What video card setup should i get?

[trainergames]

Ok I should be getting my income tax tomorrow,and i have been trying to decide on my video card upgrade to do,cause my current card is just not doing what i want,I would really like some suggestions on what to get,my budget is $600 MAX.

Here is my system:
CPU:AMD FX-8150 @3.6ghz
CPU COOLER:Cooler Master Hyper 212+
MOBO:ASUS ASUS Sabertooth 990FX
GPU:EVGA GeForce GTX 460 SE 1GB
RAM:2x4GB Crucial Ballistix DDR3 1600mhz
CASE:Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced
PSU:Cougar 1000w(4 12v rails @24A + 2 more 12v rails @ 28A)

My plans for this rig are,i want to be able to play any game(and any that come out this year)at max settings,and be able to record with fraps@ full screen and the game still be perfectly playable,other than that i plan on doing video editing,also learning programs like photoshop,3D modeling programs,i am also going to try and learn to code basicly anything i would need to learn to be able to make video games,cause that is what i want to do,i also want this pc to last as long as possible.

Also keep in mind these things when you suggest something,power usage,heat,price,performance,and what the rest of my system is,and anywaiting i might have to do to get the parts,and last i've used both amd,and nvidia card,and nither drivers bother me,so unless a driver is going to cause me not to be able to do what i want,don't factor it in.

Here are some i am currently looking at:

2x MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III PE/OC $299.99 each

MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III PE/OC Radeon HD 6950 2GB ...

2x MSI N560GTX-Ti 448 Twin Frozr III PE/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti $309.99 each

MSI N560GTX-Ti 448 Twin Frozr III PE/OC GeForce GT...

1x MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr III PE/OC GeForce GTX 570 $369.99 each

MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr III PE/OC GeForce GTX 570 (...

1x MSI R6970 Lightning Radeon HD 6970 2GB $389.99 each

MSI R6970 Lightning Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDD...

1x MSI N580GTX Twin Frozr II/OC $499.99

MSI N580GTX Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 580 (Ferm...

1x XFX’s Radeon HD 7970 Black Edition $599.99

XFX Black Edition FX-797A-TDBC Radeon HD 7970 3GB ...

i picked dual fan cooler gpu's cause i really don't like how hot stock GPU coolers get,and the cooler the whole system runs,the longer it will last.

I could do what some people have suggested,and wait for them to get more of the 7970's i want,or i could wait for the price of the 6000 series to drop,but i am ADHD and i am very impatient(i have trouble waiting the 3 days for newegg to deliver a part lol),so the money would end up burning a hole in my pocket lol,other than that i really don't know what to get, this is my first time buying a new video card with such a big budget.

I would like it if you could also please explain your decision.

Thank you guys so much for the help.

Also please feel free to suggest other cards if you don't like the ones i have listed.

 

[LagunaX]

7970 no question.
It might run hotter ona reference cooler but will definitely generate less heat inside of your case than 2 videocards.

 

[Jetster]

+ ^

 

[Darkleoco]

I would go with 2 Twin Frozr II 6950's since they deliver significantly more performance than a single 7970 and your case will be more than enough cooling wise. Also thats not even taking into account the overclockability of the 6950's in Crossfire.

Check my specs for some stock voltage overclocking btw

 

[trainergames]

I would go with 2 Twin Frozr II 6950's since they deliver significantly more performance than a single 7970 and your case will be more than enough cooling wise. Also thats not even taking into account the overclockability of the 6950's in Crossfire.

Check my specs for some stock voltage overclocking btw

So i should go with the Twin Frozr II instead of the III?if so why cause it's only $20 extra per card,and from what i have read the III has dual bios,so if i want to i could unlock it to a 6970.

 

[TheLaughingMan]

So i should go with the Twin Frozr II instead of the III?if so why cause it's only $20 extra per card,and from what i have read the III has dual bios,so if i want to i could unlock it to a 6970.

That is what we call a typo. Get the Twin Frozr III is what he meant.

 

[Darkleoco]

So i should go with the Twin Frozr II instead of the III?if so why cause it's only $20 extra per card,and from what i have read the III has dual bios,so if i want to i could unlock it to a 6970.

Sorry XD didnt see that you had the III listed their, Twin Frozr II/III either way its amazing performance especially with overclocking considered though to be honest I think my performance is phenomenal even without the shaders being unlocked on my cards.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

Isn't two 6950= 6990? With OC'ing, since you brought it up, a 7970 can beat a 6990, thus it can beat two 6950.

