A good graphics card under $200? (crossfire capable)

[Gabr14l]

Greetings, I am a new user on this site and I need a little help. (Also english is not my native language so I excuse myself on advance for any grammatical error). 😛

So I got myself new computer parts, including a Asus GT610 2gb, which was a bad choice even though I got some perfomance out of it. Currently I have built a Asus M5A97 with the Amd FX-4130 and 4gb of ram (PSU of 750W), and since the motherboard is crossfire capable (not SLI though, a bit of a dissapointment there), I'm looking to get a good graphics card at a good price (on amazon preferably) that gives me already a good perfomance (smooth fps and high quality on a 1440x900 screen) for games like far cry 3, bf3 or the newer call of duty games, and many others; and then when I need it, to get a similar one to run it on crossfire to be able to get more perfomance through the years. So which one do you recomend?

By the way, I tend to use double screens (both at 1440x900, 16:10 FTW) when working and stuff, so I need that option too, although I know that it doesn't take that much to run dual screens, but I do want to use them at the same time while gaming to check facebook or browse while at it.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[fudoka711]

Well, if you're only playing on a 1440x900 screen (playing on one, browsing on the other), then you don't need a super powerful graphics card. The best card I can recommend under $200 would be the AMD Radeon HD 7870 on sale. And it can be crossfired later.

This is a good one from Sapphire: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202025 that's also on sale.

I honestly don't think you'll need more than 1 card if you're going to play at that resolution. Only when you decide to upgrade to 1080p or higher should you consider getting a second card.

If you don't end up getting a new monitor for a few years, it would be best to actually upgrade your card to the then-current generation of graphics card. A single more powerful card is usually recommended over two not-as-powerful cards. Basically, but the single best card you can right now. Just a word of caution though. I think that your cpu will bottleneck a higher powered card than the 7870, so that's something you should consider in a few years if/when you decide to buy a new/2nd card and/or a new monitor.

 

[ingtar33]

an hd7870, sometimes you can find the hd7950 under 200 too... both would be good options.

 

[Gabr14l]

Well, if you're only playing on a 1440x900 screen (playing on one, browsing on the other), then you don't need a super powerful graphics card. The best card I can recommend under $200 would be the AMD Radeon HD 7870 on sale. And it can be crossfired later.

This is a good one from Sapphire: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202025 that's also on sale.

I honestly don't think you'll need more than 1 card if you're going to play at that resolution. Only when you decide to upgrade to 1080p or higher should you consider getting a second card.

If you don't end up getting a new monitor for a few years, it would be best to actually upgrade your card to the then-current generation of graphics card. A single more powerful card is usually recommended over two not-as-powerful cards. Basically, but the single best card you can right now. Just a word of caution though. I think that your cpu will bottleneck a higher powered card than the 7870, so that's something you should consider in a few years if/when you decide to buy a new/2nd card and/or a new monitor.

I do have a full HD 40' Tv in which I would use from time to time, but mostly when I'm with friends or some situation like that, so not a concern for now. If it were the case, I would just lower the quality and it's done. So far though the cpu is being more powerful than I even imagined (compared to my old pentium dual core), and with the am3 socket it is not that hard to replace it to a better cpu (up to a 8 cores processor), so bottleneck when I get a second card (which probably is going to be unlikely though, I just want to keep it as a viable option when needed) is hardly a concern. I do appreciate your help, I'm interested on that 7870 which fits nicely on my budget. Thanks!