Graphics card upgrade - from an 8800 GTS

[CookieRocks]

Hi guys

Had my current rig about 2 and a half years old now (though some parts are newer than that) and want to make a few improvements so the latest games actually play reasonably well.

Below is the current spec.

Q6600 @ stock
Corsair TwinX 2GB DDR2 6400
Gigabyte P35 DS3 mobo
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS SuperClocked 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI
Corsair HX 520W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply

Monitor is a 26" Samsung HDTV, that'll be replaced with a Dell S2409W, so I'll need a new graphics card to finally enjoy a higher resolution than 1360x768

I have ~150 quid to spend I guess, and no preference to ATi or nVidia.

 

[CookieRocks]

In terms of noise, which of the two is quieter?

 

[CookieRocks]

Thanks for advice all

Re: OC'ing the Q6600.. I'd love to, but it absolutely will not POST if *ANY* of the settings are touched it seems, no matter how slight the OC, it doesn't even try to boot.

 

[CookieRocks]

^ Looks like it's an issue with the board, seems like other people suffer from it too.

No matter how slim the clock, it doesn't POST and resets itself.

As well as doing the wonderful double reboot too

 

[CookieRocks]

Have you tried updating to the latest bios for the mobo?

Yep, running F9 bios from the Gigabyte site, still showing exactly the same issues.

 

[CookieRocks]

Did all of that

Disabled C1E, TM2 and EIST. Set the Robust graphics whatsit to auto, increased the clock frequency to anything above standard (just to 268x9), SPD to 2.0, upped the memory voltage to 2.1v, increased FSV volts a bit, relaxed memory timings, bumped vcore a bit, and the MCH voltage up too

Still didn't boot