the umpteenth which one thread

[SuicidaL]

evenin you 'orrible lot


as you may have guessed by the thread title.................i'm on the trail for a new card. my 4870 with the a/c twin pro has gradually been getting warmer over the last 6 months - when at the moment it's sitting at 52°c idle and i haven't even gamed tonight . have been trying to size up what to do/get. but still have gotten nowhere really - and the more i look and think the more my head aches .

so budget is probably max of £250 but ideally less, or if needs be a bit more. nearly always had ati/amd cards from the abit 96/98 xt's to now, only time green was keen was when the 8800's came out and there wasn't much else. so no real preference or loyalty at this point in time. FYI i try to game at the highest res i can without bringing it down, monitor is 22" iiyama 2209HDS 1920x1080.

would like it to be fairly quiet - and yes sound is subjective but still quieter the better. also would like it to run as cool as so the fans can be turned down a bit if feasible, and to take into account that it will eventually go under water so as near to a ref card so not to find that a full cover won't fit a non ref card.

have been looking at 460/6950/560 as they seem to cover most of the ground.

460 - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-e...0mhz-336-cores

6950 - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-m...-dvi-mhdmi-mdp, unlockable to 6970 specs for a cheap bump per sae.

560 - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-e...vi-i-mini-hdmi

would like it to last at least 12 months (and not as in break after that ) as would like to change the rest of the rig before doing the gfx again - so which will have the longer legs of longevity?

another bright idea is that would it make all that much difference to go the whole hog and go the 570 route? prices seemed to have come down a tad recently - although they have gone up again, one of the msi's was about £250 on the nose a week or so ago but now is back up to £263. is there that much of a performance gain to consider over say a bumped 6950?


got a couple of weeks to sort this, got my clans lan party end of the month so would like to get it done by then.



cheers

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would get the HD6950 2GB. Even though 2GB of RAM is not going to be needed by many games nowadays at 1920X1080 if you do intend to keep your card as long possible it might be useful in the future.

If you do manage to unlock the card to the same number of shaders as an HD6970 2GB it will be quite close to a GTX570 in performance.

For example the PowerColor Radeon HD 6950 2GB PCS++ has a second profile which unlocks the extra shaders and this configuration is quite close to a GTX570:

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=28893&page=3

[Domestic_Ginger]

130 should be where the 6850/460 start.
150 is too much for a 460 imo.
160 is where the 6870 starts.
200 the unlockable 6950 is the winner as CtV says.

Not sure on stock ATI cooler on the 6950 tbh but you're stuck with it unless you get the PCS++ version and want to unlock.

[Cleeecooo]

130 should be where the 6850/460 start.
150 is too much for a 460 imo.
160 is where the 6870 starts.
200 the unlockable 6950 is the winner as CtV says.

Not sure on stock ATI cooler on the 6950 tbh but you're stuck with it unless you get the PCS++ version and want to unlock.

The powercolour RMA is terrible do I would stay away from that. I would rather get the GTX 480 SE as it has an amazing cooler and is excellent value for money. Out of your list, the 6950 is certainly the best because of 2GB VRAM and unlockability