Can you help me decide on a card? 7850/70 or 660

[XrBob]

I've currently got a radeon 4850 and am looking to upgrade. I've decided my budget is in the $200ish area. I'm thinking that a radeon 7850, 7870, or gtx 660 is my best bet.

One concern I have is power. My current power supply is 585, is there any reason to think that I'll need to upgrade my power supply as well? The other issue is that the 7850 and 660 both only need one 6 pin connector, while the 7870 needs two. I don't think I have an extra 6 pin connector in my case, how would I get another, is there some sort of splitter cable I could use?

Thanks.

Edit:

System Specifications:

I. Processor/CPU:
AMD Phenom II X3 720

II. Current Graphics Card:
Radeon 4850

III. Display Resolution:
1280x1024

IV. Power Supply Unit Specification (Brand, Wattage, Ampage, Age). If possible, please provide a link to a website containing the power supply specifications:


V. Case Specifications(N/A, Model, Length, Low Profile, Cooling, HTPC, Water, Silent):
This is the case/power supply combo I've been using : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811121002

Purchase Details:

I. Budget? Please be sure to include currency (If not USD), retailer preferences & specify whether rebates are a viable option.
I'm thinking $200 +- $20

II. Any particular preferences (Manufacturer[nV or AMD], Brand[XFX, Sapphire, EVGA, etc], Cooling Solutions)?
My current card is amd/sapphire, but I'm certainly willing to try nvidia or another brand.

III. Do you plan to have any Multi-GPU solutions such as Crossfire or SLI?
I don't have any SLI or crossfire plans

IV. Have you previously looked at a product(s) which you feel would fit your needs?
I'm thinking either a 7850, 660, or 7870. I'm hoping to get 2gb vram with it.

V. What are your needs for this GPU? Which games(If any)do you intend to play? If you have this information at hand, what are the desired detail levels?
I'd love to max out skyrim with the best looking mods, I play black ops 2, and am going to start playing dark souls soon.

VI. Do you plan on overclocking the card you intend to purchase?
I play around with it, but it's not a huge concern.

 

[3DVagabond]

I've currently got a radeon 4850 and am looking to upgrade. I've decided my budget is in the $200ish area. I'm thinking that a radeon 7850, 7870, or gtx 660 is my best bet.

One concern I have is power. My current power supply is 550, is there any reason to think that I'll need to upgrade my power supply as well? The other issue is that the 7850 and 660 both only need one 6 pin connector, while the 7870 needs two. I don't think I have an extra 6 pin connector in my case, how would I get another, is there some sort of splitter cable I could use?

Thanks.

Not enough information to give a recommendation. Use this guide.

 

[The Alias]

I'd suggest this
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/pH8U

it's $265, but it's well worth it . the cpu should hold up well regardless of the game; whereas your old one not so much .

 

[XrBob]

I never considered upgrading the cpu. How much of a difference should I expect? Also, in your link the 7850 has 1gb memory, will I be losing a lot by not getting one with 2 gb?

 

[Eureka]

I never considered upgrading the cpu. How much of a difference should I expect? Also, in your link the 7850 has 1gb memory, will I be losing a lot by not getting one with 2 gb?

If you play modded Skyrim, then you will hit the 1gb limit. It would be worthwhile to get a 2GB version, or just make the jump to a 660/7870. Both will perform roughly the same, the 7870 should be a bit faster, but the 660 will give you PhysX for the games that use it (and supposedly more stable driver releases).

Not sure how well the X3 will hold up in Skyrim. Would definitely not hurt to move to a faster quad core, but I'm not sure how much of a difference it would be.

 

[The Alias]

If you play modded Skyrim, then you will hit the 1gb limit. It would be worthwhile to get a 2GB version, or just make the jump to a 660/7870. Both will perform roughly the same, the 7870 should be a bit faster, but the 660 will give you PhysX for the games that use it (and supposedly more stable driver releases).

Not sure how well the X3 will hold up in Skyrim. Would definitely not hurt to move to a faster quad core, but I'm not sure how much of a difference it would be.

he's playing at 1280x1024 it'll take take up a whole gb ?

 

[Eureka]

he's playing at 1280x1024 it'll take take up a whole gb ?

Didn't realize that, but I could still imagine it'd be cutting it very close. That resolution is still 60% as many pixels as a 1080p screen, and there are some power users who could breach 2GB on 1080p in Skyrim. For a person who likes to mod games, 1GB is a tight limit.

 

[bigsnyder]

@XrBob

Have you tried unlocking the fourth core on that Phenom? If your board supports it, it will provide a nice boost for a new GPU. Anyway here are my recommendations:

MSI R7850 OC 2GB
MSI R7850 PE OC 2GB

 

[RaistlinZ]

If you're not going to be overclocking, the 660 is the faster of the two.

 

[ronss]

i would go with the evga 660 sc...faster than the 660, and every competitive if not faster than the cards you were looking at

 

[raghu78]

what psu brand and model do you have ? how many amps does it provide on +12v rail. unless you have 30 - 32A on +12v rail its not advisable to stick with that PSU. if that is the case a HD 7850 2GB with PSU upgrade is what you should be aiming to do.

 

[MrK6]

7870 if you're in to overclocking and your PSU (unknown) can handle it. If not, either the 7870 or the GTX 660 would be fine.

 

[XrBob]

I went ahead and got an evga 660 superclocked, thanks for all your responses!