Best upgrade from a 5770 for $200-ish?

[Blue Shift]

A friend of mine offered to buy my 5770 for $100 (he's building his first gaming PC), and I'm willing to sink another $100 into a new GPU.

Here are my current specs:
CPU: Phenom II X4 965
GPU: Radeon HD 5770
MB: Gigabyte 790xta-ud4
RAM: 4Gb ddr3

The Radeon 6870 seems to be in my price range. Does anyone know if it would be a worthwhile upgrade over the 5770 and, if so, which brand/cooler works best?

I think I'll go with the Silverstone FT03 for my next build, which has a 90-degree motherboard rotation. Since I might keep the GPU through my next rebuild, I should probably pick a cooler that would work well with that.

My main reasons for upgrading: I'm tired of getting 20-30fps in most modern games. I had a 1440x900 monitor when I bought the 5770, and recently upgraded to a 1920x1080. I miss my old framerates. Additionally, Skyrim is coming out soon!

 

[Arkaign]

IIRC, 6950 isn't much more than that, I just got one for $219. I think the 560ti is very good as well, and priced fairly similarly. The 6870 is about the same speed as the 5870, and I wouldn't recommend spending $200ish on it right now.

 

[Blue Shift]

A 6950 for $220 would be pretty sweet. The cheapest I can find one on Newegg right now is $240.

I could probably fit a card that's an inch or two longer than the 5770 into my case right now, and the FT03 supposedly supports longer GPUs as well.

 

[notty22]

Newegg is showing a Palit gtx 560 for 199.00 without rebate. Thats a new low , as far as I've seen. Its another custom cooler model, that is only 7.4 inches long. I found that dimension interesting, for people that need short cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-108-_-Product

edit: , I just noticed that is a 336 core gtx 560 NON TI version.

 

[Arkaign]

The 6950 I got was a 2GB XFX from the local TigerDirect store last weekend. I wonder if it was an advertised special or something? It's one with a single fan, yet when I got to the TD website, all I see from XFX for similar is the XXX model (faster, I guess?) with two fans. Mine only has 1 :/

At $215 they have the 1GB XFX 6950 though, I would think that'd be worth it. Maybe even get it cheaper somewhere else. I know for 1080p 2GB is kind of overkill. I think it comes into play a tiny bit with 1920x1200, but is really helpful mainly with 2048x1440, 2560x1600, etc.

 

[Blue Shift]

The one that I quoted at $240 is actually $210 after MIR. It may be the same as the one you're talking about.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150523

1GB of VRAM should probably be plenty, especially if it's possible for games to utilize memory from both cards when crossfired. (Is it?)

One of my apartment-mates has a 6970 in his machine, and it is LOUD. Upon reading some reviews, however, it seems that the 6950 is far quieter than either the 6970 or 6870.

I don't have any decent hardware stores in my area (NC is Intrex territory), so I'll be ordering whatever we decide on.

 

[tweakboy]

Newegg is showing a Palit gtx 560 for 199.00 without rebate. Thats a new low , as far as I've seen. Its another custom cooler model, that is only 7.4 inches long. I found that dimension interesting, for people that need short cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-108-_-Product

edit: , I just noticed that is a 336 core gtx 560 NON TI version.

uh Palit who is Palit, cheap chinese pos.... imo

 

[dust]

IIRC, 6950 isn't much more than that, I just got one for $219. I think the 560ti is very good as well, and priced fairly similarly. The 6870 is about the same speed as the 5870, and I wouldn't recommend spending $200ish on it right now.

From what I see the 560ti and the 5870 are very close in performance to each other as well(except for the tessellation crap):

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/294?vs=330

How is it that a 560 is very good and the 6870/5870 can't be recommended?

OP, if you can land a 6950 2gb don't look back.

Edit: the memory on the second card isn't adding to the first one, if that were so I'd probably still have my 4870 512 cf setup.

 

[Arkadrel]

For 137$ after Mail in Rebate, you can get a 6850 which on avg. is like 50%+ more performance than a 5770.

They can overclock quite well too.

