monitors at once if you so wish
I spent a long time deciding between 6950 and 560. I chose 560 because performance is really close for most the games I typically play and although flashing is 98% effective I just didn't like the idea of blatantly ripping up my warranty on day one of having my card by doing it.
