Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6850 PCIE Video Card $119.99 AR

I really don't need this now, lol. I'm going to wait until the summer time when they drop below $100. I have a $20 credit that I'm going to hold onto until then. I do like the 6870 model because it comes with 1GB DDR5 memory.
 
[quote name='CheapAssHustla']I really don't need this now, lol. I'm going to wait until the summer time when they drop below $100. I have a $20 credit that I'm going to hold onto until then. I do like the 6870 model because it comes with 1GB DDR5 memory.[/QUOTE]

umm this model has 1GB DDR5 memory as well.
 
Pretty solid deal. Too bad I picked up 2 XFX XXX Edition 1gb 6950's off amazon warehouse this weekend for $176.96 a piece to cross fire. These would've been a great bargain for a cheap Crossfire solution.
 
Not a bad deal, 2 of these in XFire will give you fantastic performance for $240 provided your PSU and case can handle it.


[quote name='GamerKingFaiz']I have this exact same card, and it runs games wonderfully![/QUOTE]


Using youtube for videos isn't a great way to show off the card since it caps vids at 30fps.
 
Good deal, just got this 3 weeks ago for $150 on Amazon... *sigh* It comes with a DIRT 3 code that you have to redeem and you will get a KEY that you can use on Steam. It says the code expired last year but I was able to still redeem mine.
 
I've had my VisionTek 6850 for almost a year now. I love it, was a good upgrade from my GTX260.

As for drivers I've never personally had an issue with drivers from Nvidia or AMD.
As long as you aren't running SLI/Xfire you typically don't have any issues...

I'd also wait another week or so before buying a new AMD card the 7970's just came out ( @$550) and the 7950's just dropped last night ( @$460) and the 78xx series (7850, and 7870) should be hitting in the next week or so.

With the 78xx series coming in the next week or 2 the 68xx series "should" go down a little in price and even if they don't you'll be seeing people trying to sell there 68xx and 69xx series cards for decent prices.
 
[quote name='Jackovasaurus']Is it true that AMD drivers are a pain in the ass compared to nvidia? That's what I've always heard.[/QUOTE]
Not at all, especially since Steam works with checking and patching them
 
[quote name='SnoT']I've had my VisionTek 6850 for almost a year now. I love it, was a good upgrade from my GTX260.

As for drivers I've never personally had an issue with drivers from Nvidia or AMD.
As long as you aren't running SLI/Xfire you typically don't have any issues...

I'd also wait another week or so before buying a new AMD card the 7970's just came out ( @$550) and the 7950's just dropped last night ( @$460) and the 78xx series (7850, and 7870) should be hitting in the next week or so.

With the 78xx series coming in the next week or 2 the 68xx series "should" go down a little in price and even if they don't you'll be seeing people trying to sell there 68xx and 69xx series cards for decent prices.[/QUOTE]

I'm going to continue to wait though. I think by summer time will be a good time for me to start my next computer project.
 
These 6000 series cards have been hovering at this price for months now... every time there's a sale on the 6850, it's always for $110 or 120. It seems like vendors simply don't want to drop the price.

I'm just waiting for a few more 7000 cards to come out and hopefully they'll drop a bit more.
 
[quote name='Jackovasaurus']Is it true that AMD drivers are a pain in the ass compared to nvidia? That's what I've always heard.[/QUOTE]
The advantages of Nvidia drivers I can think of right now are user-modded drivers, Ambient Occlusion (AO) and PhysX.

There is a much larger modding community for Nvidia cards than for ATI. These modded drivers may enable all sorts of settings that are usually locked, tweak performance or allow a user to force an updated driver that hasn't officially yet been made available to a specific card. It's not something most people care about though.

Regarding AO, it is a shader technique (I think DX11+) that can make some 3D games look more realistic, although it has a huge performance hit. For a lot of people, their FPS drop to about half of what it was without AO. Nvidia users can set AO on/off in their control panel. ATI cards can use AO if the game has the option, but forcing AO on other games will require some modding. Perhaps a future Catalyst update will allow the option.

As for PhysX, it is a physics engine used by some games. It allows calculations to be done by the GPU instead of CPU, and can improve visual effects such as glass breaking. The last I recall, Nvidia made PhysX work only on Nvidia cards (there was a patch to bypass it, but I think Nvidia got around it). I don't remember if they ever lifted this restriction or not. There is a way to get around the restriction with an ATI/Nvidia hybrid setup and a mod. But in the end, if you really want PhysX, it's much simpler to get an Nvidia card for now.

Overall, there are some advantages to Nvidia drivers. But those advantages tend to come with a much higher price tag. They are generally only useful if you're one of those people who like to max all graphics, often forcing it beyond the in-game options.
 
I know historically it seems there have been more issues with Radeon than Nvidia cards. I only build a new PC every 3 years or so but there are always warnings against using certain Radeon cards with whatever MB I use. Maybe those issues are gone now, but I still won't buy a Radeon anymore b/c of past issues. Which basically leaves Nvidia.
 
I just bought this card from Newegg for the same price after rebate about half a month ago. The rebate has been processed and cleared, so I'm just waiting for the Amex gift card to arrive.

I went with this card due to its low idle/load power draw, performance, and price. After upgrading from my Radeon HD 4670, I saw no increase in idle power draw and a just a bit under load. I've been able to run BF3 with my Phenom II X4 3.1 GHz and 8 GB RAM in 1680x1050 on high-ultra at 60+ FPS w/ a total system power draw of 250W during multiplayer. When I tried to run it on an older game like Dragon Age Origins with everything maxed, I had to enable vertical sync because the frame rate was 250+.
 
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