What is the best AMD card to buy right now?

[PepitoneConQueso]

I'm looking to start building my new PC within the next couple weeks, mainly to play BF3, Skyrim, SC2, and eventually Diablo 3.

With the 7000 series coming Q1 next year, what would be the best AMD card to buy right now (price/performance wise)? I'm trying to cut my total down to about ~$1100 (w/o monitor and OS), and I'm torn between getting a 2GB 6950 or a 6970. I'm planning to go eyefinity sometime next year with either the purchase of a second GPU for CF or a 7000 series, depending on the benchmarks/cost.

I guess my question is, would it be worth getting such a high level GPU as the 6970 knowing it will be obsolete in a few months? Or should I get a slightly less powerful card, like the 6950, and replace that with the new tech? From the BF3 benchmarks I've seen, the 6950 maintains about 3-4 less FPS, than the 6970.


If you need to know, this would be the rest of the build:

i5-2500k
ASrock P67 extreme4 gen3
8GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance
850W Corsair PSU (for future CF)
1TB spinpoint
CM 212 evo
1920x1080 24" Asus LCD (would get 2 more for eyefinity)
Crucial M4 64GB SSD (maybe)


Thanks.

 

[ilysaml]

well, IMO just get a HD 6950 right now and enjoy gaming at 1080P at least till the AMD 7K series come out, and for that Eyefinity thing i always recommend 3-way CF/SLI in order to enjoy gaming at such a higher resolution without a lag of FPS....

but get the Eyefinity thing delayed till the AMD 7K come out, a high end GPU such as HD 7950 with the new XDR2 rambus memory is twice faster than GDDR5, besides the 1 GHz GPU frequency, 28nm process, it's said to be performing better than HD 6990, so i guess it would be marvelous to wait for the AMD 7K series

EDIT: great that you picked up a PCIE 3.0 MOBO

 

[badtaylorx]

yup.....sapphire's toxic 6950 would be spot on for your situation

but of coarse they're non to be found......

cant go wrong w/a dbbl lifetime warranty!!!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150549

 

[PepitoneConQueso]

Best answer selected by PepitoneConQueso.

 

[PepitoneConQueso]

Thanks for the replies.

I'll start looking for a good 6950.