So the best $~150 card is the gtx 560?

[micrometers]

Any other recommendations?

 

[RussianSensation]

I wouldn't say that it's the best hands down, but one of the better cards at $150. HD6870 is just as fast, while consuming less power for $150. HD6870 is actually very close to GTX470/GTX560Ti.

If there are certain games you play that favour 1 architecture over the other, pick that one. Can't go wrong with GTX560/6870 at that price.

Out of the 560s, The Asus DCU looks nice.

 

[Jaydip]

For 30$ more it doesn't look too bad either
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500196

 

[p_monks33]

The Asus 560 russian pointed out is really nice. If you aren't gaming past 1920x1080 it will be a great card. I overclocked mine to 560Ti Specs and it still had alot to offer past that. I think you will be very happy with that card .

 

[RussianSensation]

For 30$ more it doesn't look too bad either
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500196

I am not sure about $180 for a 560Ti 1GB though. For $10 more, HD6950 2GB. $10 more 2GB VRAM.

 

[lehtv]

Agree with above. There are also better choices of 560 Ti around than a Zotac:
Asus DCII $195 ($175 AR)
MSI TWII $195 ($175 AR)

For $150 no rebate this is the best card I can find: Sapphire 7770 Vapor-X (techpowerup Editor's Choice)
For $150 including rebate, this is: Asus GTX560 DCII/OC

 

[SickBeast]

The best $150 card is soon going to be the 7850.

 

[lehtv]

Soon? Keep hoping. A year ago, 560 Ti was around $220-230 for the cheapest models, and now they're $200. Wait another year you can sometimes find it for $150, if it's still in stock.

The cheapest 7850's are $240-250 right now...

 

[bryanW1995]

My internet sarcasm alert-o-meter was tripped by his smiley face. Unless and until we get serious competition NV across all price points the 7850's price isn't going anywhere.

 

[lehtv]

I thought it was a serious comment, "soon" referring to the release of GTX 660 / 660 Ti.

 

[Jaydip]

I am not sure about $180 for a 560Ti 1GB though. For $10 more, HD6950 2GB. $10 more 2GB VRAM.

That extra 1GB vram is pretty useless on 6950.Also 560Ti scales way better than 6950

 

[bryanW1995]

I thought it was a serious comment, "soon" referring to the release of GTX 660 / 660 Ti.

Good point. Of course, NV isn't known for underpricing, and now that they're comfortable leading again this round they're likely to try to keep midrange prices quite high. Hopefully, they'll still sell enough that 7850 has to drop in price to compete, but sadly, that's no guarantee.

 

[RussianSensation]

That extra 1GB vram is pretty useless on 6950.Also 560Ti scales way better than 6950

Right, but with the intention to keep the card for 2 years, it may be the difference between throwing a 1GB card into the garbage and still playing on the 6950. This happened with 8800GT 256mb vs. 512mb, 8800GTS 320mb vs. 640mb, HD4870 512mb vs. 1GB. On top of that a stock 6950 is around 12% faster at 1080P to begin with. I think GTX560 Ti 448 1.28GB is a better competitor than the HD6950. After owning an 8800GTS 320mb, I am never going to recommend anyone save $10-20 to get bare minimum VRAM required for today's games, which is 1GB. That's probably going to be exceeded shortly at which point GTX560Ti will be much slower than the 6950 2GB or GTX560Ti 448 1.28GB. In AnandTech's reviews they already point out that for some cards they have to turn down settings because 1.28GB of VRAM is not enough any longer.

 

[f1sherman]

Good point. Of course, NV isn't known for underpricing, and now that they're comfortable leading again this round they're likely to try to keep midrange prices quite high. Hopefully, they'll still sell enough that 7850 has to drop in price to compete, but sadly, that's no guarantee.

It's the $#* TSMC which cant get 28nm game right.

So even with not so attractive prices, Nvidia's inventory is not ballooning any time soon.

 

[SickBeast]

Soon? Keep hoping. A year ago, 560 Ti was around $220-230 for the cheapest models, and now they're $200. Wait another year you can sometimes find it for $150, if it's still in stock.

The cheapest 7850's are $240-250 right now...

No, they've been hitting $210 when they go on sale.

 

[pcslookout]

Thanks to this thread I know what to upgrade my ATI 5770 from.

 

[Jaydip]

Right, but with the intention to keep the card for 2 years, it may be the difference between throwing a 1GB card into the garbage and still playing on the 6950. This happened with 8800GT 256mb vs. 512mb, 8800GTS 320mb vs. 640mb, HD4870 512mb vs. 1GB. On top of that a stock 6950 is around 12% faster at 1080P to begin with. I think GTX560 Ti 448 1.28GB is a better competitor than the HD6950. After owning an 8800GTS 320mb, I am never going to recommend anyone save $10-20 to get bare minimum VRAM required for today's games, which is 1GB. That's probably going to be exceeded shortly at which point GTX560Ti will be much slower than the 6950 2GB or GTX560Ti 448 1.28GB. In AnandTech's reviews they already point out that for some cards they have to turn down settings because 1.28GB of VRAM is not enough any longer.

