Which GPU is the best bang for your buck?

I was looking to spend rather little (no more than 250), but I have an open mind :P. I was first thinking the 5850 was a no brainer, then I see people on here saying the GTX460 is the one to get, and I thought they were right, then I researched it more and everyone says that it performs worse than the 5850. And now I am looking at the 470 :P. I am just SO confused lol. I plan on playing DX11 (tesselation and such) as well as only using ONE card. I am not doing SLI or Crossfire.

I would get the 6870 over the 5850.

Better performance, less power consumption, better dx11 performance.

I would get the 6870 over the 5850.

Better performance, less power consumption.

millerlight89

Is there any good solid facts you can show me? I really want to feel sure if I am going to buy one :P. I know some people say the 460 is better than the 5850 when it comes to tesselation, which isnt too big now, but in a year or so it will be much more mainstream. I was trying to buy something that is the smartest buy, that will last me another 2 to 3 years (whenever next gen consoles come probably), so I can run STALKER, Crysis, and more on high smoothly.

Is there any good solid facts you can show me? I really want to feel sure if I am going to buy one :P. I know some people say the 460 is better than the 5850 when it comes to tesselation, which isnt too big now, but in a year or so it will be much more mainstream. I was trying to buy something that is the smartest buy, that will last me another 2 to 3 years (whenever next gen consoles come probably), so I can run STALKER, Crysis, and more on high smoothly.

NaveedLife

Well I'm not going to go hunt down every review, you have acces to Google ;). Here and here.

[QUOTE="NaveedLife"]

Is there any good solid facts you can show me? I really want to feel sure if I am going to buy one :P. I know some people say the 460 is better than the 5850 when it comes to tesselation, which isnt too big now, but in a year or so it will be much more mainstream. I was trying to buy something that is the smartest buy, that will last me another 2 to 3 years (whenever next gen consoles come probably), so I can run STALKER, Crysis, and more on high smoothly.

millerlight89

Well I'm not going to go hunt down every review, you have acces to Google ;). Here and here.

Lol I don't expect you to :P. I was just curious if you knew of a good source or whatnot. I know of big sites (I dont visit them often) and such, and I know how to use google :P. But I never seem to find what I am looking for (when looking for comparisons) and I don't know why lol.

[QUOTE="millerlight89"]

[QUOTE="NaveedLife"]

Is there any good solid facts you can show me? I really want to feel sure if I am going to buy one :P. I know some people say the 460 is better than the 5850 when it comes to tesselation, which isnt too big now, but in a year or so it will be much more mainstream. I was trying to buy something that is the smartest buy, that will last me another 2 to 3 years (whenever next gen consoles come probably), so I can run STALKER, Crysis, and more on high smoothly.

NaveedLife

Well I'm not going to go hunt down every review, you have acces to Google ;). Here and here.

Lol I don't expect you to :P. I was just curious if you knew of a good source or whatnot. I know of big sites (I dont visit them often) and such, and I know how to use google :P. But I never seem to find what I am looking for (when looking for comparisons) and I don't know why lol.

Best bang for your buck.... 460 (1gb version) or 6850. Try Tom's Hardware for some reviews...they're pretty thorough, although tho some say they biased towards nvidia (i really dont see it tho).

[QUOTE="NaveedLife"]

[QUOTE="millerlight89"]

Well I'm not going to go hunt down every review, you have acces to Google ;). Here and here.

millerlight89

Lol I don't expect you to :P. I was just curious if you knew of a good source or whatnot. I know of big sites (I dont visit them often) and such, and I know how to use google :P. But I never seem to find what I am looking for (when looking for comparisons) and I don't know why lol.

Haha thanks for the links.

Not being bias because i own one, but the 6850 is a great card and good value. It and the 460 offer the best bang for the buck.angrules23

ok thanks, thats good to know. I hear that the Nvidia cards are better for tesselation, which means they will be more futureproof. Or is it just the 5800 series that lacks in that department? I am doing some comparisons on tomshardware right now haha.