 

[Darkleoco]

Isn't two 6950= 6990? With OC'ing, since you brought it up, a 7970 can beat a 6990, thus it can beat two 6950.

The performance may be similar but once overclocking is taken into account with the 6950's they blow the 6990 away and depending on the level of overclocking would likely still pull ahead of a single 7970.

Just a little reference for what I am saying courtesy of a W1zz:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970/13.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/Radeon_HD_6950_CrossFire/8.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/Radeon_HD_6990/11.html

 

[micropage7]

if the difference under 10% i always assume they are the same coz in real condition you cant see the difference

 

[joeyck]

Why not just get a single 7950 / 7970 and not have to hassle with CF / SLI? I would take a 7950 over a 7970 and OC the brains out of it and poof enjoy your ~430$ 7970

GG...

BUT WAIT!

You can OC a 7970 as well...

well then idk what to tell you? lol

*cough* 7950 save money and still rape *cough*

 

[Darkleoco]

Why not just get a single 7950 / 7970 and not have to hassle with CF / SLI? I would take a 7950 over a 7970 and OC the brains out of it and poof enjoy your ~430$ 7970

GG...

BUT WAIT!

You can OC a 7970 as well...

well then idk what to tell you? lol

*cough* 7950 save money and still rape *cough*

CF/SLI are not even able to be considered a hassle at this stage unless you are using an older series with poor scaling.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

I don't know. $600 for two 6950's with no future upgrade available. I mean don't get me wrong, my 5870 crossfireX set-up is very simular to the 6950 crossfireX set up(maybe half a step behind performance wise). But $600 for a maxed out set-up compared to $600 for a upgradable set-up with the same or very close performance? I'd probably go with the 7970 myself.

 

[joeyck]

Honestly scaling aside, I ran a 460 in SLI (and yea where talking bout what 3 generations ago?) (this was a while ago as well) I had minor BC2 stutter, like a decent 90FPS maxxed to like 20 FPS at massive explosions (you would know how it looked like if u just sat a bunch of C4 some where and exploded it )

Just always kicked it with a single card :S

and yea what barbaric said... once u get 6950's ur pretty much done... what tri-fire? go for it lol
I still think 79XX series is going to dominate in games that need a lot of VRAM (bf3? )

dont get me wrong if the price is right, I would snag up a 6950, and upgrade when I need to. same with the 7950... but now the cards are looking yummy! so id say 7950 with OC... or if ur a bigger budget kinda person a 7970...

 

[trainergames]

Honestly scaling aside, I ran a 460 in SLI (and yea where talking bout what 3 generations ago?) (this was a while ago as well) I had minor BC2 stutter, like a decent 90FPS maxxed to like 20 FPS at massive explosions (you would know how it looked like if u just sat a bunch of C4 some where and exploded it )

Just always kicked it with a single card :S

and yea what barbaric said... once u get 6950's ur pretty much done... what tri-fire? go for it lol
I still think 79XX series is going to dominate in games that need a lot of VRAM (bf3? )

dont get me wrong if the price is right, I would snag up a 6950, and upgrade when I need to. same with the 7950... but now the cards are looking yummy! so id say 7950 with OC... or if ur a bigger budget kinda person a 7970...

the problem i see with the 7000 series is right now most have referance coolers,and those get to hot for my taste(and even worse so if you OC it),and the only one with a custom cooler on it,has been sold out since the day the cards came out,plus the waiting for it to come back on sale would drive me crazy,and what if i am @ work when it comes back on sale,and they sell out agian before i get off lol?

Also i am upgrading from a GTX 460 lol....well a EVGA GTX 460 SE 1GB,and it's an OK card,but one i want to be able to play all my games on MAX,plus @ stock clocks(and the fan on max)i every so often see small artifacts,and the card is not overheating cause under gaming load,with the fan on max it gets up to a max of 49c, and i am only running the fan on max to prolong the life of the card so it will last till i get my new video card setup.

 

[Outback Bronze]

7970/7950 no questions asked.

 

[trainergames]

7970/7950 no questions asked.

Well a problem i just found out about getting those is the fact that my current video card is going out,and i don't know if it will last long enough to wait...

 

[xBruce88x]

lets not forget he's wanting to record with fraps so a hard drive upgrade may be needed as well. FRAPS uses A LOT of hard drive space with the raw .avi files. A LOT! and that means a lot of read/write going on too.

