$250-$300 video card purchase...is now a bad time?

[bxcloud]

Yeah, I am leaning towards this at the moment. What is a best guess for more NVIDIA cards to roll out? Late summer?

Rumor is the May 3rd or 15th.

 

[3DVagabond]

Rumor is the May 3rd or 15th.

The 690 has been announced for the 3rd. Which card is the 15th? FWIU the next card is the 670 @ $399 (rumored). Nothing in the $250-$300 range.

 

[Jaydip]

660Ti is probably coming in the second half of 2012

 

[antef]

Well looking at the excellent 670 performance and the close release of the first three 6xx cards, it makes it very tempting to wait for a supposed $299 660Ti.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Well looking at the excellent 670 performance and the close release of the first three 6xx cards, it makes it very tempting to wait for a supposed $299 660Ti.

unlikely to happen in the next 2+ months

 

[Don Karnage]

Overclocked 7850 matches a 7970 in some games. 1200 core will get you 50fps+ average in BF3 with Ultra quality

 

[poohbear]

Even a 680 or 7970 won't last for 3+ years not even with oc. They might have last 2-3 years with heavy oc for med settings if new consoles weren't coming out. Within 3 years there will be games where a stock 7950 will struggle at 1080p low settings provided a new console comes out by 2014

realy? my 5870 is doing just fine and it was released 3 years ago. I play BF3 with all settings maxed except AA (off) and i get 40-55fps. in a year or 2 you can still use it fine with maybe medium settings. hardware lasts much longer now, moore's law is dead.

 

[Don Karnage]

realy? my 5870 is doing just fine and it was released 3 years ago. I play BF3 with all settings maxed except AA (off) and i get 40-55fps. in a year or 2 you can still use it fine with maybe medium settings. hardware lasts much longer now, moore's law is dead.

5870 is a beast because of all those shaders

 

[MentalIlness]

While I agree with most everything said here, it is still a strong card.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Oced 7850 doesn't match a 7970 stock. A highly Oced 7850 compares with a 7950 stock and a 7970 is 15-25% faster than a stock 7950 based on the situation, mostly around 20%. And a 7970 can also be Oced 30-40% which makes the point mute in favor or 7850. A 7970 oc is a better experience than 7850 stock cf. at 1080p ultra 4x msaa single player my min fps is mostly in 70s in fights in bf3

 

[aaksheytalwar]

5870 lasted so long because
No new consoles came out and the previous gen console came out long back
6xxx and 5xx weren't much faster than the previous gen, the jump only came its 7xxx ESP with oc

 

[Hypertag]

2 choices: either wait for Nvidia's mid-range parts to create some competition in that price range, or go with a 7950 for under $400.

So the best option in the $250 to $300 price range is to buy a $380 7950 and overclock it a metric ton when the TC specifcally doesn't want to overclock? Beyond that, in the end it would still be curb-stomped by a GTX 670 using 150 watts less than your super-duper overvolted 7950.

 

[Hypertag]

It kind of is a bad time to spend $250-300 on a GPU. I did it because I had to when my old card broke.

nVidia will be coming out with the GTX 660/670/690 very soon. It will definitely have an impact on prices and performance in that price bracket. If I could have waited I would have.

As others have said, the 7850 is a pretty good value considering its overclocking ability. Most seem to hit 1150mhz on the core which will allow it to beat a GTX 580.

Its nice to here at least one person here being realistic about 7850 overclocking, instead of screaming like zombies about guaranteed 1250-1550 overclocks.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

The time he asked 670 wasn't released