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Best GPU possible

Jakstaar2007

Jakstaar2007

Jakstaar2007

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Joined
17 Apr 2009
Posts
1,789
Location
East Northants
Hi all.
I am looking into purchasing the OCZ ModXStream 600W Modular PSU currently on offer and i am just wondering what card i could realistically run on it.

I am currently using a 9800gt and i only have 1 PCIe slot.

Thank you

Jack :D
 
Need to know how much u want to spend and what resolution monitor u game on. Regarding 600W any single modern card should be absolutely fine on that!
 
not too bothered about cost atm to be honest, just wanted to see what options i had, but if pretty much any card will then that is great.
And btw i run my system at 1680x1050 reolution, but am looking at going for a ~24" at 1080+.
 
Best bang for buck at the moment are the GTX260/275 or HD 4890 cards and will all be good at 1080p. If spending a bit more the HD 4870X2 (2 GPUs on one card) is fantastic by all accounts and better than all of those.

Next in line would be the GTX 285 but it is considered overly expensive considering it doesnt perform much better than the GTX 260/275 and is often beaten by the better priced HD 4870X2.

At the very top end of the scale is the GTX 295 but is well known to be only a little faster than the HD 4870X2 but costs over £100 more.

If buying today i would choose 4890 or GTX 275, but i'm currently holding off to see if the new ATI 5800 series cards are released in the next month as these will be a significant performance boost over the current generation.
 
hmmmm, tempting. However, i am not looking to be in debt for the next few years of my life ;)

Just bought the PSU. Next up is the graphics card. Thanks for the help.
I would like decent performance but heat is also a big issue for me as i am still actually using a Dell XPS 420 (as the Motherboard is BTX) and the cooling on that isn't great even though i have upgraded all of the fans to enermax ones.

Thanks again!
 
GTX 260 is cool and quiet, same can probably be said for GTX 275 and 285 but i havent used them. The ATI's have notoriously bad coolers unfortunately so need to be louder to keep the same temps as the nvidias.
 
so nVidia is the way to got then? Has anyone had a 9800gt and then upgraded to one of these card recomended above that can give me an insight into temperature difference between the two. As my 9800gt needs to be at 50% fan speed ( bit loud) to keep the temps belows 65c. Just want to know how this compares.

Thanks again for all of the advice! :D
 
Ive just upgraded from a 9800GTX to a GTX275 this weekend! Took delivery of the card this morning and Im pretty darn impressed!! :) Im also using 1680x1050 as well and the main thing for me is I can now play Crysis at very high with 4xAA at a decent fps. Not sure if somthing cheaper like the GTX260 would achieve this for less but Im not bothered now, the 275 is great haha. I'd recommend it, especially after this weekends price drops
 
Also, thinking about it. i'm not sure whether i could get away with a x2 card. My heatsink has a shroud that creates airflow from the front fan over the heatsink and the only way i could fit an X2 card in is to remove the shroud (thus possibly increasing CPU temps)

here is a picture of someones XPS 420 with the shroud on:( Not mine as i'm too lazy to set up the camera, but he has pretty much the same set up (GPU wise)
dsc00770lk0.jpg


from this thread


and another thread i found with someone who removed the shorud to fit in a card:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18028479&highlight=dell+xps+420

So what do you think now? :P
 
Didnt really monitor my 9800GTX often but remember it getting upto 80C sometimes.

Just ran a few loops of the GPU benchmark in Crysis, DX10, very high etc and at 40% fan speed it settled at 75C after about 2 mins. Obviously upping the fan speed would be louder but would reduce those temps more. Plus it was only running about 10 mins, may go up more after an hours gaming for example
 
Nice, cheers for that. Better than my 9800gt, on Crysis, DX10, all settings High, i struggle to kep it under 80c with fan speed at 70% :( lol

It is like being inside a wind tunnel if i haven't got the sound blaringly loud. :D
 
Tell me about it. It's not even if i can easily change it as the motherboard , if i remember correctly, just has two screw holes instead of the standard 4.
 
Jakstaar2007 said:
so nVidia is the way to got then? Has anyone had a 9800gt and then upgraded to one of these card recomended above that can give me an insight into temperature difference between the two. As my 9800gt needs to be at 50% fan speed ( bit loud) to keep the temps belows 65c. Just want to know how this compares.

Thanks again for all of the advice! :D
Click to expand...

Not really, depends on who you talk to.

The nVidia cards are a bit overpriced at the moment considering their performance.

The 4890 and GTX275 are about on par with each other.

The cheapest 4890 is about £140 whilst the cheapest GTX275 £150.

Only £10 so it's not too bad, but I'd say any extra money for the same performance is unecessary really. Saying that, 4890s overclock pretty well so there's loads of extra performance to have out of them.

They both come with a free game too.
 
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