Best bang for your buck is the 460 768mb version. Saving £30 for a 10% performance hit is worth it.

I'm thinking this is the best bang for the buck card?

GTX 460 1GB @ $170

Opinions? Trying to decide on which to pick. If I have an EVGA nForce 780i mobo will an nVidia card work better than an ATI one?

I'm thinking this is the best bang for the buck card?

GTX 460 1GB @ $170

Opinions? Trying to decide on which to pick. If I have an EVGA nForce 780i mobo will an nVidia card work better than an ATI one?

Remmib

That is definitely the best for the 460. I am just wondering if its smarter to get the 5850 that is the same price, but seems to beat it most the time in performance by a bit. That said, I hear teh 460 handled tesellation better, which means its more futureproof. I cannot decide between these two :(. Or maybe getting the 6870 or the 470. Difficult choices :P.

GTX 460 1GB.

ZOTAC ZT-40402-10P GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

$150 if you count rebates.

I'm a sub 150 dollar guy and right now, the GTX 460 768mb is just dang incredible in price. I have a evga gtx 460 768mb which cost me 149.99 after the newegg discount code a month back (No MIR). Now you can find a the Asus gtx 460 768mb for 139.99 with possibly as low as 119.99 after MIR... That is just insane.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/37499-hd-6870-hd-6850-vs-gtx-460-1gb-overclocking-study-15.html

I already posted this in the other topic, but since you didnt see it. Im just going to preach this again as to why I suggest that as budget card solution.

^I still don't understand what is going on with all of those numbers in the charts. Which GPU should I get with a budget of about $180-200?

I am looking at this GTX460 which is $180 after rebate. Leaning towards nVidia as I had one before and I heard it's better tesselation ability would make the card more futureproof.

The new 6900 series looks to provide pretty decent performance for its price, won't hit the 580s marks but it does a decent job....if you can stand AMD and their crappy drivers.

^I still don't understand what is going on with all of those numbers in the charts. Which GPU should I get with a budget of about $180-200?

I am looking at this GTX460 which is $180 after rebate. Leaning towards nVidia as I had one before and I heard it's better tesselation ability would make the card more futureproof.

Remmib

That picture shows how much faster or slower a Super clocked GTX 460 is to a super clock 6850's, a supercloked 6870 and a normal 6870.

Example, at resolution 1680.. a oced 460 is 12% faster then a 6850 oced, 7% faster then a standard 6870 and 2 % slower then a 6870 oced. Thats based on the picture above..

If you in the 180-200... get a gtx 460 1 gig. Lots of choices out.

[QUOTE="Remmib"]

^I still don't understand what is going on with all of those numbers in the charts. Which GPU should I get with a budget of about $180-200?

I am looking at this GTX460 which is $180 after rebate. Leaning towards nVidia as I had one before and I heard it's better tesselation ability would make the card more futureproof.

jedikevin2

That picture shows how much faster or slower a Super clocked GTX 460 is a super clock 6850's, a supercloked 6870 and a normal 6870. Example at resolution 1680.. a oced 460 is 12% faster then a 6850 oced, 7% faster then a standard 6870 and 2 % slower then a 6870 oced. Thats based on the picture above.. If you in the 180-200... get a gtx 460 1 gig. Lots of choices out.

Thank you sir ;).

GTX 460 is the best bang for your buck. You can't been the preformance at the 180 dollar price point. But then bang for your buck is realy dependent on how much you are willing to spend.

I think its preference in a way, but personally i found the gtx 460 to be a good buy because A. it overclocks very well and very easily, B. its stays cool (mine idles around 24-27 degrees, load 55 max) and C. it runs games at 1080p fine so far. Also the nvidia drivers are decent, never caused me hassle.

[QUOTE="Remmib"]

^I still don't understand what is going on with all of those numbers in the charts. Which GPU should I get with a budget of about $180-200?

