Which video card for my system?

[chocobaR]

I find my GTX too warm, I'd like something cooler. Playing 1920x1200. Thanks.

 

[Sickamore]

whats your poison green or red.

 

[chocobaR]

whats your poison green or red.

Don't really care. I want a good priceerf ratio. Something that won't use 450W on idle and 650W on load Also one that runs cool. I hate gaming in 70s-80s. 6850?

 

[blastingcap]

Don't really care. I want a good priceerf ratio. Something that won't use 450W on idle and 650W on load Also one that runs cool. I hate gaming in 70s-80s. 6850?

I can't speak for anyone else, but my Sapphire 6850 w/ default clock/fan profile is ~38C idle, ~65C load with my case fans set on Low. (This is consistent with review sites like Hexus: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=27053&page=15)

Systemwide idle/load power draw is on par with HD5770 (same at idle, and 7 watts more at load).

I haven't seen card-only power draws for the Sapphire, but it is probably similar to the ASUS version, which has idle wattage of 15 watts and load wattage of 88 watts (average during 3DMark loops) and 104 watts (maximum during 3DMark loops). www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/Radeon_HD_6850_Direct_Cu/26.html

The card requires just one six-pin PCIe connector, which gives you an idea of how power-efficient it is.

With a mildly aggressive fan profile and at stock volts, it can hit 951/1236 core/memory speed which is ~22.7% overclock and produce zero errors in 90 minutes of OCCT.

Good luck with your decision, whatever you decide to get!

 

[mazeroth]

I'm also a GTX 260 owner and bought a new video card today from Newegg. I got the HIS 6850 for $169 with shipping after the 10% off code. It should be a nice upgrade at roughly 60-70% faster from the graphs I've seen.

 

[RussianSensation]

I'm also a GTX 260 owner and bought a new video card today from Newegg. I got the HIS 6850 for $169 with shipping after the 10% off code. It should be a nice upgrade at roughly 60-70% faster from the graphs I've seen.

Depends on the game. Still your estimates are way too high (it might happen in 1-2 games like Civilization 5). HD6850 is closer 40% faster than a GTX260 216 on average because it's also about 40% faster than an HD5770 (which is often even slower than the GTX260).

Personally, on the performance side, anything less than HD6870/GTX460 850mhz FTW is not worth upgrading to from a GTX260 imo.

 

[toyota]

I find my GTX too warm, I'd like something cooler. Playing 1920x1200. Thanks.

almost any card that is faster than a gtx260 is going to use about the same power resulting in the same amount of heat. even a stock gtx460 only uses about 15 watts less than a gtx260. also with your cpu at stock speeds, some games will see little to no improvement from a faster card than your gtx260.