Video Card Advice (Upgrade)

[needsata]

I will be brief for now (don't want to miss one of these potential deals, so forgive the lack of details about what I want)

Note* been out of the loop so to speak on PC gaming and Video Cards since the end of the AGP era and don't have a lot of time to become versed with all the changes which have occured in the last few years.

Budget (currently, about 150.00 USD)

Few things I'm looking for (just give me your best estimates, don't have to pick at every little technical aspect):

How much performance gain (general percentage if you like) Guestimations are welcome

Opinion on price drops/market prices with impending new year, cards to-be-released, et ecetera (for the real market watchers)

Bottlenecks of my system (which I don't intend to upgrade piecemeal, but perhaps down the line fully so it is what it is for the time being, with the exception of the video card I intend to upgrade and system memory to 8 GB if that would help anything at all gaming-wise)

Few cards I am considering here (feel free to research on your own and give opinions):

AMD Radeon HD 7850 (bit out of price range, but if I could get it for this price and the benefits are worth it, et ecetera I would do it)

7770s seem to be sitting around 130.00 right now (by the way I am in no way opposed to Nvidia's offerings [just have never owned one in recent memory])

Price after rebate: $164.99

MSI R7850 Twin Frozr OC AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB GDDR5 DVI/HDMI/2xMiniDisplayPort PCI-Express Video Card R7850 TWIN FROZR 2GD5/OC

http://www.amazon.co...eywords=hd+7770

http://www.amazon.co...eywords=hd+7770

http://www.amazon.co...eywords=hd+7770

http://www.amazon.co...eywords=hd+7770

http://www.amazon.co...eywords=hd+7770

http://www.amazon.co...eywords=hd+7770

http://www.amazon.co...eywords=hd+7770

http://www.amazon.co...eywords=hd+7770

http://www.amazon.co...eywords=hd+7770

http://www.amazon.co...eywords=hd+7770

http://www.amazon.co...eywords=hd+7770

Current Specs:

Graphics Card Manufacturer Powered by AMD

Graphics Chipset AMD Radeon HD 6700 Series

Graphics Bus Capability PCI Express 2.0

Maximum Bus Setting PCI Express 2.0 x16

BIOS Date 2011/05/03

Memory Size 1024 MB

Memory Type GDDR5

Core Clock in MHz 700 MHz

Memory Clock in MHz 1150 MHz

Total Memory Bandwidth in GByte/s 73.6 GByte/s

or

Windows Performance

Processor Intel? Core? i3 CPU 530 @

2.93GHz

Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB

Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6700 Series

Gaming graphics 3803 MB Total available graphics memory

Primary hard disk 487GB Free (918GB Total)

Windows 7 Home Premium

System

Manufacturer

Gateway

Model SX2840

Total amount of system memory 6.00 GB RAM

System type 64-bit operating system

Number of processor cores 2 Storage

Total size of hard disk(s) 2315 GB Disk partition (C:) 487 GB Free (918 GB Total) Disk partition (D:) 1201 GB Free (1397 GB Total) Media drive (H:) CD/DVD Graphics

Display adapter type AMD Radeon HD 6700 Series

Total available graphics memory 3803 MB

Dedicated graphics memory 1024 MB

Dedicated system memory 0 MB

Shared system memory 2779 MB

Display adapter driver version 8.961.0.0

Primary monitor resolution 1440x900

DirectX version DirectX 10

[Beyond Godlike]

You could wait a bit longer. I read that the 8000 series is coming in March, so the 7870 should drop. I just picked one up for 219 CAD witht he intent of getting a 2nd come march :D

[Xoligy]

This is my first stop for checking things out: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/ get to see which ones perform the best then you can see what there price is and if you think its worth the performance boost.

I personally brought a 8800gtx ultra last year second hand without doing much research 35days later it died so that was a wasste of ?80 (ebay guy gave 30days typical!) i then got a 6870 i belive which has done me fine but then again ive not gamed much with my awesome duel core beast lol (cost about the same think less performance though i forget)

Sure others will post sooon though.

[Beyond Godlike]

This is my first stop for checking things out: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/ get to see which ones perform the best then you can see what there price is and if you think its worth the performance boost.

I personally brought a 8800gtx ultra last year second hand without doing much research 35days later it died so that was a wasste of ?80 (ebay guy gave 30days typical!) i then got a 6870 i belive which has done me fine but then again ive not gamed much with my awesome duel core beast lol (cost about the same think less performance though i forget)

Sure others will post sooon though.

Yeah games are pushing thehardware like they used to. I only just recently upped my 5870 from 3 years ago, and only cause my brothers' died and i gave it as a handmedown :p

[Xoligy]

Yeah games are pushing thehardware like they used to. I only just recently upped my 5870 from 3 years ago, and only cause my brothers' died and i gave it as a handmedown :p

This is the problem with PC's as hardware gets better they push the pc mmore and more with hard drive space, gfx and cpu needed. Then because they are unable to do tests with "every" computer the minimum specs can be wrong putting people off a pc game if they are unable to upgrade thre computer at the time. Ive been using my xbox more and more over the past few years even for games i use to love on the pc (was always quicker on the pc now im slower eeek!). I hand down my pc stuff if someone wants something, pointless throwing away incase something breaks then you have a back up unless its been handed down.

