Upgrade from 4870HD

[Moorron]

Hi lads im after some advice on the next card to get from my Ati 4870HD which ive owned now fo r a few years. What im after is advice on what range of cards would see a noticable jump in performance over the one above.

I dont really play the latest games, to last one i bought was BFBC2 last month which now pushes my card beyond its limit with all setting maxed out. I play at 1080P and i also have a second 24" monuitor hooked up. The biggest problem i have is my PSU which is one of those ticking time bomb Togan units rated at 480W so depending on your suggestions i may have to get a new PSU also (and a new case might aswell!).

Im abit of an ati fan so would like suggestions from this supplier unless something sticks out from the dark side.

Spend wise is as little as i can with a noticable boost in performance but max is £200.

In other words can i buy a £110 card and still see a massive boost in gaming or do i need to spend lots + PSU to see it.

Cheers fellas.

 

[zimano]

I had the same card as you and after much reading the only worthwhile upgrade was the 6950 which I paid £200 for. All the cards I looked at that were £100 - £150 didn't give that much of a boost over my 4870.

Power usage didn't go up either that I noticed compared to my 4870 but I have a 620watt psu to start with. From the plug my system never goes above 400watts (full cpu and gfx use) even though I have Core i5 duo @ 3920mhz, 3 hard drives and 4 x case fans. I guess if you were wanting to overclock the gfx card and have 'Power control setting' bumped up to +20% then your psu may be a problem. If you have simular system to me and happy not to overclock the gfx card I'd say all is good with your psu

Notice there's a £180 1gb version of my card now aswell.

 

[Moorron]

cheers mate, i was looking at the 6950's and didnt know if they are overkill or not. Looks like i will have to get one of these then.

Are they any longer than the 4870? my case is on the limit so if they are then i might have to get a new case so will end up getting all three, Gpu, Psu and case in one go.

 

[zimano]

I got this one: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-248-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

It is longer than the 4870. Mine is the reference model and is 11.5" long, that's the total length though as the actual power cables plug into the top of the card. With my 4870 the cables come out the back of the card and got in the way of my hard drive power cables. Forgot to mention that the stock versions of these cards are rather noisy, far noisier than the 4870. If you care about noise at all it might be worth you getting the ones with two bigger fans on like this one: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-255-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752 (I read somewhere that the 1gb versions of the cards are a bit shorter aswell but not 100% about this.)