New card for around £150 6850?

[griffy]

I'm looking at treating myself to a new graphics card, to replace my 4870 512mb card. Budget is around £150 but would spend a little more if the card is worth the outlay!

My system consists of a Phenom II [email protected], 4gig of Corsair ram and Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H motherboard, as per the OCUK bundle linked below. I mostly use my pc for gaming, and my PSU is a decent Corsair Tx650.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-038-OB&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=

I'm thinking I'm best off with a 6850 ?

As long as I can fit on the SATA connectors on the motherboard (underneath the graphics card, poor design) then theres plenty of room in my case, its a HAF X huge beast

So a 6850 card, stretch to a 6870? or go the Nvidia route?

 

[danceforfreedom]

The 5870 are at a great price right now, cannot get more power for the money really...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-136-OK

Slightly more expensive than the 6850's and a little cheaper than the 6870's but more powerful than both.

Are a little more power hungry, but not much. The only think there really missing is AMD's 3D technology, but thats not much supported and ive heard quite complicated to implement at the moment.

 

[griffy]

I'm not interested in 3d stereo stuff right now, maybe if it all went nuts and was awesome, something for the future maybe.

That 5870 looks nice enough, and comes in just within budget, but not heard of VTX as a brand. No OCUK reviews either....tempting though!

Edit: Ah just found an old thread in the forum, VFX are part of Powercolour and supposedly a very poor brand with crap RMA and customer service

Still looking...

 

[powelly]

I'm not interested in 3d stereo stuff right now, maybe if it all went nuts and was awesome, something for the future maybe.

That 5870 looks nice enough, and comes in just within budget, but not heard of VTX as a brand. No OCUK reviews either....tempting though!

Edit: Ah just found an old thread in the forum, VFX are part of Powercolour and supposedly a very poor brand with crap RMA and customer service

Still looking...

don't let this put you of there is a 2 year warranty with ocuk themselves on it and you could allways swap out the cooler i think

 

[danceforfreedom]

LOL.

It comes with 2 years direct warranty with OCUK and the XFX is just a tenner more.

Im a little biased however, I bought a 5850 a few weeks before the price reductions in 5870's. I would definately go with the 5870 over the 6870 or 6850, more fps and you only loose the 3d stuff.

Don't know Nvidia cards however, I havn't had any but theres my opinions on the radeons...

 

[powelly]

i think the 5870 is well worthy of a budget increase

 

[griffy]

Ooh, old technology, but pure grunt power in a 5870?