about to order but what card?!?!

[H3RBSKI]

ok so come 12am i get payed so its time to finally order!
just double checking my basket and seeing if i can get it down any cheaper as im currently at £1030 (budget WAS £800 lol)
in my basket i have a point of view 2.5gb ultra clocked gtx 570 its £350 but for not much more i could get a 580 or for £100 less i could get a 1.5gig 570.
or for £150 less i could get a 2gig 560ti
why are there so many choices? lol
this build is mainly for bf3 and after Christmas im going to sli whatever card is in there.
what do you guys recommend? its going to ran with a 2500k, 6gig corsair ram on a asrock z68 extreme 4 gen 3 mobo
so many choices and as im already over budget i wanna make sure i get it right and dont waste money

 

[cmndr_andi]

Hi there,

I would suggest either going for a proper GTX 580 or save a bunch of money and get a HD 6950 2GB. These scale really well in crossfire - so adding a second in the future is a decent option.

As for the rest of your system, may I ask why you are going for 6GB RAM? Would it not make more sense to get a 8GB dual channel kit like this?

 

[H3RBSKI]

well originally i made the basket it on a different website as at the time several items on here were out of stock. now its the opposite way round lol so was going to make a new basket on here in a min. the other site only had 6 gig kits (3x2gig) so that what i had to opt for.
how well does the 6950 run in bf3? ive always ran nvidia cards so wanted to stick to the green team idealy lol heard the ati cards had a fair few problems with drivers lately and crossfire?

 

[cmndr_andi]

Yea, the 3x2GB don't work properly in s1155 board like the Z68 as they use dual channel memory - and that kit is for triple channel memory boards like the X58 series. Instead, a dual channel kit (either 2x2GB or 2x4GB) is the way to go on these Z68 boards (like the kit I linked to above).

As for the HD 6950 2GB, it does pretty well in a very demanding game, obviously our data is all based on a beta which is using pre-release code so nothing is certain yet on that front. Here is a comparison against other modern cards in the beta.

As for the drivers, all new games throw up driver issues for both green and red teams and it is my understanding that working drivers for RAGE and BF3 beta are out.

May I ask what resolution monitor you will be playing on?

 

[H3RBSKI]

thanks for the link, ill be running 19x10 so full hd, not interested in multi screens etc.
but dont mind dropping the res to gain a few fps as im currently on 1650x1080 and it looks great as it is

 

[ndaar]

If your going to sli/cf what ever card you get...why not go for either an ati 6950 or the nvidia MSI 560ti 2gig....both are good cards in in sli/cf they will perform well in all games including BF3 and other new games

 

[H3RBSKI]

i would if i could afford it but 2x560's would take me even more over budget. im planning on getting 1 decent card now then another when the prices drop when the new cards come out

 

[H3RBSKI]

hmmm how about if i went for a 6950 and flashed it to a 6970? much of a performance boost?

 

[Surveyor]

hmmm how about if i went for a 6950 and flashed it to a 6970? much of a performance boost?

Newer stocks of the HD 6950 seem to have the extra shaders disabled at the hardware level so you're very lucky if you get one which will unlock.

The Sapphire TOXIC is the only one with a decent chance of unlocking but at OcUK these are priced at HD 6970 money now anyway (£280). You might as well buy a HD 6970 as drop that much on a HD 6950 which might unlock.