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Best graphics card for around £200?

Brumboy

Brumboy

Brumboy

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11 Jan 2011
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I currently have a GTX 460 with 768MB which I bought for £120. And now I'm looking to possibly buy another graphics card.

I've looked on OCuk and for around £200 (my price limit) there seems to be a few cards to choose from:

ATI 6950 - I heard you can "flash" this to perform like a 6970, is this safe to do? If so wouldn't this be the best card to buy?

GTX 480 - with 1.5gb memory for £209, this seems like it's a little better than a 6950 from looking at benchmarks but if I unlock it to a 6970 then it outperforms a GTX 480.

Are there any other cards I'm missing? The best cards look to be the 580 & 6970, but both are out of my price range.
 
So definitely go for a Nvidia card then, even though a 6950 can be unlocked to a 6970 which seems to be the second best card out there?

So it's between a GTX 480 which OC sell for £209 or a GTX 560 Ti which can be overclocked to near 570 performance. Can't decide!
 
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What resolution are you gaming at?

Any res up to 1900 x 1200 the GTX 560 is a sweet card.

The 480 has a bit more muscle but its hot and loud...not in a good way ;)

If you get the MSI Twin Frozr 560 you can overclock to your hearts content and it will remain FAR FAR cooler and quieter than a 480 with very similar performance
 
I'm using 1920 x 1080 which is the max I can use.

Hmm never thought about a 560, is the overclocking complicated, or is it a simple case of downloading afterburner and tweaking some settings?

Howcome I can't overclock a 480 or is it simply not possible?

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

The 480 is quite higher on some of the tests though
 
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Rossuk89 said:
So definitely go for a Nvidia card then, even though a 6950 can be unlocked to a 6970 which seems to be the second best card out there?

So it's between a GTX 480 which OC sell for £209 or a GTX 560 Ti which can be overclocked to near 570 performance. Can't decide!
Click to expand...

If you have the money the 6950 2gb is the best card in this price area as it will unlock to a 6970 and give you better performance than the gtx560. Most of the guys recommending a gtx560 have to much love for nvidia, the smart thing to do is get a 6970 and unlock the shaders as then you have a card that competes with the gtx570 not the gtx560.

Gtx480 is probably second for me on the list especially performance wise as it competes with gtx570/6970. The only reason it comes second is its power hungry and loud.
 
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Rossuk89 said:
I'm using 1920 x 1080 which is the max I can use.

Hmm never thought about a 560, is the overclocking complicated, or is it a simple case of downloading afterburner and tweaking some settings?

Howcome I can't overclock a 480 or is it simply not possible?

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

you can overclock either card using MSI afterburner, just a case of moving two sliders, one core and one for memory.

this is the GTX480 vs 6970 - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/309?vs=292 still beats it in more tests than it loses.
 
Overclocking a 480 is just as easy as any other graphics card (but it will get hotter and louder as a result), as yes MSI Afterburner is the tool for the job.

When talking about performance I assume you are reffering to frames per second shown on the benchmarking charts...whilst more is obviously better it reaches a point where more makes no difference at all (unless your using a 120hz panel)

Most LCD's are locked to 60Hz which means the max FPS they can display without screen tearing is 60FPS. So gaming at 55fps and gaming at 90fps will feel identical.

There are other things to consider apart from raw frames per second....whilst the 6950 does offer good value, the GTX 560 benefits from excellent driver support, physx support and is quieter than the 6950
 
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ghutchison14078 said:
Overclocking a 480 is just as easy as any other graphics card, as yes MSI Afterburner is the tool for the job.

When talking about performance I assume you are reffering to frames per second shown on the benchmarking charts...whilst more is obviously better it reaches a point where more makes no difference at all (unless your using a 120hz panel)

Most LCD's are locked to 60Hz which means the max FPS they can display without screen tearing is 60FPS. So gaming at 55fps and gaming at 90fps will feel identical.

There are other things to consider apart from raw frames per second....whilst the 6950 does offer good value, the GTX 560 benefits from excellent driver support, physx support and is quieter than the 6950
Click to expand...

I could easily say amd drivers give great support also and offer the only way to get into 3 monitor gaming on the one card but i am not gonna get into that rubbish.

The facts are unlock that 6950 and its the best gaming card there and one of the best deals on the market.
 
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