Good points.But that is a factory overclocked 560Ti giving it a edge over the 6950.I hesitate to recommend 6950 because of its poor scaling and not so good tessellation performance.Also the new drivers have introduced plethora of new features for the old generation NV cards.I think it really boils down to preference really.By the time 2Gb Vram will be considered bare minimum 6950 will just be too slow to cope with it.

 

[lehtv]

No, they've been hitting $210 when they go on sale.

You mean one of the lesser brands has offered a rebate that puts their crappy blower cooler 7850 at $210.

When 7850 becomes a $150 card, it's not because one lower-end 7850 is occasionally on sale for $150 after rebate. It's because 7850 is commonly retailing for $150.

 

[bononos]

You mean one of the lesser brands has offered a rebate that puts their crappy blower cooler 7850 at $210.

When 7850 becomes a $150 card, it's not because one lower-end 7850 is occasionally on sale for $150 after rebate. It's because 7850 is commonly retailing for $150.

Is the 7850 Radeon stock type cooler decent (for non-oc)?

 

[lehtv]

Even a stock 7850 will overclock well, but the blower type cooler is pretty noisy whether you OC or not. A dual fan card you will achieve lower temperatures at a much lower noise level. In addition, non-reference cards often sport improved PCB's, voltage regulators, power phases etc.

 

[RussianSensation]

Good points.But that is a factory overclocked 560Ti giving it a edge over the 6950.I hesitate to recommend 6950 because of its poor scaling and not so good tessellation performance.Also the new drivers have introduced plethora of new features for the old generation NV cards.I think it really boils down to preference really.By the time 2Gb Vram will be considered bare minimum 6950 will just be too slow to cope with it.

Check out the benchmarks below and you'll see it's not true. 1GB of VRAM is already not sufficient for many games (Max Payne 3, SKYRIM) and 6950 2GB is way faster than GTX560Ti in both.

Tessellation Aspect
Here is Crysis 2 with its insane ocean and concrete barrier tessellation and GTX560Ti cannot beat the 6950 2GB.

Neither can GTX560Ti win in Batman AC with its tessellation

1GB vs. 2GB VRAM aspect

GTX560 Ti also loses in shader heavy titles such as Metro 2033 and Crysis:

Even in BF3 that runs well on NV cards, GTX560Ti still loses to the 6950 2GB with 0AA / Post-AA (which are probably the settings you'd use to get close to 60 fps). This is because the GTX560Ti was always an HD6870 competitor, not an HD6950 competitor (that's what GTX560 Ti 448 Core was for).

There will be some games where GTX560Ti will do well vs. 6950 (Civilization V, World of Planes, Guild Wars 2). But it goes both ways for AMD (add to the list above: Alan Wake, Anno 2070, Bullet Storm, Serious Sam 3, etc.). I still wouldn't spend $170-180 on a card with 1GB of VRAM at this point. Too risky.

To make matters worse, the 560Ti even uses more power than HD6950 2GB in both Idle and Load states:

Either way, at the $170-180 price point, I'd spend another $40-50 and get an HD7850 2GB and overclock it 35%!

 

[SickBeast]

It was actually a twin frozr 3 for $210 iirc.

 

[Jaydip]

Check out the benchmarks below and you'll see it's not true. 1GB of VRAM is already not sufficient for many games (Max Payne 3, SKYRIM) and 6950 2GB is way faster than GTX560Ti in both.

Tessellation Aspect
Here is Crysis 2 with its insane ocean and concrete barrier tessellation and GTX560Ti cannot beat the 6950 2GB.

Neither can GTX560Ti win in Batman AC with its tessellation

1GB vs. 2GB VRAM aspect

GTX560 Ti also loses in shader heavy titles such as Metro 2033 and Crysis:

Even in BF3 that runs well on NV cards, GTX560Ti still loses to the 6950 2GB with 0AA / Post-AA (which are probably the settings you'd use to get close to 60 fps). This is because the GTX560Ti was always an HD6870 competitor, not an HD6950 competitor (that's what GTX560 Ti 448 Core was for).

There will be some games where GTX560Ti will do well vs. 6950 (Civilization V, World of Planes, Guild Wars 2). But it goes both ways for AMD (add to the list above: Alan Wake, Anno 2070, Bullet Storm, Serious Sam 3, etc.). I still wouldn't spend $170-180 on a card with 1GB of VRAM at this point. Too risky.

To make matters worse, the 560Ti even uses more power than HD6950 2GB in both Idle and Load states:

Either way, at the $170-180 price point, I'd spend another $40-50 and get an HD7850 2GB and overclock it 35%!

Thats a vanilla 560Ti in the graph,the card i linked to is 15% pre overclocked.

 

[RussianSensation]

It was actually a twin frozr 3 for $210 iirc.

I definitely recall seeing that card for $210 after rebate on Newegg not long ago. HD7950 will have to drop closer to $200 because HD7870 is already going for $260 for good after market versions, while HD7950 is dipping to $310-320 regularly. Once GTX660/660Ti ship next month, there probably will be more price drops.

 

[Silverforce11]

Thats a vanilla 560Ti in the graph,the card i linked to is 15% pre overclocked.

You DO realize 6950s can essentially run faster than a "stock" 6970 with overclocking? It's the same issue with the lower core clock AMD ships its 2nd tier product with. It wasn't that long ago that 6950 2gb was the best perf/$ card, in the sub $200 space, still nothing touches it.