Best Gaming GPU

[sfroom]

I've been planning a new build for quite some time, and have chosen the following components:

i7-960
Gigabyte X58A-UD3R
OCZ Vertex 2 80 GB SSD
3x2GB Patriot Viper II Sector 7 DDR3-2000
Sony Optiarc
etc.

The only major component I have yet to pick is the Graphics card. Specifically, I'm looking for a card that will provide good gaming performance (WoW, Starcraft II and eventually Diablo 3).

Originally, I had my mind set on a GTX 460, but it seems that random freezing is rampant, and even when the card doesn't freeze, most users are reporting low cinebench framerates, which leads me to believe gaming performance will also be poor.

Budget aside, which card would you recommend?

I've considered the following cards:
EVGA 7900 GTX
XFX 9800 GTX+
EVGA GTX 260 core 216
GTX 285
GTX 460 1GB
GTX 470
ATI 5770
ATI 5870

Although I'd be open to other suggestions. Any hands on experience with gaming performance on these cards or any other would be incredibly appreciated. My first priority is gaming performance, followed by compatibility, and finally price.

It would be interesting to start compiling gaming benchmarks, because at this point it seems that while the other hardware selections are fairly obvious, which graphics card to select is the most difficult decision!

Thanks

 

[SG-]

you forgot the 5850. For stability and high end performance right now, the only option is ATI 5xxx cards, the current fermi drivers cause too many crashes or need lame fixes to keep them from crashing.

The 5850 is pretty damn fast, faster than the new 6870, and is right now going for as low as $175 or so from newegg.

 

[sfroom]

Sounds good. Is there concensus that 5850 and 5870 are the way to go for performance then?

I understand those cards are a little bit more difficult from a compatibility perspective. I've seen it mentioned in the forums that it's best to get a reference design PCB.

 

[uTOM]

if u r a mad gaming man then choose nvidia gtx 580 cuz thats the end for pc games
at 1 condition if u r not lazy

 

[sfroom]

I'm likely going to order a 5850 or 5870 this evening.

The last item I'm stuck on is how important is it to buy one with a reference PCB? Does it ensure OOB compatibility? If so, that's likely the route I'll go.

 

[Dulmer]

I'm likely going to order a 5850 or 5870 this evening.

The last item I'm stuck on is how important is it to buy one with a reference PCB? Does it ensure OOB compatibility? If so, that's likely the route I'll go.

The HD5870 is around 30% faster than an HD5850, because it has 1600 instead 1200 steam processors (GPU). Therefore I would recommend the HD5870 for gaming. If have such a card from Powercolor. The only thing is, that my OSX system is maybe not using the full performance of that card. So for gaming I use a parallel Windows 7 64Bit, because in Win7 i personally have FPS-values, which are twice to third times better with windows compared to OSX. With an HD5870 card you nearly can play every actual games without problems and the ATI cards have a much less power consumption than the nvidia cards. In idle mode (when you do only some office things) the HD5870 is taking around 26W instead of 60-70W of a comparable nvidia card. Also under full load the ATI cards consumes around 25-30% less current/ power than the other ones.

So hopefully my experiences will help you a little bit. So maybe, after having and testing your card, you maybe can share your experiences/ fps values with me. Would be very interesting to know, what other OSX will show.

Dulmer

 

[BerndVP]

I go with the post of "Dulmer",
I have the following config:
CPU: i7-950
GPU: Sapphire HD 5870
RAM: Kingston HyperX 6GB 1333 DDR3

for gaming I have installed "Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit"
games are on best performs playing it on Full HD without any lag ...
Games I play:
NFS Hor Pursuit
COD 7: Black Ops
Medal Of Honor (lasted)
...

why spend lots of money for the GTX 580 if the HD 5870 is good enough

 

[Gordo74]

Do you have the 5870 running in full 64 bit with QE/CI enabled?

 

[sfroom]

I went ahead and ordered a reference PCB 5850. I'll post back with results after I attempt the install.

Any tips (other than following the instructions in the sticky) with regards to getting it up and running?

 

[SG-]

all you need is kabyl's latest chameleon boot file and make sure GraphicsEnabler=yes. as for what cards work, most of them do, but i can only speek from experience and mine is a PowerColor 5850 (OC'd version).