Looking for a new card- 1GB or 2?

[humbug]

I have had 3 good years out of my trusty old 5770, i'm even able to play BF3 all high with AA off @ 1920 x 1080 with a playable 40 - 45 FPS average (overclocked)

But i'm itching to replace it.

i'm looking at the 6870, that right now is the best bang for the £130 - £150 mark.

The 7770 is no better then what i have, the 7870 is going to be to much money for me and the same for the GTX 560ti.

I want to get half the settings in BF3 to ultra, i think the 6870 will do that but i hear its memory hungry.

So will i need the 2GB version (which is a little difficult for me) or will the 1GB one do?

 

[Phatzy]

First you need to channge your sig a little. Its too large.

Guessing that £130-£150 is your max. Sell the 5770 to put towards a GTX560ti.

 

[humbug]

First you need to channge your sig a little. Its too large.

Guessing that £130-£150 is your max. Sell the 5770 to put towards a GTX560ti.

Unfortunately the old card is already a part of the cash needed, i will have to sell it first, and a 1.5GB GTX 560ti is a lot of money..

 

[andybird123]

1.5gb is a 580 (which may well be out of your price range)

however a 560ti is either 1GB or 2GB and the 1GB cards are under 150 quid now so should be be within reach

a 7870 is 300 quid odd, but a 560ti is less than half that price

even a 2gb 560ti would be under 200 and you could SLI that later if the rest of your rig is up to it

 

[humbug]

1.5gb is a 580 (which may well be out of your price range)

however a 560ti is either 1GB or 2GB and the 1GB cards are under 150 quid now so should be be within reach

a 7870 is 300 quid odd, but a 560ti is less than half that price

even a 2gb 560ti would be under 200 and you could SLI that later if the rest of your rig is up to it

Yeah i found an MSI GTX 560ti 1GB for £155, that's the cheapest i could find it....

An XFX 6870 1GB is £125, i know the 560ti is the better card but its £30 more, and with it only being 1GB i'm not sure i'm going to be able to use that extra horsepower because there isn't enough Vram,
its just going to be a wast of money if i can't.

I already have all my BF3 settings on all high @ 1920 x 1080 with AA deferred off on my overclocked 5770.

My fear is getting a better card with the same 1GB of memory i'm not going to be able advance any of my settings to ultra because the Vram is not enough.

If that's the case i might as well just stick with what i have, i have found a 2GB Sapphire 6870, but its £160.

So my question is,- is 1GB enough Vram or not?

As for my rig, CINEBENCH 11.5 is 7.06 CPU, 68 OpenGL. wPrime v1.55 32MB is 6.379 sec, x264 FHD is 20.2, WEI 7.7 CPU, 7.7 MEM.... all @ 4Ghz

Its no 3930K, but it can easily run it and a whole lot more.... and its within its thermal limits @ 4,3Ghz so i could always clock it up

 

[Rusty0611]

I play with a 1GB 6870 at 1920*1200 with settings on 'high' in BF3 with HBAO off and MSAA off (deferred AA on max) and I don't run into VRAM issues.

 

[[WU-TANG]GZA]

Beg, borrow or (I won't say it) an extra £30 if I were you and get the EVGA 480:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-124-EA&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1830

560Ti Vs 480

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/309?vs=330

Run it at stock or maybe a small OC but when you next get some cash again get a cooler for it such as:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-002-GD&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787

Powerful combo that in reality will run games for next couple of years.

 

[DazQ87]

I have to say the only games where I have seen the VRAM useage of my card go above 1GB is in BF3 on ultra which consumes about 1.7GB, and Crysis 2 with the high res texture pack which uses 2GB.

I think the geforce 480 might be the one to go for if you can save an extra £30.

 

[humbug]

I do like the look of the 480, its a very warm card but performance for that money is tempting and it has more then 1GB of Vram

if i can get the money i might go for that, thanks

 

[ALXAndy]

The 480 in all honesty is the only way you are going to get near anything that fits into the ultra settings category. Anything less than that in price won't do it.

 

[cmndr_andi]

Before you put your money down I would wait until early next week as the new HD 7800 series is expected to be released then. This will include the HD 7870 at ~£275 and the HD 7850 at ~£200.

The HD 6950 2GB currently occupies the £200 price bracket and looking at the reviews it is beaten by the HD 7850 - so hopefully we will see some nice price drops of the HD 6950 2GB, which may tempt you - since this is still a nice card and comes packed with a lot of VRAM.

The GTX 480 is a very powerful card for the money, but personally I wouldn't go for one of these due to the noise, high power draw and heat production of these cards. A remedy to this is to buy an aftermarket GPU cooler, however once you consider the price of this then you could instead go for a HD 7850 2GB which about matches it in most tests (taking the GTX 570 as a GTX 480 analogue) and uses a lot less power and produces less heat.

 

[humbug]

Before you put your money down I would wait until early next week as the new HD 7800 series is expected to be released then. This will include the HD 7870 at ~£275 and the HD 7850 at ~£200.

The HD 6950 2GB currently occupies the £200 price bracket and looking at the reviews it is beaten by the HD 7850 - so hopefully we will see some nice price drops of the HD 6950 2GB, which may tempt you - since this is still a nice card and comes packed with a lot of VRAM.

The GTX 480 is a very powerful card for the money, but personally I wouldn't go for one of these due to the noise, high power draw and heat production of these cards. A remedy to this is to buy an aftermarket GPU cooler, however once you consider the price of this then you could instead go for a HD 7850 2GB which about matches it in most tests (taking the GTX 570 as a GTX 480 analogue) and uses a lot less power and produces less heat.

That seems like the best solution, i like the 480 for its current money but its like hot-wiring a toaster oven to your PSU and then cramming that into your case, and like you said the 6950 is just as good with none of the 480's problems...

i will wait and see what its price does.