Helping a friend choose a video card around $200

[Greenlepricon]

So my friend is building his first pc and wants the best video card for under $230 or so (preferably on the cheaper end of or below $200). He plans to game at 1080p. I recommended the 7850 if he can find a cheap one but am wondering about alternatives. He wants to play very demanding games like crysis 2 and battlefield 3. The best cards I can think of are the 6950 and 560ti 2gb. So basically what is the most he can get out of a card around this price?

 

[brandon888]

lol no ... get GTX 480 .... best bang for buck ! faster then gtx 560 ti and 6950 to

 

[Arkadrel]

Its possible to get a 7850 for under 230$.

XFXCore Edition FX-785A-ZNFC Radeon HD 7850 (1gb) ~209$ (on newegg)
PowerColor AX7850 2GBD5-2DH Radeon HD 7850 2GB ~229$ (on newegg)


If he doesnt care about his power bills / noise, a nvidia 480 (if cheap)
is a good alternative to the 7850.

However while playing Crysis 2;
-Power use looks like this:
Nvidia 480 uses on avg 257watts.
AMD 7850 uses on avg 87watts. (170 watts less) (the 480 uses like 3 times as much power)

-fan noise while playing:
Nvidia 480 reference design makes 50 dbA
AMD 7850 reference design makes 40 dbA (10 dbA less)

source:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7850_HD_7870/25.html

The decibel (dB) is a logarithmic unit that indicates the ratio of a physical quantity (usually power or intensity) relative to a specified or implied reference level. A ratio in decibels is ten times the logarithm to base 10 of the ratio of two power quantities.

In short most 480 are noisy as hell, and are costly in electric bills, and heat up your room in no time (which again costs more if your useing a AC unit to cool things down).

That said the 480 does offer slightly more performance (with the 7850 at stock) for about equal price.
**** However the 7850 can overclock very well, much better than the 480, and surpass it and use less power/heat/noise than a 480 does.

= in short, 7850 is a better buy.

 

[Dark Shroud]

+1 for the 7850, if you can get the MSI Twin Frozr model.

 

[Greenlepricon]

Alright thanks I'm not really a fan of the 480 for those reasons. I know it's a good deal for the price but the price quickly goes up from the electricity bill. That 7850 is a little too expensive for him right now (like I said he can't really afford more than $230), but if it is really that much better than every other option I can try and cut his costs from some of the other components. Also I'll help him overclock so if that gets him the best deal that's what we'll shoot for.

 

[Dark Shroud]

Well there are two models that are $240 but have $20 rebates on them.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/powercolor-video-card-ax78502gbd52dh

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-video-card-fx785acnfc

 

[Arkadrel]

@Greenlepricon

Thats probably not a bad idea.... if the differnce is like:

option A)
Intel i5-2500k (doesnt have hyperthing)
AMD 7850

vs

option B)
Intel i7-2600k (has hyperthreading and 100mhz faster)
AMD 6870


Then Option A) wins by insane amounts, in short the 2600k isnt worth the 70-80$ differnce,
if it means you have that much LESS for your GPU.

Same is true for motherboard, dont spend a fortune on a motherboard with capabilities for SLI / Crosfire just cuz someday it might be usefull, if it means you have to buy a sucky graphics card. Again thats not worth it.

Same with Ram, usually not worth the price differnce between some of the lower and higher models, if it means you lose budget in other places.

 

[Greenlepricon]

Ok thanks Arkadrel. His motherboard can be downgraded for sure but I'll have to look at his other parts again. He's going for an amd cpu cause his budget is pretty low, so he might as well get a good one of those to keep up in games. He has a pretty good deal on ram (8gb for $40 I think?) for g. skill ripjaws. I use corsair and hardly know anything about other brands. I'm not sure where else he can cut costs? Maybe the power supply a little but I didn't get a chance to look at that. It's rated at 630 watts but I'm not sure how much he's paying for it. Anyway if I get a chance to check soon I'll let you guys know how much extra $$ I can get him to pay for that card.

 

[Greenlepricon]

Oh yeah one big question I have is about the 560ti. I really don't know much about this card, but most benchmarks seem to put it around the 6950, and say it is pretty good at overclocking. Is it really worth checking out or not?

 

[TemjinGold]

Post his total budget and the parts he was considering.

 

[Greenlepricon]

I'll post what I know and I'll update later if I can find out all the details.
2x4gb g. skill ripjaws (~$40)
630 watt psu (??)
amd phenom II x4 965 black edition (~$100)
some 990fx am3+ mobo (~$130) (gonna cut this down for sure)
some cpu heatsink (~$20)
case ($40)

I'm not sure what else but don't worry about this too much. I didn't help him choose his parts so I'll go back and change some stuff up for him. The biggest help that I need is the video card in the price range I listed like I said.

