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I think my 8800GT is on its last legs, spec an upgrade please!

andy_mk3

andy_mk3

andy_mk3

Soldato
Joined
5 Oct 2009
Posts
14,353
Location
Spalding, Lincs
I kept getting COD4 locking up after about half on hour of play, I assumed it was the game at fault as all other games were fine until I tried BF:BC2 where it's doing the same. The whole computer locks up totally, the sound just goes 'duuuur' until I do a hard reboot. I've tries flashing the BIOS twice, to both lower and higher clocks, tried some really old drivers, and tried without the OC on my CPU, none of which make a difference. It never gets above 50c gaming either so it's not overheating, although I have tried the stock cooler and re-fitting the other cooler with fresh paste but nothing makes any difference.

I've been contemplating an upgrade for a while now anyway, so now's the time I think.

So some info, I play at 1920x1080 on a 24" screen, I play GTA IV, COD4, BF:BC2 and Just Cause 2 mostly, although I will be investing in a few more games in the near future I think. I'm not after amazing FPS at everything, as long as it's smooth I'm happy enough.

Looking to spend around £150-200 max, I don't mind going 2nd hand if there's a big enough advantage although I'd prefer new ideally.

System spec in sig.

Thanks in advance :)
 
Easy, 6950 2GB, an overclocked version if you can find one for £200.

If you play GTA IV regularly, you will want a powerful card with more than 1GB of memory as the game can easily chew through 1GB of VRAM at your monitor's resolution.
 
Bobisuruncle54 said:
Easy, 6950 2GB, an overclocked version if you can find one for £200.

If you play GTA IV regularly, you will want a powerful card with more than 1GB of memory as the game can easily chew through 1GB of VRAM at your monitor's resolution.
Click to expand...

Honestly a 1 gig card would be good enough at that resolution.
 
ScottMC7000 said:
Honestly a 1 gig card would be good enough at that resolution.
Click to expand...

You would think that, but actually it isn't. 1GB isn't enough to run it at max at 1920x1080 and above.

Edit: Don't get me wrong, if he wasn't playing GTA IV, a 1GB card would be fine. But to run the game at maximum settings without the memory bottleneck, you will need about 1.2GB of RAM, and that's before any mods are loaded such as iCEnhancer, ENB, trainers, etc.
 
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Thanks a lot :) I'll keep an eye out for a 6950 2gb then. Although it might have to wait a bit now, I've seen something for my car :p
 
andy_mk3 said:
Thanks a lot :) I'll keep an eye out for a 6950 2gb then. Although it might have to wait a bit now, I've seen something for my car :p
Click to expand...

No problem, you can find the 2GB versions for £190 if you look elsewhere. :)

D13 said:
oc sell refrub 470's for £140
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-163-OK&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2077

imo thats a really good price, 470 are still mean cards (i believe they trade blows with 560 ti's)
Click to expand...

Nice find, a GTX 470 is still a good card, and should just about have enough memory to last for 1080p.
 
May be of relevence - I'm also looking to replace an 8800GT in the near future, and found that an AMD 6850 is about 2x as fast while operating within 2 watts of the same power requirements, and a 6870 is about 15-20% more for another 25 watts. Course if you're going to be buying newer and newer games over time, these may not be powerful enough for you - I'll only be playing SWTOR, BF3 and WoW with mine :)
 
Thanks for the info! Will have to see how funds are as I've seen something for my project car which is a little pricey!

I've spent hours trying to sort my 8800GT but it's not having it :( I flashed the BIOS back to the original, went back to some very old and known stable drivers, also took off the heatsink and stuck on some more of the small heatsinks onto a few bare chips to make sure they weren't overheating, and put IC Diamond on it too, but no difference! :p Even tried running the game in windowed mode to monitor GPU-Z while gaming, but the temps never went past 47c, so it needs replacing.
 
In other news, MY 8800GT has randomly died tonight. Perhaps it couldn't handle being the last of its kind in this vast universe of ours.

I believe I shall replace it with a 6870 Twin Frozr, because I want BF3 at 1920x1200 and I'm not quite sure its little brother 6850 will suffice...

Anyone care to give me a good reason NOT to get such a card for BF3, SWTOR and WoW? (The only games I'm likely to play in the next 5 years!)
 
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Damn, they're all dying off :p To be fair it's been a brilliant card, and with the arctic cooling accelero s1 and a 120mm fan bodged onto it, it runs sooo cool and quiet.

4ce27dcd-1.jpg


I think I'm swaying towards the 6950 more than the 470, it's slightly better in performance and a lot better with power consumption and heat.
 
wow 4 drive bays thick! niiice...
I put some weird blue Vortex Neo cooler on my 8800GT, remember it kept freezing after I did it, thought I'd broke it. (bricked myself) then I realised that the new cooler didnt have heatsinks on the MOSFETS, so I taped some ZALMAN VRAM heat sinks onto the mosfets and that was the last of the freezing.
Long storey short, botching is goood.
 
Phil3 said:
wow 4 drive bays thick! niiice...
I put some weird blue Vortex Neo cooler on my 8800GT, remember it kept freezing after I did it, thought I'd broke it. (bricked myself) then I realised that the new cooler didnt have heatsinks on the MOSFETS, so I taped some ZALMAN VRAM heat sinks onto the mosfets and that was the last of the freezing.
Long storey short, botching is goood.
Click to expand...

i have just done that to my SLI 8800GTs and noticed the VRAM didnt have a heat sink ... only just bought the coolers 3 days ago (95* load to 60*!)and just bought a 640 GTX, so probably no point in throwing away more money :/
 
Oh yeah, it's been a lovely thing to date - one of the MSI's with the big, silent zalman cooler on it. No complaints about 4 years of loyal service, just gutted that it's pegged it so close to the 7000 series launch! I was hoping for 3x FPS at half power draw :(
 
Ordered - happily on this week only :)

(Ever wonder if OCUK see you checking out their stock and EMP your PC when you're feeling weak and vulnerable?)
 
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