GTX460/6850/6870 now, or wait for Kepler/Pitcairn?

[imported_Ever]

I'd grab the GTX 460 1GB now or buy 2 in SLI and get frame-rates higher than a GTX 580 and close to a Radeon HD 7970. I have 2 eVGA GTX 460 1GB in SLI and they're still overkill for any game out there. Just make sure you get the 1GB version with 336 CUDA cores, a 256-bit memory bus and 32 ROPS. Happy gaming for years to come!

Like this one, right?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133428

I was looking at the 1GB GTX460 if I went that route, but still undecided really. I think I'm over the 6850 though, and if I went AMD, it'd probably be for the 6870 (and it can run 3 monitors apparently).

 

[WMD]

Get a 6870 at $135 now if you cannot wait. The 7770 will be $$150 and perform worse than the 6870. You wont gain much by waiting. In fact the entire line of 7000 series cards are priced to keep the previous generation price intact.

 

[imported_Ever]

Are there any features coming out with the 7-series that the 6 series lack?

 

[3DVagabond]

Get a 6870 at $135 now if you cannot wait. The 7770 will be $$150 and perform worse than the 6870. You wont gain much by waiting. In fact the entire line of 7000 series cards are priced to keep the previous generation price intact.

How do we know what the 7770 will perform like? I do think though that we are not likely to gain any perf/$ in this gen any time soon. No competition is a bad thing.

 

[WMD]

How do we know what the 7770 will perform like? I do think though that we are not likely to gain any perf/$ in this gen any time soon. No competition is a bad thing.

896 shaders 24 ROPs 128bit DDR5.

An engineering sample has been tested to score p3421 in 3dmark 11 clocked at 1ghz. Thats below a 6850. Retail cards will be clocked at 900mhz.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1662226

 

[lifeblood]

Get a 6870 at $135 now if you cannot wait. The 7770 will be $$150 and perform worse than the 6870. You wont gain much by waiting. In fact the entire line of 7000 series cards are priced to keep the previous generation price intact.

A 6870 for $135? Nope. A 6850 for about $135, yes, but not a 6870. If you really know where I can get a new one for $135 please tell me as I'm interested.

From the rumors it looks like a 7770 will be very slightly slower than a 6850, but cost $149. It has the compute bells and whistles that the 68XX doesn't. So I guess if compute is meaningless to you, get a 68XX now. If not, wait on the 7770.

 

[MrK6]

A 6870 for $135? Nope. A 6850 for about $135, yes, but not a 6870. If you really know where I can get a new one for $135 please tell me as I'm interested.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948 . You can sell the game for $10, 6870 for $135.

To answer your question OP, it'd be helpful to know what you're playing at the moment.

 

[imported_Ever]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948 . You can sell the game for $10, 6870 for $135.

To answer your question OP, it'd be helpful to know what you're playing at the moment.

Nothing, just impatient is all. Of course if I got the card, I might play something, but I don't currently own anything.

There was a local store though that had an open box 6870 for $120, so that was my biggest reasoning for asking. And in case the GTX460 came back at $100AR.

 

[JimmyH]

I currently have a xps 8300 with an i5 2400 and a 6870. I was lucky to get into the Diablo 3 beta. Two other people in my 10 man wow raid also got into the beta. So far its smooth at 1080p Anti-Aliasing and everything maxed expect one down on shadows. It only uses about 40% of the 6870 so its not very taxing. Blizzard games tend to be CPU intensive not GPU. I only get CPU limited in 25 man raids and Diablo 3 is only 4 player co-op so i don't expect D3 to be CPU limited on any modern CPU.
I played last night with my 2 friends. Eventually down to 2 of us, me and my friend with his 6950 because our other friend with his spaceheater nvidia gtx 460 had driver issues.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3988301062

I'd suggest getting the 6850, 6870 or just waiting. If i gamed at 1080p or under i'd just get the 6870 or 6850 now. If you plan on gaming at very high resolution or eye infinity then I'd wait and see what mid tier kepler or southern islands at 28nm has to offer in the $300 range. Here's a shot of me playing diablo 3 with msi afterburner showing about 40% GPU usage. Woot 100th post!

 

[MrK6]

Nothing, just impatient is all. Of course if I got the card, I might play something, but I don't currently own anything.

There was a local store though that had an open box 6870 for $120, so that was my biggest reasoning for asking. And in case the GTX460 came back at $100AR.

