Best graphics card for around £200?

[TheRealDeal]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/309?vs=292

out of the 40 game/performance tests, the GTX480 wins 23

actually its 24 wins, one of the tests is "lower is better" so the GTX480 is the better card.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Palit/GeForce_GTX_560_Ti_Sonic/28.html

More games tested and has an overclocked gtx560 in there also along with a gtx480. At 1920x1200 which is the nearest to his 1080p the 6970 2gb is faster than a gtx560 and gtx480 on average through all games tested.

 

[ghutchison14078]

You never answered my question. I know its his cash and i feel i have given a fair account of the situation.

" i feel i have given a fair account of the situation"

As do I...you can never account for personal preference...having owned many ATI's and Nvidia's over the years I have always felt myself leaning towards Nvidias offering at the same price range as the equivalent Radeon

 

[ghutchison14078]

I'm not bothered about fan noise to be honest, I have my speakers turned up to a decent volume. Bah!!! this is too confusing now lol

480 is power hungry but will that make a difference with my PSU, it can also be unlocked to a 580?

Can't be UNLOCKED to 580 performance...it can be OVERCLOCKED...very different things.

Overclocking is pushing more voltage and cycles through the graphics chip to make it run faster.

Unlocking is flashing the chip to a different bios...basically tricking the GPU chip into thinking that it is something else entirely and by doing so makes it perform like the 6970 (by unlocking more shader clocks that were disabled in order to sell it at the cheaper price)


The most stable card to overclock would be the 6950 or 560...virtually no difference in overclocked stability.

480 on the other hand might be problematic to overclock with your PSU...and again it will get hotter and louder:

have a listen at about 1min 40 secs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WModJ5A4GH4

 

[stulid]

As do I...you can never account for personal preference...having owned many ATI's and Nvidia's over the years I have always felt myself leaning towards Nvidias offering at the same price range as the equivalent Radeon

Agree with this, tried ATI cards, always ended up with Nvidia.

 

[Brumboy]

If the 480 can be overclocked to 580 performance then that clearly wins, it also has a decent 1.5GB memory for £200. The only problem is the power consumption and heat. If that will be fine in my computer then it looks like that wins overall, although the 6970 looks like a really good card too and has 2GB memory.

Choices..help?

 

[ghutchison14078]

Save another 130 quid and get the same GTX 480 as me...IT RULES!!!!

 

[TheRealDeal]

Agree with this, tried ATI cards, always ended up with Nvidia.

I am like this with some things but tbh when it comes to gpu's i go with the best for my money. I have had more amd cards as they usually are the best bang for buck. My current card was a gift so i had no real input but as usual with either brand i am very happy. If that accelero came on the gtx480 i would be recommending that lol. I still think though that psu might not like overclocking a gtx480 to much.

 

[Brumboy]

That 480 is loud as hell damn lol, puts me off buying it!

Overall the 6950 2GB seems to be the best, it has low power consumption and beats the 580 almost every time on the benchmarks. But the 480 can be overclocked to 580 which is the best single GPU card out right now..

But then the 560 is quiet and can be unlocked to 570 but only has 1GB memory..

Anyone else have suggestions/comments?

 

[Ezyryder]

Your PSU is not that strong anyway. Its at tops a 420W in the 12V rail. I would get the 6950.

 

[bru]

one thing to remember the 6950 once flashed to unlock the extra shaders, will have a non standard bios thus invalidating any warranty, now there is some debate as to whether AMD or the individual board partners can tell if its been flashed if you flash it back. but more to the point is the only reason you would have to rma it is if it goes wrong, and of course if it does you wouldn't be able to flash it back anyway.
so just bear in mind the loss of warranty for an unlocked 6950

 

[kylew]

one thing to remember the 6950 once flashed to unlock the extra shaders, will have a non standard bios thus invalidating any warranty, now there is some debate as to whether AMD or the individual board partners can tell if its been flashed if you flash it back. but more to the point is the only reason you would have to rma it is if it goes wrong, and of course if it does you wouldn't be able to flash it back anyway.
so just bear in mind the loss of warranty for an unlocked 6950

AMD added dual BIOSes to facilitate safe BIOS flashing, it doesn't invalidate the warranty.

 

[kylew]

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!

Unfortunately you've been met by some of the idiotic fanboys who talk crap and make things up. Your initial thoughts of getting a 6950 and unlocking it to a 6970 is the most sensible choice.

These people would have you believe that no AMD card every actually works, all nVidia cards work 100% fine, and they never ever have problems, ever, nVidia drivers are perfect and never have issues, whereas you can't even install AMD drivers. I really don't know what it is about nVidia, and why they attract such people to be like this over them (one sided love), but it seems to be the case. Incidentally, when an nVidia card does have issues, or some one starts a thread about nVidia drivers not working for them, they either steer well clear, or are all over the thread trying to help, talking about how they've had the same issue themselves.

Also, as I said to bru, you don't need to worry about BIOS flashing invalidating your warranty, think about it, why would AMD put dual BIOSes, and a switch to switch between them, if they wouldn't let you use this feature without losing your warranty? It's ridiculous to even suggest that. On top of all that, they can't even tell anyway, and countless people have successfully RMAd previous cards that didn't have dual BIOSes after flashing them multiple times.

 

[Rroff]

Once you start talking overclocking and/or unlocking the 6950->6970 or 6970 on average these cards manage 7% overclocks which is around 2.5% actual performance gains on average over a range of applications, the 480 manages 20-22% overclock on average with 13-14% average performance gains, generally meaning the 480 is marginally faster at 1920x and they about even up at 2560x. So really it comes down to how much the fan noise would bother you.

