8800 GTS Replacement Recommendations

unclelonghair · 2 Jun 2012 at 16:54

My trusty 8800 GTS is now showing it's age, and I need something with more VRAM in order to play newer games at a decent detail level (specifically TSW). I can't afford to replace the rest of my system at the moment (E6750, 4Gb RAM) so no point in buying anything cutting edge as it would just be limited by the rest of my system, however I will upgrade at some point so am looking for a card which could cope in something like an i5 system.

AMD cards seem to offer the best bang for buck at the moment, but the fly in the ointment is that I run a dual monitor setup so need something with two DVI connectors, and the majority of the AMD cards only seem to have one.

Would like to spend as little as possible, and cetainly under £200. GTX480 or GTX560 Ti seem like the obvious choices, but is there anything I have missed?
Would these be overkill with my current system and the 460/550 a more appropriate choice?

Thanks in advance.

Marine-RX179 · 2 Jun 2012 at 17:23

Don't bother I have to say. You 8800GTS is just about on balance with your current CPU...upgrading to faster graphic card you will just see no improvement on performance with the CPU bottleneck.

spixelspixel · 2 Jun 2012 at 17:25

Marine-RX179 said:
Don't bother I have to say. You 8800GTS is just about on balance with your current CPU...upgrading to faster graphic card you will just see no improvement on performance with the CPU bottleneck.

proof? his cpu isn't 'that' bad. he also said he's going to upgrade his cpu in the future.

I'd get a 560 ti 448 if I had 200 pounds. 7850 if you don't mind having to overclock to get the most out of it.

arc@css · 2 Jun 2012 at 17:26

At the most, I would look to a 460 or 6850, because as you know, your cpu would be a major bottleneck for anything faster, such as the gtx480.

Marine-RX179 · 2 Jun 2012 at 17:38

spixelspixel said:
proof? his cpu isn't 'that' bad. he also said he's going to upgrade his cpu in the future.

My E5200 overclocked to 3.75GHz is bottlenecking even my 9800GTX+ in my other PC when playing games online (particularly those with lots of people)?

My old Q6600 overclocked to 3.6GHz would bottleneck my 5850 (around 8-10% faster than 6850) quite hugely in games that use less than 4 cores.

Also, my friend's i3 2120 (gaming performance around as fast as Core2Quad and Phenom II X4 overclocked to 3.8-4.0GHz with all 4 cores used) would bottleneck his GTX560Ti 2GB when playing BF3 online.

So...unless you have experienced with different set-ups and have a rough idea on balance level between CPU and graphic card, I would suggest you best NOT to advice someone to spend £200 on something which he will get no or mimimal improvement in return due to the CPU holding him back.

spixelspixel · 2 Jun 2012 at 17:42

Marine-RX179 said:
My E5200 overclocked to 3.75GHz is bottlenecking even my 9800GTX+ in my other PC?

There will always be bottlenecking no matter what components you use. Either the cpu or gpu is going to reach its max fps before the other.

He said he wants to play new games on high settings. An 8800gts is going to bottleneck him before his e6750 does in this case. It all depends on what he is playing but he will see an improvement in most cases

unclelonghair · 2 Jun 2012 at 17:50

The problem is that 512Mb isn't enough to play The Secret World on anything but the lowest detail level - to be able to up the detail level I need more VRAM - so a 1Gb card.

So something like 6870 or 460 would be my best bet then?

arc@css · 2 Jun 2012 at 17:53

For now, I wouldn't spend any more than this :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-163-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866

unclelonghair · 2 Jun 2012 at 17:58

arc@css said:
For now, I wouldn't spend any more than this :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-163-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866

Thanks - just spotted that after I posted - would this be worth the extra £6 for the better cooling even though it's a lower clock speed?

Marine-RX179 · 2 Jun 2012 at 17:59

spixelspixel said:
There will always be bottlenecking no matter what components you use. Either the cpu or gpu is going to reach its max fps before the other.

He said he wants to play new games on high settings. An 8800gts is going to bottleneck him before his e6750 does in this case. It all depends on what he is playing but he will see an improvement in most cases

I'm very certain his current CPU won't even get the GPU usage over 40% on 7850 in demanding scenes where it counts. So paying 7850 to get 5770 performance is good advise?

spixelspixel · 2 Jun 2012 at 18:02

Marine-RX179 said:
Right...so telling him to get a 7850 is good advise? I'm very certain his current CPU won't even get the GPU usage over 40% on 7850 in demanding scenes where it counts.

