what nVidia card for roughly £100+ 2nd hand?

B@Th*nG · 24 Sep 2012 at 15:11

Hi guys,

my 8800GT has just gone bang and I'm looking for a replacement. I'd prefer to stick with nVidia, just for driver consistency across my games really and I know where I am with them; probably a rubbish reason but hey.

I've looked at the 560's and wonder which one (if any) I should go for? I know the regular ti's can have 2gb of a ram but is it worth it over a 448 core one knowing that they only go to 1.25gb? With that in mind if I ever go SLI to increase performance it'll be very fast, but the video memory will still be 1.25gb, which seems a bit limiting.

I'm playing at 1920x1080 at the moment.

B@

MrClark · 24 Sep 2012 at 15:24

B@Th*nG said:
Hi guys,

my 8800GT has just gone bang and I'm looking for a replacement. I'd prefer to stick with nVidia, just for driver consistency across my games really and I know where I am with them; probably a rubbish reason but hey.

I've looked at the 560's and wonder which one (if any) I should go for? I know the regular ti's can have 2gb of a ram but is it worth it over a 448 core one knowing that they only go to 1.25gb? With that in mind if I ever go SLI to increase performance it'll be very fast, but the video memory will still be 1.25gb, which seems a bit limiting.

I'm playing at 1920x1080 at the moment.

B@

I sold my two 560ti's because memory become the limiting factor in BF3.

Running standard with no OC I was getting 70% usage on both cores but had to turn the settings down as I was running low on VRAM. I was running at 1080p 27".

I've since sold the cards and bought a 670 and now GPU is the limiting factor. I've also upgraded my monitor to one of the Korean 27" IPS screens and VRAM sits at about 1.7GB with Aero turned off.

Long story short - 560ti's are a great choice for top of the line games if you are going to SLI but get a 2GB one.

HankScorpio · 24 Sep 2012 at 16:11

7850 and sell the games to make it a £100 new card and OC it to 570 level performance.

haha just looked at the prices on 560 tis 2GB G'luck with that on £100

Speedy Pete · 24 Sep 2012 at 16:55

Ive seen quite a few 480's in the MM going for the 100ish mark.

B@Th*nG · 24 Sep 2012 at 16:59

HankScorpio said:
7850 and sell the games to make it a £100 new card and OC it to 570 level performance.

haha just looked at the prices on 560 tis 2GB G'luck with that on £100

is this really a viable option? any issues with the 7850's? Do they all clock well? i'm open ideas if the saving is that significant

B@

B@Th*nG · 24 Sep 2012 at 16:59

Speedy Pete said:
Ive seen quite a few 480's in the MM going for the 100ish mark.

the only issue i'd say with getting the 480's is the power requirements. i've a 650w psu and if i ever want to SLI them then i'll have to get a new PSU as well

B@

bemaniac · 24 Sep 2012 at 17:47

Oh wow if you can get a 480gtx for £100 damn just do it. Stunning cards, just have a case with no obstructed fans and you may wish to remove empty spacers too. you know 2 of those is faster than a heavily overclocked 7970.

HankScorpio · 24 Sep 2012 at 17:54

B@Th*nG said:
is this really a viable option? any issues with the 7850's? Do they all clock well? i'm open ideas if the saving is that significant

B@

There are virtually no issues with single 7850s. Obviously people have issues but that comes with all hardware components and the 7850 is a very solid card that should not give you any problems, including drivers here.

7850s overclock by about 40/45% on average it seems(570 performance). Stunning cards and priced very well. AND they come with free games, hence selling them to get some cashback. Plus 7xxx series are newer tech compared to 2 previous generations 4xx series nvidia.

Go for a 7850, there are no equal cards for its price/performance atm.

Also to poster above, x2 OC 7850s will beat any 7970 OC as well and they are VERY low powered cards and give hardly any heat off.

KompuKare · 24 Sep 2012 at 18:16

B@Th*nG said:
Hi guys,

my 8800GT has just gone bang and I'm looking for a replacement. I'd prefer to stick with nVidia, just for driver consistency across my games really and I know where I am with them; probably a rubbish reason but hey.

Did this 8800GT by any chance go bang on it's own due the infamous nVidia defect? If yes (and it happened to me), I would just avoid NV from now on using the famous quote: Fool me once shame on me, fool me twice shame on me.

Defy Belief · 24 Sep 2012 at 18:18

bemaniac said:
Oh wow if you can get a 480gtx for £100 damn just do it. Stunning cards, just have a case with no obstructed fans and you may wish to remove empty spacers too. you know 2 of those is faster than a heavily overclocked 7970.

Bought one the other day for just over £100 refurb with one years warranty!

Speedy Pete · 24 Sep 2012 at 18:49

If the OP can get a card better than a 480 for £100 then go for it.

