Upgrade Recommendation

[Yanoda]

I am at a minor dilemma.
I wish to upgrade from my graphic card (Nvidia 8600 gt for 2+ years) and I am unable to fully decide which card to get to replace it.
I previously owned an ATI card as well and was quite satisfied with it before I replaced it with the 8600 gt.
I read that the new cards (HD 6000 series & GTX 500 series) offer several different features. I'm sure either one is a good choice but I would like to receive feedback.

Here are the categories I wish to have with the card:
Will last me about 2 years (preferably longer).
I will be making several 3-D Modelings for a Project this coming semester (current card is lagging a bit with larger models).
I will of course do some gaming (SWBF2 mostly ), would like to improve performance a bit with current games and play future games with decent graphics.
My current monitor's resolution is 1280 x 1024 and will likely not get a new one within the next year or two. So the multiple monitor capabilities of the ATI/AMD cards will therefore not be needed. As well, the 3-D vision of Nvidia's cards will also be unused.

My choices in my current price range (~100 euro / ~$145)
Geforce GTX 550 Ti (100 euro)
HD 6770 (90 euro)
HD 6850 (will be about 110 euro)
The previous generation cards (Nvidia 4xx & HD 5xxx) cost about the same as those I mentioned before.

Feedback/recommendations/tips is appreciated.

Cheers

Yanoda

[(SWGO)Minas_Thirith]

I recomend the 550 GTX TI this card was released with Crysis2.
Currently i know no game more Grafic demanding then that.

The 550GTX is capable of running the MAXIMUM grafics on this game.
It's ready for any game with 3D so doing the modeling will be no problem at all.
the card is already ready for 32X antiantilising and of course Direct X11

For the Official review check here
http://www.geforce.com/#/Hardware/GPUs/geforce-gtx-550ti/overview

[Yanoda]

Thanks for the reply MT.
Will drop the HD 6770 from my list. Even considered the HD 6790 but the price is about 5 euros cheaper, the performance is not much different to the HD 6850 and consumes 20% more power.

So, I should forgo the HD 6850 despite it having a better performance compared to the GTX 550 Ti? At 10 euros more, is the HD 6850's performance/price ratio comparatively not better to the 550 Ti? Does the HD 6850 not perform as well in 3-D modeling programs compared to the 550 Ti?
I keep reading mixed views on the 550 Ti, some say the 550 Ti is not good/terrible, while others (like you) say it is great.
Just want to make sure since it is the first time I'll be spending more than $60 on a graphic card. Lucked out on the 8600 gt. Also, my previous ATI card lasted only for a year until I had to upgrade it to the 8600 gt (which lasted 2 years).

More feedback is appreciated.

Cheers

Yanoda

[Corpse]

Hey, you have the same GPU as my desktop (not setup atm). I've been looking into buying the GTX 560 Ti when I get around to buying a new computer. The 500 series is a good one.

[(SWGO)Minas_Thirith]

Hey, you have the same GPU as my desktop (not setup atm). I've been looking into buying the GTX 560 Ti when I get around to buying a new computer. The 500 series is a good one.

Yea indeed, but this one is around 200Euros, the 460 GTX wich is still better then the 550 is at 140, while the 550 is at 100 or close to it.

[Yanoda]

Major Necro on my side here...
Thx for the feedbacks.

Had to postpone my upgrade until now and saved a little extra $ on the side.
So I have upped my choice to the GTX 560 instead of the 550Ti.
Now my only question is from which Company? My preferred choices are MSI or EVGA (had my previous card from them). (Other choices were Gainward, Zotac & KFA2)

MSI is 3 euros cheaper than EVGA.
EVGA is factory overclocked (+40Hz).
MSI has dual fans, whereas EVGA only 1 larger fan, so MSI will be cooler (likely quieter too).
Both have 3 year warranty (from what I could gather).

I'm currently leaning towards MSI dual fan card for the better cooling.
If EVGA is a safer bet (ie. lower failure rate, better service etc...) than MSI, then I'll go for that instead.
Any thoughts?