So Id recammend the 6850@137$ pretty darn good value.
Take the core clock upto 950mhz ish, and the memory upto 1220mhz ish, via overclock.

I dont think a 965 Phenom needs more than a 6850+overclock.
Then overclock your northbridge, overclock your cpu, go for lowest stable timings on your ram.

Squeeze all the extra performance you can out of that system, and wait for a total overhaul with a bulldozer or isomethingorother lateron (when needed).



From looking at TechPowerUp, the 560 ti seems to be like 20% faster than a 6850.
But you can get a cheap 6850 for like 137$ on newegg.

You have to ask yourself if a price differnce of ~50% or so, is worth ~20% performance.


**** OBS!

5770 CF is faster than a single 5870. (faster than 560 ti, faster than 470, faster than 6870)
So if you can get another 5770 for ~100$ that ll probably beat anything else performance/$ you can do.
You ll have to put up with Crossfire issues though, but if you get it working in most games that should give you pretty decent performance.

Also the 5770 is one hellva good overclocker... push that core/mem speed up on the cards.

But Im not sure if you have a motherboard that can do crossfire, if you do though, the crossfire route should also be taken into consideration.


Newegg has two differnt brands of 5770 for 94$ after MIR.

 

[Tempered81]

I would buy a used 2gb reference 6950 from the forums or ebay. Then unlock the shaders and overvolt and overclock it and you've got GTX580 performance for about $210.

This is what I did (however, I paid $240 a few months ago) and am very impressed. 2gb frame buffer means i never run out. (12x Edge detect. Extreme Quality AA + Morphologiacal, 8x Supersampling at 1080P and never a slowdown) I can use the maximum amount of filtering that i want

I use high quality textures, max everything, 16x HQ AF, and thanks to 6xxx morphological AA, I can anti-alias the border-shader in Borderlands. The game looks so amazing. This is something i couldnt do on the 1gb 4890.

I run the card at 985 core / 1400 mem and 1.300 vcore with 6970 shader unlock mod. It's the speed of a stock gtx580 and plays any game i want at max.

I'm very impressed, considering it was only slightly over 200 bucks. Oh and it's quiet as anything and stays very cool. 75C max even with +20% powertune and the overvolting.

 

[betasub]

1GB of VRAM should probably be plenty, especially if it's possible for games to utilize memory from both cards when crossfired. (Is it?)

No. The memory is not additive/cumulative. Each card replicates the same data on its memory: therefore 2x"6950 1GB" is still limited by 1GB as the single card is.

(My old 9800GX2 would've been used by me far longer if it's SLI 2x512MB had been available as 1GB: great GPU/fill rate, but severely limited by 512MB).

 

[nemesismk2]

uh Palit who is Palit, cheap chinese pos.... imo

I have so far owned a palit geforce gts 450 sonic and palit geforce gtx 550 and they were good video cards. I especially liked the quiet fan on the gts 450 which was almost silent.

 

[RussianSensation]

**** OBS!

5770 CF is faster than a single 5870.

Not really. HD5870 is as fast. Not only that but you get none of the disadvantages of CF such as newer games not scaling well and inferior minimum framerates.

So if you can get another 5770 for ~100$ that ll probably beat anything else performance/$ you can do.

OR he can sell the 5770 for $100 and get a GTX560 Ti for $100 more. Once overclocked to 950mhz+, the 560 will beat a single HD5870/5770CF setup. I realize you can overclock the 5770 CF setup too, but why put up with extra noise, and potentially poor scaling?

GTX560 Ti Overclocked Performance

 

[Firestorm007]

Not really. HD5870 is as fast. Not only that but you get none of the disadvantages of CF such as newer games not scaling well and inferior minimum framerates.



OR he can sell the 5770 for $100 and get a GTX560 Ti for $100 more. Once overclocked to 950mhz+, the 560 will beat a single HD5870/5770CF setup. I realize you can overclock the 5770 CF setup too, but why put up with extra noise, and potentially poor scaling?

