best SUB 200 card ATM

[pez1975]

is the SAPPHIRE 11188-22-20G Radeon HD 6950 2GB at 189.99 with a free copy of dirt 3 the best sub 200 dollar card at the moment?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102987

 

[RussianSensation]

I think this one is the best:

$200 Zotac GTX570 1.28GB, assuming you lay off SKYRIM 2k texture mods and don't play Shogun 2 on Ultra. The Zotac 570 also comes with a free Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.

If you can't afford to step up to the 7850, then on the AMD side, 6950 you linked it also a good option but slower than the 570.

 

[pez1975]

ok heres the deal i have 500.00 dollars to upgrade my pc for the new gw2 game i pre ordered

i have a HDD, case , dvd drive and 550 watt psu

i need a new mother board cpu and video card and ram

i want to get the best upgrade for my money i have 3 weeks till the game comes out

 

[nurturedhate]

then the next question is do you live near a microcenter?

 

[RussianSensation]

For Guild Wars 2, you'll want an NVidia card, unless AMD fixes their drivers. August 16 is when GTX660/660Ti are rumoured to launch as well. Based on their prices and how they perform, choose between the 660/660Ti and GTX570, if this is the main game you intend to play.

Since MMOs tend to be extremely CPU limited, Core i5 2500K or Core i5 3570K with an overclock to 4.4ghz+ is what you'll want. If you have Microcenter around, you can get an i5 2500k ($160) + mobo ($60-100) + 8GB DDR3 ($50) and GTX570/660/660Ti (~$200-250) for $500. I don't know the prices on the 660/660Ti but I just put them there so you just check these 3 GPUs in 3 weeks.

At the moment I am reading that AMD GPU utilization is completely broken in GW2 but AMD has about 1 month to fix this.

I think the game comes out August 28th, so it's 4 weeks.

I think Core i5 unlocked + OC and an NV GPU will be your best bet for this game based on current information.

You can see this game is extremely CPU limited and only uses 2 cores. That means you'll want the latest Intel CPU architecture overclocked as high as possible (so need K series) on Z77 motherboard.

 

[pez1975]

no microcenter around me

 

[pez1975]

i was leaning toward the amd 8150 for future proof cpu needs but im not set on any thing does ram play a role in this game?

 

[pez1975]

im not oppsed to buying open box items either i have had good luck with new egg and open box items in the passed or refurbished

 

[pez1975]

i also want to thank everyone for there imput on this upgrade i havent built a pc since my amd 5000 cpu with 8800gts and 4 gigs of ddr 800 ram lol so now u know what im upgrading from


everyone here has been really freindly and helpful this is a great forum im glad i found it

BTW i have never owned an intel chip in my life my first build was a k6 amd like 15 years ago and been using amd ever since but intel is awesome but a little pricey imo. i know u get what u pay for

 

[RussianSensation]

i was leaning toward the amd 8150 for future proof cpu needs but im not set on any thing does ram play a role in this game?

No, ram doesn't play a role in GW2. Don't waste $ on the FX8150. One of the worst choices since MMOs and strategy games only use 2 cores and want fast instructions per clock and frequency. Even Core i3 is faster for those genres. If you want to "future proof" get a Core i5 K series. It'll survive 3 more GPU upgrades. FX8150 is already too slow today for MMO genre.

AMD made great CPUs with Athlon XP+ and especially Athlon 64 and Athlon X2 and Opteron. Unfortunately since you've been away from the hardware scene, AMD's cpu division fell apart. For your specific gaming needs, their CPUs don't cut it. You said you have $500 to spend. That's nearly enough.

Intel Core i5 3570 for $200 after $15 off coupon (ends August 6) if you are not going to be overclocking (but I strong suggesting spending $20-30 more the 2500K or 3570K because later on you'll be thankful you have overclocking headroom)
GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 - $90 (after rebate)
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 = $45 - $5 off coupon (ends August 6) = $40
------------
Subtotal = $330

If you stretch your budget $30 more you can grab a GTX570 for $200 I linked earlier or wait 16 more days for the 660 and see its price.

 

[pez1975]

ok so i5 2500k is defo what i want for a cpu in your opinion i wish i could afford a i7
i guess amd just isnt what it used to be for average gamers

 

[pez1975]

so from ur chart the only cards that will play gw2 in 1080p with 60fps avg is the gtx 670,680 and 690
seems like guild wars did a poor job with the engines for this game if u need that much of a gpu for 1080p gaming
you would think a modern game like this would take advantage of multi core cpu's and high speed ddr 3 ram and a little less on graphic need

 

[RussianSensation]

With your $500 budget, there is no room to don't waste $ on the Core i7 because it isn't helpful for games outside of special situations such as Multiplayer in BF3 with 2 $400 GPUs, or Shogun 2 on Ultra with 2 powerful GPUs, etc. Core i5 is sufficient. On average HT only adds 3-4% performance in games and sometimes none at all. I'd love to recommend you AMD CPU since you were loyal to the brand but looking at their performance, it's really hard.

In 2-3 years if you need more speed, you can just get a $30 after market cooler and overclock that i5 2500k.

If $ is really tight, you can grab 1 stick of 4GB of RAM for $21-25 and upgrade later on when you have more funds. Just make sure to get DDR3 1.25, 1.35 or 1.5V, not 1.65V. Running single channel memory will probably result in a 10% performance hit in the meantime.