I am looking at this GTX460 which is $180 after rebate. Leaning towards nVidia as I had one before and I heard it's better tesselation ability would make the card more futureproof.

jedikevin2

That picture shows how much faster or slower a Super clocked GTX 460 is to a super clock 6850's, a supercloked 6870 and a normal 6870.

Example, at resolution 1680.. a oced 460 is 12% faster then a 6850 oced, 7% faster then a standard 6870 and 2 % slower then a 6870 oced. Thats based on the picture above..

If you in the 180-200... get a gtx 460 1 gig. Lots of choices out.

Thanks for the info. That was very helpful! I just am kind of confused how the OC'd 460 is hardly slower than the OC'd 6870, as I thought the 6870 was significantly better than the 460. Also will this translate relatively similar to most games? I am also curious how much better the 460's handle tesselation, as I heard they did. If thats the case the 460 sounds the way to go, but then again isnt the 470 better than the 460 and only 30 bucks more or something?

I think its preference in a way, but personally i found the gtx 460 to be a good buy because A. it overclocks very well and very easily, B. its stays cool (mine idles around 24-27 degrees, load 55 max) and C. it runs games at 1080p fine so far. Also the nvidia drivers are decent, never caused me hassle.

sn4k3_64

Ah thanks for the stats on that. I figured the 460 would run hot since it takes so much power, I guess I was wrong.

6870 and 6850 offer great performance for the price. I can't argue with anyone's decision to get either one.

However, you can get a GTX 460 1GB for just as little as a 6850, and the overclocked performance speaks for itself. You're almost guaranteed an 800+ mhz core speed without a voltage bump, and the RAM overclocks pretty nicely too. 6870/GTX 470 performance for less than $200 bucks. They're quiet, run cool.. what's not to like?

Thanks for the info. That was very helpful! I just am kind of confused how the OC'd 460 is hardly slower than the OC'd 6870, as I thought the 6870 was significantly better than the 460. Also will this translate relatively similar to most games? I am also curious how much better the 460's handle tesselation, as I heard they did. If thats the case the 460 sounds the way to go, but then again isnt the 470 better than the 460 and only 30 bucks more or something?

NaveedLife

470 is slightly better then a 460 but 470 comes with ALOT of baggage in heat use, and power draw. 6870 beats a 460 stock to stock but 460 has all kinda super clock models out. When you start comparing super clock models of a 460 which reach into the 6870 price range, they even out.. In essence.. you can take a standard gtx 460.. overclock it to a superclock standard and it will be just as fast as a 6870 if not faster but save you 30-60 dollars. That is where the gtx 460 really begins to shine.

The GTX 460 kinda does whatever you want.. You want it to run extremely cool and use good power draw then you can have it.. You wanna overclock (which is EXTREMELY easy without issue as nvidia designed the 460 specifically to overclock) and have it go to a whole new level of video cards then you can. You want to buy a super clock model and still save some money compared to other cards out and get similiar performance then you have it. Add in Nvidia and partners doing all kinda deals with free shipping, free games, and huge MIR's makes the 460 just a sweet deal.

Best bang for your buck is the 460 768mb version. Saving £30 for a 10% performance hit is worth it.

mucgoo

[QUOTE="mucgoo"]

Best bang for your buck is the 460 768mb version. Saving £30 for a 10% performance hit is worth it.

Limp_Laky

Yap.. If you gaming at 1080p... you would want the bigger gtx 460 or another card.. Still though.. Saving up to $70+ (USD) is still a very good deal for as good as the 768mb is.