[needsata]

You could wait a bit longer. I read that the 8000 series is coming in March, so the 7870 should drop. I just picked one up for 219 CAD witht he intent of getting a 2nd come march :D

Sounds about right, thanks

This is my first stop for checking things out: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/ get to see which ones perform the best then you can see what there price is and if you think its worth the performance boost.

I personally brought a 8800gtx ultra last year second hand without doing much research 35days later it died so that was a wasste of ?80 (ebay guy gave 30days typical!) i then got a 6870 i belive which has done me fine but then again ive not gamed much with my awesome duel core beast lol (cost about the same think less performance though i forget)

Sure others will post sooon though.

I had considererd the used-card route, thought maybe I could get a card that I usually would never be able to aford otherwise, it's just so risky though... If there were like a credible used-card DEALER! online somewhere which vouches for their cards and prices them well that would be something.

This is the problem with PC's as hardware gets better they push the pc mmore and more with hard drive space, gfx and cpu needed. Then because they are unable to do tests with "every" computer the minimum specs can be wrong putting people off a pc game if they are unable to upgrade thre computer at the time. Ive been using my xbox more and more over the past few years even for games i use to love on the pc (was always quicker on the pc now im slower eeek!). I hand down my pc stuff if someone wants something, pointless throwing away incase something breaks then you have a back up unless its been handed down.

I know what you mean! Used my PS3 tons, PC little until I broke my TV... long story. But with services like steam (and their BIG PICTURE mode) and ease of use they are going the right route I think for consolizing PC gaming (blasphemy I know), but without gimping the games, ease-of-use and all that. They make it more approachable. I won't speak of EA's download service... the service which must not be named... I owe J.K. Rowling a dollar.

By the way

I have 550 watt powersupply - I "Modded" my case so I ditched the low-profile Gateway for my rig of a rig, open side panel (cuz I lost it some how IDK!!!) the original PSU for the low profile deal I swapped for the 550 I had from before. So technically I believe it is over-powered for my needs.

[threetonesun]

7770 is dead in the water at this point, and unless the 650 Ti gets cheaper, I'd say the same for it. You can either pick up a 7850 or a 660 now, or wait and see what the 8000 series looks like.

That said, since you're gaming at 1440x900, either of those cards should last you a long time.

[needsata]

7770 is dead in the water at this point, and unless the 650 Ti gets cheaper, I'd say the same for it. You can either pick up a 7850 or a 660 now, or wait and see what the 8000 series looks like.

That said, since you're gaming at 1440x900, either of those cards should last you a long time.

Looks like things are leaning toward a few month wait (totally fine as I am in no great rush, the only impending deal was with maybe some sales expiring, I DID forget to mention that, before I punched my 32 in LCD Tv, I had begun using it more and more for PC gaming, so 1080p is a target also if we are talking about future setups. As of now though, only my 1440x900 19in monitor.

[Xoligy]

I had considererd the used-card route, thought maybe I could get a card that I usually would never be able to aford otherwise, it's just so risky though... If there were like a credible used-card DEALER! online somewhere which vouches for their cards and prices them well that would be something.

From my experience i dont recommend it, he was a power seller on ebay and i'll be honest im not a second hand fan with computer gear i just thought "need a new gfx card get a decent one and im laughing!!!!" 35days later.... "Now im ****ed"

I know what you mean! Used my PS3 tons, PC little until I broke my TV... long story. But with services like steam (and their BIG PICTURE mode) and ease of use they are going the right route I think for consolizing PC gaming (blasphemy I know), but without gimping the games, ease-of-use and all that. They make it more approachable. I won't speak of EA's download service... the service which must not be named... I owe J.K. Rowling a dollar.

I know what you mean with the download games, they just make things easier and thats how i got BF3 (which i can not play due to a poor computer) and Diablo 3 (downloaded from blizzard brought a key from "cjs-cdkeys.com" 2/3 days later = full refund as i was fed up with there lies and false advertising of keys they did not have and went elsewhere)

Personally i use my xbox more now though specially with hitman absolution i want 100% completion lol

[needsata]

Yeah, haven't used a disc since... IDK when. Tried to install some old games... done with all that.

Shooters I still prefer on console no matter what, online shooters anyway, for the feel of the controller in my hands, more natural. WAY less cheating too :)

Of course, current gen consoles can't bolster the numbers PC can, but it's usually enough (players per map that is) I could use a gamepad on PC of course but then I'd be severly outmatched.

[needsata]

Well, I will pick all of your brains again in 2013 when I see some prices begin to droop.

Thanks everybody and happy new year.