Thoughts on the XFX RADEON HD 6790?

hey sam, you and I have the same dilemma and the same budget so you remind me of myself when i was scouting for the budget card yet getting the best out of today's games, and at first i wasnt really thinking of myself as a heavy gamer or a big glutton of higher resolutions so I was stuck with these 3; 6770, 6790 and 6850, i was thinking of having the same budget as you do because if i go higher then id end up getting higher and higher due to people's suggestion of future-proofing or just adding a bit more money and wait to get the suggested cards.

At first i went and researched them all, ended up researching the 6770 and it was great,then my friend told me he had a supplier who had a turbox HIS radeon 6790 OC 2nd hand selling at said budget i didnt go for it until a week later then he told me it was already sold so it sucked to be me, at first i was doubting the duration and quality of 2nd hand items then i told myself i could get something even better and higher 2nd hand at the same price of brand new lower versions of the GPU, then i started telling myself to get more confidence and sense of security i should get something brand new, at first i was baffled if i should go for the powercolor, powercolor vortex, or ASUS brands, prices were 5,400, 5,500 and 5,950 pesos respectively (yes i am from the philippines) i was leaning on ASUS because it was a better-known brand and i was thinking the more expensive it is the better the quality then i researched some more that the main difference between brands was cooling pipes and what-not, so the GPU stays the same, i thought the ASUS looked cooler because of the big heat pipes and all and i was scouting stores and all then i came across one that sold the card at an even cheaper price; 5,600 pesos and i took into consideration that the max resolution of my AOC monitor is only 1366x768 and last time i checked 6770 could max out games 1680 resolution, and this monitor is new so i have no plans on changing it as of the moment.

So it was sunday afternoon when i surfed a couple more reviews about the 6770, i came across a site where people were having a great time with it and how solid of a card it really is, requires 1 pcie power connector(which is why that i changed my generic PSU to a coolermaster to get the 6770 because it needs only one) so i went to the store and purchased it popped it in installed AMD's latest drivers and voila i was gaming left for dead at max,then downloaded FEAR,Dead Space,Devil May Cry 4,Skyrim etc all at said resolution and at MAX, i will test it out on crysis though but i have nothing to worry because of the max resolution my monitor is in, this card can pretty much handle anything being thrown at it so just a suggestion, id say go for the 6770 its pretty solid, cheap,great card for its value and if you are not a huge glutton of higher resolutions like i am, you can't go wrong! sorry for the long long rant

The 6790 is a pretty good card. Similar core stats (shaders and ROP's) or the 6770 but UVD3.0 and a 256-bit interface (DOUBLE the bandwidth of the 6770). The more bandwidth, the merrier. I have a 6850, snagged it off the Egg for $135, which is around the price of most 6790's.

It will not play BF3 on ultra, nothing in your budget would and even if it could the CPU would bottleneck it. I've never played Mafia 2 but you can search some benchmarks for it.

Hes playing at a low frame rate, and his monitor isnt that nice.

Well I forgot to tell you my resolution 1600x900

Anyway if I bought the 6850 well it be good for playing ultra bf3 ??

Im not 100% sure but id say yes.
This build is similar to yours
http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/8117384.page
Since your not playing at 1080p i would think you could max it out... but dont hold me to that.

Id say anyone waiting to get a 6850/6790 should either get the new XFX 7700 series card which is retailing for $179 which is the SuperOverclocked Black Edition, the normal one is only $109.99! and the performance range is similar to the 6790/6850 and its a brand new GPU but im going to wait until the 20th until the 7800series comes out (I think and hope)

Go on Newegg. Look at prices. Look at article on Tom's comparing the 7770 to the 6850. Then buy 6850 instead.