Alright so5 months after nature destroyed my PC set up i finally got together a

few working parts and have a set up to at least play a few games except

this 8500GTS is a piece of crap and I'm looking to buy a new graphics card.

 

At the moment I'm basically an blind man browsing so i have no idea what is a

"good" graphics card at the moment and thought some of you tech heads

could point me in the right direction

 

Peaceee, blackie

 

Edit: Ohh yeah and i have a budget of about $250-300

Cheaper would be prime but that is the general price mark.

What motherboard do you have, what power supply do you have (Watts) and how much do you have to spend ?.

Alright sorry completely didn't even cross my mind.

 

Mobo: ConRoe 1333-DVI/H

PSU: 650w

Price: 200-300

depending on how much you want to spend i spose.

 

running a 6850 myself which is a pretty decent card imo, lets me game with the eye candy i want at the res i want on and have decent fps.

 

now a 6950 is a decent card as well

 

Atomic did a 'card test' in the last issue testing a butt load of cards. i'm taking the results with a grain of salt tho as the writers opinion seems highly slanted to nVidia (case in point, compares i think either the 6850-6950 to a 560 which iirc lost all the benchmarks but came close on 1 so he says "i find it hard to recommend the AMD ones when the nVidia performs almost as good").

 

Basically for around $200 you can pick up either

 

6850 or a 560

 

around $250

 

6950

 

around $330

 

6970 or a 570 (mate has two of those, loves em)

 

[edit] - i'd prolly look around a 6950 if you can get one. alternately you could always go either a 6850 or 570 then use the $100 left over to put towards an SSD (o:

My gfx card just cooked itself. Getting a 6950 - seems like the sweet spot in the market at the moment.

Also depends what brand you are after (ATI/AMD or Nvidia). For example, for me ATM, I'm a fan of Nvidia due to a few run-ins with software & dodgy coolers on my last few AMDs. So I'd grab a GTX560 Ti, however for pure grunt you'll beat that with an AMD.

could this be anzf's 2nd coming

Radeon HD6790

 

GTX 560

 

 

or GTX 550 Ti

 

3 cards that caught my eye in a pretty low price range... I'm still unsure what to get but :/

What are some good online stores other than pccasegear.com?

This Site Is The Aussie Comparison To Price-spy i Believe (Correct Me If I'm Wrong)

 

http://www.shopbot.com.au/graphics-cards/components/australia/83

 

Compares All The Stores.

This Site Is The Aussie Comparison To Price-spy i Believe (Correct Me If I'm Wrong)

 

http://www.shopbot.com.au/graphics-cards/components/australia/83

 

Compares All The Stores.

 

$168.55 for another 6850, maybe its time to get my 6850 a friend to crosfire with :rapage:

Use http://www.staticice.com.au for Australian tech. I think there is an option for NZ in there also, if you need it.

running a 6850 myself which is a pretty decent card imo, lets me game with the eye candy i want at the res i want on and have decent fps.

 

Basically for around $200 you can pick up

 

6850

 

 

+, following McD's rec when i needed a new card, my Sapphire 6850 has been pretty spot on. great for the gaming side of things!

 

im still trying to decide whether its the amd gpu's that fk out with mah modeling etc..... bit buggy....:stink:

Radeon HD6790

not worth it imo

GTX 560

supposedly okay but from what i've seen, a 6850 is a better card for the same/similar price

or GTX 550 Ti

i'd put it in the realm of 6790 tbh...

3 cards that caught my eye in a pretty low price range... I'm still unsure what to get but :/

What are some good online stores other than pccasegear.com?

if you stick with the above three, i'd go the 560 BUT, like i said the 6850 is a better card for pretty much the same price. Just depends whether you want a green or red i spose (running a Gigabyte, using the AMD drivers, no issues at all with mine apart from being cpu limited . . . damn foo saving $20 and not getting a faster quadcore!)

 

http://www.auspcmarket.com.au

 

some of the others would be better suited to advise re online purchasing. Could always try Whirlpool for advice re online retailers?

All good Ive just been comparing cards and stuff

Ill have a look around for any decent HD6850's

 

Ive only ever owned nvidias i may give AMD a shot for once

haha, me too. loved my 8800GTX. thrashed to bits...!

HDs for gaming are pretty solid!!!

 

though my next card may be nvidia. ill cop it on the chin for the help in 3d apps. nfi..

Dont forget about:

http://www.staticice.com.au/

For finding good prices.

Go Nvidia and foce/override ingame settings for maximum sexyness.

ATI cant do this as their control panel is based on what the .exe of the game is called.

 

My Choice:

Inno3D GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB OC - $199.00

Gainward GeForce GTX 570 1280MB Dual Fan - $349.00

 

If you can spare the extra $49, go the 570.

 

Also, FWIW I own a older model Nvidia 460 and it blows the socks off PR on 1920x1680, capped at 120fps and never drops below 120fps unless my PC itslef lags. Everything maxed and forced on/max with the nvidia control panel.

I'm In A Little Pickle.

 

6950

 

or

 

560 Ti

 

What Do You Think Would be The Best To Get ? Been Reading Reviews And Looking Around But Just Can't Really Make A Call, Sorta Leaning To 6950. Had A Read Above Aswell But Need More Opinions lol

Imo, Nvidia still rules the coop and for 255 bux you can pick urself up a GTX560Ti 1GB Overclocked

 

these are a nice card and with or without the benchmarks are imo well worth the money. but hey its a buyers world so the AMD/Nvidia war continues to rage but hey thats my 2 cents, good luck with your purchase !

I'm In A Little Pickle.

 

6950

 

or

 

560 Ti

 

What Do You Think Would be The Best To Get ? Been Reading Reviews And Looking Around But Just Can't Really Make A Call, Sorta Leaning To 6950. Had A Read Above Aswell But Need More Opinions lol

 

go AMD if your doing high res gaming, or multi monitor..

 

go nVidia if your gonna use stuff like physX

 

 

mind you tho, the extra 1GB of VRAM will serve well alot longer..

I will recommend something like this for example:

http://www.msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=7667

 

The biggest suggestion I will make is to pick a Brand/Card that is NOT using the reference design coolers. Get one like this Gigabyte that has the bigger more efficient fans. Because the standard design is noisy and doesn't cool well at all.

I bought my brother an ATI card with exactly the same cooler as that one (out of the gigabyte factory) and it is quite, even under full load and operates at lower temps, which is good if you want to overclock it later. Temps could be reduced even more without any change to the video card with really good case cooling.

I will recommend something like this for example:

http://www.msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=7667

 

The biggest suggestion I will make is to pick a Brand/Card that is NOT using the reference design coolers. Get one like this Gigabyte that has the bigger more efficient fans. Because the standard design is noisy and doesn't cool well at all.

I bought my brother an ATI card with exactly the same cooler as that one (out of the gigabyte factory) and it is quite, even under full load and operates at lower temps, which is good if you want to overclock it later. Temps could be reduced even more without any change to the video card with really good case cooling.

 

 

damn straight poncho.

I got the Gigabyte 6870 OC which has the same fan set up and it kicks arse.

nice and cool and nice and quiet and for gaming it works a treat.

i ahve a ASUS 2GB 6950 here 3 weeks out of box and only ran one game and one benchmark.. i had issues with it coz i had a previous Nvidia card installed in my system but once place in its original PC it wsas a dream.. it's for sale now.