Video Card From Amazon...Help?

[popop]

I am looking to get a video card from Amazon preferably. What would be my best bet for getting a card today, my price range is ~$175.00.

I know this gets asked all the time but it always changes. There are just so many 68xx.69xx,67xx....you get my point. I have never owned anything but Nvidia but it does not look like the smartest route.

Please help me out here.

Thanks

 

[JBT]

Sounds like a Nvidia 560, or a Radeon 6870 is your price range then.

This Sapphire Radeon 6870 seems to be the best for the value at Amazon for that price range. Its got a $20 rebate bringing it to $145 right now.

http://www.amazon.com/SAPPHIRE-Rade...TU/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1328373849&sr=8-10
At also comes with a game Dirt 3 which you can either sell for $20 something in the FSFT forums or keep.


Alternatively the cheapest 560 at Amazon appears to be this for $175 after $15 rebate.
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1328374115&sr=1-1

 

[Leyawiin]

+1 on the Sapphire HD 6870.

 

[bryanW1995]

What games do you play? What is your resolution? What cpu do you have? How long do you need the card to last? Why amazon?

 

[popop]

What games do you play? What is your resolution? What cpu do you have? How long do you need the card to last? Why amazon?

Skyrim, I am in the middle of it and my current 9800gtx crapped out. 1920x1200 with a AMD 1055t x6 cpu. I of course want it to last as along as possible, lol. The reason for amazon, I would just prefer it, I have to purchase some other things from there so I jut wanted to get them all at once. It really is not a must, if I get a better deal from somewhere else that works for me.

 

[bryanW1995]

560 ti, for only $30 more, is probably a better purchase for that setup. Skyrim isn't particularly demanding graphically, so either card will work just fine for that, however.

 

[Leyawiin]

Given your price cap and hardware the HD 6870 is the best you'll get. Even though Skyrim is very CPU limited you should see a healthy boost in performance over the 9800 GTX. Any other GPU bound game you'll see a huge increase in performance. Even with newer cards just around the corner its a good choice.

 

[notty22]

That 6870 linked at Amazon is your best choice to fit in that price point. Anyone else notice how random Amazon's search function is. It's imprecise in recommending alternate choices ahead of your actual search criteria.

 

[bryanW1995]

@OP: I know that you're in "buy right now" mode, but I've seen very good deals on better cards in the past 6 months. 6950 is more directly comparable to gtx 560 ti, a 6870 is relatively weak, especially at that resolution.

 

[busydude]

That 6870 linked at Amazon is your best choice to fit in that price point. Anyone else notice how random Amazon's search function is. It's imprecise in recommending alternate choices ahead of your actual search criteria.

Hah! Yeah. I see a lot of 6850s.

 

[JBT]

560 ti, for only $30 more, is probably a better purchase for that setup. Skyrim isn't particularly demanding graphically, so either card will work just fine for that, however.

Its only a regular 560, not a Ti. Ti's are still way more expensive. The cheapest I could find on a quick search was one for $209 shipped.

There may be a larger performance gap between the 6870 and the 560ti but the price difference is significant as well. $145 AR vs $212.

EDIT: found a Ti for 198 AR. The rebate is pretty steep at $35, and still above your price range even after rebate.
http://www.amazon.com/Galaxy-Techno...?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1328383778&sr=1-13

 

[Concillian]

Even though Skyrim is very CPU limited you should see a healthy boost in performance over the 9800 GTX.

FYI:
Skyrim patch 1.4 came out this week recompiled to actually use PC specific optimizations and CPU related FPS is up by as much as 50%. It's much less CPU limited as of this week.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Go for an HD6950 if you want decent performance at that resolution. I ended up breaking down and buying a second card after playing the BF3 alpha. Thanks to that, I am now a 60FPS junkie.

Otherwise, the 6870 is an awesome card if you can manage to keep the resolution under 900p

 

[Termie]

Go for an HD6950 if you want decent performance at that resolution. I ended up breaking down and buying a second card after playing the BF3 alpha. Thanks to that, I am now a 60FPS junkie.

Otherwise, the 6870 is an awesome card if you can manage to keep the resolution under 900p

You're saying he should spend nearly $100 more for 4fps more in the game he's playing? Not the best advice, IMO.

Source: http://www.techspot.com/review/467-skyrim-performance/page6.html

Source: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/11/21/elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_performance_iq_review/4

 

[JBT]

You're saying he should spend nearly $100 more for 4fps more in the game he's playing? Not the best advice, IMO.

Source: http://www.techspot.com/review/467-skyrim-performance/page6.html

Source: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/11/21/elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_performance_iq_review/4

based on this I would say the 6870 for $145 no questions asked.

 

[Gothgar]

based on this I would say the 6870 for $145 no questions asked.

Agreed. Since you need it now do that.

