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£100 Graphics Card buying advice?

gibsonc

gibsonc

gibsonc

Associate
Joined
19 Jul 2012
Posts
12
Hi, I am doing my first ever build of a computer and need a graphics card, I am having trouble choosing what card to go for however.

At the moment it is between an EVGA Geforce GTX 550ti Superclocked or a XFX Radeon 6870, both are within £6 of each other so price is not an issue. I am open to other cards, the Radeon 7xxx series is not an option at the moment however as it is not compatible with some software.

I will be doing some gaming on it but I don't mind if I'm not running everything on ultras settings, high is fine (I hope I'm not being unrealistic to want that with these cards).

It needs to drive a 1080p monitor but I'm not bothered if I need to run at a slightly lower resolution in order to get good settings.

Many thanks,
Chris
 
gibsonc said:
Thanks for the quick reply, just something that worries me is the fact that the card came out in 2010 how long would I expect it to run games well for?
Click to expand...

To give you an idea as I had this card so speaking from experience:

I ran most games maxed out which I played. The more graphically intense games like BF3 I could run on High settings with no MSAA and full FXAA and achieve around 45-70 FPS at 1920*1080 resolution. I think this was really impressive from what is essentially a mid-range card.

There won't be many games as graphically intense as BF3 so as to its longevity I would hazard a guess at around 2 more years before it really starts to completely fall over at medium ish settings but that's just a guesstimate really.

If you wanted a more future proof card you could look at getting a 6950 or 6970 when it comes on offer next. It has 2GB of RAM so plenty of future proofing there and is a decent bit faster than a 6870. However, when spending more than what you would on a 6870 it is diminishing returns on the performance you get for the money you spend as the 6870 is top of that particular league.
 
Ok thanks for explaining that!

Turns out the price has gone up £15 since this morning but I assume at £115 it is still a good deal?
 
I think it was the best pound to performance card at £140 so yeah. Not sure what the OcUK versions of 6870's are like though. They're end of line so supplies running low...
 
On a 6870 here too, great card for what I paid last Summer. I'l probably upgrade at the end of this year but it could potentially last me a while longer yet it performs that well.
 
6870 here too.

Got it for £90 from the MM.

Plays everything I throw at it, I don't play BF3 on Ultra but it was playable at 1920*1080 just not as smooth as high.
 
If you're going new it has to be a 6870. There's nothing remotely clost under £150.

If you don't mind going second hand, I've seen 6950s go for under £100.
 
Is there much difference in the 68 to the 69 series?
Ive been looking at the 6970 or the 7850 cards which would be the best option of these 2.
 
Stock-for-stock the 6970 is faster, however the 7850 runs cooler, requires less power, and OCs much higher.

Once overclocked the 7850 is also faster too, therefore If it was my money I would go for the 7850 everytime!
 
Alkalinepro5 said:
Stock-for-stock the 6970 is faster, however the 7850 runs cooler, requires less power, and OCs much higher.

Once overclocked the 7850 is also faster too, therefore If it was my money I would go for the 7850 everytime!
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I cannot go for a 7xxx series card, not compatible :(

I have been doing some fiddling with my build and am wondering whether a 6850 would be a better option, it fits my budget much better at only £83.99 which certainly is tempting!

Will I notice much difference in gaming if I run at a slightly lower res than full 1080p?

Many thanks,
Chris
 
If you want to stick on a tight budget, the 6850 is hard to beat.

Why is the 7000 series not compatible? If it's the PCI-E 3.0 then don't worry since it's backwards compatible with 2.0/1.0.
 
Thanks guys, I went for an XFX Radeon HD 6850, I got a good deal on it and I feel more comfortable spending under £100. I could have spent over my budget on a 6870 but at the end of the day I'm not a massive gamer!
Should be a big upgrade from my nvidia GeForce 9400m!
 
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