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I'm looking for a video card that is in the area of ~$150 (dont mind going over a bit if the performance increase is significant). I've been looking at newegg and checking out 6850's and 6870's, but I have no idea what route to go. If anyone has any advice it wqould be greatly appreciated.
Rest of the build (already have all this from left over parts):
4GB DDR3
3.2GHz Phenom II X4 955
650TX Corsair power supply
Corsair 600T White Case
500GB WD HDD
Comments
I'd try something newer:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125415
At stock speeds, a 7770 is competitive with a 6850, and about 20% slower than a 6870. With the factory overclock, that one should be faster than a 6850. It comes with a free rebate, and the price is good if you like rebates.
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Are you looking to upgrade an existing computer, I take it? And what video card are you replacing?
Not replacing anything. Just had those parts from upgrading my system, and all I'm missing is a video card. It's going to a friend of mine.
I've never used a Gigabyte card before. Are the fans and all that generally reliable?
no its not the 7770 is SLOWER than the 6850
ASUS, Powercolor, Saphire are good AMD makes. I think gigabyte are new to videocards, but they are a good motherboard manufacturer, i would expect them to be decent cards.
Its worth getting the 6870 (or a 560gtx) thats sort fo creeping up to the level you need to get decent performance in high end games - e.g. play on high (not ultra) settings on a hd monitor. 6850 is nice for the price though, much better buy than its competitor the 550ti.
I would have to agree. While the 7770 is better for power consumption everywhere else the 6850 is better.
http://www.hwcompare.com/11925/radeon-hd-6850-vs-radeon-hd-7770/
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
So the lower power consumption of the 7770 isnt advantageous enough to get it over the 6850/70? If I were to go with the 6850/70 would my power supply be okay with the larger power draw? Also do they put off a lot of heat? The case is a Corsair 600T with a 200mm front fan 200mm top fan and a 140mm rear fan but I just want to make sure.
It depends what is most important to you. The power supply is more than enough to run any single graphics card you'll pick.
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
So you're arguing that the 6850 is better because of some theoretical numbers that ignore architectural differences? Would you argue that an A4-3300
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819106013
is a better processor than a Core i7-2700K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115095
just because it offers 20% more memory bandwidth? Don't you think it matters that in actual processor performance, the former will only infrequently perform even half as well as the latter?
Don't you think that it should matter how the video card performs in games, not merely theoretical numbers?
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/HD_7770_OC/26.html
That would be news to Gigabyte, considering that they list both AMD/ATI and Nvidia cards they've sold on their web page for each of the last eight generations.
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/list.aspx?s=43&lgc=1
Also, the competitor to the GeForce GTX 550 Ti is the Radeon HD 5770/6770 or Radeon HD 7750. The approximate hierarchy goes:
Radeon HD 5750/6750 ~ GeForce GTS 450
Radeon HD 5770/6770 ~ Radeon HD 7750 ~ GeForce GTX 550 Ti
Radeon HD 6850 ~ Radeon HD 7770 ~ GeForce GTX 460
Radeon HD 6870 ~ GeForce GTX 560
So if I go with the 7770 should I stick to the Gigabyte brand or would a Saphire be any better/different?