upgrading a HD4850, suggestions ?

[peonyu]

I have a question about the new cards from ATI and Nvidia, I have a single 4850 at the moment and I want to upgrade it. I almost went with the 6870 until I read some more reviews on it, it is a great card especially for $185 on newegg, but for 60$ more I can snag a 6950 which is easily worth 60$ more [240$ on newegg].

My question is, for 240-260$ what are the best cards to buy for a single GPU pc ? I have looked at ATI's offerings and the 6950 is what Im set on from them, but what about Nvidia ? Are there any comparable or better cards from them for the price.

Im also doing dual sceen gaming at times and would like to run a extended desktop and play applications on the secondary monitor, I know ATI has eyefinity for that but does Nvidia have anything similar ?

 

[RussianSensation]

NV cards can support dual monitors without problems. Eyefinity only comes into play if you want 3 or more on 1 card.

Keep in mind that an E8500 will hold you back in some games that run faster with a quad-core CPU. Personally, I think HD6950 has gotten way too expensive right now.

You can get an HD6870 for $165.

Alternatively, Galaxy GTX560 Ti can be had for $195. This version can overclock to 950-1000mhz.

An overclocked 560 trades blows with the 6950. I also think with your CPU, there won't be that much difference (esp. in games like Witcher 2, BF:BC2 and upcoming BF3 where a Quad-Core CPU will make a big difference).

But if you are going for the 6950, then I would get something like a Sapphire with aftermarket cooler and free Dirt 3 for $250.

A stock 6950 is not much faster than an HD5870. So you are paying a $50 premium for 2GBs of ram and aftermarket cooler here over the $195 GTX560 Ti (which already has an aftermarket cooler too).

 

[ROJAS]

nice information, RussianSensation

 

[pandemonium]

See sig.