Time to upgrade?

[lollox]

Hi All

i wanted to call upon the collective wisdom of the forum if i may:

My ultimate aim is a rig which will play anything thrown at it at a reasonable level, but which will be whisper quiet when idle but will keep cool when gaming.

my current card is a 8800gts 512 with an asaka neo aftermarket cooler (which is a bit rubbish in my opinion.

The obvious options to me are:-

1 x 5770 vap-x @ approx £135

or

1 x 5850 vap-x (cant see one in the store - im sure i saw one at some point)

or

wait until the current card really cant hack it anymore until i upgrade.

If i hadnt made the step up to £200+ gfx cards last time around the 5770 would be a no brainer, but £135 is still a big spend if the performance gap is only marginal.

Sensible suggestions more than welcome, thanks for your time.

 

[stulid]

5850 will last you a lot longer and well through your next cpu and motherboard change

 

[reiyushin]

5830 out at the start of Feb could be right up your alley.

 

[Naff8000]

When I stepped up from a 4850 to 5850 I couldn't believe the difference. It's a stupidly fast card and will last you a long long time

 

[stulid]

Or, now wait for the release of fermi, can only be a month or two now.

It will either be worth the wait(a lot of rumours about performance).

Or it will help drive prices down-maybe.

 

[rhys216]

Or, now wait for the release of fermi, can only be a month or two now.

It will either be worth the wait(a lot of rumours about performance).

Or it will help drive prices down-maybe.

Lol! Come on............, you really think it will drive prices down?
As far as I'm concerned the only thing that will drive prices down are yields and availability.
Unfortunately Fermi is unlikely to compete on price, hence why I think it will have little impact.

 

[pat_c]

Upgrade the graphics when you aren't really happy with your gameplay. Then google the games benchmarks to find out what type of card you need to upgrade to.

e.g. If for instance you had 25fps in Crysis (1658x1080,0xAA) with the 8800 and you wanted 40fps (2xAA), be prepared to budget for a 5850. If you wanted 50fps at 4xAA, budget for a 5870.

That's always been how I spec'd my system, identify the need first, then gather the budget. If I was happy with a shooter at 45fps, there would be little reason to spend a significant amount of money to be happier at 60fps.