Upgrade advice from OCed 8800GTX WC

hughythomas · 5 Sep 2008 at 16:45

Hi everyone!

Just looking for some advice over my GFX upgrade. As well all know its a very exciting time for us consumers with a vast array of fantastic products on sale for great prices - but I am having real difficulty choosing which card to buy!

My current specs:

Asus P5K-E Wifi Mobo
Intel Core2Duo E 8400 @ 4.02Ghz
4GB OCZ Reapear 8500
NVIDIA 8800GTX (heavily overclocked)
Housed in a Silverstone TJ07 and watercooled with 1/2" tubing, EK blocks and Thermochill PA120.3

I use this PC purely for gaming. I love TF2, UT3, Assassins Creed, Flatout UC and Gears of War. However, I am totally unsure of which card to buy atm. I like the idea of a single chip card solution as I heard that crossfire and sli are hassle but the 4870x2 does look tempting. Anyways, for these aforementioned games and future proofing myself what would you lot recommend as a worthy upgrade for my rig out of the following?:

1. ATi 4870
2. Nvidia GTX 280
3. ATi 4870x2
4. Nvidia 9800GX2

Remember, I have watercooling so I would need a block as well and I do not want to spend over £350 if at all possible!!! Thanks for taking the time to read my post! Look forward to hearing from you soon!

Tom

P.S My mobo has crossfire support but only offers a max of 4 lanes on the second PCI-E slot so no dual gpu suggestions please

wombraider · 5 Sep 2008 at 17:09

I had a 8800GTX ( which popped its cloggs ) , I opted for a GTX280 as a replacement

8800GTX - not overclocked 13,200 3dmark06 ( cpu 3.3 Q6600)
GTX280 - not overclocked 16,600 3dmark06 ( cpu 3.2G Q6600 )

I had to upgrade due to my card checking out , if I were in your shoes
I wouldnt bother upgrading right now ( unless you a struggling with a fav game - excluding crysis )

N19h7m4r3 · 5 Sep 2008 at 17:55

I've got myself a 8800GTX OC'ed

I'm running perfectly fine on a 24".

I'd say you should hold off until the next batch of cards come out.

The performance increase isn't really noticible unless you run eveything at max with like X16 AA.

So unless you're struggling, there's really no need to upgrade.

J.D · 5 Sep 2008 at 21:03

What resolution do you game at?.

I made the jump from the 8800GTX to the 4870 and it easily beats the former in every title I've tried so far.

TheRealDeal · 5 Sep 2008 at 21:11

Get a 4870 it will easily beat your 8800gtx by around 30% and most likely more when you add in some aa. 8800gtx has had its day prob one of the best cards ever but it can't compete with a 4870. Even the guy that tested the cards over on nv site they said the same. gtx280 is faster but not when you consider the big price difference. If you want the fastest card available get a 4870x2.

TheMagic1an · 5 Sep 2008 at 21:43

IMO, just keep your GTX for the moment. There will be new nvidia cards soon, so maybe best to see how they are first.

marl · 5 Sep 2008 at 21:55

If it ain't broke don't fix it! An upgrade only makes sense if you get a noticable improvment.

ACESHIGH · 6 Sep 2008 at 03:26

This....

TheRealDeal said:
Get a 4870 it will easily beat your 8800gtx by around 30% and most likely more when you add in some aa. 8800gtx has had its day prob one of the best cards ever but it can't compete with a 4870. Even the guy that tested the cards over on nv site they said the same. gtx280 is faster but not when you consider the big price difference. If you want the fastest card available get a 4870x2.

hughythomas · 9 Sep 2008 at 14:36

Thank you kindly for the replies guys! I appreciate what some of you are saying of holding back a bit but I like eye candy/smooth fps. The 8800GTX has been good for over a year in my rig but I can't clock it any higher and games are starting to lag below the 30fps mark. I'm becoming increasingly tempted by the 4870 but I cant decide between this and its x2 counterpart!

Has anyone got the 4870x2 and wants to make a point of how awesome it is???!!!

Many thanks

Tom

lunarwolf · 9 Sep 2008 at 15:01

i upgraded from 8800gtx (starting to struggle all maxed settings

in some new games at 1900x1200) to 4870x2 and it does the trick. if you game you will appreciate esp for high res and max settings.

