Okay, I want to upgrade my card. I had a few questions. What card is best for its money? I was thinking between a few different cards. 5850, 5870, 5970. Now I know the 5970 is the best card. But is it really worth the extra cost to get that? What is a big difference between the 5850 and the 5870? Would getting the 5870 be worth the extra cost?

If you need to know my pc stats are, I7 2.8. 4gb ram,gts250,windows 7.

Which of these three cards would be best for me? The most graphic intensive things I play are BFBC2, Crysis(Crysis 2 when it comes out) And Starcraft 2(lol)

Read this article on Toms Hardware (best Video Cards for the Money April 2010.  Will show you the differences in those cards.

The 5850 for now is most bang for your buck, for your needs. Both BC2 and obviously Crysis 2 will love a 5850.

The 5870 is 20% faster than the 5850, but it costs about 40% more.

Apart from 'what games will you play' (which you've said), it would be helpful to know your monitor resolution. Then we can point to a card whcih will give playable framerates on high settings on those games.

Realistically though, a 5850 will be good enough. Unless you're planning on Crysis at 2560x1600 max settings.

The 5850 is a great card. Im running one and im very happy with it.

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/rv870_092209122344/20105.png" border="0">

It should double or more than double your framerates whichever one you choose between the HD 5850/70 for Crysis Warhead. About the same for Battlefield: BC2.

I haven't used Tomshardware in awhile, can't figure out how to do a side by side comparison with cards anymore...

Looks like the 5870 is about half the price of the 5970, anyone know what the specs would look like if you were to crossfire two 5870's? Since 2 of those would equal a 5970

Oh I have a 1680x1050 samsung monitor. 22 inch.


I do want to upgrade to a 2560x1600 monitor sometime in the future though. I can't find one I want right now though. What would I need for max settings in crysis at that res? I am leaning more to the 5850 or 5870. The 5970 makes my mouth water. But it costs almost as much as I paid for my computer.

That monitor change probably wont happen until 2011. I may go 3D instead too. I am not sure yet. If I do ATI is out of the question right? They have no 3d? God video cards are so confusing o.o

get GTX 470 or GTX 480 if you got the money

ATI are good but noway near Nvidia

I suppose you mean performance?

The 5970 (or 5870 in Crossfire) is on average 65-70% faster than a single 5870. Some games scale very well, like Oblivion is ~80% faster than a single card, while some games only get 40% faster. In general it scales well though.