[QUOTE="NaveedLife"]

Thanks for the info. That was very helpful! I just am kind of confused how the OC'd 460 is hardly slower than the OC'd 6870, as I thought the 6870 was significantly better than the 460. Also will this translate relatively similar to most games? I am also curious how much better the 460's handle tesselation, as I heard they did. If thats the case the 460 sounds the way to go, but then again isnt the 470 better than the 460 and only 30 bucks more or something?

jedikevin2

470 is slightly better then a 460 but 470 comes with ALOT of baggage in heat use, and power draw. 6870 beats a 460 stock to stock but 460 has all kinda super clock models out. When you start comparing super clock models of a 460 which reach into the 6870 price range, they even out.. In essence.. you can take a standard gtx 460.. overclock it to a superclock standard and it will be just as fast as a 6870 if not faster but save you 30-60 dollars. That is where the gtx 460 really begins to shine.

The GTX 460 kinda does whatever you want.. You want it to run extremely cool and use good power draw then you can have it.. You wanna overclock (which is EXTREMELY easy without issue as nvidia designed the 460 specifically to overclock) and have it go to a whole new level of video cards then you can. You want to buy a super clock model and still save some money compared to other cards out and get similiar performance then you have it. Add in Nvidia and partners doing all kinda deals with free shipping, free games, and huge MIR's makes the 460 just a sweet deal.

Well gosh, if you are accurate in your information, then you just made things so much easier :P. Sounds like 460 is the way to go then. Just for clarification you are not a NVidia fanboy are you? :P I buy whoever has the better card for the price. I swear when these cards came out the 460 was said to be about the same as the 5850, but takes more power and such. Have the drivers gotten much better or something? I was reading a couple articles and such and they said the 5850 beats the 460 by a good little bit, which surprised me lol. Huh anyway you sound like you know this pretty well, better than me lol. I know this stuff, just not in depth enough to make a purchase without asking around. Do you have one and what did you overclock it to?

[QUOTE="mucgoo"]

Best bang for your buck is the 460 768mb version. Saving £30 for a 10% performance hit is worth it.

Limp_Laky

In any case, I'd be willing to spend up until the next value divisible by $100.00 for the better card, as long as it's at least ~10 percent. So, for example, if card A was $305 and Card B, which was 10 percent faster, was $400, I'd buy card B.

[QUOTE="jedikevin2"]

[QUOTE="NaveedLife"]

Thanks for the info. That was very helpful! I just am kind of confused how the OC'd 460 is hardly slower than the OC'd 6870, as I thought the 6870 was significantly better than the 460. Also will this translate relatively similar to most games? I am also curious how much better the 460's handle tesselation, as I heard they did. If thats the case the 460 sounds the way to go, but then again isnt the 470 better than the 460 and only 30 bucks more or something?

NaveedLife

470 is slightly better then a 460 but 470 comes with ALOT of baggage in heat use, and power draw. 6870 beats a 460 stock to stock but 460 has all kinda super clock models out. When you start comparing super clock models of a 460 which reach into the 6870 price range, they even out.. In essence.. you can take a standard gtx 460.. overclock it to a superclock standard and it will be just as fast as a 6870 if not faster but save you 30-60 dollars. That is where the gtx 460 really begins to shine.

The GTX 460 kinda does whatever you want.. You want it to run extremely cool and use good power draw then you can have it.. You wanna overclock (which is EXTREMELY easy without issue as nvidia designed the 460 specifically to overclock) and have it go to a whole new level of video cards then you can. You want to buy a super clock model and still save some money compared to other cards out and get similiar performance then you have it. Add in Nvidia and partners doing all kinda deals with free shipping, free games, and huge MIR's makes the 460 just a sweet deal.

Well gosh, if you are accurate in your information, then you just made things so much easier :P. Sounds like 460 is the way to go then. Just for clarification you are not a NVidia fanboy are you? :P I buy whoever has the better card for the price. I swear when these cards came out the 460 was said to be about the same as the 5850, but takes more power and such. Have the drivers gotten much better or something? I was reading a couple articles and such and they said the 5850 beats the 460 by a good little bit, which surprised me lol. Huh anyway you sound like you know this pretty well, better than me lol. I know this stuff, just not in depth enough to make a purchase without asking around. Do you have one and what did you overclock it to?

