sub £300 upgrade

[GlasgowHero]

Hey,
I'm looking to do a bit of an overhaul on my rig and buy a few things for a total of £300. Mainly I'm after a new gfx card.

£200 ish for the graphics card. I was thinking the xfx gtx 275 xxx (so manys x's...), but i here a lot of talk about the 4870x2, the only worry is my mobo is sli only. I realise that this dual gpu card is in a single slot but does the board still have to be crossfire compatible? The board is a gigabyte GA-8N-SLI rev 1.0

the rest of the £300 is for a psu to handle the card, thinking a 650/700watt possibly modular? any ideas?

at the moment:

cpu: q6700
cooler: freezer 7 pro
mobo: gigabyte GA-8N-SLI rev 1.0
gfx: 512mb 8600gt
ram: 4gb Geil 800Mhz

(just purchased awaiting install over the weekend)
HDD: 500gb F1 7200rpm 32mb
OS: Vista home premium 64bit

 

[95thrifles]

The 4870x2 would work fine, it uses on board crossfire, youd only need a xfire board if you were going to have 2 of them
Id recomend this PC P&C PSU, which twinned with the new asus 4870x2 (due on 1st) brings you to £305

 

[D13]

95th is right on the money, but also take into account what res you play at. atm I am using a 260 and just waiting for xmas for the new gen of cards before I really splash out.

 

[Jono8]

Also worth taking into account the possible annoyances that come with a dual gpu card. Sometimes xfire/sli won't work, microstutters, possibly bad minimum framerates e.t.c.

You may well be better off with a single 4890/275/285 depending on resolution.

 

[GlasgowHero]

hmmm... a lot to think about. i play on a 19" 1440x900 at the moment, hoping to upgrade to a 22" in a few months. but that'll probably be the max.

damn - maybe a 275 then. any thoughts on the modxstream ocz psu (700w)? or what would you go for?

 

[95thrifles]

the 275 is only marginally faster than the 260 and not worth the premium imo, get one of these, Id also use that money to get yourself a really nice PSU such as the BeQuiet, was gonna say go for a 750W in case you do want to go SLI down the line, but theyre out of stock atm

 

[Jono8]

hmmm... a lot to think about. i play on a 19" 1440x900 at the moment, hoping to upgrade to a 22" in a few months. but that'll probably be the max.

damn - maybe a 275 then. any thoughts on the modxstream ocz psu (700w)? or what would you go for?

i went for a 275. good card. clocks very nicely

 

[Mojo]

I may be opening up a can of worms, but have you considered ATI's offerings? the 4870x2 maybe overkill atm, but any upgrades you make within the next couple of years will be well backed by the dual GPU setup. The 4890 is on average just as fast as the 275, although each card favours different programs. It can also be had for 20 quid cheaper.