Another "I want to upgrade my video card" thread

[Shadrack]

Hi Guys -

I just read through the Need cheap graphics card for GW2. It had a lot of good information for me. I'm looking to get an upgrade video card, and hopefully max out the settings in GW2 with it. My friend said he just got an nVidia GTX 680 and doesn't have any problems with maxed out settings. Well, that card costs >$500 so no thanks and no wonder he isn't have any problems.

My setup is from the end of 2007 and is aging. But damn it, I want to get the most out of it:

Motherboard: Asus P5K Deluxe/Wifi-AP

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

Memory: 6GB (can't remember specifics but they are appropriate for motherboard)

Current Video Card: nVidia GeForce 8800GT

I'm looking to spend about $200 on an upgrade. I don't care if it is AMD or nVidia.

I'm considering: GIGABYTE ATI Radeon HD6850 1GB DDR5

Thanks for your input

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

that wouldnt be a bad purchase. you'll have to be careful with the CPU bottlenecking the GPU if you were to get a high-end card (which you arent)

What about the 7850? it's $185 on Newegg AR...

At what resolution do you play games? What wattage is your PSU?

[Astra.Xtreme]

Your CPU is also going to be a bit of a bottleneck. Upgrading the graphics card will definitely help, but for any modern game that depends on the CPU, you may run into some barriers. Just so you're aware. :)

A 560 Ti would be better than the 6850.

[abysal]

My dual 6970m's in crossfire handle this game worse than another laptops NVS 5200. With the 6970m's, I get 20 fps on medium settings vs 35 fps on the NVS 5200, thats ridiculous. I have not yet tried to disable cross fire, but I fear ATI cards may not handle this game well. I'm running Catalyst 12.6, with CAP 1. I'll have to try 12.8 to see if it's any better.

If you can spare another $100, the GTX 660 Ti is the card to get, it performs very close to the GTX 670.

[Shadrack]

Yeah, I realize that for some games my CPU will bottleneck. I'm OK with that for now as I just want to spend at most $200 on a card but want to see some improved graphics. I don't think that my CPU is the bottleneck in GW2, I'm pretty sure it is the graphics card. If I turn most settings to Medium and Low, turn off Post Processing and anti-aliasing I get about 30fps. But with all that stuff on, the game looks amazing even though it is running at 10-15fps.

Here is my monitor: Samsung 226BW. It has a native resolution of 1680x1050 which I like to game at. At lower resolutions I find that the games don't quite look right. But some games I find look better at lower resolutions with antialiasing enabled as oppose to 1680x1050 w/o antialiasing. It all varies.

I have a 520W PSU: CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-520HX 520W

I wonder if I can get something from somewhere with a good return policy. As far as spending $300 on a new graphics card, I'm OK with that I think. I've learned that for gaming graphics you can't really go cheap. But $300 is pushing me to the limit.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

you should be set then. i'd spring for that 7850 or the 560Ti. that resolution is low enough (these days) that you arent likely to hit a CPU bottleneck.

[CentralDogma]

Another recommendation for the 7850 here. That's what I ended up getting. Haven't had a chance to really try it out yet, but it seems decent so far. And it just hit the $200 price point you're looking for.

[Shadrack]

How about this one:

http://www.amazon.co...+Ti+DisplayPort

or

this one:

http://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Radeon-Express-Graphics-900505/dp/B007KJ1URG/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1346355938&sr=1-2&keywords=7850

nVidia vs. AMD. lol

[Astra.Xtreme]

The 560 Ti 448 Cores might actually be a good bet in the $200 range. I believe it tops the 7850 by a little bit.

Or the new 660 Ti if you're okay with spending a little more.

[CentralDogma]

Yeah, if you thrown in an extra $100, the 660ti gives a considerable benefit over the 7850. Alternatively, you could wait for Nvidia to release some more mid-range Kepler cards, which might happen next month or might not depending which rumor site you visit.

[mattmatik]

I have the 6850 and its been great for GW2. However, at this point the 7850 is the better buy - it will last you longer and let you upgrade the CPU later.

[Shadrack]

I ended up going with the 7850. After ho-humming about it for awhile I decided that $200 was my budget and I was going to stick to that budget. When I started thinking about the $300 line of cards, I came to the conclusion that for that much of an upgrade I should start considering the larger upgrade of my whole gaming desktop which I'm just not ready to do this year. Maybe next year.

Thanks for the feedback guys.