GPU Advice

I've spent the past few hours sifting through all the overwhelming information and options but I am not sure which direction I want to go. So time to abuse the post function!

In short, my 5850 play's every game I throw at it. My current committed title is BF4; with the right settings I can manage 50-100 FPS (mix of low and medium). Although, I and a few friends will buy new and old games at random and in bulk just to waste money and time, either from discount places or Humble Bundles. Nothing has been "unplayable", in fact, everything will always play at medium or better at my choice resolution of 1600x900, sometimes 1920x1080. To give you an idea of the range, we're talking indie games like Killing Floor, to big titles like Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite, even Crysis 3. So an upgrade is something I'm entertaining since I don't want to part with my M15x, nor do I posses the funds for anything new at the time.

Something inexpensive that can offer MORE bang for the buck then my 5850. If I can totally avoid flashing any BIOS/firmware, even better. Anything in the $300 range is where I'm comfortable. I must retain HDMI output.

- The 6990m is something I'm leaning towards most. I'm seeing them from $60-$300.

- 660m and 765m are two nvidia options I see in my $300 bracket.

 

I had a 6990m and quickly sold it on. It runs very hot and does not offer huge performance increases compared to the cooler running 7970M and gtx 680M which both offer much much better performance.
One option is to keep an eye on the NBR Marketplace for someone selling one of these cards for somewhere in your budget. The GTX 880M exists now so it may might 680M prices drop a bit.

Any nvidia card will need driver inf file tweaking and the GTX 680M needs a vBIOS flash. 7970M is plug and play but can run stock clocks at a big undervolt allowing it to run very cool indeed!

 

None of them are officially supported but we have seen more, and better results with the 7970. It runs a lot cooler and causes less issues.

 

Yeah not a fan of vBios flashing. Out of my confort-zone, rather not brick a new 300-500 dollar card LOL! The INF is minor, did it back in the day with the Inspiron 1520 all the time with the 8600GT.

As far as the 6990, because apparently any benchmark comparisons I try to find done exist anymore, what percentage of a gain in performance over the 5850 did it offer?

 

Not sure but I think I pushed 3200 graphics score in 3DMark 11 on my 6990M before it exploded (joking). My 7970M can easily get 6800 graphics score....