looking for new video card

[knght990]

Im looking to play BF3.

Im leaning toward a 6870.

Budget is $250.

Id be fine with two cards in an SLI or crossfire (though im don't think crossfire will work with my nforce controller but not entirely sure)

I intend to overclock it.

edit: also must support HDMI w audio. I realize most cards do but i output to a 55inch tv and a 23 inch monitor.

 

[tviceman]

If your budget is $250, you can get a better card than the hd6870. The hd6950 1 gig and gtx560ti are both well within your price range and are significantly better than the hd6870. The hd6950 2 gig is only a few dollars more than $250. Any Nvidia gtx560 or better card comes with the new Batman Arkham City game for free.

cheapest hd6950: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125385
cheapest gtx560ti: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134131

I have the gtx560ti running at 1000mhz core and 2300mhz ram, and at those speeds it's essentially equal to a gtx570.

 

[lehtv]

I'd recommend Gigabyte 560 Ti OC for $235 ($205 AR). BF3 will probably run better on 560 Ti than 6950 (I've been told that's what initial benches suggest, but we've yet to see the final release tested...). The only problem I can foresee with 560 ti is only 1GB VRAM, but it shouldn't be a problem in the vast majority of cases as it's not really fast enough to enable settings that really make use of more than that (the exceptions being games like Rage and texture-modded Bethesda games).

Your budget isn't big enough for dual-GPU... and if you had a budget of over $300, I'd recommend Gigabyte GTX 570.

 

[Blitz KriegeR]

I'd recommend Gigabyte 560 Ti OC for $235 ($205 AR). BF3 will probably run better on 560 Ti than 6950 (I've been told that's what initial benches suggest, but we've yet to see the final release tested...). The only problem I can foresee with 560 ti is only 1GB VRAM, but it shouldn't be a problem in the vast majority of cases as it's not really fast enough to enable settings that really make use of more than that (the exceptions being games like Rage and texture-modded Bethesda games).

Your budget isn't big enough for dual-GPU... and if you had a budget of over $300, I'd recommend Gigabyte GTX 570.

+1

 

[happy medium]

Find 2 gtx460's within your budget (you just missed the gtx460 Hawk for 115$) or a gtx560ti for about 200$ AR.

 

[Silverforce11]

2x 460s is a good deal if u can get them cheap. these older gen cards still pack a lot of punch.

but gtx560 ti is no where near 6950 2gb performance in bf3. dont spread fud based on gamegpu's bench.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/10/03/battlefield_3_open_beta_performance_image_quality/2

 

[happy medium]

gtx560 ti is no where near 6950 2gb performance in bf3.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/10/03/battlefield_3_open_beta_performance_image_quality/2

You need to look at more than one benchmark, if you do, you will find that that site is the only one reporting that. All other sites have them very close.

 

[Silverforce11]

You need to look at more than one benchmark, if you do, you will find that that site is the only one reporting that. All other sites have them very close.

GameGPU is notorious for mix and matching platforms. Their F1 2011 bench is a joke when Phenom II x6 are CPU limited and getting terrible fps even with a gtx580, then they bench high end AMD cards with it along with i5s i7s etc.. conclusion: meaningless. Their BF3 beta bench had a mix match of platforms as well, did they specifically state which GPU went with which CPU?

Different to GameGPUs result:
http://www.techspot.com/review/448-battlefield-3-beta-performance/page5.html

Also note the only difference between high and ultra is the inclusion of 4x MSAA in the beta, as ultra resources are not included in the 3gb dl. Also note depending on how the reviews are done, being multiplayer and playing each map differently, if one does not average multiple runs the result is also very uninformative. For instance, in metro, you could sit next to the burning wreck at the start for cover, the flames and smoke kills FPS..

 

[knght990]

This is an upgrade to my 2009 build.

I'm searching the benches and prices of the 560s and 6970s as suggested. I will have another $250 to spend around Christmas and so i will follow a single card solution for the moment and grab the second card in two months.

I wonder if the nforce controller will get more from the 560 or will limit the 69XX cards?

 

[PatchyPower]

For around that range (225 after rebate) I picked up an MSI hawk 560ti from new egg

 

[knght990]

so im looking at GTX 560 Ti

Any suggestions on which card?
The cooling solution on the MSI looks promising but the MSI cards don't seem to come wit batman (i figure i ought to get the freebie).
Will the EVGA run significantly hotter?

 

[knght990]

Ordered a MSI N560GTX-Ti Hawk.

And then my hard drive crashed or was corrupted or something... on to solving the next issue. Hopefully before the card gets here.

 

[nenforcer]

Huge upgrade. I went from 2 X 9800 GT in SLI to a GTX 460 768MB since I'm only at 1600x1200 @ 85Hz.

http://www.geforce.com/freebatman

Make sure your e-tailer gives you a code. I'm pretty sure this applies to ANY GTX 56X and above video card.

 

[knght990]

It shows on the receipt that i will get a game card with it.

Free games good.

wonder if it will have any other freebies with ti, probably too much to hope for.