To be honest, until 28nm production as a whole kicks up from TSMC, I don't think you're going to see much value or price/performance competition from this new generation of hardware. Even whenever NVIDIA enters the fray, I think the TSMC's production simply won't support a price war between AMD and NVIDIA, so you'll see prices stay high. If TSMC does turn around and start pumping out more wafers, everyone could be in luck, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea to buy a cheap 6870 or GTX 460 to hold you over.

Also note, Diablo 3 isn't going to be demanding. Blizzard has a long history of making their games extremely accessible to a wide range of hardware, and I doubt they'd change their (very lucrative) business model. As JimmyH's firsthand account details, it seems my presumptions are correct.

 

[imported_Ever]

I currently have a xps 8300 with an i5 2400 and a 6870. I was lucky to get into the Diablo 3 beta. Two other people in my 10 man wow raid also got into the beta. So far its smooth at 1080p Anti-Aliasing and everything maxed expect one down on shadows. It only uses about 40% of the 6870 so its not very taxing. Blizzard games tend to be CPU intensive not GPU. I only get CPU limited in 25 man raids and Diablo 3 is only 4 player co-op so i don't expect D3 to be CPU limited on any modern CPU.
I played last night with my 2 friends. Eventually down to 2 of us, me and my friend with his 6950 because our other friend with his spaceheater nvidia gtx 460 had driver issues.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3988301062

I'd suggest getting the 6850, 6870 or just waiting. If i gamed at 1080p or under i'd just get the 6870 or 6850 now. If you plan on gaming at very high resolution or eye infinity then I'd wait and see what mid tier kepler or southern islands at 28nm has to offer in the $300 range. Here's a shot of me playing diablo 3 with msi afterburner showing about 40% GPU usage. Woot 100th post!

Sounds good, looks like I'll keep an eye out for a great deal on a GTX460, 6850, or 6870 since as you said, seems to be fine with Diablo 3, and it's good to hear about the i5 2400 as well since we'll have basically the same specs (except you have more ram).

The biggest pull for the 6800 series seems to be I can run three monitors, which would be handy sometime down the road. The only reason going for a 460, 6850, or 6870 would be so there's room for me to play games in the future and now, if I decide to (Steam sales too). My 8600gt wouldn't handle Diablo really well, so might as well go for the good upgrade now rather than regret it later.

BTW: would $120 on an open box 6870 be a slam dunk deal? Seems like it's $145ar alot, so $120 open box from a legit company seems like a good deal.

 

[Arkadrel]

896 shaders 24 ROPs 128bit DDR5.

An engineering sample has been tested to score p3421 in 3dmark 11 clocked at 1ghz. Thats below a 6850. Retail cards will be clocked at 900mhz.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1662226

60w TPD? if so there might be versions with and without a 6pin power cable.
Also seems like stock clocks for GPU is 1ghz.

Whats sad is the 88GB/s memory bandwidth...
I cant help but think that ll be whats holding it back the most, so first thing you overclock.

Also engineering samples, with early drivers... maybe by release its closer to the 6850.


I found this at S/A (his source: chiphell):

I expect these to be really cheap though, because:

Finally, the Cape Verde die itself is relatively small for this segment. While Juniper XT weighs in at 166 mm2 and GF116 at 230 mm2, Cape Verde at first glance appears to be well under 150 mm2.

Thats tiny... lets say it ends up around 140mm^2, and with the cheaper cooling solution (downward blower, instead of blowing out of cards back). These cards can probably go for really really cheap.

Right now there are 6770's with jumpier 166mm^2 die size, and more expensive cooling solution going for like 80$. I wouldnt be surprised if these end up around that cost at some point (when nvidia has *new* a competing product in the ~6850-6870 performance range).



To give you a impression of how crazy it is for AMD to have a chip in the 140-150mm^2 do 6850 performance:

Nvidia has a 238mm^2 (+70% bigger) chip used for the Geforce 550ti (~25-30% slower than a 6850).