I am running a 6870 and have been happy with it so far. Plans on getting a second down the road when it starts to show its age. They scale incredibly well.

 

[bryanW1995]

Its only a regular 560, not a Ti. Ti's are still way more expensive. The cheapest I could find on a quick search was one for $209 shipped.

There may be a larger performance gap between the 6870 and the 560ti but the price difference is significant as well. $145 AR vs $212.

EDIT: found a Ti for 198 AR. The rebate is pretty steep at $35, and still above your price range even after rebate.
http://www.amazon.com/Galaxy-Techno...?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1328383778&sr=1-13

Sorry, didn't follow the link. In that case, I'd definitely say the 6870 for $145. The 560 isn't that impressive unless it's a ti version.

 

[Concillian]

People still aren't getting it. Any Skyrim benchmarks older than 1 week old are completely invalid. CPU related bottlenecks have been significantly reduced since patch 1.4xx, which will dramatically increase the spread in GPU rankings and the effect of GPU performance on FPS.

This guy still wants a 6870 with his given budget and desires, but stop putting misleading Skyrim information in the thread.

 

[Termie]

People still aren't getting it. Any Skyrim benchmarks older than 1 week old are completely invalid. CPU related bottlenecks have been significantly reduced since patch 1.4xx, which will dramatically increase the spread in GPU rankings and the effect of GPU performance on FPS.

This guy still wants a 6870 with his given budget and desires, but stop putting misleading Skyrim information in the thread.

Dude, there's no way a cpu bottleneck affenicted those techspot results. The 580 is crushing the other cards.

 

[Concillian]

Skyrim is CPU bound in certain environments and GPU bound in others. The rankings would likely stay the same, but the margin of differences will change.

People are saying things like "4 FPS difference", but the GPUs will have larger separation now than they do in that chart. You can't say they have X FPS difference anymore.

This is why [H] is about the only worthwhile review site, they show the FPS trends and you can see VERY clearly exactly how much of the Skyrim benchmark is CPU bound. It's about 70% or so, give or take. But you have no idea on some random site that lists a bunch of average FPS. it may be CPU bound in 10%, 0%, 30% or 60%. No clue.

It's not as if there's some magical GPU performance level where 100% of the game goes from being GPU bound to being CPU bound. Different aspects of the game have different inflection points where the CPU and GPU performance become limited. There's no way that what was 4 FPS now is still 4 FPS, unless the benchmark was already 100% GPU limited, and it's not likely that any old Skyrim benchmark was 100% GPU limited.

 

[Termie]

Skyrim is CPU bound in certain environments and GPU bound in others. The rankings would likely stay the same, but the margin of differences will change.

People are saying things like "4 FPS difference", but the GPUs will have larger separation now than they do in that chart. You can't say they have X FPS difference anymore.

This is why [H] is about the only worthwhile review site, they show the FPS trends and you can see VERY clearly exactly how much of the Skyrim benchmark is CPU bound. It's about 70% or so, give or take. But you have no idea on some random site that lists a bunch of average FPS. it may be CPU bound in 10%, 0%, 30% or 60%. No clue.

It's not as if there's some magical GPU performance level where 100% of the game goes from being GPU bound to being CPU bound. Different aspects of the game have different inflection points where the CPU and GPU performance become limited. There's no way that what was 4 FPS now is still 4 FPS, unless the benchmark was already 100% GPU limited, and it's not likely that any old Skyrim benchmark was 100% GPU limited.

Ok, so maybe it's a bit more complicated than "4 fps" - point is, all of the cards between $150 and $250 will perform similarly, and if this is the only game he's looking to play right now and he wasn't planning on upgrading until his 9800gtx died, $150 sounds a lot better than $250.

 

[vailr]

If it were my money, I'd suggest waiting a few weeks until the new "low priced" Radeon 77xx cards are out. These should cost about the same as the older Radeon cards, but run cooler, due to their reduced size GPU micro-circuitry. Older GPU's may also get reduced pricing at about the same time.

 

[RavenSEAL]

If it were my money, I'd suggest waiting a few weeks until the new "low priced" Radeon 77xx cards are out. These should cost about the same as the older Radeon cards, but run cooler, due to their reduced size GPU micro-circuitry. Older GPU's may also get reduced pricing at about the same time.

I doubt they'll "run cooler".

Technically, they use those thermal gains to improve performance while keeping temps around the same range.

 

[Concillian]

If it were my money, I'd suggest waiting a few weeks until the new "low priced" Radeon 77xx cards are out. These should cost about the same as the older Radeon cards, but run cooler, due to their reduced size GPU micro-circuitry. Older GPU's may also get reduced pricing at about the same time.

7770 is supposed to be as fast as a 6850 on a good day and cost $150.

Same as the 5770 release. 4870s were available cheaper and faster, but the 5770 was much less consumption. 7770 should be the same. 6870 will be ~same price and very likely faster.