New Graphics Card for BF3 - Hardware & Software

So I want to get a new Graphics card for BF3. I built my computer nearly 4 years ago so bottlenecking is my main concern. My budget is flexible depending on what card is best suited for my system but looking for around the £150 mark. PC Specs: Intel Q9300 @ 2.5GHz 4 GB of 1066Mhz Dominator RAM ATI 4870 512mb Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic Hiper TypeR 850 Watt PSU Antec 900 Case My monitor's resolution is 1680x1050 I live in the UK so shopping from UK stores. I also don't want to buy a new card right now if a new series is coming out any time soon, and will therefore reduce the price of the older cards. So what would you guys recommend? Thanks in advance!

There won't be new cards anytime soon, the next cards to come out are the budget/mid-range 7000 series from AMD (28nm Caymen) but the big hitters won't be here until Q2 2012. £150 will get you a 6870 or 560 which perform equally give or take a little depending on some factors, if you stretch £20 you can get a 560 Ti, about 5-15% better than the 6870/560 but a bit more expensive, obviously. That's really all you need to know, here's the links to the cards you want to get: 6870: [url]http://www.ebuyer.com/279585-xfx-hd-6870-900mhz-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-dual-mini-displayport-hdmi-hd-687a-zhfc[/url] £134 560 [url]http://www.ebuyer.com/267730-asus-gtx-560-directcu-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-pci-e-graphics-card-engtx560-dc-2di-1gd5[/url] £144 (Free Arkham city) 560 Ti [url]http://www.ebuyer.com/254405-asus-gtx-560ti-directcu-ii-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-mini-hdmi-pci-e-engtx560-ti-dcii-2di-1gd5[/url] £168 (Free Arkham city) ebuyer/dabs are for the most part less expensive than scan when buying single components due to free delivery. My opinion, the 6870 is one of the best price:performance cards right now but you may aswell either get the 560 or spend the extra to get the 560 Ti seeing as you get a free £30 game. And bottlenecking won't be much of an issue, your processor is ok.

Do you need two? Also can someone explain to me why I would need two for an enthusiast game rig

[QUOTE=David Tennant;32858964]There won't be new cards anytime soon, the next cards to come out are the budget/mid-range 7000 series from AMD (28nm Caymen) but the big hitters won't be here until Q2 2012. £150 will get you a 6870 or 560 which perform equally give or take a little depending on some factors, if you stretch £20 you can get a 560 Ti, about 5-15% better than the 6870/560 but a bit more expensive, obviously. That's really all you need to know, here's the links to the cards you want to get: 6870: [url]http://www.ebuyer.com/279585-xfx-hd-6870-900mhz-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-dual-mini-displayport-hdmi-hd-687a-zhfc[/url] £134 560 [url]http://www.ebuyer.com/267730-asus-gtx-560-directcu-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-pci-e-graphics-card-engtx560-dc-2di-1gd5[/url] £144 (Free Arkham city) 560 Ti [url]http://www.ebuyer.com/254405-asus-gtx-560ti-directcu-ii-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-mini-hdmi-pci-e-engtx560-ti-dcii-2di-1gd5[/url] £168 (Free Arkham city) ebuyer/dabs are for the most part less expensive than scan when buying single components due to free delivery. My opinion, the 6870 is one of the best price:performance cards right now but you may aswell either get the 560 or spend the extra to get the 560 Ti seeing as you get a free £30 game. And bottlenecking won't be much of an issue, your processor is ok.[/QUOTE] Thank you very much for answering all my questions and for your advice! Looks like I will be going for the 6870 from ebuyer, like you said great price:performance. Once again, Thanks for the help :)

A 560 Ti performs better than a 6870.

I'm also looking for a new card, since my current card causes my computer to crash constantly. I won't make a new thread since there are related ones open, hope you don't mind. Right now I'm looking at this 560ti [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127565[/url] Not really sure if going with any of the other brands I've seen posted would be better or not.

[QUOTE=Goz3rr;32860972]A 560 Ti performs better than a 6870.[/QUOTE] Yes, it does. But is it really worth £34 more? [url]http://www.techspot.com/review/359-nvidia-geforce-gtx-560ti/page10.html[/url] In that benchmark it only gets 2 fps more on average in BC2 than the 6870 at my resolution of 1680x1050. Seeing as I will be buying the new card for BF3 which uses basically the same engine as BC2 it would make more sense to save my £34. Correct me if I am wrong.

[QUOTE=rocky_gas;32864643]Yes, it does. But is it really worth £34 more? [url]http://www.techspot.com/review/359-nvidia-geforce-gtx-560ti/page10.html[/url] In that benchmark it only gets 2 fps more on average in BC2 than the 6870 at my resolution of 1680x1050. Seeing as I will be buying the new card for BF3 which uses basically the same engine as BC2 it would make more sense to save my £34. Correct me if I am wrong.[/QUOTE] [img]http://static.techspot.com/articles-info/359/bench/Overclocking_03.png[/img] And that's the reason why it's worth the extra £34. It has insane overclocking potential.

It sure does. I can easily crank mine up to 950Mhz/1900Mhz and it is amazing.

[QUOTE=PepperMD;32867472]It sure does. I can easily crank mine up to 950Mhz/1900Mhz and it is amazing.[/QUOTE] Gigabyte actually makes one that comes factory overclocked at 1GHz core.

[QUOTE=garrynohome;32867494]Gigabyte actually makes one that comes factory overclocked at 1GHz core.[/QUOTE] Buying an OCd card is silly though.

[QUOTE=PepperMD;32867503]Buying an OCd card is silly though.[/QUOTE] I'll pay $20 to have a card that's guaranteed to operate stable at that frequency rather than hoping it will when I buy one for $20 less. When it's a minuscule bump like on factory overclocked 6870s then I wouldn't bother. But for a 177MHz bump on the core, I'll pay $20 to have that guaranteed.

I got 2 20% off codes for an evga card if you want it pm me.

[QUOTE=garrynohome;32865605][img]http://static.techspot.com/articles-info/359/bench/Overclocking_03.png[/img] And that's the reason why it's worth the extra £34. It has insane overclocking potential.[/QUOTE] Sweet, what sort of temperatures does it run at when it's clocked at that speed though?

Safe temperatures, I don't understand the argument though as the 6870 is very overclockable too, if not just as overclockable in terms of percentage performance gained. But it is worth the extra money to get the 560 Ti, anything up to the 570 is worth the money, then when you go into 580 territory, that's when price:performance really takes a hit.

[QUOTE=David Tennant;32875411]Safe temperatures, I don't understand the argument though as the 6870 is very overclockable too, if not just as overclockable in terms of percentage performance gained. But it is worth the extra money to get the 560 Ti, anything up to the 570 is worth the money, then when you go into 580 territory, that's when price:performance really takes a hit.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-6870-radeon-hd-6850-barts,2776-19.html[/url] [url]http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/37499-hd-6870-hd-6850-vs-gtx-460-1gb-overclocking-study.html[/url] Even with the 121MHz bump hardware canucks achieved they only gained 6fps in Battlefield bad company two, compared to a 13fps gain achieved with an overclocked 560 Ti. So in frostbite based games you could very well see the GTX 560 Ti getting double the increase in framerate that the 6870 does.

I said percentage based, ofcourse a better card will get better overclocking results that's a given, I'm not saying the 6870 is better than a 560 Ti because it definitely isn't, I'm just stating that the 560 Ti isn't a cherry picked overclockers dream, it's pretty average and on par with every other card when overclocking, maybe a little better depending on what cooler.