Cheers

Yanoda

[(SWGO)Minas_Thirith]

Well i know quite a bit about brands, wich are good, regular crappy or just new/unkown

MSI is a well from my expirience a regular brand, but it comes short in some of my needs.
Zotac made some nice cards as well...Gainwar and KFA2 are brands very unkown to me...

Well altough i never had EVGA i do know they had an award for either best preformance/reliablity card or brand(i honestly don't remember if it was one card or the entire brand) of 2010
So If a brand gets awards it defently means that their good i also have gotten a lot of great feedbacks on EVGA.

Personally i tend to stay with ASUS, Club3D etc...but i was thinking of upgrading lately(well if money would ever permit this, wich is unlikely ) and the best feedbacks for a 560GTX were from EVGA so...go for EVGA...
Also more fans doesn't mean more cooling, check the rate flow of the fan and the sound it makes, also if 1 Fan in your computer is higher the the rest it won't her much...
I love the fact that my power supply has a silent cooler
Also before buying anything check the power they use and the cables they recuire....i had to upgrade to a 800W NoX power supply luckely a modular

Ps. the reason i'm saying this is because i ussed to have a 500W and my computer would shut down when the Watts needed(mostly a high spike) were insufficient...so check that

[BurzaP]

I recomend the 550 GTX TI this card was released with Crysis2.
Currently i know no game more Grafic demanding then that.

Just to be specific. Crisis (1) has still better graphics than Crysis 2 because they wanted to otpimise the sequel so it could go on X360 and PS3 (which are a looooooooong way before newest PCs)
IF you want to test your comp try Shogun 2. It;s very demanding owing to many objects on the screen.
I bought a comp like 3 years ago and it was a good time cos till now there has been no new generation of consoles and all the games have been made to go on consoles. Now the er is different. PS4 and probably X720 will be in next yaer so there will be again a fight to develop a game that would use their full potential and our current graphics cards in PCs will be useless in next 2 years in AA titles. So if you want to have a comp that will "survive" this fight, better buy a fast graphics card, no some lows. (but if you want to spend in next 2 years money for upgrade it will costs you more than just now buying a good comp now).
The best graphics in a reasonable price with really high performance is GeForce GTX 560. The best value for money . It gives you 86 fps in 1920x1200 (30fps makes gaming fluent). You will do what you want, but take it into consideration.
Buy a basic version-you can overclock it better than Asus did and other brands. Plus it's cheaper

[Yanoda]

Thx for the feedback.
Another friend said EVGA is the way to go. Finally, I have this behind me and have no worries for the next 2 years at least.
My case has decent air flow, 1 intake fan (quite powerful yet the noise level is ok and have room for another in the future), 2 exhaust fans (with another 1 in the near future as either intake or exhaust) and the power supply acts a exhaust as well. So cooling won't be that bad for the Card.
If I would have went with ATI, I'd have chosen Club-3D as well.

I love the fact that my power supply has a silent cooler
Also before buying anything check the power they use and the cables they recuire....i had to upgrade to a 800W NoX power supply luckely a modular

Ps. the reason i'm saying this is because i ussed to have a 500W and my computer would shut down when the Watts needed(mostly a high spike) were insufficient...so check that

Yeah, my power supply can handle it easily and it's silent too; 700W OCZ StealthXstreme. It's not modular but my case enables me to hide most of the cables so it's no problem. Let's hope it can work for another 3 years without hiccups.

@BurzaP - I heard/read that they're not planning to release any new generation of consoles this or the next year, they speculate around 2013. Will be wondering how the performance leap will be by then.

Cheers

Yanoda

[(SWGO)Minas_Thirith]

Yea my NZXT lexa allows me to hide cables as well, but modular is SOOO handy
Glad ur power supply will make it

@ Burzap

Not really crysis 2 demands a lot more graphics then crysis 1, altough personally i see the grahpics don't change that much.
Also PC games beat up any consol in graphics....not even the precios PS3 can match a hard-core PC.