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Best Bang for Pound card out there?

scotred

scotred

scotred

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Joined
20 Sep 2011
Posts
73
what would you say is the best bang for buck/pound graphics card on the market today?

Here is the deal. Im running games on my inbuilt i5 2500k graphics chip (HD 3000) and its doing as well as can be expected. I have a copy of Battlefield 3 purchased on release day sitting here gathering dust and my plan was to buy a HD6970 about now, to run it. Until that is, i heard AMD are releasing the new 7000 series over the next month or two and everyone is advising to hold off until then because its going to be more powerful than yoda.

So.. my plan to get me over Christmas and New Year and even into Feb/March (when the more powerful 7000 series are due out) is to get the price to performance card out now and then hand it to my bro when i finally reach the 7000 promised land.

I am willing to spend around £100 (+/- £20) for the privilege of getting some frag time over the festive period.

My Comp specs are:
i5 2500k @ 4.6ghz
Asrock Extreme 4 Gen 3 z68
8gb 1600mhz corsair ram
1tb WD cavier black
Dell u2410 IPS @ 1920x1200
windows 7 x64


Edit: i should mention that noise will be an issue as i am looking to install it on a bedroom PC, with plenty of late night/early hours gaming to be expected.
 
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+1 for the GTX 460. This one is £110 and it is a nippy little card and also rather quiet.

The HD 6850 is also a good shout. This one is currently £100 and is a pretty nice deal.

May I ask what make and model number PSU you will be using?

Btw, good plan holding off buying an expensive card. A £100 card like one of the above should handle all modern games more than acceptably for a few months and will sell on for a decent price - so delaying the big purchase won't cost you much. Considering how big a jump 40nm to 28nm is the performance of these new cards is expected to be something special.
 
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You can get a used GTX460 for anywhere between £70-90, which is pretty good for a stop gap tbh.
 
my 460 is an awesome little card. Make sure you get the 1gb version as its a tad faster. If your willing to overclock they clock very well. My card is sitting at 900mhz core and 3950mhz memory at 1.038v stable and 66c during some hardcore stress testing.

I play a lot of BF3 and the card holds up pretty well. At 1920x1080p with a mix or high and medium settings with no AA i can get a steady 36-44 FPS on 64player conquest matches. AA really does kill cards in BF3 so bare that in mind if you need to have AA on.
 
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cmndr_andi said:
+1 for the GTX 460. This one is £110 and it is a nippy little card and also rather quiet.

The HD 6850 is also a good shout. This one is currently £100 and is a pretty nice deal.

May I ask what make and model number PSU you will be using?

Btw, good plan holding off buying an expensive card. A £100 card like one of the above should handle all modern games more than acceptably for a few months and will sell on for a decent price - so delaying the big purchase won't cost you much. Considering how big a jump 40nm to 28nm is the performance of these new cards is expected to be something special.
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sorry i should have mentioned my PSU. Anyway i have an Antec True Power 750w.


Seems like gtx 460 is the unanimous decision amongst you clued up folk, interesting as i was sure an AMD gpu would have been the choice and thinking 6870 more specifically.
 
a 560 ti for 150-160 is the best bang4buck imo, performance incredibly close to a 570 but almost 100 cheaper

but yes if you are just looking for a temp card then a 460 is fine (if you only looking for first hand)
 
A 6870 trade blows with the 460. I just prefer Nvidia for their better drivers and the 460 is a good overclocker. You will be happy with either imo.
 
I have a gtx460 and its decent, but if i had a rig like yours with I5/so much ram, why scrimp so heavily on the gfx card if you will be putting some hours in? id think about doubling the budget tbh and getting a 560+ card..preferably a 2gb:)
 
The Running Man said:
I have a gtx460 and its decent, but if i had a rig like yours with I5/so much ram, why scrimp so heavily on the gfx card if you will be putting some hours in? id think about doubling the budget tbh and getting a 560+ card..preferably a 2gb:)
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well i was originally planning on getting a 6970 (or similar performance) but it would kind of irk me if that in a month or so i could have bought a 7000 series card for a similar price but far superior performance. This way it would just be a stop gap, and decent enough to "hand me down" to my bro.

ok ive just been googling some more, and some other forums are suggesting that the 6870 is a better card and its only £20 more(£130) than the gtx 460(£110).

now im confused and back to square 1.
 
By better card it's only by a few fps if you look at benchmarks. Since it's a stop gap until the 7000 series out this month till Feb, you'll be happy with either ;)
 
s7cn said:
By better card it's only by a few fps if you look at benchmarks. Since it's a stop gap until the 7000 series out this month till Feb, you'll be happy with either ;)
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you're 100% right of course. i let google get the better of me for a minute there. bad google
 
scotred said:
ok ive just been googling some more, and some other forums are suggesting that the 6870 is a better card and its only £20 more(£130) than the gtx 460(£110). now im confused and back to square 1.
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And for just another 30 quid you could get a 560Ti which is faster still, and so it continues......You need to set yourself a budget and stick to it otherwise before you know it you'll be buying a 6990!! :p
 
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