Radeon 6870s - some better than others?

grey_areagrey_area Switzerland Member
edited March 2012 in Hardware
Hi all,

I've been pointed in this direction by an acquaintance as a place of like minded people into computers and gaming, and who are hopefully willing to help our a newcomer!

My computer currently has an EVGA GTX 460 SC graphics card which is constantly running hot, generally in the 95-99 degree range. I'm currently playing DNF, the latest Alice, Serious Sam 3, Fallout NV, amongst others, all running at 1080p.

I've gotten sick of reseating the HSF, and am looking for something new-er. I can't afford the latest and greatest, and my options have been whittled down to either an nVidia 560 or a Radeon 6870.

I've more or less decided it is time for a complete change, so instead of getting another nVidia card I think I'll go for the 6870 (or should I go for a 6950?).

Questions on this one are - how do the various manufacturer's models stack up - especially $-wise.
And, anybody here familiar with Club-3D cards? I'm in Switzerland and these seem big over here.

Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Comments

  • @grey_area - Nice meeting ya, welcome to Icrontic.

    Let me start off my saying you are playing some fairly advanced 3D games, so my advice to you would be to consider buying as much card as you think you can reasonably afford. The Radeon 6870 is a nice mid range card, I have a pair similar to this running in crossfire - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121418&Tpk=6870 asus

    So we can offer better advice, what can you tell us about your system? What board are you running (I'm wondering if crossfire or SLI are possible future options) - What is your make and model of power supply as well?
  • fatcatfatcat Mizzou Icrontian
    wait for 7850/7870 on the 19th
  • grey_areagrey_area Switzerland Member
    Thanks for the welcome!

    My system is:
    i7-930 running stock
    4GB Kingston HyperX RAM
    Gigabyte X58A UD3R-rev 2 mobo
    The aforementioned 1GB GTX 460
    Creative x-Fi Xtreme Gamer audio
    Antec HGC 750W PSU

    Some of the history on this card, I bought one from NewEgg, and had to RMA it because it ran hot out of the box (running standard windows 7 screen savers). Got the new one, and found it was ok. Still warmer than I saw other people managed to keep theirs, but 75-80 was ok for me, as long as the fan didn't get too noisy. Then I moved overseas, from New Zealand to Switzerland, and shipped the card. Soon as I got it out and rebuilt my PC the card ran hot - 85 minimum, more like the 95-99 that I mentioned in my first post. I'm just not happy with that temperature.

    I tend to buy mid range cards, and I don't have to have everything turned on, but right now I'm seeing stuttering at native res, and can't turn on any AA / AI. I only want to push it to x4! I'll have a look and see if the Asus you pointed out is available in Switzerland - can't buy from NewEgg and ship here. I have a contact in the States who I can sometimes do that with, but it can be more trouble that it is worth. If I go Crossfire then I will lose my sound card, but I'm told windows 7 does a decent job of virtual surround sound with on board audio now, so maybe that won't be a problem.

    My budget is going to be about $200USD, when I get around to it, but it might be a month or two down the track. I'm trying to find out ahead of time and have an idea of what I want to get, and then hopefully find a good sale!

    Cheers for the help!
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    I work for AMD in the GPU business. If you can scrounge up an extra 50 bucks, the Radeon HD 7850 is available on March 19th and blows your other two choices away in temperature, efficiency and performance. Otherwise the 6950 1GB is better than the 6870, but both are good choices.
  • grey_areagrey_area Switzerland Member
    Ooooh. Will have to look into that then. Nothing urgent, so there is time to set the money aside. And then convince my wife that it is going to be well spent...

    That last is the hardest bit! :-D
Sign In or Register to comment.