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Two questions... low profile for sc2 and $300 card

S

Shyatic

Platinum Member
what are my options? I have a 6870 right now, can spend around $300 for a new gaming card. Also need a low profile card to play a few games with no external power, mostly sc2 but also csgo and a few others. Suggestions?
 
Unless you snag a 7950 I don't think your increase will be all that noticeable. Sure the 660 and 7870 are better, but we're not talking leaps and bounds.

So I guess snag a 7950 at a sub $300 sale and you're good.
 
For the first question, nothing short of a 7950 and 670 would even be worth considering. 6870 sits between a 650Ti and a 7850.

For the second question, if it's a SB or IB system, the integrated graphics is already good enough to play SC2 and CS:GO at 1080p. You'll have to tweak the BIOS settings to reduce microstutter but it has more than enough power. If not, 7750 comes in a low profile version.
 
Eureka said:
For the first question, nothing short of a 7950 and 670 would even be worth considering. 6870 sits between a 650Ti and a 7850.

For the second question, if it's a SB or IB system, the integrated graphics is already good enough to play SC2 and CS:GO at 1080p. You'll have to tweak the BIOS settings to reduce microstutter but it has more than enough power. If not, 7750 comes in a low profile version.
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An HD4000 will only play SC2 at minimum quality at 1080P, and it will still have issues with a lot of units on screen.

But really, a 6870 should play it quite well on "High" settings, with some things on Ultra.

But if you want a low profile card, you are extremely limited as to what is available.
 
My question to the OP. Is your 6870 really a low profile card? I didn't know it came in that configuration.

If you really do need a low profile card, I don't think you'll get any better than what you have now.
 
Stuka87 said:
An HD4000 will only play SC2 at minimum quality at 1080P, and it will still have issues with a lot of units on screen.

But really, a 6870 should play it quite well on "High" settings, with some things on Ultra.

But if you want a low profile card, you are extremely limited as to what is available.
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I think you're vastly underestimating the HD4000. You might not be able to Ultra quality at 1080p, but you should be at least able to do mostly medium settings.
 
Eureka said:
I think you're vastly underestimating the HD4000. You might not be able to Ultra quality at 1080p, but you should be at least able to do mostly medium settings.
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Most settings have to be on low. You can set a few up higher, such as texture quality (Which seems to have very little impact on frame rates). But most settings need to be on low. And then you should be fine if you are playing a small 1v1 game. But if its a big 1v1, or a 2v2, you are going to get some frame drops in battles. I have played games that actually make my 7950 drop a few frames. Granted thats with everything on ultra @1080.

SC2 is one of those games that really does not bench well due to the multi-player aspect. Similar to BF3.
 
So a bit of clarification... I have a 6870 in my desktop, that I want to upgrade. Seems that the fitting choice is a 7950, price permitting.

I also need a low profile card for an HTPC that I play SC2 and CSGO on, and maybe a few other games. It's an i5 SB, but I haven't been totally satisfied with its onboard capabilities. From what I'm reading, the 7750 is my real only choice. Correct?

Thanks for any additional info 🙂
 
Stuka87 said:
Most settings have to be on low. You can set a few up higher, such as texture quality (Which seems to have very little impact on frame rates). But most settings need to be on low. And then you should be fine if you are playing a small 1v1 game. But if its a big 1v1, or a 2v2, you are going to get some frame drops in battles. I have played games that actually make my 7950 drop a few frames. Granted thats with everything on ultra @1080.

SC2 is one of those games that really does not bench well due to the multi-player aspect. Similar to BF3.
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Ah well, I didn't get much MP in when I was playing SC2 and I didn't test my HD4000 with it, but it did manage to max out CS:GO. :/

Scribe said:
So a bit of clarification... I have a 6870 in my desktop, that I want to upgrade. Seems that the fitting choice is a 7950, price permitting.

I also need a low profile card for an HTPC that I play SC2 and CSGO on, and maybe a few other games. It's an i5 SB, but I haven't been totally satisfied with its onboard capabilities. From what I'm reading, the 7750 is my real only choice. Correct?

Thanks for any additional info 🙂
Click to expand...

