i5 system , Ati 6950 or Nvidia GTX480?

[Synwyn]

They are very hard to find, but see if you can get your hands on a Saphire Toxic 6950. There's a little switch on the card that clocks it to 6970 speeds, and it can be overclocked well over that as well. I run 2 of these in crossfire and both cards run about 10% faster than a 6970.

---------- Post added 2011-12-28 at 09:46 PM ----------

I haven't received any documentation regarding the HD79XX series and their pricing. More than likely due to my distributors not having them available yet, I'd expect to know more upon release date.

550 for a 7970. I'll let you guys around these parts know how they bench when mine arrive on Monday.

[Drunkenvalley]

550 for a 7970. I'll let you guys around these parts know how they bench when mine arrive on Monday.

We know that one, and also have a thread on it already. We're talking about the HD 7950 for this thread.

[Synwyn]

We know that one, and also have a thread on it already. We're talking about the HD 7950 for this thread.

mis-read. Probably me being too excited to get the 7970s early. I see 79 and I instantly fill in the blanks.

[tibben]

It's not like we're about to go ban happy because someone calls us stupid...

So it's okay to refer to you as stupid from now on? Err, j/k. I <3 mods!

@OP - there are also GTX 550 ti, 560, and 560 ti 2GB cards for under $300

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...eId=1&name=2GB

Any of those should do just fine for your purposes.

[Drunkenvalley]

@OP - there are also GTX 550 ti, 560, and 560 ti 2GB cards for under $300

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...eId=1&name=2GB

Any of those should do just fine for your purposes.

Not. For. Gaming.
Just no. It's stupid.

*MOD WARNING* Drunkenvalley you know better than this. Post constructively or not at all. You have to elaborate on what you are saying otherwise next time you will get an infraction. For example tell the rest of the class why its "not for gaming".

- Cula

[Deleted]

What're the prices expected of the HD 7950 anyway come to think of it? It might not at all be relevant to wait for the few days till it releases if it's far over 300 bucks.

Link
For lazy non clickers: 7950 450$ 7979 550$

[psyched]

@ OP

Has said already those cards are very diferent. Perfomance wise the 480 gtx is pretty good and oc's pretty well also. Better that the 6950.
The problem is that it consumes alot more energy, so unless you have a good PSU, with at least lets say 650w power I wouldnt bother. Unless its a reall good deal. If you want to compare the performance It's about the same as a 570 gtx.
I bought a 480 like a year ago for half store price from a friend and its pretty good.
There are many reports that its an oven and over heats a lot. I frankly dont see it, maybe it was a driver/cooler problem with the first ones. I have a special edition from EVGA ( not very diferent, just has a improv. backplate and a slight oc) and after a few hours being pushed in bf3 it doenst heat up at all.
I run full details with almost full filters at 1600.

So either wait for the new ati's to lower the price or get a 570 - 580 gtx .

[BicycleMafioso]

GTX 480 if you have a PSU to support the most powerhungry single GPU there is.

Otherwise between the two I would lean towards the HD6950 since it has DX11 support.

Both have DX11 support?*

uh why are mods still suggesting against 2gb cards? dont think they realize the next ones coming from AMD are all 2gb,3gb,4gb cards.

Uh, why would you need more than 1GiB for 95% of the games out there, in 1920x1080?
I think you are misunderstanding the impact and effect of VRAM at all.

[DarkBlade6]

Best bang for you bucks atm ! (if you play GPU bound games)

MSI Twin Frozr III GTX560 Ti 448 Cores (40$ MIR )

At the moment, this is the best 300$ish GPU on the market, its almost as good as a GTX570 and when you compare both card overclocked, the 560TI 448 is just better , because it can clock Alot Higher.

Review: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...abyte-msi.html

[Deleted]

I run two monitors at the moment on my 1gb card. Main monitor is 1440x900 and secondary monitor is 1280x768. Now if i'm playing BF3 on ultra would that consume all my VRAM? Just want to know if I should upgrade to a 2gb card instead.

So, you span the game over the two monitors? Or do you use the 1440x900 for games and the other for web browsing etc etc?

If you're using the 1440x900 for BF3 I think a 1 gig GPU is fine. BF3 is quite VRAM hungry, but that's mostly on 1920x1080.

[psyched]

@mnm Its true 560 ti is probably the best bet in bang per buck, but in that review they compare a few 560 gtx with some hefty oc against a "regular" 570.

[Milkshake86]

They are very hard to find, but see if you can get your hands on a Saphire Toxic 6950. There's a little switch on the card that clocks it to 6970 speeds, and it can be overclocked well over that as well. I run 2 of these in crossfire and both cards run about 10% faster than a 6970.

---------- Post added 2011-12-28 at 09:46 PM ----------



550 for a 7970. I'll let you guys around these parts know how they bench when mine arrive on Monday.

Specifically the sapphire 2gb 6950 the switch does not clock it to 6970 speeds but unlocks the additional shaders you would have to overclock it. MSI afterburner does not allow you to exceed 6970 levels but sapphire Trixx does.

[Drunkenvalley]

Just wait another month or two.

There's nothing next month within reasonable budget that I recall.