6850

[duomaxwl]

Hey guys,
I've been looking at getting a graphics card (my buds taking his 9600GT back for his computer) and I was curious if anybody could tell me their experiences with a ATI 6850 (on Planetside). I'm probably going to choose between a 6850 or an nVidia 460, but the 6850 uses less power and I could Crossfire it in the future. The only thing really holding me back is that I keep hearing that newer ATI's and Planetside don't mix and match, so I figure'd I'd ask and see if anybody had any personal experience with them. Thanks in advance.

[Goku]

Thats false. My 4670, 4770, and 5770 crossfire all run PS perfectly with high frame rates. Between the 460 and 6850 just get whatever is cheaper. Just make sure you get the full 1GB 336 SP GTX 460. Not the gimped versions.

[duomaxwl]

Okay, thanks for the input. I'm having a hard time choosing between a 460 and an 6850. I'm on a crossfire board, so I know I could go down that route, but I also know I can use the SLI patch. I'm going to wait until my friend gets his graphics cards probably and SLI them in my board with the hack and see if it goes well, if so I'll go nVidia I guess. Anywho, thanks again man.

[Goku]

Don't worry about multi gpu. Just stick with the best single card you can in your price point. I got my other 5770 for crossfire in May. I will say there have been improvements in performance, but the driver waits to get the profile out. Witcher 2 came out and I had to wait well over a week before a proper profile came out. You do not have these issues with a single stronger card. After this I am not touching multi gpu for the foreseeable future.

Just get whichever is cheapest at the time you go and buy the card. I recommend checking out slickdeals.net and using their search engine to find deals on any of those two cards.

[duomaxwl]

Yeah. I'm not planning on Crossfiring/SLIing right away, but since schools about to start back up, I'm not going to have a lot of money for an amazing card, so it's going to come down to one or another. The multi-gpu is just a future thing. Thanks for the website, I'll check it out.

[Goku]

You're welcome. I know you are not going multi gpu at the moment. Really its only meant for if you need it now and get top of the line cards (GTX 570, 580 or 6900s). Going for more performance for lower end cards later on really shouldn't be done. Most likely you will be able to get similar performance with a next gen card while using less power.

I would of upgraded to a next gen, but GPUs right now are at a stand still till the next process shrink. We have been stuck on 40nm, since Sep of 2009 and will be till the end of this year at the earliest. Basically if you got a 5870 back in with their release you had no reason to upgrade for over 2 years.