upgrade me...I've to a 6870 and the itch to upgrade

[Cr0nJ0b]

Hey folks,

I've got a 6870 that I'm ready to upgrade. I bought it a while ago as a bridge card to get me to the next "big thing" but never got around to upgrading till now. It's served me pretty well, but I need more...a lot more.

Games: BF3, Metro Last light (this is lagging big), Diablo 3, marvel heroes, Tombraider

Business apps: MS suite

Photo editing: nothing extreme

Video encoding: lots of shrinks and some re-encoding and editing mostly ulead

System is: 3570K, 16GB Mem, SSD boot disk.

I have 2 x Dell S2409W monitors and I'll probably get a third. Usually play games on one screen, but would like to try out BF3 with tri-monitors.

currently they are both DVI and i don't think the monitor has display port, just DVI HDMI.

I'd like to stick with AMD unless there is a compelling reason to switch.

thanks for the help.

cheers!

 

[toyota]

have you not looked at reviews? 7950 or 7970 are your only choices if you want a substantial upgrade. 7870 would not be too bad but its almost tapped out compared to the 7950 which has lots of overclocking headroom. plus you are thinking about multi screen and the 7950 as 3gb of vram.

 

[parablooper]

An actual 5760x1080 BF3 setup is extremely demanding. ATI cards are usually better because of higher vRAM and pixel fill rates. You probably want crossfire 7970s or a 7990. The only reason you wouldn't want an AMD GPU is because you already have a bunch of the games in their game deals.

If buying 600/700 series you'll probably need to SLI, because <5GB is unoptimal.

 

[raghu78]

for a single 1080p monitor a HD 7950 OC should do fine. most games you will max out all settings including MSAA, but you will have to reduce AA settings in a few games like crysis 3, metro last light.

for 5760 x 1080 you will need a HD 7950 CF or HD 7970 CF. I suggest you get a single card now and a second card later when you get an extra monitor. the CF frame pacing drivers should be out in July. those will provide much smoother gameplay.

 

[gammaray]

before i can answer anything, what is your budget...

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

Darn, forgot that part...

I'd really like to stick to the sub $400 range. I'm off the casino this weekend, so that might effect this somewhat, but for now that's probably about what I would consider. $400-$450, something like that.

And by the way, I'm in no way locked to AMD, just partial, since the last few cards have been AMD.

thanks

 

[KingFatty]

According to the hierarchy chart at Tom's, you won't really feel/notice a video card upgrade unless you bump up 3 tiers or more in the hierarchy.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

Your 6870 is on the same tier as AMD 5850 and Nvidia 650Ti.

To be noticeable, looks like you should upgrade to at least an AMD 7870LE/XT or Nvidia 670.

See what you can sell your 6870 for. If it's low enough, then just buy a 2nd for crossfire performance boost for a cheap way to play around with that, then sell both later and get the next generation of cards for cheaper.

 

[gammaray]

i just got a msi gtx770 for 399$ and i'm a totally satisfied customer, that card is dead silent and runs everything maxed out on my 24 inches ips screen @ 1980 x 1200

 

[Stuka87]

If $400 is your range, you can afford a 7970. The Sapphire is $380 AR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202008
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127732

EDIT: What PSU do you have?

 

[computerparts1]

6950 would also be an upgrade if you can find one.

 

[jpeyton]

For reference, I game at 1080p, i7-2600, 16GB RAM, SSD.

I had a single 6870, and I picked up a second 6870 so I could CrossFire them (total cost was ~$100 for each card, bought them used)

CrossFire boosted performance quite a bit as long as I kept textures in check. 6870s have 1GB memory, and take a big performance hit in texture heavy games.

Then I bought Bioshock Infinite and Crysis 3. In both games I had to dial down the settings to medium (and forget about AA). The games still looked awesome, but the enthusiast in me wanted more.

