Best bang for buck 9800GT upgrade

[K1LLSW1TCH]

Hello.

I'm looking to upgrade my graphics card after recently upgrading my RAM and seeing what effect it's had on my gaming, I'm looking to spend no more than £120-130 and I prefer Nvidia.

Specs are as follows:

Asus P5N-D SLi
E8400 @ Stock
4GB 800Mhz OCZ Gold
512MB 9800GT

Cheers in advance.

 

[easyrider]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-004-OE&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=927

 

[Ritsugamesh]

Problem is, the item is on pre-order, so no knowledge of when it could arrive.

I know you prefer nVidia, but seeing as you haven't said no completely to ATi, then I would recommend a 4890 for better performance and similar price, a 4870 for similar performance at around £100 or a 5770 for slightly sub-par performance but new tech at £120ish.

The only other cheap nVidia option available today would be a 250, which will underperform a 4870 at a similar price point:- http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-121-OK&tool=3

What resolution do you play on generally? as anything above 1650x1080 will mean you probably want 1gb of video memory, to help with texture filtering etc.

 

[Hotwired]

Would have said 4890 anyway but they're all gone and if rumour is correct they're only going to become less available :/

 

[K1LLSW1TCH]

I play on a widescreen resolution; 1360 X 768. Even if some of those cards are newer tech but would run at the same speeds / slower than my current cards then I see no point in upgrading. Would it be better to just save the money and put it toward a new system instead?

 

[rhys216]

I play on a widescreen resolution; 1360 X 768. Even if some of those cards are newer tech but would run at the same speeds / slower than my current cards then I see no point in upgrading. Would it be better to just save the money and put it toward a new system instead?

No, just up your graphics budget.
5850 gunna be your best option.

 

[Randomface74]

What's wrong with a 9800GT? I use it at 1920x1200 without any problems, your res is much lower.

 

[britain]

Isn't a 5850 ATI?

 

[gurusan]

At that resolution there's not much point in upgrading from a 9800GT in my opinion.

Clock your E8400 though...

 

[rhys216]

Isn't a 5850 ATI?

Edit:
Hang On.

OP how about you buy yourself a decent monitor, and then get a decent GPU upgrade if you actually want an improvement over what you got now.

And if you 'prefer' Nvidia then you don't really have any good GPU options available.
As for the the CPU, it is plenty good enough...

 

[gurusan]

nvidia has nothing to offer at the moment. Buying a brand new GTX 260 for nearly 140 quid at this point would be retarded. Could always throw another 9800GT in SLI... either way you should clock the E8400

 

[OpenToSuggestions]

As others have said, you prefer Nvidia but at the moment they are WAY behind ATI as their new gen cards are not out yet, yet the NVIDIA cards cost as much as ATI's new ones!

Get a 5770
There is no reason, at all to buy Nvidia at the moment.
As for your cpu, my e6600 clocked at 3ghz is slightly underpowered for my 4890. Clock your cpu to 3.6-4ghz, it will be easy enough as yours is 45nm (mine cannot do 3.6ghz as gets too hot, but it is a 65nm chip).

 

[rhys216]

nvidia has nothing to offer at the moment. Buying a brand new GTX 260 for nearly 140 quid at this point would be retarded.

Actually OP I change my mind. It sounds like your best option is to get a new GT200c based card. Keep an eye open for a GTX360 for about £200 it should have mind blowing PhysX.