confused about video cards

[Pabz0r545]

I need help choosing a new video card. When I built my rig I made the mistake of cheaping out on the video card. I went with a single 6870 and found it to be not enough, so bought a second at which point I was still not completely satisfied. Now I recently switched cases and motherboards and despite my cards being 2 slot cards, they need 3 slots to be ran together. :( I thought they would work together on the Gene-Z board but they don't.

I would like to get 1 nice card that I could play BF3 on high settings. I game single monitor at 1920x1200.
Since kepler is around-the-corner-ish I decided to keep it simple with 1 card, instead of 2, so I can easily sell it when the new generation comes out. I am also thinking 6990 and 590 will be a bad idea for price/performance as well as re sell.

I looked into gtx 580 and 6950, 6970 but I am unsure as they are completely different in price, despite being the 2nd top model each. There are also different amounts of Ram which I am unsure which will be best for my setup.

Can anyone help me figure out which best suits my needs price/performance wise, and maybe even teach me a lil what I am looking for in a video card so I know the next time around. :)

[Soultribunal]

What about one of those new EVGA cards? The 560TI 2Win ones. THey use dual 560 TI's on a single card.
Gives about 10-30% more preformance than a 580 for around the same cost.

-ST

[Apathetik]

In BF3, textures are streamed in as required, but your Texture Quality setting determines the texture pool size, which is the amount of VRAM allocated to storing textures at any one time. At the Low setting, 150MB is allocated to the texture pool; Medium = 200MB; High = 300MB; and Ultra = 500MB. Keep in mind however that your VRAM also stores a range of other game information, and that an average multiplayer level in BF3 can have 1.5GB or more of textures, so it can't all be stored on your GPU at once. Thus setting this option too high may result in stuttering or visible texture streaming. The Ultra Texture Quality setting for example is designed specifically for GPUs with 1.5GB or more of VRAM.

So if you wanna go "High" settings, a 1GB version of the 6950 would be good. If you wanna try and run ultra though, I would recommend a 2GB version, 6970 2GB or GTX 580.

[Pabz0r545]

Thanks for the input so far. It appears the 580 comes in 1.5gb and 3gb models, with a 100 dollar price difference. It also appears the 6970 is almost as good as a 580 with quite the price difference according to anandtech bench's, but I am not sure whcih models they are using in those benchmarks comparisons.

I think I'm going to look at everyones BF3 FPS in the dedicated thread to gain some more insight. I hear everyone loves Nvidia, but I have always had radeon and never had a problem with it. I don't mind switching over to nvidia but my heart is kinda with radeon.

[rjbarker]

You gotta go where your heart is ;).........for me its always been nv,,,,,,!! For that Res and your single monitor ....its beggin for a GTX 580 ;) ....dont forget to OC it!!!

[Pabz0r545]

What are some thoughts on this card?

XFX Radeon HD 6970 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, Dual DisplayPort at Memory Express Computers

I really like the price compared to a 580. It seems to be right on par with a 570. I feel if I went with a 580 I would want to get the 3gb model and I feel that $600 is a bit much to be spending on a temporary card.

I also really like the dual 560ti suggestion. I like that it is in a single card which means easier cable management. :) But where can I even buy one of these?

Man so many choices for a n00b. :\

[Soultribunal]

Originally Posted by Pabz0r545

What are some thoughts on this card?

XFX Radeon HD 6970 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, Dual DisplayPort at Memory Express Computers

I really like the price compared to a 580. It seems to be right on par with a 570. I feel if I went with a 580 I would want to get the 3gb model and I feel that $600 is a bit much to be spending on a temporary card.

I also really like the dual 560ti suggestion. I like that it is in a single card which means easier cable management. :) But where can I even buy one of these?

Man so many choices for a n00b. :\

You can get them soon at NCIX,

NCIX.com - Buy EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2WIN 768MHZ Dual GPU 2048MB 4.0GHZ GDDR5 PCI-E 2XDVI-I Mini-HDMI Video Card - eVGA - 02G-P3-1569-KR - in Canada

Comes in just a little more than a 580. But with 30% on performance side its a good price to pay.
I wouldn't waste my time with the 3GB model 580. No real net gains unless you are at insanely high resolutions.

-ST

[Borg]

This link has a comparison of cards for BF3:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/evga-g...2win-review/17

[keto]

If you can find that dual 560 (NCIX shows not available in the above link), that's probably the way to go. If not, a 580 is the most powerful single gpu solution - according to the charts linked directly above me, about 30-35% more fps than a 6970. Just depends what you want to spend, but for single 1080/1200 monitor, a 1.5G 580 is the way to go....I voted with my dollars (see sig).

I bought mine thinking I might SLI it when the next gen comes around and prices drop, though there will be others thinking the same and there should be a pretty reasonable market for resale of a 580 if you want to move up to next gen.

[Pabz0r545]

Thanks for all of the links and suggestions guys!

Ok I am really starting to lean towards the 560ti 2win or the 580 1.5gb.

Anyone ever had any of the 2win models in the past?

Since it is a dual gpu does that mean I can have the potential issues with crossfire/sli?