I ended up upgrading to a 7950, which by itself was as fast in modern games as both 6870s CrossFired. Then I came across a deal on a 7970GE, so I bought that and I'm running it CrossFired with the 7950. At this point, I finally have enough juice to run everything on high/ultra with AA. Clocks are all stock, no overclocking on the CPU or GPUs. Total cost out-of-pocket for the upgrade was $290 (after I sold off the 6870s).

 

[mkrohn]

i'd wait, AMD is due for a refresh in their lineup

I have 2 6870's a 7770 and a 7950 just crossfire and wait

 

[BYOGamingPC]

You should grab a Vapor-X 7970 GE http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008PQAE98 for only $350 after rebate right now.

Removed spammer referral
-ViRGE

 

[RaistlinZ]

I think 7970 Ghz is your best bet for running three monitors and staying under $400.00.

Next best option would be a GTX 770 4GB, but that'll run you about $450.00 unless you can find a good deal.

FWIW, the 770 does hold a small edge over the 7970 Ghz in BF3.

 

[ZGR]

Personally I would wait. But if you want a cheap upgrade, SLI your 6870, or sell your 6870 and buy 2 7850's ($300 total value).

They get better FPS than a 7970, overclock a lot, and will be a relatively cheap upgrade until the 8000 series is unveiled.

$300 also can get you a 7950.

Power consumption chart:

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/47...b_in_crossfire_video_card_review/index17.html

They would kick Metro's ass as well.
Tri Monitor setup requires some heavy lifting. So I would wait and buy two 8970's when those come out because I really don't think two 7970's would be a worthwhile investment this late in their life cycle.

 

[ultimatebob]

I'm in the same boat. I have a Radeon 6870 in my Core i7-3770 gaming rig, which seems to run everything that I throw at it in High (but not Maximum) settings. I want to upgrade the card anyway (since it's the bottleneck of an otherwise awesome system), but there isn't anything better unless I spend more than $200.

Maybe I should wait for the next generation card to come out.

 

[Essence_of_War]

You can get a sick deal on a dual-fan Sapphire 7950 right now. Base 270, $20 rebate card, and you get the AMD game pack. You could also move to the 7970 for $310 as an option as well. I think if you really want to hit high frame rates at high settings on triple 1080s you'll probably need to consider CF'ing them and expanding your budget to at least $540 for double 7950s. Hopefully you did well at the casino

 

[tweakboy]

Go 7850

 

[Attic]

Can't go wrong by saving some from your budget by going with 7950 if you want to overclock.

Otherwise 7970ghz on a deal.

 

[bryanW1995]

You can get a sick deal on a dual-fan Sapphire 7950 right now. Base 270, $20 rebate card, and you get the AMD game pack. You could also move to the 7970 for $310 as an option as well. I think if you really want to hit high frame rates at high settings on triple 1080s you'll probably need to consider CF'ing them and expanding your budget to at least $540 for double 7950s. Hopefully you did well at the casino

I just jumped on that Sapphire deal the other day. I was trying to decide between a gtx 770, a 7970, and a 7950, but that $310AR deal (mine was actually $307) for a 7970 OC edition was just ridiculously good, even with new cards allegedly on the way in 6 mos or so. Several respected members told me to jump on it within minutes of my posting it in fact, and I haven't seen anything else that approaches it in the past few days.

 

[KingFatty]

Surely the release of the Nvidia 760 card will drive down the price of the 7950 and 7970?

 

[Essence_of_War]

I just jumped on that Sapphire deal the other day. I was trying to decide between a gtx 770, a 7970, and a 7950, but that $310AR deal (mine was actually $307) for a 7970 OC edition was just ridiculously good, even with new cards allegedly on the way in 6 mos or so. Several respected members told me to jump on it within minutes of my posting it in fact, and I haven't seen anything else that approaches it in the past few days.

Good move! I had to just about physically restrain myself from leaping on it myself, and my 7870 LE is just a few months old!

 

[Rezist]

Personally the 760 is the best buy for single monitor 1080p, the 7950 may be the better buy for multi-monitor but I feel it won't have the juice to run 3 screens of BF3. I'm not even sure a Titan could do that let alone a 780.