@OP: I'd probably get a secondary drive for FRAPS alone if you plan to do a lot of recording. set the record path in fraps to the new drive of course (I don't know what your current HDD setup is, or SSD?)

edit: also @OP. Try underclocking a tad and forcing fan to max... might help keep the card working until the new one comes in

 

[HammerON]

What is the resolution of your monitor that you will be gaming on (1920x1080, 2560x1600, etc...)?

 

[trainergames]

lets not forget he's wanting to record with fraps so a hard drive upgrade may be needed as well. FRAPS uses A LOT of hard drive space with the raw .avi files. A LOT! and that means a lot of read/write going on too.

@OP: I'd probably get a secondary drive for FRAPS alone if you plan to do a lot of recording. set the record path in fraps to the new drive of course (I don't know what your current HDD setup is, or SSD?)

edit: also @OP. Try underclocking a tad and forcing fan to max... might help keep the card working until the new one comes in

Well my current HDD setup is a single SATA II 1.5TB 7200rpm seagate drive,but my sister owes me some money and said that when he income tax comes in she will buy me a 60GB SATA III SSD(she owes me $100),but i will say this,i did a test,to see how much fps i would lose from running,so i ran the dirt 3 benchmark on MAX with and without fraps, without i got avg of 34.59fps,min28.88,with fraps i got an avg of 30.79fps,and a min of 27.57fps,AND that was with fraps set to record 30fps @ full screen,so i don't lose much fps lol
Also i already have the fan on max,how much should i underclock it to?

What is the resolution of your monitor that you will be gaming on (1920x1080, 2560x1600, etc...)?

Right now i have a 1920x 1080p screen,but i remember hearing somewhere that Quad HD screens will be coming out this year(i may be wrong)but if they do come out,the prices of other screens will go down,then mabye if i can find one for a good price i will pick up a 2560x1600 120hz,but only if i can find one cheap enough lol.

 

[xBruce88x]

depends on how bad the card is acting up... but then again a voltage bump would probably have the same effect... dunno i don't have experience with that particular card. if i was gonna underclock i'd probably go by 50-75mhz. has it been artifacting?

that 1.5tb should be plenty then lol. yea i noticed that even with my HD3000 IGP i was able to record half life 2 with very little impact in FPS (considering).

 

[AsRock]

The performance may be similar but once overclocking is taken into account with the 6950's they blow the 6990 away and depending on the level of overclocking would likely still pull ahead of a single 7970.

Just a little reference for what I am saying courtesy of a W1zz:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970/13.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/Radeon_HD_6950_CrossFire/8.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/Radeon_HD_6990/11.html

Never mind not having to deal with Crossfire.

 

[trainergames]

depends on how bad the card is acting up... but then again a voltage bump would probably have the same effect... dunno i don't have experience with that particular card. if i was gonna underclock i'd probably go by 50-75mhz. has it been artifacting?

that 1.5tb should be plenty then lol. yea i noticed that even with my HD3000 IGP i was able to record half life 2 with very little impact in FPS (considering).

Well most i will see a few small artifacts,but they are barly noticable,but recently i was playing Mafia 2 and twice withen the same 12 hour period i had this happen to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7PFu1ts0go

I normally happens after an hour or 2, i have only seen it in one other game and that is shift 2,but these are the only games i have played for more than an hour at a time recently.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

Wait a sec, your current card is a EVGA card right? Doesn't EVGA have lifetime warranty for thier video cards? Granted, they aren't going to give you a card with the performance of the cards we're suggesting in this thread, but you'd probably get a GTX560 to replace the GTX460. Then you can sell the new card from warranty to help with the cost of the TWO 7970 cards you really should get.

 

[trainergames]

Wait a sec, your current card is a EVGA card right? Doesn't EVGA have lifetime warranty for thier video cards? Granted, they aren't going to give you a card with the performance of the cards we're suggesting in this thread, but you'd probably get a GTX560 to replace the GTX460. Then you can sell the new card from warranty to help with the cost of the TWO 7970 cards you really should get.

If only i could do that but i already checked that,i have a recertified card,and they only do a 90 day warranty on those,and i bought the card 6 months ago.....,and what's sad is this is my third evga card to go out,the first was an 8400GS the fan died on it and that fried it,the second is a 9600gt(which i still have)that is artifacting even at bios lol,and it does have to serial code for the lifetime warranty but....it came in a system i bought used on craigslist, so if it is registered it's not registered to me...