 

[mfx]

Hi (im now here)

i have also the dell xps 8300 17 2600 and hd5770

i also want to upgrade to 6870/7870 how ever dell supply the mid line with 500 psu which wont to the job for 6850 and up that what i have been told i did u put yours (if u dont mind me askin)

I currently have a xps 8300 with an i5 2400 and a 6870. I was lucky to get into the Diablo 3 beta. Two other people in my 10 man wow raid also got into the beta. So far its smooth at 1080p Anti-Aliasing and everything maxed expect one down on shadows. It only uses about 40% of the 6870 so its not very taxing. Blizzard games tend to be CPU intensive not GPU. I only get CPU limited in 25 man raids and Diablo 3 is only 4 player co-op so i don't expect D3 to be CPU limited on any modern CPU.
I played last night with my 2 friends. Eventually down to 2 of us, me and my friend with his 6950 because our other friend with his spaceheater nvidia gtx 460 had driver issues.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3988301062

I'd suggest getting the 6850, 6870 or just waiting. If i gamed at 1080p or under i'd just get the 6870 or 6850 now. If you plan on gaming at very high resolution or eye infinity then I'd wait and see what mid tier kepler or southern islands at 28nm has to offer in the $300 range. Here's a shot of me playing diablo 3 with msi afterburner showing about 40% GPU usage. Woot 100th post!

 

[WMD]

60w TPD? if so there might be versions with and without a 6pin power cable.
Also seems like stock clocks for GPU is 1ghz.

Whats sad is the 88GB/s memory bandwidth...
I cant help but think that ll be whats holding it back the most, so first thing you overclock.

Also engineering samples, with early drivers... maybe by release its closer to the 6850.


I found this at S/A (his source: chiphell):

I expect these to be really cheap though, because:



Thats tiny... lets say it ends up around 140mm^2, and with the cheaper cooling solution (downward blower, instead of blowing out of cards back). These cards can probably go for really really cheap.

Right now there are 6770's with jumpier 166mm^2 die size, and more expensive cooling solution going for like 80$. I wouldnt be surprised if these end up around that cost at some point (when nvidia has *new* a competing product in the ~6850-6870 performance range).

Its confirmed to be 900mhz.

Its unlikely to catch up to a 6850 with its 128bit bus and 16 ROPs. Which means it will be barely faster than the 6770/ 5770 it replaces.

You are right about die size. The mainstream series seems to add very little compute units and rely mostly on clock speed for performance. This makes them incredibly tiny but the savings are not going to be passed down to consumer end. These things are designed for all out profit. Maybe its better to spend money on AMD shares than its GPU right now.

 

[Arkadrel]

WMD

isnt it just rumor site #1 claims vs rumor site #2 site claims?

The Chiphell ones say 1000mhz core.

Its unlikely to catch up to a 6850 with its 128bit bus and 16 ROPs. Which means it will be barely faster than the 6770/ 5770 it replaces.

Didnt you link the site that showed it doing very close to the 6850? above....

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1662226

http://www.chiphell.com/forum.php?mo...=336310&page=1
Price: $149
Core: 1.0Ghz
Memory: 2GB@1.1Ghz 128bit bus
Scores P3421 on 3dmark11, a 6850 scores ~3600.

Engineering samples, and early driver, could take it closer to the 6850 score by release.
The differnce between 3421 vs 3600 score, is like ~5%.


If you translate the chiphell page, the guy took the engineering sample and ran some quick tests, says he had 2 bioses...
1 with 1ghz and one with 1.1ghz. That would hint at a 1ghz stock and possibly factory oc cards at 1.1ghz.


that "PTMD" guy there sounds like he works at amd.... he keeps saying its 135mm^2.
That is just tiny for such performance.

 

[WMD]

WMD

isnt it just rumor site #1 claims vs rumor site #2 site claims?

The Chiphell ones say 1000mhz core.


Didnt you link the site that showed it doing very close to the 6850? above....

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1662226

Engineering samples, and early driver, could take it closer to the 6850 score by release.
The differnce between 3421 vs 3600 score, is like ~5%.


If you translate the chiphell page, the guy took the engineering sample and ran some quick tests, says he had 2 bioses...
1 with 1ghz and one with 1.1ghz. That would hint at a 1ghz stock and possibly factory oc cards at 1.1ghz.

The chiphell page says 1Ghz is unconfirmed and retail is likely lower. But whatever. It wont be better than a 6850. Less shaders, less ROPs, lower memory bandwidth. 3dmark 11 is mainly tessellation bottlenecked as well so a higher clocked part tends to perform better here than real world games.

 

[Arkadrel]

I think the memory bandwidth will kill its performance,... turn up AA and watch fps drop.
FXAA and MLAA to the rescue lmao.

You got a point about 3Dmark 11 and tess 's impact though.... esp as its one of those area's where the new GCN beats the older 5xxx series in by leaps and bounds. That could mean real world gameing, with games without tess, the 7770 will be slower by a greater % than shown in 3Dmark11.