Worthy upgrade from ATI 4890

[BlackDragon]

Hi All,

I've been out of the loop with regards to hardware for a year or two now. I got the 4890 for £160 originally, which was a bargain for the performance I got. Now it struggles on some things, so I'm looking to upgrade again.

My computer specs:
ASUS P5K Motherboard
E6600 C2D
4GB Geil Ultra (shiny orange memory)
Corsair 620W
ASUS ATI 4890

From what I've seen, my choices are the 6950 or the pre-overclocked Gigabyte GTX480 that is currently on offer. My only worry with the overclocked card is the power draw, noise, and any possible instability issues. A couple of people I know have overclocked rigs (pre-overclocked cards/systems) that seem to have all sorts strange problems which may or may not be attributed to the overclocking.

I game at 1920x1200 resolution, and I'm not looking to spend more than £250 if possible.

Thanks

 

[azazin]

Personally I think a 2GB Rev 1.0 6950 would be the best choice as you can flash it to a 6970

 

[arc@css]

You won't have any problem regarding noise or heat with either of the Gigabyte cards, the SE and SOC. You've essentially listed the best cards from AMD and nVidia for the money, so that helps narrow things down. The 6950 has lower power draw and providing it's a revision one model it can then be flashed to 6970 speeds. The 480gtx's on offer supposedly have less power leakage than the original reference models, though how much better they are in that department I do not know.

Edit : Just noticed your cpu. Is it overclocked?

 

[tommybhoy]

The 6950 revision 1 and flash it.
If you take a good look through the forum, you will see loads of guys having major trouble with the 480 soc. I used to recommend it or the 6950 but not any more. My guess is if you were to get the 480 soc you will ultimately have to spend even more(an extra £100+) on a high powered psu in order to run it without the artifacting problems people are having with it.

 

[BlackDragon]

Edit : Just noticed your cpu. Is it overclocked?

I've only mildly overclocked it to 2.8Ghz. Never really tried pushing it!


Thanks for the advice so far, I guess I'll be going for the 6950 and then attempt to flash it to a 6970. Something new I will have to learn to do

So given the above, I take it I want one of these two:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-192-XF

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-119-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

Same price, and look identical to me. Any recommendations out of these two or any 6950?

Thanks

 

[~>Dg<~]

cpu would be bottleneck pie. would either get q6600 and card and clock or just get new mobo cpu instead of graphics.

 

[TerryH]

cpu would be bottleneck pie. would either get q6600 and card and clock or just get new mobo cpu instead of graphics.

If he had any other card I would have totally disagreed with you.. but you're right. 4890 is still a keeper, go get a super duper Phenoms or sandy