So I have narrowed my choice of cards down to these...

[Zeven]

the 7970 beat anything out there even up to the nvidia 590 dual core ..
but wait ..get a 7950 overclock it and it still gets up to 570/590 speeds ..

The HD 7950 is still way past my maximum price point. Also, it looks like the HD 7770 will launch before the HD 7870 in about five days while the latter won't be out till March. Here's the source for that. This does not make me happy, unless the HD 7770 beats the GTX 570 and the HD 6970 which I doubt.

[flearider]

The HD 7950 is still way past my maximum price point. Also, it looks like the HD 7770 will launch before the HD 7870 in about five days while the latter won't be out till March. Here's the source for that. This does not make me happy, unless the HD 7770 beats the GTX 570 and the HD 6970 which I doubt.

to be honest i have a 5870 which does everything i need bf3 max,and any other game i play .. the wife has a 6870 again impressed with what it can do ..so if ya can a 6970 would be a good card still keeping up with a 570 with less power draw

[Zeven]

If you can tolerate the HD3000 graphics, that would probably be a good option!

I won't be doing much gaming on it, yea, but I at least want to get SOMETHING done. Will there be an HDMI port so I can connect my desktop to my monitor or how do I go about doing that without a GPU?

to be honest i have a 5870 which does everything i need bf3 max,and any other game i play .. the wife has a 6870 again impressed with what it can do ..so if ya can a 6970 would be a good card still keeping up with a 570 with less power draw

A HD 5870 can max out Battlefield 3? No way. I've read how demanding that game is. Can't be!

[shaithis]

I've had people telling me they are playing bf3 on a 4850 on full settings and it's perfect.......

Get them to run render.drawFPS 1 and it's running 10-30 fps.

Some people cannot notice framerate drops......somehow......and others will run at silly resolutions like 640x480......so you really cannot read much into such statements.

[Phage]

I have CF 5870s and can confim that they can almost max it out. A single card ? No.
If he's referring to BF:BC2, then possibly.

[flearider]

I have CF 5870s and can confim that they can almost max it out. A single card ? No.
If he's referring to BF:BC2, then possibly.

dude it can .. ek water block and a little more voltage go's a long way ..

[p5-]

I won't be doing much gaming on it, yea, but I at least want to get SOMETHING done. Will there be an HDMI port so I can connect my desktop to my monitor or how do I go about doing that without a GPU?

Most, if not all motherboards will have at least a DVI or HDMI port for use with the onchip HD3000 graphics. Best to check when you buy though obviously.

[dfour]

I have CF 5870s and can confim that they can almost max it out. A single card ? No.
If he's referring to BF:BC2, then possibly.

I use a pair of 6950 2 gb at 1080p and they can run BF3 at ultra with 4*aa at over 60 fps but have to turn it down to high with 2*aa to run eyefinity at any decent speed.

[Zeven]

Most, if not all motherboards will have at least a DVI or HDMI port for use with the onchip HD3000 graphics. Best to check when you buy though obviously.

This one does! Sweet. Fine, I've been persuaded to wait as I can still connect the desktop to my monitor via an HDMI port without a GPU. Now I'll just create a thread in the Review My Build section and then I am off to order once everything has been signed, stamped, and approved. Thanks again, guys.