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New graphics card help please - High end

*Chris

*Chris

*Chris

Associate
Joined
1 May 2007
Posts
1,658
Location
London
Hi guys,

Going to upgrade my 8800GT as I will be getting a nice shiny 24" screen, but have a couple of questions as to which GFX card I should go for. I play CoD4 at high settings + will be at 1920*1200 (the more fps the better).

I've narrowed it down to the big 4:
4850, 4870, GTX 260, GTX 280 (I'm not really interested in x2 due to compatibility issues so many people have).

My budget is effectively unlimited, but the cards must meet the following criteria:

Not be overly noisy (my 8800GT with the small fan can be a bit of a pain at times) - The quieter the better.

Good airflow - gets rid of most of the hot air out the back of the case, my 8800GT just kept recirculating hot air and things got toasty.

Easily powered: I have a Corsair 620W and don't want to have to buy any extra wires / adaptors, does everything I need come with the 4870 / 280GTX?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks
 
4870 would be my choice.

you will need 2x 6pin pcie connector

if you want to overclock the card, you may also want to add a 3rd party cooler to it as it is not a quiet card when you alter the stock cooler's fan speed above what ati has it set at.
 
it will be down between the 4870 and the gtx280, beware of the fan boys. Its a hard choice between the 2.
bang for buck or speed etc, then you have directx 10.1,PhysX etc for me its a hard choice and i cannot make up my mind either way.
good luck.
 
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Just be aware both cards (4870 and GTX 280) have their own teething problems. In the case of the 4870, driver problems mean you may not be able to get a DVI signal on your TFT if you are running Vista (VGA works fine). I'm not sure how widespread this problem is but ATI are aware of it and are seemingly working on a fix.
 
Can't really fault my Leadtek GTX 280 so far. Was expecting some incompatability problems with my PSU but they provided everything I needed. 2x 6 pin to 8 pin lead, 2x molex to 6 pin lead, DVI-VGA, DVI-HDMI, SPIDIF passthrough for HD audio over HDMI and Assains Creed :)

Manually set the fan speed to 65% with Riva Tuner 2.09 which makes the card slightly audible but not noisey and the temps only get up to 80 degrees, was actually expecting 90+.
 
darwin said:
Just be aware both cards (4870 and GTX 280) have their own teething problems. In the case of the 4870, driver problems mean you may not be able to get a DVI signal on your TFT if you are running Vista (VGA works fine). I'm not sure how widespread this problem is but ATI are aware of it and are seemingly working on a fix.
Click to expand...

Not heard of the DVI problem. Mine worked fine in Vista and XP.
 
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