Reddit mentions of Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6850 1GB PCI-E Video Card (100315L)

Getting a second card will significantly improve your performance, as shown by these benchmarks. That's an 80-100% increase in performance with only a small increase in temperature and noise.

On the other hand, spending $230 on a single 7850 will only warrant a small increase in performance for your money, as seen here. Crossfire seems like the best option considering how cheap it is, you can pick a brand new one up for only $130 from amazon.

If I were you, I'd spend $130 now for crossfire, then in 1-2 years buy a radeon 8000 or 9000 series card, because by that time the 6850s will be nearing the end of their lifetime and it'd make sense to go for a new card.

I have one of these. I've been using it for a few months now. Great card. I have it crossfired with another of the same model. Still have the box too. Also, I'm in Saint Paul. If you have any interest let me know. I'm just upgrading to a 7850 here soon so I am looking to start getting rid of these guys.

Better Video card

nix the CPU cooler unless you decide to get an i5 2500k and overclock

You can probably get RAM for a few bucks cheaper off amazon, I was looking at some corsair vengeance for 40 bucks flat, but I have always been a G SKILL man myself LINK

Seasonic is a lovely brand I use them all the time. Right now until tomorrow (11/21), you can get an X650 for $100, LINK

you can get by with a cheaper motherboard (I'm not too good at picking out motherboards) but it really depends on what you want. Generally I don't see what the $300 motherboards offer that the $150 ones don't. But I generally go for ones that are $90-$130

Personally, I have been avoiding blu-ray readers since they are very expensive and also require specific software to watch blu-ray movies (so I have been sticking to my PS3)

That 550Ti is very weak compared to say an HD 6850 or HD 6870. They could be had for same price or cheaper than the 165$. Everything else looks good.

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-6850-PCIE-Video-100315L/dp/B0047ZGIUK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1323702878&sr=8-3

The 6870 would be somewhat of an upgrade for you, but its $20 over your budget.http://www.amazon.com/SAPPHIRE-Radeon-6870-GDDR5-Graphics/dp/B005C8RTTU

If it is necessary to stay within your budget, go with a 6850.
http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-PCI-E-Video-100315L/dp/B0047ZGIUK/ref=pd_cp_e_0

If you want to go really cheap, you can usually find a 550ti for around $100. The 550ti works pretty well, you won't be playing BF3 on ultra, but it should be able to handle medium/ high.

It it MORE than just about the wattage of a PSU. Quality matters!!!!

What PSU model? What brand?

With that being said, the 550 Ti is over priced considering price vs performance. Get a 6850.

550 Ti vs 6850: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/541?vs=539

Buy this Sapphire 6850: http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-PCI-E-Video-100315L/dp/B0047ZGIUK/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1341184216&sr=1-1&keywords=6850

Or any of the other 6850s. I just prefer Sapphire personally.

i just bought a 6850 on amazon for 134.00 with a 15 dollar rebate that takes it to 119.99

if you can get an extra few bucks its hard to beat that price.

(or do what i did, join Amazon Mturk, do surveys, get paid in amazon credit and get the card for no dollars out of pocket.

I'm a derp. Here's the Radeon 6580 I'm looking to purchase (maybe from Amazon, since they have it for $150 with no sales tax [CA resident]).

Oops, my bad. I forgot you have AMD. Here's a comparison of your current cpu parts against the new parts if you want to upgrade. The performance score are from the Passmark website: CPU, GPU

parts|score |avg resell price on ebay

---|---:|---:
AMD Phenom II X4 945|3,628|$90
Radeon 4850x2|1,427|$90 for x1

parts|score|price

---|---:|---:
AMD Phenom II 1090t|6,058|$169.99
Radeon 4850x2|2,848|$144.99

If you're willing to resell these parts on ebay, you might just need to spend a net price of $50-100ish. If not, then you're looking to spend around over 250. I've actually been meaning to upgrade my 7 years old comp and have been researching around. The 1090t and 6850 right now has the best performance per $.

Get this case instead.

Get this video card.

Get this memory.

Use this HDD.

It would be passable. Low graphics is pretty bad, but medium is alright. High is ideal. Ultra is perfect.

