7850 vs. other $200 priced video cards

[forcedentry20]

I keep running across all these different forums and am getting mixed signals from everyone about what is a good video card for the $200 price range. People keep saying "No, you're wrong. GTX660 is better. I'm right." I am not a huge computer buff and I am just recently starting to get into computer specifications/frame rates/clock speeds, etc. Without a biased opinion, what is the best bang for my buck.

Specs of the computer I am getting:
AMD FX-8350
Corsair vengeance 16 gb (2x8) 1600
Asus Sabertooth 990fx r2.0
SeaSonic 620w power supply
Cooler Master HAF 922 case

I plan on playing games like Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, possibly Call of Duty Black Ops 2 in the future, Team Fortress 2, Skyrim, etc. I am not planning on overclocking anything (being inexperienced, I am skeptical about messing with the hardware's factory settings).

So what is the verdict? 7850 2gb? GTX660? 7870? Be gentle. Like I said, I am just getting into the higher end of gaming (i've been playing on a damn Dell Dimension e521 for the past 10 years with only a memory upgrade and 512 gb video card (G100) both installed by me.).

Knowing what I have told you about the build of my computer and my purposes, please help me make this decision and give me some reasons why so I can figure this stuff out.

 

[dudewitbow]

if you can bump your budget a tad above the 7870, you can find 7870 LE's(nerfed 7950's) for ~240$. if not, any of the 3 should do fine on the games you listed.


for reference, the sapphire 7870 XT goes for 240$(225 with rebate) on tiger direct. Power color mysts go for 240

 

[forcedentry20]

Ah yes I forgot to add that little detail in. I am willing to go a little above or below the $200 line (20 or 30 over). Thank you for your responce, Dudewitbow! I will keep that into consideration. I would still love to hear other people's ideas and responses.

 

[stickmansam]

If you're willing to go a bit over, consider getting the 7870XT

The 7850 2GBcan be found for $170-180
The 660 is about $200
The 7870 is about $220
The 7870XT is about $235 (225 with rebate as mentioned above)

 

[forcedentry20]

Thank you for the information. It was very helpful. 🙂

 

[forcedentry20]

Best answer selected by forcedentry20.