Allow me to jump in momentarily. :P I used to have a 5870, now I have an overclocked GTX 460 1GB. I made the change because at the time, I was able to come out $100 ahead by selling the 5870 and getting the 460. I did it because I wanted the money, and I was betting that I would still get more than enough performance with the cheaper card. I was right. With my overclock, which is fairly typical of a GTX 460 with stock voltage, I can't even tell the difference between the 2 cards in most games. That's at 1920x1080.

Id say the 6850, on sale at newegg!! The saphire 6850 for $155.

[QUOTE="Limp_Laky"][QUOTE="mucgoo"]

Best bang for your buck is the 460 768mb version. Saving £30 for a 10% performance hit is worth it.

BluRayHiDef

In any case, I'd be willing to spend up until the next value divisible by $100.00 for the better card, as long as it's at least ~10 percent. So, for example, if card A was $305 and Card B, which was 10 percent faster, was $400, I'd buy card B.

But if I could gain 10% performance for free by overclocking my GPU, that wouldn't be worth it.. isn't that right? :P

[QUOTE="BluRayHiDef"]

[QUOTE="Limp_Laky"] at higher resolutions the hit can be much larger than 10%hartsickdiscipl

In any case, I'd be willing to spend up until the next value divisible by $100.00 for the better card, as long as it's at least ~10 percent. So, for example, if card A was $305 and Card B, which was 10 percent faster, was $400, I'd buy card B.

But if I could gain 10% performance for free by overclocking my GPU, that wouldn't be worth it.. isn't that right? :P

You're forgetting that Card B can be overclocked as well. So, it would still maintain its superiority.

[QUOTE="NaveedLife"]

[QUOTE="jedikevin2"]

470 is slightly better then a 460 but 470 comes with ALOT of baggage in heat use, and power draw. 6870 beats a 460 stock to stock but 460 has all kinda super clock models out. When you start comparing super clock models of a 460 which reach into the 6870 price range, they even out.. In essence.. you can take a standard gtx 460.. overclock it to a superclock standard and it will be just as fast as a 6870 if not faster but save you 30-60 dollars. That is where the gtx 460 really begins to shine.

The GTX 460 kinda does whatever you want.. You want it to run extremely cool and use good power draw then you can have it.. You wanna overclock (which is EXTREMELY easy without issue as nvidia designed the 460 specifically to overclock) and have it go to a whole new level of video cards then you can. You want to buy a super clock model and still save some money compared to other cards out and get similiar performance then you have it. Add in Nvidia and partners doing all kinda deals with free shipping, free games, and huge MIR's makes the 460 just a sweet deal.

hartsickdiscipl

Well gosh, if you are accurate in your information, then you just made things so much easier :P. Sounds like 460 is the way to go then. Just for clarification you are not a NVidia fanboy are you? :P I buy whoever has the better card for the price. I swear when these cards came out the 460 was said to be about the same as the 5850, but takes more power and such. Have the drivers gotten much better or something? I was reading a couple articles and such and they said the 5850 beats the 460 by a good little bit, which surprised me lol. Huh anyway you sound like you know this pretty well, better than me lol. I know this stuff, just not in depth enough to make a purchase without asking around. Do you have one and what did you overclock it to?

Allow me to jump in momentarily. :P I used to have a 5870, now I have an overclocked GTX 460 1GB. I made the change because at the time, I was able to come out $100 ahead by selling the 5870 and getting the 460. I did it because I wanted the money, and I was betting that I would still get more than enough performance with the cheaper card. I was right. With my overclock, which is fairly typical of a GTX 460 with stock voltage, I can't even tell the difference between the 2 cards in most games. That's at 1920x1080.

Thanks for the info. I just have a couple things to say/ask on that though. I play on 1680 x 1050 res, and I will be playing on DX11 (not sure if you do?). I am assuming you had the 5870 OC'd aswell?