Better advise than telling him not to bother upgrading at all, he also said he will be getting a new cpu in the future so nothing wrong with buying a good card now. Makes more sense to get a new graphics card than a new cpu/mobo/ram and then pairing it with an 8800gts.

arc@css · 2 Jun 2012 at 19:46

unclelonghair said:
Thanks - just spotted that after I posted - would this be worth the extra £6 for the better cooling even though it's a lower clock speed?

Even better.

Marine-RX179 · 2 Jun 2012 at 22:49

spixelspixel said:
Better advise than telling him not to bother upgrading at all, he also said he will be getting a new cpu in the future so nothing wrong with buying a good card now. Makes more sense to get a new graphics card than a new cpu/mobo/ram and then pairing it with an 8800gts.

Right...so spend £200 right now to get no real noticable improvement is better than upgrading his graphic card WHEN he actually remove the CPU bottleneck by upgrading the rest of his system? By the time he upgrade his system, he would be able to get a better, faster, newer card for £200.

His current CPU would struggle to even hold minimum frame rate at above 25fps in the slightly more demanding games...so there's no point pairing a 7850 with it.

I don't know where you getting you ideas from, but I got first hand experience using 5850 with Q6600 overclocked to 3.6GHz, and I was extremely annoyed with how the frequently the 5850 getting bottlenecked with frame rate dropping to down to low 20s and with the GPU usage dropped to as low as 60% at times. You are telling the OP to get a even faster card (7850) to pair it with a CPU that's not only got two less cores than my Q6600, but also with lower clock speed as well?

If you OP had a overclocked Core2Quad, then he might get away with upgrading the graphic card first and the rest of his system in the future; but with just a Core2Duo that's not E8xxx, then no...just no. The CPU bottleneck will frequently kick in way before 6850 or above becomes GPU bounded.

If the OP insisting on upgrading graphic card, then he should go no higher than 6850, as it will still be marginally better than his current card with the CPU bottleneck, at least he wouldn't have to blow another extra £100 for nothing, but the depreciation in value of the card.

spixelspixel · 2 Jun 2012 at 23:27

Marine-RX179 said:
Right...so spend £200 right now to get no real noticable improvement is better than upgrading his graphic card WHEN he actually remove the CPU bottleneck by upgrading the rest of his system? By the time he upgrade his system, he would be able to get a better, faster, newer card for £200.

His current CPU would struggle to even hold minimum frame rate at above 25fps in the slightly more demanding games...so there's no point pairing a 7850 with it.

I don't know where you getting you ideas from, but I got first hand experience using 5850 with Q6600 overclocked to 3.6GHz, and I was extremely annoyed with how the frequently the 5850 getting bottlenecked with frame rate dropping to down to low 20s and with the GPU usage dropped to as low as 60% at times. You are telling the OP to get a even faster card (7850) to pair it with a CPU that's not only got two less cores than my Q6600, but also with lower clock speed as well?

If you OP had a overclocked Core2Quad, then he might get away with upgrading the graphic card first and the rest of his system in the future; but with just a Core2Duo that's not E8xxx, then no...just no. The CPU bottleneck will frequently kick in way before 6850 or above becomes GPU bounded.

If the OP insisting on upgrading graphic card, then he should go no higher than 6850, as it will still be marginally better than his current card with the CPU bottleneck, at least he wouldn't have to blow another extra £100 for nothing, but the depreciation in value of the card.

You are underestimating an e6750. Sure its not the best cpu but it is still decent and most games still do not utilize more than 2 cores. His gpu on the other hand is useless for any recent games at decent settings. A 6850 is a good choice but if op is going to upgrade his cpu soon and he can afford a better card now then he may as well just get the better one now rather than ending up wanting to upgrade the 6850.

Marine-RX179 · 3 Jun 2012 at 07:38

spixelspixel said:
You are underestimating an e6750. Sure its not the best cpu but it is still decent and most games still do not utilize more than 2 cores. His gpu on the other hand is useless for any recent games at decent settings. A 6850 is a good choice but if op is going to upgrade his cpu soon and he can afford a better card now then he may as well just get the better one now rather than ending up wanting to upgrade the 6850.

