Like I said before, Im running a 22" monitor and a 9600 GT for God's sake and Im running Dead Space, Left 4 Dead and Bioshock at well over 60-70 FPS with the graphics at max!! So yeah, if a $70, 3 year old, midrange GPU can play 90% of the games out there with max graphics, a $450 5870 is going to be overkill.
With Crysis, I set everything to Medium, Shaders on High and no AA or AF and I can get a little over 30 FPS in DX10 and over 40 in DX9. For Crysis and Crysis Warhead, I agree, a 5870 would be great to get all the eye candy and great frame rates from these games on a 22" and if you can afford a $450 video card then God bless. BUT, Im not sure how many people wouldnt rather turn off AA and AF and set Water to Medium and enjoy 50 FPS with a $130 5750.
I dont judge what is or isnt overkill by a game that you need a $600 video card to get 60 FPS with max graphics. I judge that by the other 99% of games.
In relative terms these are what I was considering as older games "Dead Space, Left 4 Dead and Bioshock", go ahead and try out Stalker COP or Dirt 2, or even GTA. With titles predating DX11 implimentation like teslation sure the a 5870 is overkill for a 22" monitor, but for newer DX11 titles coming out right around the corner it is a different story entirely, and because of this I would not feel wrong by suggesting a 5870 for 22" monitor, I highly doubt by the end of this year it will be considered overkill...future proofing.
I admit Crysis is a bad example, btw I have both vanilla and warhead, not much difference......anyway.
I'am going to buy a 5970 soon, Ill be posting a 5870 with a DD water block soon for sale for less then this $450 you speak of, I only paid $367 the first week of launch from Newegg btw, one of the few times I haven't gotten burned for being an early adopter and beating the price gouging that ensued ....hehe
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