There's a 7850 low profile out there, which wasn't released for the US market, but if you wanted it bad enough, I think they can import one in. Or if you have Asian connections, they can probably send it over. Otherwise, you're stuck with the 7750, which should be enough for SC2.
 
Scribe said:
I also need a low profile card for an HTPC that I play SC2 and CSGO on, and maybe a few other games. It's an i5 SB, but I haven't been totally satisfied with its onboard capabilities. From what I'm reading, the 7750 is my real only choice. Correct?
Click to expand...

Yes. There are faster GPUs on low profile PCBs, but some need extra power, others have dual slot coolers or are extra long or really noisy. Radeon 7750 is the best bet for single slot low profile that doesn't need extra power and is reasonably quiet.
 
What about a budget card that's not low profile... any better options, at a better price point? I might stuff everything into a bigger case anyway, and if I can get a better card for cheaper, then it's a no brainer 🙂

Thanks!
 
Scribe said:
What about a budget card that's not low profile... any better options, at a better price point? I might stuff everything into a bigger case anyway, and if I can get a better card for cheaper, then it's a no brainer 🙂

Thanks!
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What are you looking for? A 7850 will handle most things and only cost around $170.You could go used, too.
 
If you're unhappy with your SC2 performance, you might want to look into upgrading your processor first. An HD6870 is around twice as fast as what's needed to max out SC2 at 1920x1080 with AA.
 
I have an i5 w hd2500 graphics that doesn't cut it as an htpc. I also have an i5 desktop for pure gaming. It is two separate pcs. I want one good card for ultra gaming, and one cheap one just to play sc2/csgo on medium or low settings. Makes sense?
 
Honestly your best upgrade from 6870 is either 7870 TX or 7950 - depending on what you want to spend......

Now second upgrade; the best low profile card without power is most likely the 7750.....

You can get less cards but if you want best quality will most likely be that and should be around 100 I think.....
 
Yuriman said:
If you're unhappy with your SC2 performance, you might want to look into upgrading your processor first. An HD6870 is around twice as fast as what's needed to max out SC2 at 1920x1080 with AA.
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Absolutely this. SC2 is notoriously more dependent on the CPU than the GPU. Upgrading your graphics card won't really help here. Unless, the underlined below is your problem...

Scribe said:
I have an i5 w hd2500 graphics that doesn't cut it as an htpc. I also have an i5 desktop for pure gaming. It is two separate pcs. I want one good card for ultra gaming, and one cheap one just to play sc2/csgo on medium or low settings. Makes sense?
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i5 what? Which processor specifically?

So what you're really saying is, you're trying to use the on-die APU (Intel's HD2500) to run SC2 and it's not working out, you have an HD6870 in your "pure gaming rig", and you're worried [by comparison] that the HD6870 isn't enough for SC2 with the HTPC's i5?

If the above is true, an HD6870 is plenty powerful to run SC2 with a good CPU. An HD7850 is, for all intents and purposes, the next generation HD6870. A little better in performance and takes less power.
 
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Well, the most cost-efficient choice obviously would be to upgrade the 6870 to a 7950 and move the 6870 over to the HTPC. Of course, that requires a non-low profile case.
 
Eureka said:
Well, the most cost-efficient choice obviously would be to upgrade the 6870 to a 7950 and move the 6870 over to the HTPC. Of course, that requires a non-low profile case.
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Also requires a different power supply 🙂

The HTPC is built for efficiency so it's a pretty small PSU... nothing with the extra rails to power the 6870. I'd need an unpowered card for the HTPC, whether it's low profile or not.
 
Shyatic said:
Also requires a different power supply 🙂

The HTPC is built for efficiency so it's a pretty small PSU... nothing with the extra rails to power the 6870. I'd need an unpowered card for the HTPC, whether it's low profile or not.
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Molex to 4-pin adapter solves that dilemma for about $5. And unless it's a cheap PSU, that shouldn't be a problem. Check the rail outputs.

As for your fixation on the graphics card upgrade and neglect for the CPU, as mentioned previously, I wish you the best of luck with your purchase.
 
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