Efficient single aux power cable card?

[Antagram]

I've been meaning to replace a 4870 512MB that I got to play Arma. And this time around I'd like to go for efficiency while still gaining performance increase over the 4870.

I was considering the 5770, but if AMD are going to bring a 6 series replacement out soon then I'll wait and see. Also the 5770 cards still seem overly priced for their age and impending replacement by 6 series.

As I'm after a maximum of a single aux power connection I've ruled out the 460GTX.

[scaryjim]

The replacement for the 5770 will be... the 5770 AFAIK they're going to do a direct rebrand of the 57x0 to 67x0.

The 6850 only has a single power connector and is somewhat more powerful than the 5770.

[Antagram]

You got my hopes up mentioning the 6850, but looking at power consumption graphs at TechPowerUP it's close to a GTX460.

Any indication when the 6770 is due?

[scaryjim]

According to the rumours I've picked up the 6770 is going to be a rebadge of the 5770, so you might as well just get a 5770 at that point, frankly...

But you might want to look round a few more reviews than just one for your power draw figures: e.g. according to the Hexus review a 6850 has a whole system draw 33W less than a GTX460 768MB during gameplay, but performs significantly better. If the Techpowerup review is right (i.e. that the actual cards have almost identical power draw) it suggests that a GTX460 puts more strain on the rest of the system causing the peripheral components to draw more power.

[bearbear]

Personally I'd say for a single power connector card, the 6850 is your best bet, I doubt the rebadged 5770 will be any better in terms of performance.

[Antagram]

With all the stick nVida got relabeling their 8800 line for a few generations, I thought ATI would of taken note and provide some value added features to the 6770. Suppose we will only know when it's released.

I'll have a browse of 6850 models in the meantime, to see which is the quietest.