My overclocked 480 can't be far off 580 speeds, i've been trying to stop myself buying another 480 from the MM these last few days because im not sure even my TX850 would cope with all the stuff i have connected to it :/

Marine-RX179 · 24 Sep 2012 at 19:20

B@Th*nG said:
the only issue i'd say with getting the 480's is the power requirements. i've a 650w psu and if i ever want to SLI them then i'll have to get a new PSU as well

B@

I think if you want to SLI any good performing Nvidia cards (other than 660/660Ti), the chances are you would need to upgrade your 650W PSU anyway.

Ian Jones · 24 Sep 2012 at 20:45

Defy Belief said:
Bought one the other day for just over £100 refurb with one years warranty!

if you dont mind me asking, but where did you get it from please?

thanks
ian

KompuKare · 24 Sep 2012 at 23:21

But surely even if a 480 is ~ a 580, it uses even more power. Surely in a modern 28nm card like an overclocked 7850 can match that speed while using less than half that power, and you can still get that MSI HD7850 for £132 new. Seems a more logical choice to me

bemaniac · 24 Sep 2012 at 23:23

KompuKare said:
But surely even if a 480 is ~ a 580, it uses even more power. Surely in a modern 28nm card like an overclocked 7850 can match that speed while using less than half that power, and you can still get that MSI HD7850 for £132 new. Seems a more logical choice to me

A lot of people really don't worry about the power usage just want to get framerates for their budget.

coupe69 · 25 Sep 2012 at 01:09

KompuKare said:
Did this 8800GT by any chance go bang on it's own due the infamous nVidia defect? If yes (and it happened to me), I would just avoid NV from now on using the famous quote: Fool me once shame on me, fool me twice shame on me.

What "infamous defect" is this :confused:

The 8800GT is a 5 year old card, If the OP has had it since release then it's not done too badly.

RichIbizaSport · 25 Sep 2012 at 09:49

I'd just go for a 570 gtx second hand. I sold one about 4 months a go for £130ish. Brother got one for £115 around 1 months a go.

B@Th*nG · 25 Sep 2012 at 10:59

bemaniac said:
Oh wow if you can get a 480gtx for £100 damn just do it. Stunning cards, just have a case with no obstructed fans and you may wish to remove empty spacers too. you know 2 of those is faster than a heavily overclocked 7970.

But again I'm back to the power issue if i ever want to SLI. Maybe i should just forget the PSU issue, but seeing as things are using less power than before it would be a shame to have upgrade that as well. I'll bear this in mind though

HankScorpio said:
There are virtually no issues with single 7850s. Obviously people have issues but that comes with all hardware components and the 7850 is a very solid card that should not give you any problems, including drivers here.

7850s overclock by about 40/45% on average it seems(570 performance). Stunning cards and priced very well. AND they come with free games, hence selling them to get some cashback. Plus 7xxx series are newer tech compared to 2 previous generations 4xx series nvidia.

Go for a 7850, there are no equal cards for its price/performance atm.

Also to poster above, x2 OC 7850s will beat any 7970 OC as well and they are VERY low powered cards and give hardly any heat off.

You say there are no problem's with running a single 7850, are there problems running them in xfire?

KompuKare said:
Did this 8800GT by any chance go bang on it's own due the infamous nVidia defect? If yes (and it happened to me), I would just avoid NV from now on using the famous quote: Fool me once shame on me, fool me twice shame on me.

well the computer just shut down and wouldn't turn on again until I replaced the card. It is 5 years old mind so can't really complain

B@

B@Th*nG · 25 Sep 2012 at 11:00

Marine-RX179 said:
I think if you want to SLI any good performing Nvidia cards (other than 660/660Ti), the chances are you would need to upgrade your 650W PSU anyway.

bemaniac said:
A lot of people really don't worry about the power usage just want to get framerates for their budget.

I looked up one of those PSU requirement programs and I can use 2 560ti's on my current PSU, but not a 480 (for example) so it is doable

B@

jackocurly0074 · 25 Sep 2012 at 11:26

coupe69 said:
What "infamous defect" is this The 8800GT is a 5 year old card, If the OP has had it since release then it's not done too badly.

Well all of the Nvida 8 series cards had a higher than average fail rate (% wise) because of the materials used on the die. Basically, after the device has been heat cycled many times (heated up and cooled down) the die cracks and then the GPU will no longer work. This was also a massive issue in laptops which are generally switched on/off many times which aggravated the problem.

I myself bought a NVidia 8800GTX which died after 18months, was warranty replaced with an 8800GTX OC, which also died, and then replaced a final time with a 9800GT (which still works), so that is my first-hand experience with the NVidia 8 series. Further info can be found here at the bottom under "Problems" -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_8_Series

I now have a Geforce 460GTX and so far has been ok, but I would probably consider the ATI offerings more heavily based on their performance/price ratios..