Gaming graphics card

Muzi5434

I'm looking to buy a gaming card which can run the new games such as assassins creed revelations, batman arkham city etc.

My budget is €300-350

The specs of my desktop are:

i7 2.93ghz
8gb ram @ 1333mhz
1 tb HD
650 watts PSU

I'm a noob when it comes to technical stuff so please do explain why you recommend a particular card

ShadowHearth

I won't tell you to wait for few weeks as 7 series ati coming out. Problem is its only high end 500eu card that will be released, and stuff for mortals will be out only in February.

You can get 6970 or gtx 570 for that money.

If your board supports crossfire then 6870x2 will out perform bouth, but no Cs in future.

All this would be in same money bracket.

What brand is your psu though?

dwighet

http://www.dabs.ie/products/sapphire-technology-ati-radeon-6970-hd-880mhz-2gb-gddr5-pci-express-hdmi-7V4N.html?q=6970&src=16

This is bang on your budget and a very nice card....
You could go with the 6950 and loose about 15% compared to the 6970 but there a lot cheaper....

6950 in xfire is awesome so another optoin is buy a 6950 for around 250 ish euro and save for another...

But then you may need to upgrade your psu to 750-850 watt...(more expence)

nesf

If you're gaming at 1080p* save yourself a bit of cash and get a 1GB 6950. You can always crossfire it next year if you feel the need for more power but on its own it should handle everything on your list with ease.

Reasons:

You don't need more than 1GB at 1080p. 2GB+ really only becomes useful at resolutions of 2560 x 1440 and above, i.e. proper 27" and 30" monitors. There just isn't enough stuff being processed to fill more than 1GB of memory at 1080p and below.

A 6970 is a better card yes but the gains are marginal enough at 1080p for the increase in price. Again, with higher resolutions the 6970 starts to become better value for money.

Similar argument with the GTX 570, great card, not strictly needed at 1080p and below.



Conclusion:

Buy what you want. If you value performance over value for money get a 6970 or GTX570. If value for money is important get a 1GB 6950. If you're gaming at less than 1080p you don't even need the 6950.


*1080p = monitors 24" and below pretty much. You'll know if you have a higher resolution because you'll have shelled out serious money for a monitor in the past. You can check this by looking at the resolution of your monitor in Windows also. It'll be listed as A x B resolution, 1080 refers to B here. Standard 1080p is 1920 x 1080 resolution.

Jonny7

Here's a visual representation of how fast each graphics card is..

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970/28.html

200 euro cards are really the sweet spot right now
For Nvidia that is the 560ti
and for AMD it's the 6950

Muzi5434

Thanks for the quick replies guys

I think I'll go with the 6970 because I do want performance. Right now I have the 6850 1gb and that cannot run assassins creed revelations on high settings.

Markd250

Personal experience: Arkham City runs at 1080p/60fps on my 6950 1gb. I've left the MSAA at 4x, everything else at max.

ShadowHearth

Markd250 wrote: »

Personal experience: Arkham City runs at 1080p/60fps on my 6950 1gb. I've left the MSAA at 4x, everything else at max.

Arkham city is a bastard of a child. I watched yesterday fella with 2xmars 2 Gpus ( 4x gtx580 ) barely getting 60 fps.

Markd250

Ha! I'm glad to be on it's good side! Firing it up was the first "wow" moment I've had gaming on my recent build.

Muzi5434

Hi again all,

Would be looking to buy a new graphics card in 2 weeks time with a revised budget of €380. I want to able to play upcoming games such as max payne 3, assassins creed 3 etc

Any ideas?

Thanks

Eboggles

If you're still playing at 1080p a 7850 would be perfect. It overclocks like a demon according to some forums.

Muzi5434

Eboggles wrote: »

If you're still playing at 1080p a 7850 would be perfect. It overclocks like a demon according to some forums.

Don't know much about graphics card but would this one be better?

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=55102&agid=1942

Eboggles

Muzi5434 wrote: »

Eboggles wrote: »

If you're still playing at 1080p a 7850 would be perfect. It overclocks like a demon according to some forums.

Don't know much about graphics card but would this one be better?

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=55102&agid=1942

Yeah but you wouldn't get the full potential of it @ 1080p. It is a great card, go for it if you don't want to be upgrading for a while or you're planning to switch to a higher resolution in the future.

Muzi5434

Eboggles wrote: »

Yeah but you wouldn't get the full potential of it @ 1080p. It is a great card, go for it if you don't want to be upgrading for a while or you're planning to switch to a higher resolution in the future.

I would be gaming at 1080p but I'll wait and see if I can get others opinions as well

ShadowHearth

It's high budget, so I would get 7950.
Keep in mind 7850 overclocks, but 7950 overclocks too. 7950 overclocked going higher then stock 7970.

No real point to compare cards overclocked vs stock or just how one card overclocks.

Muzi5434

ShadowHearth wrote: »

It's high budget, so I would get 7950.
Keep in mind 7850 overclocks, but 7950 overclocks too. 7950 overclocked going higher then stock 7970.

No real point to compare cards overclocked vs stock or just how one card overclocks.

Thanks for that information, what about the nvidia cards?

daz801

Only nvidia card worth getting at the moment, the gtx680, is way out of your budget. If you want to get the best for your money now get the 7950. But another option would be to get one 7850 now and then a second when you have the money. It would save you 100 euro at the moment and will still run everything on ultra (a single card overclocked is almost a 7950 stock) and then when you get a second card it will outperform a gtx 680 for the same price.

ShadowHearth

daz801 wrote: »

Only nvidia card worth getting at the moment, the gtx680, is way out of your budget. If you want to get the best for your money now get the 7950. But another option would be to get one 7850 now and then a second when you have the money. It would save you 100 euro at the moment and will still run everything on ultra (a single card overclocked is almost a 7950 stock) and then when you get a second card it will outperform a gtx 680 for the same price.

agree. so far, in your budget there is no point looking at nvidia side.

even if you have higher budget i would still recomend going 7970 too over gtx 680, because of the price difference.

*that is coming from gtx 680 owner and ati 6870, so no fanboism.

Muzi5434

daz801 wrote: »

Only nvidia card worth getting at the moment, the gtx680, is way out of your budget. If you want to get the best for your money now get the 7950. But another option would be to get one 7850 now and then a second when you have the money. It would save you 100 euro at the moment and will still run everything on ultra (a single card overclocked is almost a 7950 stock) and then when you get a second card it will outperform a gtx 680 for the same price.

I will probably do that, get two 7850s. Would there be an issue with psu or 650 watts is enough to power two cards?

daz801

650w will be enough these things aren't power hungry, they only take one 6 pin connector.

Muzi5434

Cool, probably will do that in a weeks time so, cheers