What is the right video card for me?

[Nawlins]

My birthday is coming up in a few days and my girlfriend wants to buy me a video card. She asked me which one do I want....and I have no idea which one to get or do I even need one. Most of my gamings are done on my 360 or ps3. However I do like strategy games, and when I play them, I play on my computer.

Right now I am playing Civ V and when I exit the game, Windows tell me that I need to turn Aero off because I lack memory(?). So, I'm thinking I need a graphics card?

System Specifications:

I. Processor/CPU: AMD A8-3870K


II. Current Graphics Card: intergrated 6550D


III. Display Resolution: 1080P


IV. Power Supply Unit Specification (Brand, Wattage, Ampage, Age). If possible, please provide a link to a website containing the power supply specifications: OCZ Modxtream Pro 700.


V. Case Specifications(N/A, Model, Length, Low Profile, Cooling, HTPC, Water, Silent): Corsair 400r


Purchase Details:

I. Budget? Please be sure to include currency (If not USD), retailer preferences & specify whether rebates are a viable option.

Will buy from Amazon or NewEgg.


II. Any particular preferences (Manufacturer[nV or AMD], Brand[XFX, Sapphire, EVGA, etc], Cooling Solutions)? AMD


III. Do you plan to have any Multi-GPU solutions such as Crossfire or SLI? No


IV. Have you previously looked at a product(s) which you feel would fit your needs? Have been reading up on the MSI R7850 2GD5/OC


V. What are your needs for this GPU? Which games(If any)do you intend to play? If you have this information at hand, what are the desired detail levels?

Very high settings.


VI. Do you plan on overclocking the card you intend to purchase? No

Additional information: Will only play strategy games genre.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[BoFox]

The 7850 that you've been reading up on does sound great for 1080p gaming.

If you want very high settings with all of the eye candy (high AA quality) in future games 1-2 years from now, better go for something like HD 7950 at least - if it's affordable.

 

[Nawlins]

Hi BoFox: I can afford the 7950 but is it a good buy? I've been reading this forum quite a lot and there's always someone saying that so and so CPU will bottleneck so and so GPU. I don't have the strongest CPU so would it make sense to pair it with a 7950?

 

[BoFox]

True, but you're not running multiple GPUs. The CPU isn't so bad, being a respectable quad-core, but for the more demanding games that come out within 1-2 years down the road, the GPU will be the primary limiting factor for these games. No matter how powerful the CPU is, a few games would probably run at only 20fps on a 7850 with HQ settings.

I just checked Newegg, and see that HD 7870 is $70 cheaper than HD 7950. That does seem like a better value than a card that still hovers at around $300.

But then again HD 7850 is another $50 cheaper than HD 7870....

It's a wash!!! You get what you pay for, pun intended..

$50 more for 7870 is probably worth it if you're spending that much on a card anyways.