GeForce vs. Radeon

[Tarupron]

I know this topic has been beaten to death but I am of course not looking to start any kind of war as to which is truly the better card. In this particular instance I'm looking for something that is the best for my price range.

My motherboard is a GIGABYTE GA-Z77-DS3H and my budget is less than $200. I was looking at the EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti but I didn't want to hop into a purchase without knowing whether or not there were better cards out there for a better price.

 

[17seconds]

The GTX 550 Ti is not recommended. You can easily bump up to a GTX 560 Ti in that price range (maybe after rebate).

 

[Pinhedd]

AMD owns the entry markets.

The 7850 can be had for around ~229. I know that this is outside of your budget a bit but the next step down would be the 7770 at around $150. The 7850 will woop the 7770, 550Ti, 560Ti, and 6970 all at once. It really is an amazing value card

Here's a bit of a roundup

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7850_HD_7870/13.html

 

[17seconds]

AMD owns the entry markets.

The 7850 can be had for around ~229. I know that this is outside of your budget a bit but the next step down would be the 7770 at around $150. The 7850 will woop the 7770, 550Ti, 560Ti, and 6970 all at once. It really is an amazing value card

Here's a bit of a roundup

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7850_HD_7870/13.html

That's pretty cool. How'd you manage to find a chart that shows the 7850 beating a 7950?

Within the price range, the Zotac GTX 560 Ti AMP! comes factory overclocked at 950 mhz and is $180:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500196

If you want to compare to the 7850, just look at performance relative to the 6970:

GTX 560 Ti AMP!
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GTX_560_Ti_Amp_Edition/23.html

The 7850 review linked above.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7850_HD_7870/26.html

 

[Tarupron]

I'm not looking for anything overly powerful, this is an upgrade to a..prepare to laugh. GT 520. My only concern is my motherboard, I see that it supports Crossfire X which, if I am not mistaken is AMD. It says nothing about nVidia but obviously the graphics card currently works within my computer. Should I go with Radeon with that being said?

Also, I've never particularly cared about having graphics on high or anything, I just want to be able to play games without the horrendous lag that I get now.

Thanks to the both of you, the help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Pinhedd]

That's pretty cool. How'd you manage to find a chart that shows the 7850 beating a 7950?

Within the price range, the Zotac GTX 560 Ti AMP! comes factory overclocked at 950 mhz and is $180:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500196

If you want to compare to the 7850, just look at performance relative to the 6970:

GTX 560 Ti AMP!
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GTX_560_Ti_Amp_Edition/23.html

The 7850 review linked above.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7850_HD_7870/26.html

Crysis 2 is a bit of a weird game and the 7870 is a stupidly powerful card for the price. The other games show the spread a bit better

 

[17seconds]

I'm not looking for anything overly powerful, this is an upgrade to a..prepare to laugh. GT 520. My only concern is my motherboard, I see that it supports Crossfire X which, if I am not mistaken is AMD. It says nothing about nVidia but obviously the graphics card currently works within my computer. Should I go with Radeon with that being said?

Also, I've never particularly cared about having graphics on high or anything, I just want to be able to play games without the horrendous lag that I get now.

Thanks to the both of you, the help is greatly appreciated.

The key thing to note in those TechPowerUp charts is that the GTX 550 Ti is a woeful card. There are better options under $200.

The CrossfireX support on your motherboard would be relevant if you were to ever consider adding a second card to your setup. In that case, they would need to be AMD cards. All the same, there would be drawbacks to a dual card setup, including driver issues and microstuttering. If you are not considering adding a second card down the road, then that opens up your options.

I would go to Newegg.com and just select "price range $100-$200" and see if you can see some good options to ask about. Most of them have already been mentioned.

 

[Tarupron]

Well based off of what has been suggested thus far, I do realize that the 7850 is superior to the 7770 but due to my budget limit the 7850 is a bit out of reach, I have quite a few things to pay for that are coming up so I can't really afford to spend more than 200 on this card.

I cannot make purchases online so I actually shop by Tiger Direct as I have one relatively close to my house. Also, I live in Canada so that increases the prices just a little bit more.

I have taken a look and it appears that the GTX 560 Ti is going to be my best option. Given the prices here in Canada, the 560 Ti pushes over my 200 limit however only by about $10 without taxes.

So here is my question now, between these two cards (560 and 560 Ti) which one is better? I do realize that the Ti is going to be obviously better, but is the difference so significant that its worth the additional $50?

GTX 560
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2406381&CatId=3669

GTX 560 Ti
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1781498&CatId=3669

 

[17seconds]

Okay, obviously the GTX 560 Ti is going to be better. But how much better? Well, the 560 is at stock clocks and the 560 Ti is factory overclocked considerably. Based on those facts and the information on the link below, I'm going to roughly estimate the 560 Ti is going to be about 15-20% faster.

These charts show a factory overclocked 560 vs. a stock 560 Ti:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_560_Twin_Frozr_II_OC/27.html

 

[Tarupron]

Okay, just so I can go into this purchase fully informed, the card that is referenced in the chart as the superior one is indeed the card below, correct?

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=458650&CatId=3669

 

[17seconds]

Okay, just so I can go into this purchase fully informed, the card that is referenced in the chart as the superior one is indeed the card below, correct?

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=458650&CatId=3669

Correct, but it still lags behind the stock GTX 560 Ti by a little.

 

[Tarupron]

Alright well I suppose I will go with either the stock GTX 560 Ti or the MSI Twin Frozr, thank you very much for your help.

 

[Tarupron]

Best answer selected by Tarupron.

 

[17seconds]

Actually that Zotac GTX 560 Ti you linked earlier is factory overclocked at 905 mhz (vs. 822 mhz at stock).

Good luck, whatever you choose will do a good job.