Advice On Video Card Upgrade

[shan1784]

Hey everyone...

I'm looking at doing a video card upgrade to get ready for the Battlefield 3 release coming later this year...

Right now I have the build in my signature... It works great and am very happy with it... I'm thinking of a new video card to utilize DX11 as well as to better handle BF3 so when it comes out I'll be off and running...

I might have the opportunity to buy a used GTX295 co-op from someone I game with for $200.

So I could run a quad-sli setup with these cards but will have no DX11 support. I haven't done much research lately as to which is the best bang for your buck card although I do know the 5970 seems to be the one to beat right now as far as performance...

Honestly I would like to keep it to one card in my machine for space and power reasons but I know a quad sli GTX295 setup would perform really well for only $200 which I could put the rest on my money into a new CPU possibly...

Just looking for options here.. If you were me what would you do???

 

[Slaymate]

I would go with the GTX 580
Newegg.com - PNY VCGGTX580XPB GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

or the ATI 6970
Newegg.com - XFX HD-697A-CNFC Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

I would ditch the GTX 295 and never look back, you don't need a new cpu and if you did upgrade your next best choice would be a i7 2600K and that would require a new mobo as a minimum. If you did go with a 2600K a good kit of 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 1.5v would be good idea.

 

[shan1784]

I've been looking for some benchies out there but can't really seem to find any that are straight forward...

How does the 295 compare with the 580 and the 6970 as it would relate to gaming... I game on a 27" Samsung at 1920x1080...

The 295 works very well and handles all I throw at it but it is a little behind the times as well as power hungry and hottt... Which is why I'm trying to figure out which way to go to ramp up for BF3 when it's released... Not looking to jump on anything right this second but would like to be set and ready for release...