Looking to upgrade video card! Nvidia? Radeon?.....

[aukake]

So looking to upgrade my videocard for MoP and beyond! Was looking at the GTX 550 ti, Radeon 7750 and nicely the Radeon 6850. I know the 6850 beats them both by far in the benchmarks, but i hear it runs a little hot and it pretty big. Just looking to fun MoP and ultra with 60+ fps and got a budget of prolly $150 max as im buying 2 for my gf and i.

[glo]

Of those 3, the 6850 is the strongest by far. Don't even consider the other two, they're not gaming grade cards. They'll struggle in any newly released game.

However, the 6850 is still at the super low end of the spectrum, and I strongly suggest saving up an extra $20 per card for a 6870, or better yet $50 per card for a 7850.

[Daverid]

Out of personal preference, always Nvidia, I've had way to many problems with Radeon Cards in the past and Nvidia has way better Drivers and Support.

But if you're on a budget, and simply want the best power for money, then Glo's suggestions are probably as good as you're going to get.

[aukake]

Yea was actually thinking about the 6870 cause a hardware store near me is selling a New AMD Radeon HD 6870 for $139. So 6870 it is then. What is comp to the 6850-70 in Nvidia?

[Quintana]

Yea was actually thinking about the 6870 cause a hardware store near me is selling a New AMD Radeon HD 6870 for $139. So 6870 it is then. What is comp to the 6850-70 in Nvidia?

Personally I would save up the few extra dollars and get a 7850 instead, with a rebate you can pick one up for $189 or less.

That said none of those cards are going to run the game on ultra with 60 FPS everywhere. You'll probably get that performance in low population questing zones, some 5 man dungeons etc. In raids (especially 25 man) and in busy capital cities or questing zones you'll probably get between 30-50 FPS. The game is using an outdated engine, and is poorly optimized for even top tier systems.

Also the equivalent to the 6870 is a 560 (non TI), if you're dead set on that price range get whichever of the two cards is cheapest.

[glo]

Personally I would save up the few extra dollars and get a 7850 instead, with a rebate you can pick one up for $189 or less.

That said none of those cards are going to run the game on ultra with 60 FPS everywhere. You'll probably get that performance in low population questing zones, some 5 man dungeons etc. In raids (especially 25 man) and in busy capital cities or questing zones you'll probably get between 30-50 FPS. The game is using an outdated engine, and is poorly optimized for even top tier systems.

Also the equivalent to the 6870 is a 560 (non TI), if you're dead set on that price range get whichever of the two cards is cheapest.

Thing is, unoptimized or not a better video card than the 6870 is going to show zero to very little gain in 25m raids, cities or mass PvP. In said situations the CPU is providing the FPS ceiling. In other situations it's the GPU, and in said other situations, FPS will be almost always above 60 with all settings maxed with 4x AA~ and medium-ish shadows.

That is all provided that there's a capable processor in the mix however. If not, the same ceilings are going to apply anyway, just with poorer results.