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8800 GTS died, need upgrade for around £100

Coke

Coke

Coke

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Joined
15 Apr 2007
Posts
35
MY 8800 GTS 320mb, starting artifacting and locking up my computer the other day when playing Empire Total War. I checked the temps and they were getting up to high 80c much hotter than normal, the card was hot to the touch. Anyway I cleared out the heatsink which was pretty clogged with dust. Temps returned to normal and it seemed fine played Fallout 3 and Empire total war for a couple of hours each without problem.
Booted up today, and went to play total war and same problem again, rebooted and now there is corruption/artifacts permanently on the screen and the res has reset to 640x480 and i cant change it. Temps seem normal, just can't see why it seemed to work fine after I cleaned the dust out, and now it just seems totally rogered.
Well seen as it was Birthday yesterday, luckily I have a bit of spare cash to get a new card. Budget is like £100, Here's 3 I've looked at, any advice or alternative suggestions would be greatly appreciated:
Did look at a 9800GT but aren't they just virtually the same as below, the prices are virtually the same anyway so
XFX GTS 250: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-128-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1402
XFX 4850 "XXX edition": http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-127-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

I have a E8400 with 2 gig of ram, which would give me best performance at 1640x1050 with some AA. If anyone else has any other suggestions within my budget, they are welcome,
 
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Had a similar problem go wrong with a 8800GTS 640MB from eVga, got it RMA'd and they sent through a Akimbo 9800GT. Not bad for 2 years old but considering your budget you will be better off getting a 4850. And the only cards i have owned are nVidia :)
 
I've got a 4850 myself and coincidently play empire total war and fallout 3 also at the same res as you too. It'll meet your needs as long as your not too fussed about playing things like crysis on highest settings cos u'll need an entirely different animal for that. They're not terribly power hungry cards and so far ive had no problems with mine however i have a saphire as oppose to XFX. Should be a step up from your 8800 anyways.

I can't speak for the 250 as i know nothing about them really, i'd imagine they are fairly similar perhaps someone else can be of more help here. Should you chose get the 4850 it may run quite hot so be warned. ive had mine up to 90c tho this is cos i have a rubbish poorly ventilated case. Sorry i couldnt be much help with the 250.

good luck mate
 
Yes wish I could RMA mine, but me being stupid I didn't register it...
May well be picking up the replacement today, and am still undecided from some of benchmarks I've seen both cards outperform each other in certain games, although in some of the games I play (Fallout 3, Call of Duty WaW) the Nvidia edges it. And I do prefer Nvidia, I've never owned and ATI. On the other hand a lot of people do seem to be recommending the 4850...
 
The GTS250 and Radeon 4850 are so similar in performance, you'd be best off judging on subjective grounds tbh. Personally I'd go for the GTS250 as I prefer Nvidia cards :) But either would be a very good choice.
 
Yeah personally I do prefer Nvidia, but I just don't know anymore a lot of people seem to think 4850 would be a good choice...
I really do need to come to desicion soon though as hopefully I will be nipping down to Overclockers later today to pick up which ever card I decide to buy...
 
I have just moved over to ati as I have been avoiding them in the past due to bad drivers, however they seem to be better with their drivers than nvidia atm. As far as power goes nvidia are generally more powerful, but I'd say that ATI have a better price : performance ratio at the moment.
 
With the res you mentioned I think its very even, throw of a coin, you won't be disappointed either way. If you gamed at a higher res I'd probably give the radeons the edge, though at a very high res I'd be suggesting the 4870.
 
Ive never had an ATI card either, but if I was buying a new card these days ATI seem to be doing a bit better... and no dodgey renaming going on by them to confuse you! haha. Is the 250 not just a slightly fancied up 9800, which is a slightly fancied up 8800? :p

go for the 4850!
 
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