Replacing GTX260 Core 216....with?

T

TheRapture

Supreme [H]ardness
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I want a faster video card...but I need it to work in my current power supply scheme, which is a 550w Thermaltake, using two 6 pin PCI power connectors....

I play at 1920x1080 on a 37" display, I do not want dual vid cards nor a $500 single card, my budget is ~250 bucks....is there ANYTHING out there that meets these needs? I am so far out of touch with vid cards these days...looking at GTX560 Ti or AMD equivalent perhaps, such as http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125363 and looking at this it seems I might be on the right track... http://www.hwcompare.com/8923/geforce-gtx-260-core-216-vs-geforce-gtx-560-ti/

I recently got a "new to me" cpu, Phenom 965 x4 running it at 3900mhz...replaced an old C2D @3.2ghz....it's no I7 but certainly faster than what I had and since I play at high rez the vid card is more important anyways. I don't care about AA, at 1080p all I care about is having enough speed to play smooth, anything over that I could care less and I don't "ego benchmark".

-edit: I also like that the GTX560 Ti uses less power than my current GTX260....
 
I use two PNY 560 Ti's in SLI, and about a week before I paired them, I was running with just one, on a 27.5" monitor at 1920x1200. I play games like Bad Company 2, Crysis 2, and Starcraft 2, and the performance is phenomenal for the price, I believe I paid roughly 240 or something along those lines, and it is the best bang for your buck by far.

Also, with that CPU, and the 560 Ti, it should be a pretty good match in terms of performance from both.
 
I think for 250 the standard answer is either an HD 6950 or a GeForce 560 Ti.
 
You will be happy with either the 560 or the 6950. Just find the best one that suits your cooling needs and/or warranty needs.
 
Looks like the 6950 is quite a bit longer than the 560....


Thanks for the replies fellas...looks like I will probably pull the trigger on the 560 Ti since it uses less power and appears to be relatively equal in speed to the 6950.
 
TheRapture said:
Looks like the 6950 is quite a bit longer than the 560....


Thanks for the replies fellas...looks like I will probably pull the trigger on the 560 Ti since it uses less power and appears to be relatively equal in speed to the 6950.
Click to expand...
the 560 Ti does not use less power from reviews I have seen. its close but the 560 Ti uses a little more power.
 
The GTX 560 is certainly not a bad choice. Personally, I'd go with Asus or Evga in that case.

However, At $250 or close to it you can probably find (definitely, if you're willing to buy used. Try here on the forums!), an AMD 6950 2gb - very important that it is the 2gb edition - that can be unlocked to a full on 6970! The vast majority of the time, this works, and since the fab process didn't actually burn out the additional components, with a relatively simple firmware/software hack you'll enable the full compliment! Talk to those on the GFX forums - there are many that have done so. Note, that the 1 GB edition cannot be unlocked in this manner. Asus makes a great card, including one with an enhanced cooling setup, DirectCU II, if you can spare 3 slots and find it in your price (the enhanced coolers tend to run closer to $280 new, but if you put out a buy request on the Buy/Sell section of the forum...). XFX has a great warranty, Gigabyte makes a decent variant as well, and apparently MSI's TwinFrozr is worthwhile as well.

According to their specs, both the GTX 560 Ti and 6950 require 500+w supplies, so that's about as high as you'll be able to go I think. If your power supply provides good, consistent power you'll have no problem with either card, and probably be able to power the "unlocked" 6970 mode without issue. A "native" 6970 asks for 550w to be safe, and requires an 8pin so even buying one of those used is not a good idea if you want to keep your current power supply.

Performance between the two, at stock clocks the game goes to the 6950 by about 10% or so, in most of the benches I see. OC the 560Ti, and you close the gap pretty close. Overclock the 6950 and you pull ahead of the OCed 560Ti (though, you don't make as large proportional gain in raw percentage-from-stock), and unlocked to a 6970 you pull ahead by a more significant margin.

Neither are bad choices. Personally I'd go with the chance of being able to unlock it and he additional power it will bring, but even a standard 6950 2gb is a great card. I've also grown to prefer AMD cards for Linux use and drivers... which shows how well AMD has shaped up ATI's mess!
 
cannondale06 said:
the 560 Ti does not use less power from reviews I have seen. its close but the 560 Ti uses a little more power.
Click to expand...


I have been looking a bit, my initial thoughts on power came from here http://www.hwcompare.com/8889/geforce-gtx-560-ti-vs-radeon-hd-6950/ which shows a stock 560 Ti at 170w versus 200w for the HD6950...

In fact, it even shows that my current GTX 260 216 takes more power than the 560 Ti, and I run my card overclocked a fair amount so.... http://www.hwcompare.com/8923/geforce-gtx-260-core-216-vs-geforce-gtx-560-ti/
 
TheRapture said:
I have been looking a bit, my initial thoughts on power came from here http://www.hwcompare.com/8889/geforce-gtx-560-ti-vs-radeon-hd-6950/ which shows a stock 560 Ti at 170w versus 200w for the HD6950...

In fact, it even shows that my current GTX 260 216 takes more power than the 560 Ti, and I run my card overclocked a fair amount so.... http://www.hwcompare.com/8923/geforce-gtx-260-core-216-vs-geforce-gtx-560-ti/
Click to expand...
that's not power usage. that is the cards max TDP rating. with Fermi, Nvidia pretty much exceeds that rating while AMD is usually way below their TDP rating in actual power usage. look at reviews from all the major sites since they compare actual usage.
 
cannondale06 said:
that's not power usage. that is the cards max TDP rating. with Fermi, Nvidia pretty much exceeds that rating while AMD is usually way below their TDP rating in actual power usage. look at reviews that compare actual usage.
Click to expand...

Doh. LoL....told you guys I am out of touch with vid hardware! :eek::D


edit: looks like my GTX260 pulls about 265w under load.....time to go look at the [H] reviews of the 6950....
 
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