new graphics card?

[weeman]

Hi, I'm having a bit of trouble picking a new graphics card for my machine.

My PC at the moment has a 8500 gt which is pretty ****ty on new games such as L4D, even tho it's on an oldish engine.

I mainly play source games such as L4D and CS:S.

And my budget is about £100 (maybe max of £120)

I've been thinking about either a 8800gt or a 9800gt but I'm willing to jump ships to ATI seeing as their prices are lower for equivalent cards, the only downside of that is that i have a sli mobo :/.

So all suggestions/opinions are welcome.

 

[Skyrider]

I have a 8800GTS 640MB Video card, and I can play CS/L4D/HL2 with ease. I do get some drops in TF2 to about 60FPS depending on what map part I am, but I can play the game just smoothly without kind of problems. The NVIDIA Cards are always good, so I prefer them instead.

 

[wheres_]

I have a 8800GTS 640MB Video card, and I can play CS/L4D/HL2 with ease. I do get some drops in TF2 to about 60FPS depending on what map part I am, but I can play the game just smoothly without kind of problems. The NVIDIA Cards are always good, so I prefer them instead.

Don't listen to this man.

Buy a HD4870 512, 1gb, or x2 Best cards on the market- and it's like an actual fact too, unlike the nonsense he dribbled.


"The NVIDIA Cards are always good, so I prefer them instead" PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTT

 

[DiebytheSword]

Its hard to beat ATi's price point and more solid future proofing at the moment. The 8xxx series of cards clearly demolished the 2xxx and 3xxx cards from ATi, but ATi is back this time around with a very solid bang for the buck.

While I agree with Where's that you need to look at the 4870HD, I will also back Sky's statment that the 8800 is still a solid card. I just wouldn't recommend buying it now. I have an x1900xt and it still performs very solid.

 

[Spunky]

Your choice is basically between the Radeon 4870 and the GeForce GTX 260. They're about the same price, and perform about the same. Look into what each offers technology-wise before you choose though. If you want to shell out the money, you could go for the GTX 280 which is a beast and destroys any other single GPU card out there, but I don't think it's worth the money right now.

 

[Almighty_Gir]

lol, i have an nvidia 7900GS, and i don't have problems with ANY games.

not buying a new one until my pc can't physically play anything

 

[wheres_]

lol, i have an nvidia 7900GS, and i don't have problems with ANY games.

not buying a new one until my pc can't physically play anything

K let's see you crank crysis warhead, max settings 8xAA at anything over 1440*900 with that card

 

[guest]

K let's see you crank crysis warhead, max settings 8xAA at anything over 1440*900 with that card

Crysis isn't as difficult as most people say, I can run it at totally cranked up 1600x1050 with no problems. Well, except for the fact that it's a really boring game and I un-installed it after an hour.

 

[wheres_]

Crysis isn't as difficult as most people say, I can run it at totally cranked up 1600x1050 with no problems. Well, except for the fact that it's a really boring game and I un-installed it after an hour.

Hmm I don't mind it, play it on a hella hard difficulty and be sneaky about the whole thing. I love stealth and play spy in tf2 so it's like- totally my thing.

But anyway yeah, If you have cash and a massive psu, grab a hd4870x2. If your not so loaded grab a hd4870 1gb. Both are excellent cards and run everything out there.

 

[weeman]

i brought a 8800gts lol

only cost me £70 so it wasnt that bad of a deal

 

[Devion]

NVIDIA cards are better performers stability wise and user friendlyness and would recommend them to any non tech savvy.

Besides with your budget the max of what you can get is a HD4850 and these cards get REALLY hot.I should since I have two of those babies in Crossfire, both mounted with a custom cooler.(Scythe Musashi)

Get a 9800GTX+(Or the HD4850 when you have sufficient airflow and know a thing or 2 about VGA´s) and you won´t have to worry about anything.(Cooling, drivers etc.) Do think about your PSU before you upgrade.

 

[Skyrider]

Get a 9800GTX+ and you won´t have to worry about anything.(Cooling, drivers etc.)

How so? No drivers updates at all?

 

[Devion]

How so? No drivers updates at all?

......bit of a tardish comment to make.

You always need to upgrade your driver, regardless of the manufacturer. NVIDIA tend to have less bugs and dont need to update as much.

 

[Skyrider]

Sorry, but you made things confusing by mentioning that he doesn't need to worry about driver updates.

 

[Devion]

Sorry, but you made things confusing by mentioning that he doesn't need to worry about driver updates.

I was refering to driver problems, not the updates. A little bit of miscommunication on my part.

 

[Skiwan]

hey devion, good to see ya around again

to be ontopic:
I got a 3870 HD last year and it works beautifully now, though i did have to get a replacement since the first one i had went nuts. Since that happened I kinda lost some faith in ATI.

 

[Devion]

hey devion, good to see ya around again

to be ontopic:
I got a 3870 HD last year and it works beautifully now, though i did have to get a replacement since the first one i had went nuts. Since that happened I kinda lost some faith in ATI.

Offtopic: I got spammed by Skyrider automatic emails and thought, ah what the heck. You guys did miss my birthday though! :E (9 dec)

Ontopic: Your videocard replacement sounds more like a hardware failure then driver failure.