 

[TemjinGold]

I get that. The reason I'm asking is because we may be able to cut somewhere that he didn't think of, which would effectively increase the amount he can spend on the video card. Is he OCing? If not, one place he can skimp is by not buying a cpu cooler and using the one that comes with the cpu.

630 watts is starting to sound like Raidmax. If so, I would highly advise against that.

 

[Greenlepricon]

Ha alright thanks for the advice. I was thinking along those lines for the psu. I really want to check that out but I only got to see his parts list once and need to do a double check. I'm not sure if he wants to oc. I used to have that same processor and it's a beast when it comes to it, but it also runs pretty hot at stock. I actually have an extra tx3 heatsink that I was going to give to another friend, but I think I'm gonna do a first come first serve deal on that one. That cuts out $20 right there.

 

[Arkadrel]

Oh yeah one big question I have is about the 560ti. I really don't know much about this card, but most benchmarks seem to put it around the 6950, and say it is pretty good at overclocking. Is it really worth checking out or not?

You need to know there are differnt versions of the 560 ti,
a 1gb/2gb model with 384 cuda cores, and a 448 cuda core model.

*IF* you go this route dont buy the 384 models... not worth it, compaired to the 448 ones.

That means you need to spend like 250$ for a 560ti.
You can find a 7850 for less than that, and it has better overall performance before you factor in overclocking.

So in short, dont go for a 560ti, not as good value compaired to a 7850.


--------------------------------------------------------

On another note, dont get a Phenom II x4 965.
I believe if you can find a FX-4100 in same price range that is a better buy.

the FX-4100 is slightly faster than a i3-2130 in benchmarks/gameing, and it has overclocking.
Its not uncommon to be able to turn off "turbo" funktion and hit 4.6ghz with these CPU's.

So for a budget build that doesnt mind overclocking the FX-4100 is good value.

Get the cheapest motherboard you can get away with as long as it has the features you want it to have.

Bulldozer FX-4100 @ 4.6ghz 7/24 stable (most seem to hit) > Phenom II x 4 @4.0ghz (not as many hit)

------------------------

CPU cooler:COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus ~29$ = insane value buy.

I can HIGHLY recammend this cooler, its performance is superb considering its price tag.

 

[Greenlepricon]

Cool thanks again. He originally had that gpu on his list so I'm glad I checked I asked about it. Also I didn't know that that cpu was in the same price range! You changed my mind about that. The hyper 212 plus is an awesome cooler, but the tx3 isn't bad either and I already have a spare. If he had a higher budget I would tell him to go for that one, but I think free is better in this case.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

lol no ... get GTX 480 .... best bang for buck ! faster then gtx 560 ti and 6950 to

^+1 get the GTX 480 it's the most performance you can get for around $200 it is faster then 7850,6950,560ti,560ti448 and is on par with a reference GTX 570 with more OCing headroom so amazing deal for around $200 to your door.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

You need to know there are differnt versions of the 560 ti,
a 1gb/2gb model with 384 cuda cores, and a 448 cuda core model.

*IF* you go this route dont buy the 384 models... not worth it, compaired to the 448 ones.

That means you need to spend like 250$ for a 560ti.
You can find a 7850 for less than that, and it has better overall performance before you factor in overclocking.

So in short, dont go for a 560ti, not as good value compaired to a 7850.


--------------------------------------------------------

On another note, dont get a Phenom II x4 965.
I believe if you can find a FX-4100 in same price range that is a better buy.

the FX-4100 is slightly faster than a i3-2130 in benchmarks/gameing, and it has overclocking.
Its not uncommon to be able to turn off "turbo" funktion and hit 4.6ghz with these CPU's.

So for a budget build that doesnt mind overclocking the FX-4100 is good value.

Get the cheapest motherboard you can get away with as long as it has the features you want it to have.

Bulldozer FX-4100 @ 4.6ghz 7/24 stable (most seem to hit) > Phenom II x 4 @4.0ghz (not as many hit)

------------------------

CPU cooler:COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus ~29$ = insane value buy.




I can HIGHLY recammend this cooler, its performance is superb considering its price tag.

I will vouch for the Hyper 212+ I have one as well and it is silent and still keeps my OCed @ 3.6 Phenom II x4 chip well within spec.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

Oh yeah one big question I have is about the 560ti. I really don't know much about this card, but most benchmarks seem to put it around the 6950, and say it is pretty good at overclocking. Is it really worth checking out or not?

It's a great card and good OCer but they are generally way overpriced right now but if you can find one for the right price it is a great buy but they are just to much money today.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

In short most 480 are noisy as hell, and are costly in electric bills, and heat up your room in no time (which again costs more if your useing a AC unit to cool things down).

A GPU is not about conserving electricity it is about playing games LOL.

A GPU is not about conserving electricity it is about playing games LOL.