Well gosh, if you are accurate in your information, then you just made things so much easier :P. Sounds like 460 is the way to go then. Just for clarification you are not a NVidia fanboy are you? :P I buy whoever has the better card for the price. I swear when these cards came out the 460 was said to be about the same as the 5850, but takes more power and such. Have the drivers gotten much better or something? I was reading a couple articles and such and they said the 5850 beats the 460 by a good little bit, which surprised me lol. Huh anyway you sound like you know this pretty well, better than me lol. I know this stuff, just not in depth enough to make a purchase without asking around. Do you have one and what did you overclock it to?

NaveedLife

I don't have the 460 1gb but I do have the 460 768mb model and its overclocked to 800 core clock 1600 shaders 1890 memory and that is not even close to the potential of the card. I don't really know where you got information on a 5850 but a gtx 460 is substantially faster then a 5850. The ONLY 5850 I would recommend is the Powercolor 5850 169.99 Its sold out and for good reason. Its the only 5850 that has finally cut price appropriate to performance compared to all the new cards out. Personally though, there is no reason to even touch a 5850 as its being completely phased out by AMD and partners fairly quickly now. Where AMD cards do extremely well is in crossfire. Outside getting drivers working correctly (not a fan of SLI or crossfire), they scale extremely nice. Also, if you a multi monitor (3 screens) then I would also suggest AMD.

They are very nice for a single card single immersion ability. A Nvidia single card cannot without extra equipment do something like this.

So far in my opinion in this price range, the gtx 460 will give you the best performance for the price your paying. Its very flexible in this price area and the performance potential is very nice.

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

[QUOTE="NaveedLife"]

Well gosh, if you are accurate in your information, then you just made things so much easier :P. Sounds like 460 is the way to go then. Just for clarification you are not a NVidia fanboy are you? :P I buy whoever has the better card for the price. I swear when these cards came out the 460 was said to be about the same as the 5850, but takes more power and such. Have the drivers gotten much better or something? I was reading a couple articles and such and they said the 5850 beats the 460 by a good little bit, which surprised me lol. Huh anyway you sound like you know this pretty well, better than me lol. I know this stuff, just not in depth enough to make a purchase without asking around. Do you have one and what did you overclock it to?

NaveedLife

Allow me to jump in momentarily. :P I used to have a 5870, now I have an overclocked GTX 460 1GB. I made the change because at the time, I was able to come out $100 ahead by selling the 5870 and getting the 460. I did it because I wanted the money, and I was betting that I would still get more than enough performance with the cheaper card. I was right. With my overclock, which is fairly typical of a GTX 460 with stock voltage, I can't even tell the difference between the 2 cards in most games. That's at 1920x1080.

Thanks for the info. I just have a couple things to say/ask on that though. I play on 1680 x 1050 res, and I will be playing on DX11 (not sure if you do?). I am assuming you had the 5870 OC'd aswell?

I did overclock the 5870, but it didn't have nearly the OC'ing headroom that the GTX 460 does. At least not the 5870 that I had. At 1680x1050 the GTX 460 1GB is borderline overkill as it is, so don't even consider anything stronger! You'll be in great shape. That deal that the other guy posted about the 6850 for $155 is a great deal too, but it's actually $169 before mail-in rebate.

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

[QUOTE="BluRayHiDef"]

In any case, I'd be willing to spend up until the next value divisible by $100.00 for the better card, as long as it's at least ~10 percent. So, for example, if card A was $305 and Card B, which was 10 percent faster, was $400, I'd buy card B.

BluRayHiDef

But if I could gain 10% performance for free by overclocking my GPU, that wouldn't be worth it.. isn't that right? :P

You're forgetting that Card B can be overclocked as well. So, it would still maintain its superiority.