J.D · 9 Sep 2008 at 21:11

If you'd rather save some cash then the 4870 will be an upgrade also. I was willing to send the 4870 back if it wasn't much faster than my 8800GTX. Guess what, (don't look at sig

) it was

.

If the money is burning a hole in your pocket well........... it's X2 time!!

.

Doppleganger · 10 Sep 2008 at 01:36

Hmm don't say thinks like that JD. It's bad enough trying to resist as it is but my trusty 8800GTX deserves an easy retirement, even though it's still ploughing through games fine at 1650x1080. But... But...time for lines!

I will not upgrade to a 4870x2 x 500!

1) I will not upgrade to a 4870x2
...
...
500) I will not upgrade to a 4870x2

There, I almost snapped and now I have been punished for it.

MR.B · 10 Sep 2008 at 06:25

I've had all the cards mentioned in the original post, and whatever you do dont get the GX2, they be turds, and also like all last gen cards they have worse/less colours than the newer NV 2xx and ATI 4xxx series with there 10-Bit internal colour processing and 10-Bit colour output. This is both with desktop and in games. I can easily notice this myself, colour variations and gradients are smoother, whites are whiter and so on, but it wont be as noticeable on a poor - average monitor.

Stay away from 512MB cards if you run at 1920x1200 or higher. While the 4870 is a decent upgrade over a 8800GTX, for me it wasn't enough of an upgrade, and a downgrade in memory amount over a 8800GTX (i only got one while waiting for X2).

Personally i'd go for the GTX 280, with me the X2 was not worth the extra money over the 280 even for my 2560x1600 monitor, the performance increase is not enough, especially if you get a good OC out of the 280. The X2 is also overkill for anything less than a 2560x1600 monitor.

Oh and dont waste your money of pre-overclocked rubbish! my stock Gainward 280 for £255 has OC'ed to 740MHz core, 2.6GHz memory. Thats higher than the highest pre-overclocked 280 for £400!
I also had another 280 that reached 685MHz core, 2.5GHz memory, again (slightly) faster than the £400 BFG pre-overclocked 280.

J.D · 10 Sep 2008 at 08:03

Doppleganger said:
Hmm don't say thinks like that JD. It's bad enough trying to resist as it is but my trusty 8800GTX deserves an easy retirement, even though it's still ploughing through games fine at 1650x1080. But... But...time for lines!

I will not upgrade to a 4870x2 x 500!

1) I will not upgrade to a 4870x2
...
...
500) I will not upgrade to a 4870x2

There, I almost snapped and now I have been punished for it.

If you're resolution is 1920x1200 or lower then get the 4870. Mr.B has just mentioned that one 4870 has less memory than the 8800GTX but that means absolutely nothing so I don't know why he mentioned that? :confused:

. Any benchmark or review will prove me to be right in this one, as will any owner of the 4870. He bought a 512mb card for 2560x1600 though which wasn't the best idea

.

8xAA will have the 4870 on par with the GTX 280 even at 1920x1200 but obviously some games run better on Nvidia/ATI so it varies. Some the GTX 280 will take the lead, others the 4870 will and mostly even between the two at 8xAA, at 4xAA the GTX 280 is faster in most situations. Regardless of that, the 4870 whoops! the 8800GTX, so the lesser memory of the 4870 isn't a factor here.

There's only one game so far that's been crippled with 8xAA @ 1920x1200 and higher and that's Grid. 4xAA even at 2048x1536 is playable but I get the best performance at 1920x1440 with 4xAA. This resolution and amount of AA applied is a LOT faster than my GTX which ran this game at 1600x1200 with 4xAA. The problem with Grid is the only situation so far that I've seen 8xAA being crippled.

Another point is that the 4870 at stock destroyed my overclocked 8800GTX (630Mhz core/1630Mhz Shader clock/1000Mhz memory). Then you can go overclocking with the 4870 and further that. The GTX 280 would be a good upgrade also but if you're at 1920x1200 or lower then you could save money and be within touching distance of the GTX 280 at 4xAA and on par @ 8xAA (except Grid

).

MR.B · 10 Sep 2008 at 08:59

J.D said:
If you're resolution is 1920x1200 or lower then get the 4870. Mr.B has just mentioned that one 4870 has less memory than the 8800GTX but that means absolutely nothing so I don't know why he mentioned that? . Any benchmark or review will prove me to be right in this one, as will any owner of the 4870. He bought a 512mb card for 2560x1600 though which wasn't the best idea .

