Holding off until 28nm radeons..

[dpk33]

What kind of card under $80 will let me play cs source, l4d2, tf2, LoL (highest possible settings, 8x aa, 16x af, etc) and bad company 2 (medium-ish settings, less AA and AF) all at 1920x1200 that will hold me until 28nm cards? So far, I sold my 6950 2GB to wait it off and the 9600GT I was planning on using isn't cutting it. I was thinking something along the lines of a GTX 260 or 4870 or something similar.

And also, any news on when EXACTLY the new cards are going to come out? Because if it's coming out within a month or two, i can use this 9600gt until then. Otherwise, I will get myself an older generation "high-end" graphics card.

I currently have a phenom ii x4 955 system (4 ghz), which I will be upgrading if Battlefield 3 doesn't run smoothly on it.

 

[Arkadrel]

Stick with that 9600GT (a month or two).

 

[SlowSpyder]

I wouldn't waste time on an interim upgrade if you know you are going to go with a 28nm Radeon. But if you insist, I had a pretty good experience with my 4870 @ 1920x1200. A used 5770 can probably be found around your price range, they are decent enough overclockers and have 1GB of memory... it would probably be a bit faster than a 4870 with current drivers (and they all have 1GB).

As far as the next Radeons, it seems there were some Sept-Oct. rumors, there were some end of 2011 rumors, and some 2012 rumors... I don't think anyone outside of AMD really knows.

 

[SpicyTime]

I was in the same boat as you. I bought a $50 used 5750 to hold me over until 28nm. It runs pretty good for HoN and Starcraft 2, though these are much less intensive than FPS. Either way, I'd suggest getting a used 5XXX series card.

 

[trollolo]

OP, source games and League of Legends can run at max at acceptable levels with an intel 2000 HD, and with great FPS levels with the newer 3000 integrated graphics. you don't need a GPU for those

 

[dpk33]

OP, source games and League of Legends can run at max at acceptable levels with an intel 2000 HD, and with great FPS levels with the newer 3000 integrated graphics. you don't need a GPU for those

I also play bad company 2 at 1920x1200, thus I probably do need some type of mid-level GPU. Plus, isn't the Intel 3000 graphics ~6800GT level? I'm probably wrong since I never really took time to research Intel CPUs since I'm not planning on upgrading from my Phenom II any time soon.