GTX560 Ti Overclocked Performance

Agreed! The 5870 is still a BEAST by today's standards. The 560 is a good card, as well. They seem to be hovering around $240 on Newegg right now. You could also grab an overlocked 6870 for $219.

 

[Blue Shift]

Hey everyone, I love all the advice I've been getting in this thread.

To clear some things up and try to cut through this crowd of competing suggestions...

I'd rather not go with a Crossfire setup now if I can get a single card with near-equivalent performance for $200-$240. This would give me an easy upgrade path in the future (still crossfire, but with faster cards), as well as ensure that my friend gets a GPU for his rig.

I don't really have a preference for nVidia or ATI; I've had good luck with both in the past. Assuming AMD boards can use dual nVidia GPUs (again, it's an upgrade path thing), my two primary options at $240 are the Radeon 6950 1GB and the GTX 560 Ti... Also 1GB.

I do usually download the high-resolution texture packs that people make for PC games. Perhaps that's a reason to go for a 2GB card, perhaps not... You're the experts, you tell me. From your responses regarding video RAM limitations in Crossfire, it sounds as if pairing the 6950 1gb with a 6950 2gb down the road would still result in having an effective 1gb pool. That sucks, and is a strong reason to look at getting a 2gb card now.

Noise remains a concern. Again, I get extremely annoyed just having a 6970 in the same room as me.

Additionally, I've noticed that the specs in my signature are out-of-date, and lead you to believe I still have an Athlon 64 X2. That will be fixed ASAP.

 

[OCGuy]

GTX560 for $199 AMIR

 

[hdfxst]

6950 2GB. 225 after rebate and comes with shogun2 http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php...MI-2x-Mini-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-Video-Card
The 10 dollar off coupon expires today and this is a non reference card

 

[Imp]

I have a 6850 after "upgrading" (RMA'd, didn't want to wait for return) from a 5770. Performance is noticeably better, and more than enough for my needs. I considered the 6870 or 6950 as a "good forever" card for me until the next line of consoles come out at least.

For OP, the 6950 doesn't sound like a bad idea. If you get that, you'd pretty much be set for a while.

 

[RussianSensation]

Assuming AMD boards can use dual nVidia GPUs (again, it's an upgrade path thing), my two primary options at $240 are the Radeon 6950 1GB and the GTX 560 Ti... Also 1GB.

This will happen with new generation AM3+ chipsets. Your particular board only supports CrossFire. If you want the option for a future upgrade path, then NV isn't an option. Since you are gaming at 1920x1080, 2GB of RAM isn't that important. However, if you can find a cheap 2GB 6950 card, it may be worth paying an extra $20 if you plan on using mods for Skyrim. Unfortunately, unlockable HD6950 2GB cards have all but disappeared.

If you don't care to CF down the line (since you may as well choose to sell your 6950/560 card and buy a 7950/660 card :awe, grab this GTX560 Gigabyte for $232. It's already preoverclocked to 950mhz and has a quiet aftermarket fan.

Better yet, this MSI Hawk may be an even better deal. You get a bunch of free software: Hawx 2, 3dmark11, nba2011, Just Cause 2 and Mafia 2.

 

[Blue Shift]

6950 2GB. 225 after rebate and comes with shogun2 http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php...MI-2x-Mini-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-Video-Card
The 10 dollar off coupon expires today and this is a non reference card

Does anyone know how well this non-reference cooler works? If it's quieter and would still work well turned sideways and in Crossfire, this might be the card to go with. Then again, MIRs suck.

This will happen with new generation AM3+ chipsets. You particular board only supports CrossFire. If you want the option for a future upgrade path, then NV isn't an option. Since you are gaming at 1920x1080, 2GB of RAM isn't that important. However, if you can find a cheap 2GB 6950 card, it may be worth paying an extra $20 if you plan on using mods for Skyrim. Unfortunately, unlockable HD6950 2GB cards have all but disappeared.

If you don't care to CF down the line (since you may as well choose to sell your 6950/560 card and buy a 7950/660 card :awe, grab this GTX560 Gigabyte for $232. It's already preoverclocked to 950mhz and has a quiet aftermarket fan.

