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Decisions,decisions...

razerbwfc

razerbwfc

razerbwfc

Associate
Joined
16 Apr 2007
Posts
690
Location
Bolton
Hi all.

It's been a while since I upgraded, currently running a [email protected] and a 4870 on a Dell E228WFP and am looking to upgrade graphics card and monitor on a budget of about £550.

After much reading and pricing up, I'm torn between going for something like a 6970/580 and a decent 24" monitor, or toning the graphics card down a bit and getting a 120Hz 3d monitor. I'm not too fussed about the 3d side of things (so the glasses etc aren't needed, can always add them at a later date), but the smoothness of 120Hz for gaming sounds appealing.

Ideally I'd like a 580 plus an Asus VG236HE, but thats going to stretch my budget a bit far, so I'm going to have to settle somewhere in the middle I think.

So what do i do ? Powerful card and normal 24" monitor, or decent card and shiny 3d monitor ? Any experience/advice is much appreciated :)
 
This

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-078-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1750

or

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-192-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

or

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

The 2 6950's are revision one so you can flash them to 6970 specs. The gtx480 comes with a custom cooler which makes it a much better choice than the stock gtx480 which gets slated for being loud,hot and power hungry.

These cards are only 15-20% slower than a gtx580 and are nearly half the price. this will leave you much more money to spend on a decent monitor while still have loads of gpu power.

What psu do you have as the gtx480 does suck up a lot of power.
 
Thanks for the reply.

I've got a Zalman 750W, which I hope should be sufficient.

Must admit I am leaning towards a 6950 and flashing it (sounds easy enough but need to read up more) and then plumping for a 3d monitor as that should come well within budget.

But, my problem there is that if I want to try out the 3d glasses shizzle at some point, don't I need an Nvidia card ? If I do, then I would presume the 480 is possibly my best choice.
 
You can use third party glasses with an amd card. Its not hard to do from the stuff i have read but i would create another thread asking about peoples experience with this. Amd 3d support got a whole lot better with the 6 series cards though.
 
Hmm interesting. I haven't read much on using AMD cards with 3d monitors, at least most of the stuff I've looked at has mentioned that you really need an Nvidia card.

Time to google some more then :)
 
Well the more I've read, the more I fancy the 480. AMD and 3D doesn't sound too inspiring and if I go for a 3d monitor, I may as well give myself the option to at least try the 3d side of things out in the future.

Shame they don't stock the gigabyte card in my local retailer, as i work 2 mins away. Oh well, have to suck up the delivery charges and make sure I'm off the week I order it :)
 
Quick update. After much deliberating and changing my mind umpteen times, my local competitor has just reduced the KFA2 GeForce GTX 480 LTD OC ANARCHY to sub £200 so I've plumped for that as it seems to get very favourable reviews.

Also went with the LG W2363D 120Hz monitor. Should be going picking them up tomorrow, woop woop :D

Thanks all for the replies :)
 
Last edited:
Picked them up today and am over the moon. Performance is awesome @ 1920x1080 and everything maxed out. Card runs very quiet at 30% fan speed and idles around 35 degrees.

Now to the benchmark the T**ts off it and see what I can get it clocked to :D
 
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