NVidia 560 Ti alternatives

[wsmithjr]

Hi,

I'm building a new system and the last piece of the puzzle is the GPU. I thought I had made up my mind, then got confused again, so I thought I'd ask for suggestions.

After much searching of Tom's Hardware and other places, especially Newegg for pricing, I thought I settled on an EVGA 560 Ti for about $228 after rebates.

Then, I was wondering about the Radeon 6870 for about $185 after rebates or the Radeon 6950s for a bit more than the 560 Ti. Some benchmarks I've seen indicate the 560 Ti beats out the 6870 most of the time and is about even with the 6950s at a lesser price.

So, am I reading things correctly? Maybe the 6870 is close enough to the 560 Ti to make it worth saving $40 or so? Anything I've missed which would be similar performance at better price or better performance at similar price?

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: before end of June
BUDGET RANGE: $200-$250 After Rebates
USAGE: Gaming - I generally only play RPG or strategy games (Diablo III on the radar) so am not worried about ultra-performance on the latest FPS (couldn't even tell you what those would be)
GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: currently owned Thermaltake W0106RU 700W I'm planning on re-using

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS:
Case: Zalman Z9 Plus
MB: GA-Z68X-UD3-B3
CPU: Intel i5-2500k ($179.99 at Micro Center)
Cooler: Xigmatek Gaia
RAM: G.Skill Sniper 8GB
SSD: OCZ Agility 3 60GB
Data drive: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB

PARTS PREFERENCES: Have only previously owned nVidia cards, mostly EVGA. Feel most comfortable with EVGA or Gigabyte but would be open to others.
OVERCLOCKING: Maybe
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Yes - but down the road as needed, hopefully not for a while
MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Don't really have much interest in multi-monitor setups which I see is a big advantage for Radeon. Have always had nVidia so am not up on Radeon capabilities (well, or nVidia in the last couple years to be honest). My current cards are 8600 GTS SLI so I'm sure any of these options will be quite an improvement.

Thanks for your time and help/suggestions.

Warren

 

[ko888]

 

[wsmithjr]

Thanks. But I apologize if I'm being dense, but I'm not quite sure how to read that chart. I've got that the GTX 560 Ti is the baseline, and so for a HD 6870 it would have 5% less performance, but 8% better performance for dollar. However, I can't seem to translate that into which one I would be better off getting.

My problem is that the HD 6850 is the best value for the dollar. However, at 82% of the performance of the GTX 560 Ti, is that good enough.

Can you give me the reference for those charts and I can research it further there.

I appreciate the help, even if I am a little dense about how to interpret it.

 

[ko888]

Reference clocked version of the GTX 560 Ti :

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_560_Ti/

Factory overclocked version :

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zotac/GeForce_GTX_560_Ti_Amp_Edition/

 

[wsmithjr]

So, I'm thinking instead of the EVGA GTX 560 Ti at 900 MHz (78 MHz OC) for around $220 after rebate, I'll get the Gigabyte 6870 915Mhz (15Mhz OC) at about $185. As far as I can tell, the GTX 560 Ti is slightly better, but probably not 20% better to justify the cost difference and I think the 6870 will hold me for a while since I'm not maxing out the latest games.

I have experience with Gigabyte MBs and have been happy with them, so I feel confident in regards to their video cards. Another possibility is the XFX 6870 940 MHz for $5 more but I'm a little nervous about the card stability and have no experience with XFX. Any recommendations between those?

Thanks again for your help.

Warren