[Arvalo]

So im looking into getting a new graphics card.

I'm typically a die hard Nvidia fan, and have been fairly adamantly against ATI for years.

But what i was hoping to find out is... whats the best card out there for around 250 bucks (ish), and if many what are the pros/cons?

Opinions for both ATI and Nvidia welcome.

[bygeorge]

In the $250 price range you would most likely be looking at the Geforce GTX 470 or the Radeon 6870. From what I have seen, the 470 has a slight performance advantage over the 6870. The 470 also has more overclocking headroom. Personally I would still go with the 6870, since the 6870 uses a lot less power than the 470.

http://www.hardware-...instream-kings/
http://www.tomshardw...570,2834-4.html

[Ahkrael]

Honestly, I have to advocate both the nvidia 460 (768mb) and amd6850 1gb as the best price-point cards on the market. The 460 also comes in a 1gb version, which can help for larger resolutions and higher AA settings for a larger price. There was an add in my email for $109 for a 460 after mir, I believe from tigerdirect - them or newegg. For a bit more money, the 6850 from ati is easily one of the best price-performance cards out today. For around $175 you can grab a 6850, which is basically a refresh of the 5850, only using less power and a lower tdp. Overall its better than a 5850. The amazing feature that the 6800 cards utilize, is a dual bios, which allows you to softmod your 6850s into a full 6870, and still have a default bios in case of failure - 0% chance to brick your card (disclaimer - you may still brick it, but not through faulty bios. Iflashes).

If you feel you need more power ( unless you run multimonitors, I can't see a need in the near future) you can upgrade to crossfire later, or if you want to spend more money now, I have heard good thinks of the nvidia 570, being better than the 480 @ ~350$. My honest opinion as a power user-builder, is go with what suits your needs, you will end up with a better system if spending $150 now and another $150 in a year rather than getting $350 now, and falling behind in a year, or havin to get a full new series, and have the older card rendered uselss ( ofc if you build multiple machines, the longevity of upgrades may be of more value to you).

Edit- its hard to modify post, posting from my phone @ work.

I was wrong about the dual-bios feature on 6800 cards, its a 6900 card design, so ignore the easy bios flashing of the 6850, its the 6950 that can softmod to 6970 easily. I don't have pricepoints on 6950s on hand with me, but it would be work looking at them with the knowledge of a basically 'free' upgrade to 6970. More info can be found at widescreengamingforum.com , they have an article on it. I blieve anandtech has some material on it as well.

[Arvalo]

Thanks for the input so far guys, looking to make my order from newegg on Tuesday. Haven't decided yet... but between what i've read here, and my own personal research on performance vs price point... the 470 is leading the pack.

Longevity of upgrade is very important to me as well. I plan to upgrade my Mother board later this year and pick up a 2nd card to run SLI at that time.

Ideas with that in mind?

Also you guys rock, thanks again for the input thus far.

[Ahkrael]

Beyond prices, a lot of what separates those cards compared are smaller things - like ease/headroom with overclocking, heat management/power consumption, multi-displays (nvidia requires 2 cards in sli for 3 screens, ati is able to do this with 1 card - not a dealbreaker for the majority of users) and compatibility with 3d vision, if any of those things are important.

If you are referring to the next gen socket for sandybridge, not the current 1156 sb varients (p67, n67), I believe it is called socket2011, due in q4 this year. That's a bit of a distance away and prices could shift during that timespan. Personally, I would say to get the best priced unit to suit your needs right now, and be able to upgrade when you actually feel you need to. A little anecdote, I bought a 5970 about a year ago. I paid $600 for it at launch, which believe it or nnot, was a steal as they were being sold for almost $800 easily. A 5970 is essentially 2x 5850s with capacity to oc to levels of a 5870 easily, with voltage increases. In retrospect, if I bought a single 5850, for $300, then bought 2x 6850's now, id have paid the same amount gross, and essentially jhave an extra 5850 to re-sell, re-use. Just something to consider if you are the type of person that is comfortable swapping your system around more readily as need arises, it sometimes is smarter to build off what you actually need at the time, instead of setting yourself up for a 2year span for another upgrade.

[Arvalo]

I like to shoot at over-kill... so i dont have to spend significant money for 3~4 years. When i go for a new Mother board im going Asus + I7 i know that much for sure. I plan to continue using the same card ill purchase this week plus adding another one to SLI it for that over-kill effect. Even two 470's would be considered Over-kill for Tera No? Price for two is around 500 bucks which is pretty fair for the performance increase over my single 8800 GT lol.

As far as ATI goes... ive not seen anything that is interesting enough to be yet to pull me in that direction. Over-clocking isnt an important feature to me as i see it mainly as a good way to accidentally kill your cards. I've had a few friends destroy their relatively new cards doing it and its always scared me so i've never bothered with it.

The power consumption on the 470 vs the ATI is a bit concerning, but im fairly certain an extra 10 bucks a month on my power bill isnt gonna kill me and is worth it to me to stay with Nvidia since i trust them moreso then ATI. My first ever graphics card purchase was an ATI back in like 2002..... i dont remember which one it was anymore but i had nothing but trouble with it... so when i built my system in 2005 i went Nvidia and never looked back.

[Churchill]

bygeorge, on 22 January 2011 - 07:24 PM, said:

In the $250 price range you would most likely be looking at the Geforce GTX 470 or the Radeon 6870. From what I have seen, the 470 has a slight performance advantage over the 6870. The 470 also has more overclocking headroom. Personally I would still go with the 6870, since the 6870 uses a lot less power than the 470.

http://www.hardware-...instream-kings/
http://www.tomshardw...geforce-gtx-570,2834-4.html

Radeon HD 6870 Average Performance.. explain how the Avg is lower than the Min xD

[Foxer]

470GTX

[wsgroves]

What resolution are you running? That really is the main factor for worrying about what vid card to get . Apologies if you posted it and I missed it.
Personally I would go with the company that releases drivers more often.

But, what it really comes down to is your monitors resolution, no point in getting a 580 if you are running 720p.

As for the 470, it is a good card but it runs pretty hot. Depending on your res, a 465 may suit your needs. I had one on my tv pc and it ran things nicely at 1080p.

[Arvalo]

Ordered a GTX 470 this morning. Can't wait. Thanks for the input guys.

As for the heat aspect of the 470 i wasn't concerned. Most people that were upgrading from an 8800 GT (which i have) said that the 470 runs cooler then the older card, and provides a very noticeable 20+ fps performance boost on all games.

[Hongie]

Arvalo, on 25 January 2011 - 11:22 AM, said:

Ordered a GTX 470 this morning. Can't wait. Thanks for the input guys.

As for the heat aspect of the 470 i wasn't concerned. Most people that were upgrading from an 8800 GT (which i have) said that the 470 runs cooler then the older card, and provides a very noticeable 20+ fps performance boost on all games.

Too late to give a suggestion now, but saving an extra $100 and getting a GTX570 would've been a better choice. GTX570 is much much faster than the 4xx series when you want to run games with DX11 (pretty much the future of gaming). Not to mention it pars up to the GTX480.

[wsgroves]

Yea and I was going to say that the GTX 560 just came out as well.

[Arvalo]

500 series is out of my price range anyways.

[wsgroves]

Didnt you buy a 470? They are almost the same price, at least looking at them now.
Gigabyte just came out with a 560 To SOC that is basically at 570 for cheaper =/

[Arvalo]

the 570's on newegg are 350+ 470 was 240.

http://www.newegg.co...GTX+570&x=0&y=0

470, is tried tested and proven. That alone makes it more wise a buy in my eyes.