Help with purchase decision

[Zaphrod]

Hi,

I am looking to buy a new graphics card, not because my current card isn't fast enough for me but because when trying to play Rift on linux through wine I get a lot of strange graphical glitches when using my ATI HD 4890.

The general concensus is that nVidia Binary drivers are better than ATI in linux so I have tried an old GTX8800 which plays this game with nary a glitch in sight but is too slow.

So my question is, taking my PC spec below into account and the fact that when playing games in linux through wine you lose at least 10% FPS in most games and that it generally doesn't play nice with SLI (in that it causes a lot of games to crash) what would the best nVidia graphics card for me? I can afford a GTX580 but don't want to spend money unnecessarily as I am looking at a big upgrade in about 6 or 8 months time.

Mobo Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R
CPU Intel Core 2 duo e8400
Ram OCZ 4GB PC2-8500C5 1066MHz
HDD Hitachi DeskStar 1TB SATAII
OCZ StealthXStream 600w Silent SLI Ready

I know this is a lot of variables so I really appreciate the time anyone takes to reply.

 

[Kanpai]

GTX560Ti or GTX480 (be warned the GTX480 uses a lot of power/heat)

 

[95thrifles]

IMO the 560 is best for price/performance/noise and will still max most games at 1080p, I've just ordered a KFA2 560 to upgrade from my 4890 (was previously running 2 in xfire) and its due in the next hour or so

 

[[timko]]

Another vote for the 480 seeing as it's just under £200 until this Weds morning...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-222-AS

Plenty of performance straight out of the box but, as mentioned above, it sucks power like there's no tomorrow and gets hot enough to negate the need for central heating in a large house.

 

[Zaphrod]

GTX560Ti or GTX480 (be warned the GTX480 uses a lot of power/heat)

Thanks, I would like to avoid heat and noise if I can help it so the GTX560Ti sounds like the better choice, I suppose I should also mention that my monitors max resolution is 1680x1050 so is there any benefit to be had with the 2048mb version?

IMO the 560 is best for price/performance/noise and will still max most games at 1080p, I've just ordered a KFA2 560 to upgrade from my 4890 (was previously running 2 in xfire) and its due in the next hour or so

Another vote for the 560, I would be interested to hear what performance increase you see.

Another vote for the 480 seeing as it's just under £200 until this Weds morning...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-222-AS

Plenty of performance straight out of the box but, as mentioned above, it sucks power like there's no tomorrow and gets hot enough to negate the need for central heating in a large house.

I am not too concerned about heat but what is the noise like? My PC is in the conservatory so in the winter some extra heat would be welcome but in the summer it might be an issue.

 

[Zaphrod]

Having had a look at the benchmarks for the 2 cards it seems that the GTX480 is signifcantly faster in some and as good or better in the rest so I think I will take the risk on the power thing and go with the GTX480. Thanks for your help all.

Edit: Order Placed, should be here tomorrow