Graphic Cards Graphic card buying advice

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Hey guys,

I'm new here and and am just about to build a mid end rig along the lines of darkangel's guide.

Intel Core i5-2500k

Asus P8Z68-V

XFX P1-650S-NLB9 650W

I have it narrowed down to 2 cards :

MSI GTX560-Ti Hawk

MSI R6950 Twinfrozr II/OC

They are pretty similar in capability and price. But the 6950 can apparently be unlocked to a 6970 with the extra shaders. But I hear good things about Nvidia support and Physx and also the Hawk has a pretty decent stable factory overclock.

Is the unlock option worth taking? Is it worth the risk of bricking my card? Also, has anyone here had any success with it?

If I OC them both a bit, which will give me better performance...longer?

The last bit is Power Supply related...can 650W handle a Crossfire/SLI in the future?

Thanks in advance.
 
Try to wait for 5-6monthsif you can for amd hd7xxx series,if you are in a hurry Get the MSI HD 6950 Twin Frozr III 2 GB it beats gtx 560ti in performance,this 2gb 6950 version can be unlocked to 6970 mostly,get corsair tx650v2 psu for this gpu,it can handle 6950 crossfire if you are planning to do it in the future.
bomapenguin said:
Hey guys,

I'm new here and and am just about to build a mid end rig along the lines of darkangel's guide.

Intel Core i5-2500k

Asus P8Z68-V

XFX P1-650S-NLB9 650W

I have it narrowed down to 2 cards :

MSI GTX560-Ti Hawk

MSI R6950 Twinfrozr II/OC

They are pretty similar in capability and price. But the 6950 can apparently be unlocked to a 6970 with the extra shaders. But I hear good things about Nvidia support and Physx and also the Hawk has a pretty decent stable factory overclock.

Is the unlock option worth taking? Is it worth the risk of bricking my card? Also, has anyone here had any success with it?

If I OC them both a bit, which will give me better performance...longer?

The last bit is Power Supply related...can 650W handle a Crossfire/SLI in the future?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
 
thegatekeeper said:
Try to wait for 5-6monthsif you can for amd hd7xxx series,if you are in a hurry Get the MSI HD 6950 Twin Frozr III 2 GB it beats gtx 560ti in performance,this 2gb 6950 version can be unlocked to 6970 mostly,get corsair tx650v2 psu for this gpu,it can handle 6950 crossfire if you are planning to do it in the future.
Click to expand...

I'm definitely in a hurry.
:)
I have read reports that people are having difficulties with unlocking the twinfrozr III version whereas the twinfrozr II is proving a lot easier. Can you confirm that it can be done?
Also, what's the difference between II and III, apart from the OC difference which can be achieved at home really...
 
MSI R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition Unlocking - Unlocking Guide

read this article about unlocking twin frozr iii ver of msi 6950 you will understand and you will be cleared of your doubts.

There is not much difference between II and III i think ,they perform pretty much the same. The III i think comes with a higher overclock capabilities.The temperature should be the same on both. Other than that i think the III has a more black and metal look.
 
Hi all,

I have the following configuration (also available in my signature):

Intel Core i7 920 - 2.6GHz
Asus P6T Deluxe v2
Dell U2410 - 1920 x 1200 (earlier had Dell 2408WFP, but got it replaced due to some lines coming on the monitor)
NVIDIA 6200 PCI Card (don't you laugh)
Corsair TX750W PSU
My budget is around 10 - 13k.
Will be playing games in 1920x1200 resolution. Will be playing old as well as the latest FPS, Action/Adventure & Racing games.

I was thinking of going for a NVIDIA GTX 560 which is priced around 11k. But the GTX 560 Ti seemed a better option at 13k.

Let me know which is better wrt 560 & 560 Ti. Also do let me know if there are any better graphics cards available in this range.

Also, will 1GB / 1.5GB / 2GB cards make a lot of difference in terms of performance? Which should I go for.

I might go for an SLI setup in the near future maybe next year, but not now.

Also, if anyone could point out the manufacturer I can go for, would also be welcome.

From this link: http://www.techenclave.com/smc-internl/msi-graphics-cards-stock-smc-international-198888.html,
are MSI Cards good in terms of build quality, ASS and performance?

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

Could someone reply to my queries?
 
shadow2get said:
Hi all,

I have the following configuration (also available in my signature):

Intel Core i7 920 - 2.6GHz

Asus P6T Deluxe v2

Dell U2410 - 1920 x 1200 (earlier had Dell 2408WFP, but got it replaced due to some lines coming on the monitor)

NVIDIA 6200 PCI Card (don't you laugh)

Corsair TX750W PSU

My budget is around 10 - 13k.

Will be playing games in 1920x1200 resolution. Will be playing old as well as the latest FPS, Action/Adventure & Racing games.

I was thinking of going for a NVIDIA GTX 560 which is priced around 11k. But the GTX 560 Ti seemed a better option at 13k.

Let me know which is better wrt 560 & 560 Ti. Also do let me know if there are any better graphics cards available in this range.

Also, will 1GB / 1.5GB / 2GB cards make a lot of difference in terms of performance? Which should I go for.

I might go for an SLI setup in the near future maybe next year, but not now.

Also, if anyone could point out the manufacturer I can go for, would also be welcome.

From this link: http://www.techenclave.com/smc-internl/msi-graphics-cards-stock-smc-international-198888.html,

are MSI Cards good in terms of build quality, ASS and performance?
Click to expand...

Well I've been digging around the same topic for a while now. From all the benchmarks I've seen, the Ti version is better than the stock 560 in almost all areas.

The only other card that hovers just over the 13k mark is the stock 6950. The 6950 and the 560 Ti seem to be pretty well matched. It really becomes a matter of which games you play and whether those games are Physx based or not. Also, the 6950 can be unlocked and OC-ed to a 6970 which is much more powerful. That being said, the 560 Ti is the upper echelon of mid range cards while the 6950 is the lower echelon of the high end cards.

Playing on a single 1920x1200 monitor, a 2gb card will NOT outperform a 1gb card. But reports suggest that the 2gb 6950 is much more readily unlockable.

MSI is a very good company. So are Sapphire, EVGa, Zotac, XFX. I just bought a MSI R6950 TFIII PE/OC. :ohyeah: Waiting for delivery.

Ps - I hear that Crossfire scales better than SLI. Not sure though.
 
If you can i would suggest you to wait for 3-4 month as amd's hd7xxx is going to release lots of new options will be available for your budget,even if hd7xxx series doesn't give better performance then you can buy 6 series card for lower price.If you are in damn hurry then for your budget i'd say get MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II/OC-13.5k.if you can stretch your budget to 15k then you can get msi hd6950 twin frozr iii 2gb which unlocks to 6970.
 
Well, it seems that it is better to buy the mid range card when the hd7xxx series arrives. I don't want to spend 15k now and after 2-3 months, its price is down at 10k.

But it is still 5 months away. Well I will need to buy a card which I install Win7 Ultimate. Currently I can install Win 7, but it is too sluggish (using classic windows theme and NOT the Aero theme). Also, I can't play any decent 480p/720p video on my card. You can forget about games as well. Until then, can you guys suggest a card which is around 5-6k? I intend to use it for basic gaming (older games of 2-3 years back) on 1920x1200 or less, watching HD content.
 
Get MSI hd 6770-6.5k you will be able to play latest games at mid level settings and old games at full graphic and you can sell the card after you get hd7xxx series card.
 
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