Better yet, this MSI Hawk may be an even better deal. You get a bunch of free software: Hawx 2, 3dmark11, nba2011, Just Cause 2 and Mafia 2.

By the time I double up on cards (assuming the card is good), I'll probably have an AM3+ board. The current plan is to do a GPU upgrade this year (and possibly an SSD), and Bulldozer (with a MicroATX board and FT03 case) next year.

The Hawk looks like a pretty good deal (especially since I dislike MIRs), but I'd really like to try to find a 6950 2gb for a reasonable price.

 

[BDawg]

Any thing coming out soon that would make the OP want to wait? It's been 6 months since the 6950 was released.

 

[Blue Shift]

The GTX 560 (non-Ti) won't be officially released until tomorrow. Prices might come down a little bit near the $200 mark after that.

 

[RussianSensation]

Any thing coming out soon that would make the OP want to wait? It's been 6 months since the 6950 was released.

HD7000 series may be announced by AMD in June but most don't expect those cards to be shipped by at least Q3 2011 (so probably fall most likely). Right now there aren't even any specific rumors about which type of cards they will launch (mid-range 28nm to test the waters or high end 28nm to start?) or specs of any sort. This likely means the launch is at least 3 months away.

P.S. HD6950 came out December 15, 2010. Time flies. :biggrin:

 

[Zebo]

I would buy a used 2gb reference 6950 from the forums or ebay. Then unlock the shaders and overvolt and overclock it and you've got GTX580 performance for about $210.

This is what I did (however, I paid $240 a few months ago) and am very impressed. 2gb frame buffer means i never run out. (12x Edge detect. Extreme Quality AA + Morphologiacal, 8x Supersampling at 1080P and never a slowdown) I can use the maximum amount of filtering that i want

I use high quality textures, max everything, 16x HQ AF, and thanks to 6xxx morphological AA, I can anti-alias the border-shader in Borderlands. The game looks so amazing. This is something i couldnt do on the 1gb 4890.

I run the card at 985 core / 1400 mem and 1.300 vcore with 6970 shader unlock mod. It's the speed of a stock gtx580 and plays any game i want at max.

I'm very impressed, considering it was only slightly over 200 bucks. Oh and it's quiet as anything and stays very cool. 75C max even with +20% powertune and the overvolting.

I agree. The 6950 has been best bang for the buck for almost 6 mos now and you don't need to look for a old one either. New, non reference, 1GB cards flash/reprogram to 6970+ speeds just fine which makes them an insane value proposition after that considering you can find them for $220.

Easy way to unlock ANY 6950

 

[f4phantom2500]

Does anyone know how well this non-reference cooler works? If it's quieter and would still work well turned sideways and in Crossfire, this might be the card to go with. Then again, MIRs suck.
By the time I double up on cards (assuming the card is good), I'll probably have an AM3+ board. The current plan is to do a GPU upgrade this year (and possibly an SSD), and Bulldozer (with a MicroATX board and FT03 case) next year.

The Hawk looks like a pretty good deal (especially since I dislike MIRs), but I'd really like to try to find a 6950 2gb for a reasonable price.

wait wait wait...you want to crossfire/sli 2 big bad cards on a microatx board? lolol...not only will you be seriously limiting your choice of motherboards (as of right now there are 5 am3 boards with 2 pci-e x16 slots on newegg), but you'd better pray that you never need to put in any other pci/pci-e cards whatsoever, because those 2 big bad gpus will render any other slot on the board as inaccessible and effectively useless.


also everything i've seen regarding the 6950 1gb vs 2gb shows a negligible performance difference. imo it's not the best idea to throw down money on the 2gb 6950 with the intention of throwing another one in crossfire later. i'd suggest getting the 1gb version then, when the time comes, sell it and get a new card altogether. never make assumptions about upcoming computer parts or how well a part will age when it means you will be spending more money today, because a lot of times shit just doesn't pan out. then again, the price difference isn't too big, so if the risk of that investment ultimately not really doing anything for you is something that you're willing to accept, then by all means get the 2gb version.