Well i only got the 4870 to last me 3 weeks 'til the X2 was out so i didn't want anything too expensive

i knew it wouldn't cut it for my res (sent it back and got a full refund on it anyway!).

But the memory does matter, you sometimes get faster game loading times with 1GB cards (my 280 or X2 will load Mass Effect, Crysis and Oblivion faster than my 4870 did), and it's very hard but you can run into memory limitations on the 4870 512MB @ 1920x1200, but only on certain newer texture heavy games with a ton of AA (99% of games will be fine with any level of AA).
I only mention it because if someone is getting a 512MB card for 1920x1200 it might be very hard to run into memory limits at that res for now, but it's a problem thats only going to get worse. So if someone plans on buying a 512MB card now and keeping it for a year or more then i'd advise them to stay away from it.

I dont know what res hughythomas plays at, but with the money he has to spend and if he plans on keeping the card for some time like the 8800GTX then i think a 280 is a good choice.

hughythomas · 10 Sep 2008 at 14:57

wow! All of your comments have been so insightful guys thank you! TBH, it's not as if I'm MADE of money here so the 4870 does sound nice. However, I am willing to save for the 4870x2 if you lot think its worth it??? I game on a Dell 2407WFP 24" monitor and play games all my games at 1920x1200. Is the 4870x2 still overkill for this res ya reckon mrb?

Tom

P.S I am planning to overclock the living **** outta whichever card I get so I'm still tempted by the 4870!!! lol arg!!!!

kmufc77 · 10 Sep 2008 at 18:11

get the 4870

lunarwolf · 11 Sep 2008 at 03:23

i have a a 24 inch dell, and it's not overkill if you like to max things out. Many games comin out and the 4870x2 will become essential, somehow i think Farcry is going to require a beast of a card.

4870 is not like a 280. Cut Nvidia some slack, no way I would say that a 4870 is on par with a 280, simply not the case. 4870 was great bang for buck, but with 280 prices going down - i would pick a 280 over 4870 anyday of the week.

TheCenturion · 11 Sep 2008 at 07:52

if you have to buy now, listen to these guys, 4870 or 280, you can get the 280 and block for about £340 which is in your budget. but otherwise hold out for a few months, if games are lagging, turn aa down and af down slightly

J.D · 11 Sep 2008 at 18:41

MR.B said:
Well i only got the 4870 to last me 3 weeks 'til the X2 was out so i didn't want anything too expensive i knew it wouldn't cut it for my res (sent it back and got a full refund on it anyway!).

But the memory does matter, you sometimes get faster game loading times with 1GB cards (my 280 or X2 will load Mass Effect, Crysis and Oblivion faster than my 4870 did), and it's very hard but you can run into memory limitations on the 4870 512MB @ 1920x1200, but only on certain newer texture heavy games with a ton of AA (99% of games will be fine with any level of AA).
I only mention it because if someone is getting a 512MB card for 1920x1200 it might be very hard to run into memory limits at that res for now, but it's a problem thats only going to get worse. So if someone plans on buying a 512MB card now and keeping it for a year or more then i'd advise them to stay away from it.

I dont know what res hughythomas plays at, but with the money he has to spend and if he plans on keeping the card for some time like the 8800GTX then i think a 280 is a good choice.

Fair enough on the 4870 purchase for 2560x1600

.

Well I know that you've had experience with all of these new cards so I respect your view. I just didn't agree one bit with the memory thing you said regarding the 8800GTX as the 4870 beats that card comfortably. I would have got rid of my 4870 if I didn't feel it was a decent upgrade and surprisingly it was (for me). As for the 1920x1200 being limited on the 4870, from the games I've been playing I've only ran into this problem with Grid so far but obviously the games we play will be different. As for load times, well you'll know better than me

. As for the 512mb being a problem a few months down the line, I can't see it but obviously the card with the bigger amount of RAM would help if the situation ever did come up.

If you've got the money hughythomas* then get the GTX 280. If you'd rather save then get the 4870 and if you want the fastest and don't mind spending £100 more than the GTX 280 then get the X2 4870. I wasn't trying to say that the 4870 is a better card than the GTX 280 but it's quite close for £70 odds cheaper.

* = Edit