 

[Meekers]

Picking a video card on results from the last beta weekend would be silly at best. Optimization had just started and it was the first time the game even used your gpu. There is still a ton of work going on with optimization. There were also a lot of situations where specific hardware combinations just did not work at all, things which presumably will be fixed before it launches.

If you are picking a card just for GW2 you are going to have to wait until after they release the game and people can test how cards preform after optimization has been finished.

And for the record I tried on the beta on my office computer, which is a llano and it ran acceptable on medium settings. Ran beautifully on my main rig with a i7920 and 7950.

 

[Smoblikat]

GTX 470 SLi can be had for around 200$. That beats even a 680. And 470's OC like theres no tomorow.

 

[nsavop]

I think this one is the best:

$200 Zotac GTX570 1.28GB, assuming you lay off SKYRIM 2k texture mods and don't play Shogun 2 on Ultra. The Zotac 570 also comes with a free Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.

If you can't afford to step up to the 7850, then on the AMD side, 6950 you linked it also a good option but slower than the 570.

Russian I can assure you the GTX 570 can handle skyrim with 2K mods as well as other graphics mods with no problem at 1080P.

 

[Arkadrel]

GTX 470 SLi can be had for around 200$.

Im calling Bullsh*t.
Where can you get 2 x 470 (so you can run them in SLI) for a total of 200$ (100$ or less for each 470) ?

That said your right.... 2x 470 in SLI are like 8-10% faster than a 680.
I think most people would pick a single 680 over 2x 470 though.

 

[RussianSensation]

Picking a video card on results from the last beta weekend would be silly at best. Optimization had just started and it was the first time the game even used your gpu. There is still a ton of work going on with optimization.

If you are picking a card just for GW2 you are going to have to wait until after they release the game and people can test how cards preform after optimization has been finished.

I agree with that. Still GTX570 is 50-56% faster than HD6950 today. Looking at how great Kepler cards perform, GTX660 may also be a good option on August 16th. AMD has its work cut out for them to improve performance in this game. That type of performance deficit is not good considering the game launches in less than a month.

 

[-Slacker-]

I would wait for benchmarks on the finished and released product because ... damn, those are awful scores for a MMORPG. GTX 670 and a heavily overclocked ivy for 60 fps? Yeah, they'd better fix that crap.

 

[Arkadrel]

AMD has its work cut out for them to improve performance in this game.

People are exagerating how demanding this game is (GW2) on the GPU:

Intel Core i5 750 @ 2.67GHz
ATI Radeon HD 5770 (stock)

1920x1080 ~max settings, no AA? - looks like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4kcV8DRqlg

The guy that made the video, says that Fraps really kills his Frame pr sec rate.
Apparntly the game is super CPU dependent, more so than GPU wise.

Im pretty sure a guy like myself, only with a Phenom II @4ghz and a 5870,
should be able to have a decent gameing experiance with this game.

 

[RussianSensation]

I don't think people are exagerrating. There was just a person in another thread who was saying he got 36 fps on an HD7850, exactly what GameGPU.ru got. GameGPU even made a test video. MMOs are notoriously poorly coded but AMD cards running slow, with HD5000 series not even able to shade textures properly which is why they are running faster (I.e., not doing all the work). This is a known problem that AMD needs to fix. It's not made up out of thin air:

Picture inside the beta testing: http://gamegpu.ru/mmorpg-/-onlayn-igry/guild-wars-2-beta-test-gpu.html

I am sure AMD will fix it by launch. Also, no point in buying a card that runs slower if the OP's main game is GW2. Until AMD fixes this, I am recommending GTX570/660/660Ti.

I am sure Phenom II X4 @ 4.0ghz will get you > 40 fps but it will barely come close to a stock Core i5 750 for MMOs. Overclock the i5 750 and i'll probably be 20 fps faster.

Phenom II X4 940 3.0ghz = 31 fps
Phenom II X4 955 3.2ghz = 33 fps
Phenom II X6 1100 3.33ghz = 36 fps
Core i5 760 2.8ghz = 48 fps
Core i7 2600k 3.4ghz = 58 fps

It doesn't mean it won't be playable on an X4 system but it'll be much faster on an Intel Core i series system.

 

[Meekers]

I am sure AMD will fix it by launch. Also, no point in buying a card that runs slower if the OP's main game is GW2. Until AMD fixes this, I am recommending GTX570/660/660Ti.

AMD just released a catalyst profile for Guild Wars 2 crossfire which indicates they are working on their end on something.

Also as early into optimization as GW2 was for the last beta weekend there is likely a lot of work on Arena.net's side to improve AMD cards performance. For all we know they optimized for NVIDIA first and were then going back for AMD. Could also be entirely AMD's fault too. The point is we really do not know where the problem was and what may already be in place to fix it.

Not trying to defend AMD here, I just strongly believe that it is pointless to have this conversation until we have a more complete picture. It is doubly pointless to recommend a card that has not even been seriously reviewed yet.

Wait for GW2 and the 660 to come out and then figure out what the best set-up is.

 

[RussianSensation]

Meekers, I agree The best is probably to wait until the game is out and final benchmarks show up.