£250-300 GFX Upgrade decisions?!?!

[steve2095]

Hi,

My current PC spec is below (albeit with an additional 2gb Ram), this was what I purchased 4 years ago exactly and it is still going strong. How ever I am now having to run games on low and BF2 even says my GFX is not capable even though it plays well (on low)

So I have a dilemma do I part upgrade, thinking the gfx (hence the board choice) or do I save up a bit more and look at a more extensive overhaul?

I have a budget of up to £300 (Woot! Christmas Bonus!) that may have to include a PSU depending on gfx card. Any recommendations?

Games I am playing at the moment, BF2, Old Republic and Skyrim shortly.

Cheers!


Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAKS)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency Dual Channel
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - Black (EarthWatts 500W PSU)
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
PNY GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

 

[spicypixel]

Hard to say, I had a Q6600@ 3.2ghz and was playing bf3 on lowish settings and was still failing to hit 60fps, got an i7 2700k @ 4.4ghz and now the same 5870 is pushing medium high @ 60fps.
You might be close to being cpu bottlenecked now.

 

[Guru]

I'm in the same boat, I oc'd my Q6600 to 3ghz and have ordered a GTX570. (coming from a GTX 285 running BF3 on medium)

Hoping I don't regret it when AMD announce the 7950.

 

[Mojo]

I'd say wait, because very soon the 7 series will be out, price drops all around! If not, I'd say get the £265 6970 Twin Frozr edition *link*, it easily overclocks beyond 1ghz, giving you stock GTX580 performance.

 

[James J]

Get a second hand 580GTX if you can with people who might choose to go for a 7970. Personally I won't be, but I know a few might jump ship and you might get a bargain due to that.

 

[Surveyor]

I'd say wait, because very soon the 7 series will be out, price drops all around!

Not necessarily any significant drops given the likely prices of the 7 series cards.

If not, I'd say get the £265 6970 Twin Frozr edition *link*, it easily overclocks beyond 1ghz, giving you stock GTX580 performance.

It may overclock to 1GHz and beyond:

- Huge overclocking potential (1000MHz+ Core possible though not guaranteed