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someone who Knows about cards please?

abitlost said:
i cant afford anything more right now... im already stretching it... he can get the psu out of his ema though... thats what its for isnt it? : p
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As was mentioned on the page 1 a HD4870 and a new PSU will set you back £112. It's a quaility PSU as well, Corsairs are rebaged Seasonics and Seasonic make the PSU's money can buy and at that price it's a snap. Buy, buy, buy!

omg.. you Cannot say "im not saying this to scare you" to a woman
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Hold on......your a women, a gamer and a mother!?!

- Does not compute - :confused:
 
im getting him a 460 - under duress mind - because i cant bare his mournful face and lingering looks at my pc now that his card is dying...

when i upgrade MY card (when i can afford it) it will have to be something brilliant (which i cant afford now unless we erm... live off iceland £1 meals for the next month? hmmm...)

does the psu have to be that corsair one? its 400w only and i thought he needed higher? can i get the higher w ocuk one (its cheaper) ? or is that a bad choice?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-027-OP&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

or was the higher w one only if i got the 4870... and didnt someone say the 512 memory wasnt a good idea?

er.... are you all as confused as i am now?
 
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abitlost said:
im getting him a 460 - under duress mind - because i cant bare his mournful face and lingering looks at my pc now that his card is dying...

when i upgrade MY card (when i can afford it) it will have to be something brilliant (which i cant afford now unless we erm... live off iceland £1 meals for the next month? hmmm...)

does the psu have to be that corsair one? its 400w only and i thought he needed higher? can i get the higher w ocuk one (its cheaper) ? or is that a bad choice?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-027-OP&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

or was the higher w one only if i got the 4870... and didnt someone say the 512 memory wasnt a good idea?

er.... are you all as confused as i am now?
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The only numbers you need to look when buying a PSU is the price. Cheap = bad and when running a gaming PC you don't want a bad PSU even OCUK doesn't recommend there own branded PSU's for gaming setups. The only use for cheap PSU's is for PC's that are going to be used for office and internet and media but not gaming, folding, productivity (like 3D modelling) or overclocking.

If you want to play it safe stick to buying PSU's from companies like Antec, Corsair, OCZ, Saphhire, Be Quiet, Cooler Master, Seasonic, PC Power & Cooling and Enermax and you can't go wrong. Next up is the wattage, I always like to get a PSU that will give two the amount of wattage that I'm actually going to need that way I can upgrade without having to worry about the PSU and if it can cope, at 50% it should still be reasonable quiet and at 50% the PSU is at it's most efficient state (requires less electric from the wall and runs cooler as a result).

As a rule of thumb I would say anyone who is running a modern day system that’s a overclocked and has one video card a 500 to 600 watt PSU will do them easily. Others will have a different opinion on this but for me it’s better to spend a bit more now for a PSU that will last for years and years rather then having to fork out £40-£50 extra each time you get an upgrade.

As for the ram - Yes 512mb is a bit low now if your son is play at 1920x1080 but given the games he is playing I can't really see it being that big a problem but if you want the card to last a while longer it's worth getting a full 1Gb model if you can.
 
For the sake of not 'that' much more money I think a 1gb card is the way to go, especially (in my experience) once you reach 1650x1080 res and want eye candy and AA. Cards with somewhere between 512 and 1gb of memory, like one of the 460's, might be worth consideration as well.
 
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ok... theres no 1gb version on here of the 4870
so, having re-read everyones advice, if im reading
it all correctly, my only option is either :

the palit geforce gtx 460 at £117
pro's: its faster.
cons: costs more than i wanted to spend, & may be a waste on the games he plays...

or,

one of those 5750's which are cheaper but not really all that good?

will he know this? wont it be better than his 8800 tho?
or is the 460 Miles better and worth just getting to shut him (and me on here) up?

bleh, see! THIS is why we get headaches!!
 
If he's 8800GT is starting to die and you want a replacement the HD5750 is a suitable choice as it gives a bit of an upgrade, keeps the costs down, low power draw (uses less power then the 8800GT).

You can compare the performance of the HD5750 against your sons currant card in this review - link. There using the 9800GT which is the exact same card as the 8800GT in terms of performance but runs a bit cooler and as you can see the Hd5750 is a fair bit faster then the 9800GT.
 
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i you look around certain well known auction sites, you might be able to get a second hand 5770/5750 for a bit less (There have been quite a few on the Members Market lately as everyones been upgrading to gtx460s, so i assume things are similar elsewhere)
 
To be the best mum 'ever' (or at least for the day) buy him the 460. :)

His computer will now be better than yours - Bragging rights (for now ) to him:D

It may cost a bit more but it's much quicker.

Although none of the games he's currently playing may tax it - who knows what he will play tomorrow? - The 460 should cope at the resolution mentioned on the majority of existing games if not all (if the eye candy is turned down a bit if nescessary) and will hopefully do a decent job for at least a couple of years. New(ish) tech , DX11 ready (if he decides to 'upgrade' to windows 7) etc

You only get a few times in your life when you can bask in the glory of buying better than expected (normally absolutely impossible due to cash restrictions) so buy and bask :cool::cool:

(And a few months down the line get yourself the 'essential' (old card broken ?etc) upgrade to a 6000 series gpu ; to put him back where he really belongs ;))

P.S (Just in case his son reads this )This post was not made by the original AgedIdiot but is rather by someone masquerading as him.
 
siiigh... "the best mum ever" line (even if it'd be just for a day) got me!

dont worry, he wont read this, he doesnt know about this forum and has no idea that im buying him a new card for his birthday as he knows the
price is too steep, so hopefully this will be a massively nice suprise!

dont have the heart to get anything less than the 460 now... And, as further proof to how soft us mums are when it comes to their sons, (yes even
us gamer ones!) i'm even now contemplating getting him the MSI geforce gtx cyclone one instead... (using the same criteria i use for clothes, i.e. it looks better!)

many thanks to everyone for all the excellent advice - and putting up with me while i struggled to make a choice :)
see you all soon... when we go through all this again for My new card ;)
 
I guess you've probably ordered by now, but...

abitlost said:
i'm even now contemplating getting him the MSI geforce gtx cyclone one instead...
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for what is now a £7 difference from the cheapest 460, I would definitely consider the extra cooling performance/low noise to be worth it, and it DOES look cool as hell :D

My parents never got the need for performance parts, your son is a lucky kid!
 
Meh, when I first started playing PC games I couldn't give a toss about what video card I was using the CPU was king of the ring and determined how fast games were going to be. If you bought a game like Wing Commander 3 or 4 and you found you PC could barely play the game on the lowest settings you were stuck and if you wanted to upgrade you had to upgrade the whole PC just to get a faster CPU. Of course when 3DFX showed up things started to change but 'upgrades' as we know today back then were none existant.
 
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