 

[kylew]

Once you start talking overclocking and/or unlocking the 6950->6970 or 6970 on average these cards manage 7% overclocks which is around 2.5% actual performance gains on average over a range of applications, the 480 manages 20-22% overclock on average with 13-14% average performance gains, generally meaning the 480 is marginally faster at 1920x and they about even up at 2560x. So really it comes down to how much the fan noise would bother you.

This is often said, curiously enough, only by nVidia uses who "don't do AMD", there's been various reports of people achieving rather high overclocks on their 6950s and 6970s, I have no idea where you get this "average" from, I doubt you've actually went ahead and calculated all this based on a a fair cross section, you've probably pulled it out your bum, or based it on one example.

 

[Rroff]

Yes theres been various reports of people hitting ~1gig clocks on the 6970, theres also been "various" reports of people hitting 60-70% overclocks on the 480, back in the realworld for stock cooling a bit of a voltage bump and every day stable you will find its pretty much as I said.

 

[azazin]

Go for the 6950, the perfomance will be way better as you might be able to unlock it if you get a 2GB version.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Save another 130 quid and get the same GTX 480 as me...IT RULES!!!!

You'd need to be slightly mad to spend £330 on a GTX480.

At £200-£220 they make perfect sense, at £330, no sense at all. Thats more expensive than the identically performing yet quieter and lower power 570.

 

[J.D]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/309?vs=292

out of the 40 game/performance tests, the GTX480 wins 23

actually its 24 wins, one of the tests is "lower is better" so the GTX480 is the better card.

That Anandtech bench is a load of rubbish for comparing Nvidia VS ATI and well you know it. Also, you will only promote Nvidia for some creepy reason. I would never take advice from you as you cannot be trusted to be reliable due to the completely pointless way you follow and promote Nvidia in anything graphic card related. Until you sort that fanboi rubbish out, you're useless IMO in the graphic card section . Shame really but that's the choice you've made.

I'll say one thing though, you've actually been a pleasant fanboi in this thread for only promoting Nvidia and saying nothing negative about the 6950 (ignoring it).

Hawx = Favours Nvidia heavily.

BattleForge = Favours Nvidia heavily.

Civilisation V = Favours Nvidia heavily.

Dirt 2 = Favours Nvidia.

Stalker = Favours ATI

Take the above into consideration Stulid and now understand why I'm posting this. It's because you knew fine well that it wasn't a fair benchmark. Why not use several benchmark reviews?.

To the OP. I'd go for the 6950 or GTX 480 at your resolution. Yes the GTX 560 plays fine for most at 1920x1200 but you can start to see the GTX 560 buckle a little bit on a few titles at this resolution, even more so when a bit higher on selected titles too. If future gaming would be a factor then this is one thing I would take into consideration.

As for the GTX 480 or 6950, well I think both cards are very similar but as one is more power hungry, generates more heat, and is a little bit more noisy on top of becoming EOL, I think it sways towards the 6950.

I'm actually thinking of getting a GTX 570 but not for the gaming aspect of it as it would be a pointless side grade, it's because I can only select 1600x1200 on my gaming CRT with ATI's driver. When testing a 9800GTX for someone 2 months ago I could select 1920x1440. So it's only for that and I'm disputing whether paying £60-80 is really worth it.

I only mentioned this to show I have no preference to what manufacturer I use in my rig. Both companies are great .

 

[J.D]

Once you start talking overclocking and/or unlocking the 6950->6970 or 6970 on average these cards manage 7% overclocks which is around 2.5% actual performance gains on average over a range of applications, the 480 manages 20-22% overclock on average with 13-14% average performance gains, generally meaning the 480 is marginally faster at 1920x and they about even up at 2560x. So really it comes down to how much the fan noise would bother you.

Oh so from 800Mhz up to 1000Mhz with only 1.225v. Also I'd push that up to 1.3v to go further which I haven't even tested yet. Yeah, so only my card can do this?. I'm sorry but I have to disagree with you due to time spent on various forums and seeing people with their overclocks. Most people don't even push their card as long as they can run 6970 clocks with their unlocked shaders 6950 BIOS. Those that do are easily going further than a 7% overclock.

I'm just sharing my experience as well as the amount of reading I've done rather than leaving it to you assuming which isn't really beneficial to the thread. Now if it was anything GTX 470 related then I'd listen to what you had to say as I know you have got these cards and have had them for a while. I'm just not putting up with claims like you have made regarding the 6950 overclocking ability though as they are wrong.

Yes theres been various reports of people hitting ~1gig clocks on the 6970, theres also been "various" reports of people hitting 60-70% overclocks on the 480, back in the realworld for stock cooling a bit of a voltage bump and every day stable you will find its pretty much as I said.

Realworld?. Are you being serious here?. I can hit 1000Mhz core and that's at 1.225v as I mentioned above. Next time I'm benching I'll see if I can get further than 1000Mhz on the core with up to 1.300v. Air cooling btw.

I'm sorry Rroff but you're wearing your green shades again and you've actually been pretty fair lately regarding the graphics card section (Kudos ). If you are going to promote, do it fairly as you put no limitation on the GTX 480 but don't apply this to the 6950.

I know you mention the 6970 but the OP is interested the 6950/GTX 560/GTX 480 (similar price points).

If you really don't know about the 6950 and the overclocking potential then please don't post like you do. You would do the exact same to me if I spouted nonsense about the GTX 470 and the overclock potential of the card, now wouldn't you?.

It's not an argument. Just a disagreement .

 

[Casdawer]

My 4870x2 died yesterday and i had to choose between the GTX 480 or the 6950 (6970).

I looked at the benchmarks for both and compared and found that it was pretty much 50/50 on which one was best.

So i decided to go for the 480, purely because the 4870x2 was my first ATI card and the drivers where a pain and it's died on me in 2 years, yet my 6800GTS is still going strong.

Nvidia wins!