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What to do (purchasing GPU)

powdaman

powdaman

powdaman

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Joined
30 Jul 2009
Posts
175
So recently my Graphics card died and unfortunately it was just over the warrantee period (doh!).

I start investigating potential replacements and cannot believe how many different types there are on the market (I usually go for the best but its been a while so I'm rusty!).

Now I keep hearing about DX11 and the fact that we are due some more new iterations from both NVIDIA and ATI so should I wait a bit before buying? How long do we envisage them taking to release the next gen cards?

Please help!

P0wda
 
its upto you if u want to buy something like a gtx295 best card atm or wait untill the price of it comes down when new dx11 cards come out dont know when dx11 is released somewhere around the time of win7 id assume
 
You need a graphics card now ?

Best card I've heard is the GTX295 powerful, hot and expensive.

DX11 cards will be out in a few months.

If you want to wait for DX11 cards to come out, but want a stop gap card, a GTX275 or a 4890 would suit the bill.
 
Thanks for the reply's so far.

Well I run games at 1900x1200 resolution and have done for approximately a 2 years (with initially 7900GT in SLI then a single 8800GTX). My concern is spending a wad of cash on something now and then next month or so something 10 times better coming out.

Thats what happened when I purchased the 8800GTX, about 1 month later they released the next gen cards at roughly the same price! (DOH!).

Does anyone have any clue as to the release dates of the next gen cards as I dont seem to be able to find any information on them anywhere??
 
So far, the word is that late october-November is the target. They have been saying for a while that they want to release their DX11 cards when windows 7 comes out (october 22nd), however they have recently has some problems with the 40nm yields, so this may slip.

Personally, I believe they will do a paper launch on October 22nd (good PR but not many cards available) then start selling in quantity in November/December. That's my analysis - please feel free to correct if you think i'm off the mark.

IMHO, if you have no decent graphics card now then don't wait- buy a good value one now. If you buy something like a 4890 for £140 then you could always sell it in December and get a new DX11 if you so wish. On the other hand, a powerhouse card like a GTX 295 or a 4870X2 will likely be on or slightly below the performance level of the next-gen single GPU cards - so either would last you a good long while and give you mind-blowing performance by the end of the week as opposed to the end of the year.
 
Would a GTX 275 be a good interim choice whilst waiting for the next Gen cards? Am currently running one of my old 7900 cards (its struggling)??

Also just saw the thread regards the 4890 2GB card.... Guess that would be a great card when it comes out?
 
Aye, the GTX 275 is another great card. Its performance is on the same level as the 4890 and the sparkle one on OCUK is only £150.

As for the 2GB 4890-I wouldn't hold your breath. The 2GB may sound good but it simply won't be utilsed in games unless you play at 1600p resolutions. The "review" that is linked to in that thread uses GTA4 to test. That game is a bad port and just eats up VRAM - definately not a good test of a GPU. Also, 2GB cards usually need the memory clocked lower to run - so it may actually run slower than a 1GB version when less than 1GB of the memory is used.
 
I would say a couple of months/just before win7.

If you game at 1900 x 1200, a 9800GT or 4870 can be picked for under a £100 will do till DX11 cards come out, and by the looks of things, ATI will be out first for quite a while.
 
I just had the exact same situation -- my 8800 Ultra died 1 month past its 2 year warranty point. I've just purchased a GTX 295 to replace it (the Asus one for a 3 year warranty).

Now, you could wait; you could ALWAYS wait in technology, but why? It will be 3 years before there are decent DX11 games, at which point, if you're anything like me, you'll be looking to upgrade in any case. The technology is good now, and I believe the 295 will last you that 2-3 years.
 
Ok. Well ive now just this second purchased:

HIS ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - OEM (H487F1GP)

As an interim card prior to DX11 and next gen cards coming out. Will let you all know my opinions on this when it arrives.

Its replacing an 8800GTX which has done me proud for approximately 3 years or so (approx) until it finally gave way to heat exhaustion!
 
The 295 is fantastic, well it is for me now, i had a lot of trouble with drivers and such, but after a few days of scratching my head and help from nice peeps on here its all good now. Back to the card, runs games like a dream on 1920 x 1080 which is the res i like to use, crysis runs smooth on enthusiast level and tbh the graphics are mind blowing. So with it running crysis so well its gonna steamroll through all other games. So far ive played, Crysis, Team Fortress 2, Grand Theft Auto 4, Grid, Unreal 3, Cryostatis, Farcry 2, Fuel, Deadspace, Mirrors Edge. And a few others, they all run fantastically well on max settings. Smooth as can be. They are just a few of the games i play, quite a few more lol.
Its expensive but once you get around the driver issues which is annoying for a while i defo recommend paying out for 1.

:)
 
Received my HIS ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) on Friday and installed it without any issues.

Its a temporary card as I have said before but with that in mind, the performance is definately not very good. It doesnt even run World of Warcraft at 60fps on 1900x1200 with all the settings on low which was the least I would expect considering its a newer gen card then my previous one (8800GTX).

The GTX would run WOW without any issues with every setting on full.

FYI:
CPU 6600 Quad running 10% clocked (watercooled).
8GB DDR2 Dual Channel 800Mhz RAM
Creative XFI Extrememusic soundcard
Dell Ultra 24" Widescreen monitor

Maybe I should have forked out that extra 50 quid and gone with a 4890..


Oh well live and learn. Now its time to play the waiting game for the next gen DX11 cards...
 
There is no way a 4870 shouldnt max WoW, there must be something amiss. Did u completely uninstall the nvidia drivers before installing the latest ones from ATI?
 
most defiantely yes. I then rebooted (checked it was using default vga driver). Switched off and installed new card. Vista recognised it straight away and installed the default driver which I then updated to the latest revision, rebooted again.

I then turned up resolution to 1900x1200 and put all settings on max and i was getting about 16fps. With everyting set to minimum except view distance on 1900x1200 I get average of 47fps...

FYI running 64bit Vista Ultimate.
 
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