Recommended video card for ~$200 dollars or less?

[Hudson 1st MRB]

Hey guys. I wanted to get your opinions on what would be a good video card to get.

I know there are those big daddies for almost $1000, but I am looking what would be my best option for around $200 or less.

I just upgraded to a new ASUS Z68 motherboard and an I7 2600 processor.

I am currently running a Nvidia 9800 GT.

Thanks guys.

[Dillon 1st MRB]

There is one really big question that must be answered first and a couple of minor ones:

What is the maximum resolution of your monitor?

and

What power supply do you have?

[Hudson 1st MRB]

Just bought a thermaltake 430W power supply, but that can be easily remedied if necessary. I know a lot of the newer cards require 500W.

I believe my monitor will go up to 1920 x 1080 but i would have to double check that at home.

[Janke 1st MRB]

Indeed you'd likely need a better PSU. 550 watt should do fine, but you can get something in the 630-750 watt range for decently cheap too. Always good to have a bit of extra breathing room. As for the actual card, I got an NVidia GTX 460SE, both this and the base 460 are decent cards in the $150-$180 price range (last I checked). NVidia also has their next-gen line out, the 500 series, and the cheapest performance cards on it, the GTX560s, are around $180-$200.

As for recommendations from ATI/AMD, I'll let Dillon handle that, I'm a NVidia/Intel guy myself, I don't tend to keep up with ATI/AMD.

[Dillon 1st MRB]

430 watt can be just fine. Video card manufacturers project their PSU numbers far in excess of actual needs. And, many of the cheap PSU brands are very poor at getting even halfway to their wattage. I run a very power hungry 460 1gb (draws more power than you are looking at) with 125w CPU at 4.3ghz on a 500w PSU.

A 560ti will pull about 308 watts from the wall. Figure in the 80% efficiency on a 430w PSU and it gets pretty marginal. I don't know if I would risk it.

A vanilla 560 pulls 238, which should be okay.

On the AMD side, a 6870 pulls 212 watts from the wall.

Load noise (the sound of the fan and whatnot) is about the same for both of these.

First off, take off the 460, 550ti, and the 6850 as a possiblity. They are all in the price range, but have significantly less performance.

I'd pull it down to choosing either the 6870 or the 560. The 560ti has better performance at a much higher power draw and higher price (over $200).

Here is the 6870 I would recommend:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814125357

Its $189.99 + a $30 rebate + Dirt 3 + free shipping. Total price of $159 makes it very very attractive.

The 560 I would recommend:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814127592

Its also $189.99 + $20 rebate + Batman Arkham City + NBA2k11 + $7.56 shipping. Total price is $177.55.

You really won't go wrong either way. Both companies make great cards, and at the $200-level its the bread-and-butter of sales. They both have excellent options. Now, $250 and above things are a bit more cut and dry.

If you want to read a review that compares these cards, here you go:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/20957/1

[Hudson 1st MRB]

Thanks Dillon. I appreciate the feedback. I was kind of looking at those 2 cards anyways.

So you don't think the Ti is worth the extra money?

Do you have a preference on nvidia vs AMD? I have almost always used Nvidia, but don't truly have a preference.

I need to upgrade my monitor. I realized I only have support for 1680 x 1050.

Thanks.

[Dillon 1st MRB]

I'm very brand-nuetral. Both companies have their gimmicks (Eye-Finity, PhysX, CUDA, stream, surround 3D), and I pretty much ignore all of them for myself. Some people swear by them. I'm currently rocking a highly overclocked 460 that competes with the 6870 very well.

That being said, I usually find the best bang for the buck. I prefer my cards to be energy efficient and cooler. For me, those are advantages, but they aren't for everyone.

At $200 or less, you can't go wrong. I would probably lean towards the 6870 for the energy and temperature stuff. However, for people that don't care about these things, its really not an issue.

Now, if you are going to go up to $250 and look at the 560ti, that would throw the 6950 into the discussion. I would definately go with the 6950 1GB . It uses far less power at load and is much quieter.

6950 235 watts, 68 degrees C

560ti 283 watts, 79 degrees C

Actually, in looking at the prices and rebates, you could really get something nice.

560ti - $234.99 + $30 rebate + Batman Arkham City game + $7.56 shipping = $212.55 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814125363

6950 1GB - $239.99 + $20 rebate + Dirt3 + $.99 shipping = $220.98

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814125385

One thing.... the nvidia cards are for some reason running with mini HDMI instead of full sized. If your monitor has/will have full size HDMI (most all now do), you will need an adapter (may be included).

This is one where I would definately go with the 6950.

Here is a comparison of these two GPU's head to head:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/20777/1