If you want Ultra settings for $150, read below. If you don't, then just skip all of this.

If you open up the side of your PC (the panel should come off via a screw in the back or some such, very easy), you can see that you should have a PCI-E x16 slot available or with a card already in it. You should be seeing something similar to this.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf-JAVA/Doc/images/765/c03348809.jpg

The long black slot above the three smaller black slots in the bottom left section of the motherboard is the one you want.

Now, if you buy this card...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0047ZGIUK/sr=1-1/qid=1372818656/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1372818656&seller=&sr=1-1

It will plug into that long black slot. Connect your monitors to the new ports that will now be at the back of your computer and start your computer back up (since it will be off when plugging in the new card). It's all pretty self explanatory. After that, you're going to want to use the CD that came with it to install the drivers to make it work right.

You can now play Skyrim on the highest settings possible, with room to spare.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0047ZGIUK/ref=sr_1_2_olp?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1373757585&sr=1-2&keywords=AMD+5850&condition=used

You can even get a 6850 which is a generation newer than the 5850 for $100 and you would be fine until you need to build a new PC. It might even handle BF4 on medium settings, depending on how CPU dependent it is.

Yes. Actually the 6850 HD graphics card can run at max settings at 1920x1080. As along as you don't go above HD resolution you'll be fine and will get 45+ FPS. You'll need a modern dual core processor to handle WvW. It's a CPU and GPU intensive game...

Just make sure and buy a desktop that has a slot for the graphics card and has a power supply you can upgrade.

I'd consider this
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Gateway+-+Desktop+-+8GB+Memory+-+1TB+Hard+Drive/5424601.p?id=1218644416142&skuId=5424601

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-PCI-E-Video-100315L/dp/B0047ZGIUK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346880058&sr=8-1&keywords=6850

For $135 dollars, can easily get a 6850.
Even includes an extra $15 rebate, knocking price down to $120

Radeon hd 3800 series so I guess I'm not crossfiring anytime soon. Also the card I have my eye on currently is this card

Some other ones I'm looking at include:

GIGABYTE ATI Radeon HD6850

HIS Radeon HD 6870 1 GB (256bit)

So I guess I won't be able to crossfire unless I spend 300 bucks which I could but, is it worth it? I just want guild wars 2 to run on ultra. I play other games like Tf2, Dota2, Torchlight, and Aion, but I'm not running dual monitors or anything. Any advice would be appreciated.

yes that'll do. If you want to save on tax and shipping, go Amazon.

Dimensions: 6.5 x 3.5 x 11.5 inches

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-PCI-E-Video-100315L/dp/B0047ZGIUK

Though that doesn't really sound that right.

Would this be what you are referring to?

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-6850-Video-100315L/dp/B0047ZGIUK

Is this compatible with the rest of the parts?

Z68 Motherboard
ASRock Z68M/USB3
$85

GPU
Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6850
$135

• http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908
  
  Definitely get the Radeon HD 6850.
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-DL-DVI-I-SL-DVI-D-PCI-Express-100315L/dp/B0047ZGIUK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304124473&sr=8-1
  
  
• http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+6850

Found it! Good deed of the day. Free shipping too :)

Sorry wrong card :(

Price sucks but here it is

Full list

The 460 se really isn't a bad card but I think what diogenesbarrel is saying is that for the same price, you can get a much better performing card such as this one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908&cm_re=6850-_-14-102-908-_-Product

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-DL-DVI-I-SL-DVI-D-PCI-Express-100315L/dp/B0047ZGIUK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310786610&sr=8-1

It's 10 dollars more but then has a $15 mail in rebate on both of those sites. It performs as well as a regular 460 at a much better price.

Kinda just need a hold me over til i get more money for a better card... kinda thing.. lol

i found this http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-6850-Video-100315L/dp/B0047ZGIUK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8

Which is 125 after mail in rebate... Might just get it.

Does amazon.com ship to New Zealand? If so.

Not sure if they charge different rates for you guys.

Here is what i used as my pricing guide https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0047ZGIUK/ref=dp_olp_used_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=used https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00HJOXUKC/ref=dp_olp_used_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=used that 290x for 190 was a great deal