I'm not forgetting that card B can be overclocked. My point is that you're saying you'd be willing to spend up to $100 for a 10% performance increase.. but then you tell me that it's not worth me overclocking to get a 10%+ gain for free? It doesn't make sense. I got you, just admit it! ;):)

[QUOTE="BluRayHiDef"]

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

But if I could gain 10% performance for free by overclocking my GPU, that wouldn't be worth it.. isn't that right? :P

hartsickdiscipl

You're forgetting that Card B can be overclocked as well. So, it would still maintain its superiority.

I'm not forgetting that card B can be overclocked. My point is that you're saying you'd be willing to spend up to $100 for a 10% performance increase.. but then you tell me that it's not worth me overclocking to get a 10%+ gain for free? It doesn't make sense. I got you, just admit it! ;):)

No, you didn't get me. The fact that Card A can be overclocked to match the STOCK performance of Card B, does not change the fact that Card B STILL offers the overall better performance, since it can be overclocked as well. Overclocking does not nullify the difference between two cards, unless one of them doesn't overclock well and has a static performance level. I'm not going to get into an argument with you. However, I'd like to make it clear that I have nothing to admit to, because I honestly don't think that "you got me".

EDIT:

I'm assuming that you're point is that it is better to get Card A because it can match the performance of Card B for free. If this is your point, it's invalid due to the aforementioned explanation.

[QUOTE="NaveedLife"]

Well gosh, if you are accurate in your information, then you just made things so much easier :P. Sounds like 460 is the way to go then. Just for clarification you are not a NVidia fanboy are you? :P I buy whoever has the better card for the price. I swear when these cards came out the 460 was said to be about the same as the 5850, but takes more power and such. Have the drivers gotten much better or something? I was reading a couple articles and such and they said the 5850 beats the 460 by a good little bit, which surprised me lol. Huh anyway you sound like you know this pretty well, better than me lol. I know this stuff, just not in depth enough to make a purchase without asking around. Do you have one and what did you overclock it to?

jedikevin2

I don't have the 460 1gb but I do have the 460 768mb model and its overclocked to 800 core clock 1600 shaders 1890 memory and that is not even close to the potential of the card. I don't really know where you got information on a 5850 but a gtx 460 is substantially faster then a 5850. The ONLY 5850 I would recommend is the Powercolor 5850 169.99 Its sold out and for good reason. Its the only 5850 that has finally cut price appropriate to performance compared to all the new cards out. Personally though, there is no reason to even touch a 5850 as its being completely phased out by AMD and partners fairly quickly now. Where AMD cards do extremely well is in crossfire. Outside getting drivers working correctly (not a fan of SLI or crossfire), they scale extremely nice. Also, if you a multi monitor (3 screens) then I would also suggest AMD.

They are very nice for a single card single immersion ability A Nvidia single card cannot without extra equipment do something like this.

So far in my opinion in this price range, the gtx 460 will give you the best performance for the price your paying. Its very flexible in this price area.

Yeah I dont use crossfire or SLI (never have probably never will), and although I would love to use 3 monitors, that is not something I will be doing anytime soon :P. Thank you for all your help! To clarify again, which model would you buy? I figured I would buy the EVGA 1GB GTX460 on Newegg, but I am wondering if it really matters whether or not I buy the Superclocked one or the standard. They are both the same price after MIR right now. Is there any advantage to overclocking it yourself?

Standard

Superclocked

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

[QUOTE="BluRayHiDef"]

You're forgetting that Card B can be overclocked as well. So, it would still maintain its superiority.

BluRayHiDef

I'm not forgetting that card B can be overclocked. My point is that you're saying you'd be willing to spend up to $100 for a 10% performance increase.. but then you tell me that it's not worth me overclocking to get a 10%+ gain for free? It doesn't make sense. I got you, just admit it! ;):)

No, you didn't get me. The fact that Card A can be overclocked to match the STOCK performance of Card B, does not change the fact that Card B STILL offers the overall better performance, since it can be overclocked as well. Overclocking does not nullify the difference between two cards, unless one of them doesn't overclock well and has a static performance level. I'm not going to get into an argument with you. However, I'd like to make it clear that I have nothing to admit to, because I honestly don't think that "you got me".