No, you guys are OVERESTIMATING the 5 years old E6750 (especially one at stock clock), and from the sound of it the OP don't really know much about overclocking or if it is something he's prepared to do. As for the point of most games still not utilising more than 2 cores, it is even MORE of a reason why a faster CPU with higher IPC is needed, as the older dual-core simply don't have the grunt to provide the scaling for the more modern cards (as I mentioned, my Q6600 at 3.6GHz frequently bottlenecked my 5850 in games that use less than 4 cores).

I guess at the end of the day, it is really depending on how soon until the OP will be able to be able to upgrade the rest of his system...if it's in 6 months or less, then it might be worth getting some better on the graphic side for now, but if it was something like not for another 2-3 years, then it is absolutely pointless to get anything better his current card right now (may be a 2nd hand 5770 would be a good option, as he will be able to resell it in the future without much loss).

unclelonghair · 3 Jun 2012 at 08:56

Hopefully I will upgrade sometime in the next 3-6 months. My E6750 is currently running at 3.2GHz. Don't want to push it any further than that as the clips on my original cooler broke and I had to stick in a stop gap replacement to keep it working. It's probably about the limit on my system anyway as the room my PC is in get's pretty warm at the best of times.

When I upgrade I will be looking at something similar to this (or whatever is available at the time) - would a 6850 still be "adequate" in a system like this, or is it going to be £100 wasted, and I end up having to spend another £150-200 straight away?

Marine-RX179 · 3 Jun 2012 at 09:40

unclelonghair said:
Hopefully I will upgrade sometime in the next 3-6 months. My E6750 is currently running at 3.2GHz. Don't want to push it any further than that as the clips on my original cooler broke and I had to stick in a stop gap replacement to keep it working. It's probably about the limit on my system anyway as the room my PC is in get's pretty warm at the best of times.

When I upgrade I will be looking at something similar to this (or whatever is available at the time) - would a 6850 still be "adequate" in a system like this, or is it going to be £100 wasted, and I end up having to spend another £150-200 straight away?

The biggest problem with old Core2 gen CPUs it will not make the most out of 7850 and therefore in most games it wouldn't even be faster than a 6850 that cost over £100 cheaper. However if you are certain you will have the money for upgrading the rest of you system soon then yes it might worth getting the 7850 over 6850, as the CPU would no longer be an issue, and you will be getting all the extra performance the 7850 has over the 6850, rather than extra £100 for not extra performance. But bare in mind that until you upgrading your CPU/platform, with your E6750 at 3.2GHz the 7850 will only roughly providing 5770 level performance for the next 3-6 months.

Another note is that it would probably worth getting the IvyBridge i5 3570K over the SandbyBridge i5 2500K, as despite the i5 3570K temp is higher, its IPC is higher than the i5 2500K and would give better frame rate in CPU intensive games. Also, it has native support for PCI-E 3.0 (it doesn't make more different for graphic performance at the moment, but it is a nice bonus). This should give you a rough idea:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2012/05/01/intel-core-i5-3570k-cpu-review/6

Barry1987 · 3 Jun 2012 at 10:59

spixelspixel said:
proof? his cpu isn't 'that' bad. he also said he's going to upgrade his cpu in the future.

I'd get a 560 ti 448 if I had 200 pounds. 7850 if you don't mind having to overclock to get the most out of it.

Agree. Don't think they read his post properly.

To unclelonghair - Get the HD 7850. There is one selling at £180. HIS is a good brand. Better hurry though as the price won't last forever. Personally, though, I would go for a Sapphire or MSI Twin Frozr III/IV. Sapphire and TF III are £200 each and the IV is like £220.

Marine-RX179 · 3 Jun 2012 at 12:24

Barry1987 said:
Agree. Don't think they read his post properly.

And some people clearly hasn't seen the various threads of people (with dated Core2 systems) asking why their GTX470, 6950 etc isn't performing anywhere close the the performance of shown in graphic card reviews.

Barry1987 · 3 Jun 2012 at 12:26

Marine-RX179 said:
And some people clearly hasn't seen the various threads of people (with dated Core2 systems) asking why their GTX470, 6950 etc isn't performing anywhere close the the performance of shown in graphic card reviews.

Hence why he said he is considering upgrading in the future. That was my point. :rolleyes: