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Decisions decisions, help someone completely out of touch

TheBigCheese

TheBigCheese

TheBigCheese

Soldato
Joined
6 Sep 2005
Posts
3,783
Hi guys

I've been chugging along with my Nvidia 8800GTX for quite some time now but I've realised that for games such as Fallout 3 I'm starting to have to turn down the graphics options...I haven't even gone near the latest Call of Duty games so I don't know how well it would hold up in those.

I am completely out of date with graphics cards and have no clue how they compare anymore, from the comparison graphs I found the 8800GTX wasn't on there anymore. :(

If you were buying a new card and had around £200 to spend (ex vat) what would you be looking for and how does it compare?

I will be using it on a 24" screen running at 1900x1200 and would like all the options turned up to 11 if possible.

If it's any help it would great if it could help in day to day computing such as using Photoshop (though I believe they have to use Quadro cards), and video encoding such as Badaboom.

Thanks for any advice, I'm completely lost with this one!
 
Slightly off topic, but Black OPs is not too graphic demanding, but it is however a huge CPU hog that don't perform to well with ANY dual-core CPU, but love the extra cores (ideally you should have a Quad for that game). As long as you got a Quad-core at decent speed, your 8800GTX should be fine with 4xAA even at 1920:
http://www.techspot.com/review/336-cod-black-ops-performance/page5.html
Your 8800GTX should be above the performance of 9800GT and 5670, but just slightly below the 4850 1GB. Granted you would be looking at around minimum 25fps and average 35fps, but it's playable (as long as you don't get hit by the game's performance bug...which I don't know if it's been fixed yet) and if you would drop AA to x2, that should give some boost to frame rate.

Now onto upgrade, if you are prepared to spend around £200+exc. VAT, then you should probably wait for 6950 or GTX570 do duke it out and hope that their price will drop to, or at least close to your budget level. But if you only got a slow dual-core, may be it would be better for your to upgrade to a cheap/2nd hand Quad-core and go with a 6850/GTX460 instead.

And as someone already point out, it would be good if you can post the specs of your system, and definitely the make of the PSU.
 
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Thanks for the replies guys, I will read them in detail later but I've noticed the spec request (told you I'm out of touch lol).

Spec is:
CPU - Intel i7 920 at stock* RAM
RAM - 6GB DDR3 Corsair
Graphics - BFG 8800GTX (non OC version)
Motherboard - Gigabyte EX58-UD5
PSU - Enermax 850w
HDDs - 8 + boot SSD
Audio - on board
OS - Windows 7 Pro 64bit

*I don't trust myself to OC, it needs to be stable, it's my business machine as well as leisure PC

I should note that a major deal breaker for me is noise, I don't fancy changing graphics card fans so it needs to be quiet out of the box for day to day running (non gaming).
 
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TheBigCheese said:
Spec is:
CPU - Intel i7 920 at stock* RAM
RAM - 6GB DDR3 Corsair
Graphics - BFG 8800GTX (non OC version)
Motherboard - Gigabyte EX58-UD5
PSU - Enermax 850w
HDDs - 8 + boot SSD
Audio - on board
OS - Windows 7 Pro 64bit

*I don't trust myself to OC, it needs to be stable, it's my business machine as well as leisure PC

I should note that a major deal breaker for me is noise, I don't fancy changing graphics card fans so it needs to be quiet out of the box for day to day running (non gaming).
Click to expand...
With that system I would say you best wait and hope for the 6950/GTX570 to be priced at £240~£260 soon. You don't 'need to' overclock the i7 920 if you don't want to, as it at stock speed 2.66GHz is already as fast, if not faster than a Q6600 at 3.6GHz. If you don't want to spend to much over £200, then I would try to look for either a 5870 or 6870 which comes with a quiet custom cooler as default, as the reference "blower type" cooler can get a bit noisy. Or you could go for the GTX470 with a quiet efficient cooler:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-104-MS&tool=3
 
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Thanks for the replies guys, I really appreciate your speedy input. :D

Price drops have been mentioned a few times...I can see the sense with the other components in the system it makes sense to spend a few more beans on a card that can keep up with the system but I am *really* wanting the card for Christmas.

I am giving myself a three week Christmas holiday, the missus will be away for much of it so I am finally going to have some real downtime for gaming (bliss!), so a pre Christmas purchase is a big goal for me.

Are there big price drops or expected new products coming on the market in the new year?
 
iamtheoneneo said:
just get a 5870 seriously....price cuts or not for the money atm you cant really get much better and a card like that will see you through for years.
Click to expand...
The problem is the only 5870 avaiable for under £200 is VTX and XFX. The VTX is not a great brand, as it is owned by Powercolour; whereas the XFX, their custom cooler for their 5870 Black Edition deliver a loud whine making it more annoying than reference "blower cooler" according to bit-tech's review...and from the looks of it, their standard 5870's custom cooling is the same cooler solution/fan, so the noise can be annoying...

It's a shame that there's no Sapphire 5870 Vapor-X or the Gigabyte 5870 with their Windforce custom cooler available for under £200...
 
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Argh, decisions decisions!

OK...what about above £200 (ex VAT remember) would tick all of the boxes I will look there but not too much more eh? ;)

The ATI links are interesting...how are they for video recoding? I've only had Nvidia and they have always talked about the additional benefits of using the power of GPUs for other things (even in games with PhysX - Mirrors Edge was ace)...how does ATI do with that?
 
TheBigCheese said:
Argh, decisions decisions!

OK...what about above £200 (ex VAT remember) would tick all of the boxes I will look there but not too much more eh? ;)
Click to expand...
Probably a GTX560, which is rumour to be out in January...but it would be too late as you won't be able to game during the X'mas period :D

The VTX 5870 for £180 would probably be fine in terms of noise with their custom cooler, but it still the warranty/RMA service that worries me. But if I'm not mistaken, I think I read that the 2 years warranty for that card is directly with OcUK, so you might not need to deal with VTX if the card does go wrong...

Edited: Found Gibbo's post, go to #13 at the following topic:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18213218
It does seem to be 2 years warranty directly with OcUK
 
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TheBigCheese said:
Argh, decisions decisions!

OK...what about above £200 (ex VAT remember) would tick all of the boxes I will look there but not too much more eh? ;)

The ATI links are interesting...how are they for video recoding? I've only had Nvidia and they have always talked about the additional benefits of using the power of GPUs for other things (even in games with PhysX - Mirrors Edge was ace)...how does ATI do with that?
Click to expand...

PhysX isnt used much in games anyway, you could use your current card soley for physX if you wanted anyway
 
According to the other thread, it seems that some of the VTX 5870 that people received is using a reference blower type cooler instead of the custom cooler pictured, so OcUK now can no longer guarantee that the VTX 5870 people buying will definitely has a custom cooler...
 
Going by the cards you guys have recommended what do you think of the EVGA 570GTX? It's above my original budget but I do want something that will last a good few years (I like the 10 year warranty) and I would want it to keep pace if I upgrade the system in the future.

I can't find any benchmarks at the moment but I'm still looking...I also can't find mention of why people think the price might be dropping soon...:confused:
 
Do not buy a GTX570 at current prices (unless you can find one more like £240), its hideously poor value for money.
 
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