What to get if you want to spend XX amount of money at this very moment

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calvin0416

Member
Jan 3, 2011
90
0
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Thought about something like this for the forum since questions like this get asked every day. It would be nice if we have a thread that gives recommendation. Whatcha think?

Something like this..
Budget | Recommended Card
-------------------------------------------
Unlimited------- NVIDIA GTX 580 1.5 GB SLI
|
$500--------- NVIDIA GTX 580 1.5 GB
|
$350--------- NVIDIA GTX 570 1.25 GB
|
$300--------- ATI Radeon HD6950 2GB
|
$150--------- ATI Radeon HD5850 1GB
|
$100--------- NVIDIA GTX 460 768 MB
|
$50---------- ??
 

cusideabelincoln

Diamond Member
Aug 3, 2008
3,269
12
81
Prices change too much to list specific cards. In the end it would be better for each person to ask what's the best card for them at that moment in time.
 

Zebo

Elite Member
Jul 29, 2001
39,398
19
81
Something like this..
Budget | Recommended Card
-------------------------------------------
Unlimited------- NVIDIA GTX 580 1.5 GB SLI
|
$500--------- NVIDIA GTX 580 1.5 GB No Crossfire 6950s made into 6970s 50-75% faster
|
$350--------- NVIDIA GTX 570 1.25 GB No Crossfire 6850s 50-75% faster for $280
|
$300--------- ATI Radeon HD6950 2GB No Crossfire 6850s 50-75% faster for $280, same price
|
$150--------- ATI Radeon HD5850 1GB
|
$100--------- NVIDIA GTX 460 768 MB
|
$50---------- ?? Who Cares?
Click to expand...

Rest looks good.

I got two of these instead of GTX 580 half the price and better performance.

http://cgi.ebay.com/HIS-H685F1GD-Radeon-HD-6850-1GB-256-bit-GDDR5-/120672844058?

Buying high end is not good for price/performance so it's ridiculous to put GTX 580 anywhere in any chart. Better off with SLi 460s or 6850 xfire.
 
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B

blanketyblank

Golden Member
Jan 23, 2007
1,149
0
0
Though Tom's seems to skip over the 5850 and 5870 now. Guess they only include cards still being manufactured.
 

TridenT

Lifer
Sep 4, 2006
16,810
45
91
Elfear said:
Wow... That is their list? Why would you recommend 1GB Crossfire cards for 2560x1600? Why would the GTX 580 make an honorable mention but for $30 more they didn't mention a pair of 6950s?
Click to expand...

Because not everyone has a crossfire motherboard?

Honestly, getting a pair of any graphics cards is waste. It draws way more power (thus a need for a bigger PSU, more $$ there) and requires a more expensive motherboard (more $$ there) and then if you want to get more power out of the setup you have now, forget about it. You have to get new cards all together. You can't be like, "Oh, I can add another card and get 75%+ more performance."

I'll never go down that road again with double not-top-of-line graphics cards.

Crossfire and SLI doesn't work with all games either.
 

Zebo

Elite Member
Jul 29, 2001
39,398
19
81
TridenT said:
Because not everyone has a crossfire motherboard?

Honestly, getting a pair of any graphics cards is waste. It draws way more power (thus a need for a bigger PSU, more $$ there) and requires a more expensive motherboard (more $$ there) and then if you want to get more power out of the setup you have now, forget about it. You have to get new cards all together. You can't be like, "Oh, I can add another card and get 75%+ more performance."

I'll never go down that road again with double not-top-of-line graphics cards.

Crossfire and SLI doesn't work with all games either.
Click to expand...

Pretty much your whole post is flat wrong.

When you run a pair of Radeon HD 6850 video cards in CrossFire you get great performance and the power consumption is still less than a stock clocked NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470
Click to expand...
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1445/17/

Not to mention performs way better and is half the price of GTX 580. I have not found a review xfire does not work but I don't read them all.

Dual card is the only way to go if you care about value all the way back to 6600gt days.
 

Elfear

Diamond Member
May 30, 2004
7,116
695
126
TridenT said:
Because not everyone has a crossfire motherboard?

Honestly, getting a pair of any graphics cards is waste. It draws way more power (thus a need for a bigger PSU, more $$ there) and requires a more expensive motherboard (more $$ there) and then if you want to get more power out of the setup you have now, forget about it. You have to get new cards all together. You can't be like, "Oh, I can add another card and get 75%+ more performance."

I'll never go down that road again with double not-top-of-line graphics cards.

Crossfire and SLI doesn't work with all games either.
Click to expand...

Tom's already recommended Crossfire cards for their high-end gpu solution and when you're dealing with a high-end gaming rig you'll probably have a Crossfire/SLI capable board anyway. I just thought it odd that the GTX 580 would get an honorable mention but a $30 more expensive Crossfire solution wouldn't?

Besides that, do you know of a single-gpu solution that will play 1600p buttery smooth? :hmm:


Zebo said:
Why not? Toms shows 6850s destroying single cards at that res.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950-cayman,2818.html
Click to expand...

Problem is when you run into a memory limitation. Maybe I overstated the limits of 1GB cards as you can turn down settings to stay within playable settings and obviously not all games are going to eat up lots of vram. I guess my thinking is why be limited to certain games or have to put up with middling eye candy if you can spend a little more and get a card with more memory?

Not really an issue at 1080p but 2560x1600 requires a LOT of memory, especially with AA.
 
Last edited:

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
76
cusideabelincoln said:
Prices change too much to list specific cards. In the end it would be better for each person to ask what's the best card for them at that moment in time.
Click to expand...

its more than that. Not only do prices change all the time, but prices vary by location.

Different countries have completely different prices. Even within the same country, local stores might offer a sale or a deal.

A better thing would be to have a hierarchy that lists cards in order from "best" to "worst" (with appropriate denotation of ties; of course, people then disagree about feature sets and testing methodology). Even better would be if you could tell by how much better is each card... say, by using a percentage of performance... or a score! a score would work!

And this is exactly what has been done. check out anandtech bench (and its not the only source for it). http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU11/188
and if looking for a cumulative score, then look at 3DMark scores.

People argue about which set of tests are best... but by comparing tests (as you see fit) and taking features into account (physX, eyefinity, etc) you can come to a conclusion of which cards are better than which, and by how much, and whether they are worth more/less money for you.

And keep in mind, that even if a person has a 500$ budget, if they decide that 500$ gives too little a boost over 250$ they might decide not to buy it. Heck, even someone with an unlimited budget might decide not to get the highest end unit on principle, since it costs so much compared to the performance delta.

@OP: Your idea is certainly a good one. Its just that we already moved beyond it.
 

dac7nco

Senior member
Jun 7, 2009
756
0
0
I bow to your benchmarks, HappyMedium...

"2GB...outperformed the 1GB version by 1.97%..."

I'd bought the 460 2GB SLI to try out nV Surround - Oh well.

Daimon
 

dac7nco

Senior member
Jun 7, 2009
756
0
0
Belated Thanks on the 2GB 460s, but I sold them to finance my 580s to play Civ-V @ 4800x2560... except that I don't get to play games anymore.

Daimon
 

Dadofamunky

Platinum Member
Jan 4, 2005
2,184
0
0
dac7nco said:
Belated Thanks on the 2GB 460s, but I sold them to finance my 580s to play Civ-V @ 4800x2560... except that I don't get to play games anymore.

Daimon
Click to expand...

I hate it when that happens

If I had $450 to spend, I'd go for two of those 2GB cards over any single-card.
 
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