Lol.. whatever man. No matter how you slice it, the bottom line is that you said you're willing to pay $100 more for 10% more performance, but you stated in another thread that it's not worth overclocking and getting that same type of performance gain or more for free. You can't put both of those statements into a logical argument, no matter what other factors you try to throw in. We both know what really happened here. ;)

[QUOTE="NaveedLife"]

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

Allow me to jump in momentarily. :P I used to have a 5870, now I have an overclocked GTX 460 1GB. I made the change because at the time, I was able to come out $100 ahead by selling the 5870 and getting the 460. I did it because I wanted the money, and I was betting that I would still get more than enough performance with the cheaper card. I was right. With my overclock, which is fairly typical of a GTX 460 with stock voltage, I can't even tell the difference between the 2 cards in most games. That's at 1920x1080.

hartsickdiscipl

Thanks for the info. I just have a couple things to say/ask on that though. I play on 1680 x 1050 res, and I will be playing on DX11 (not sure if you do?). I am assuming you had the 5870 OC'd aswell?

I did overclock the 5870, but it didn't have nearly the OC'ing headroom that the GTX 460 does. At least not the 5870 that I had. At 1680x1050 the GTX 460 1GB is borderline overkill as it is, so don't even consider anything stronger! You'll be in great shape. That deal that the other guy posted about the 6850 for $155 is a great deal too, but it's actually $169 before mail-in rebate.

Ok thanks for the input. Yeah I probably will end up buying another card in 2 years or something, and I am sure this card will be plenty for the next 2 to 3 years. Does anyone know where to find some good performance (in a game) charts for the card? I am wondering how well I will be able to run the hardest games, and especially DX11 ones. Thanks again :).

Yeah I dont use crossfire or SLI (never have probably never will), and although I would love to use 3 monitors, that is not something I will be doing anytime soon :P. Thank you for all your help! To clarify again, which model would you buy? I figured I would buy the EVGA 1GB GTX460 on Newegg, but I am wondering if it really matters whether or not I buy the Superclocked one or the standard. They are both the same price after MIR right now. Is there any advantage to overclocking it yourself?

Standard

Superclocked

NaveedLife

Actually both of those are super clock models. One is just oced more then the other. Both are gonna be able to overclock some more with ease. Thats really on you since price is same though i think one has higher shipping.

Ill take card card A at $300 over card B at $400, is roughly like 6950 v 6970. In this case is $100 difference that I rather take the cheaper one since I can cf it easier later on with the price being cheaper and oc-ing/temps is easier to deal with since theirs less shaders cramp to the same heatsink well at least in theory. However is really up to the person if they like to stick with one stronger one than by all means go for the stronger card and have the glory of the single stronger card out there.

[QUOTE="sn4k3_64"]

I think its preference in a way, but personally i found the gtx 460 to be a good buy because A. it overclocks very well and very easily, B. its stays cool (mine idles around 24-27 degrees, load 55 max) and C. it runs games at 1080p fine so far. Also the nvidia drivers are decent, never caused me hassle.

NaveedLife

Ah thanks for the stats on that. I figured the 460 would run hot since it takes so much power, I guess I was wrong.

[QUOTE="NaveedLife"]

Yeah I dont use crossfire or SLI (never have probably never will), and although I would love to use 3 monitors, that is not something I will be doing anytime soon :P. Thank you for all your help! To clarify again, which model would you buy? I figured I would buy the EVGA 1GB GTX460 on Newegg, but I am wondering if it really matters whether or not I buy the Superclocked one or the standard. They are both the same price after MIR right now. Is there any advantage to overclocking it yourself?

Standard

Superclocked

jedikevin2

Actually both of those are super clock models. One is just oced more then the other. Both are gonna be able to overclock some more with ease. Thats really on you since price is same though i think one has higher shipping.