Spec me a graphics card biatches.

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » September 30th, 2009, 20:43

Well, after recently upgrading most of my PC, and having just ordered a shiny new monitor to display things on, I think that the next upgrade needed is my graphics card, so can someone point me in the direction of the best value for money card that would be an upgrade worth making from my current 320MB 8800GTS please?

Budget is mayhaps around £100, but I have no idea what's good these days, so just starting to have a think about what I should squirrel away for next, and what I'd need be thinking about spending.

Post by **FatherJack** » September 30th, 2009, 20:50

Looking at prices, GTX260s or HD4870s seem just over the ton, GTS250s and HD4850s just under. Don't know much about any of them though.

Post by **deject** » September 30th, 2009, 20:52

The 4850 will be a rather big improvement over your 8800GTS.

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » September 30th, 2009, 20:53

Bugger, just saw Sol's post about monitors, and his one is available for 8 quid more, with full HD resolution and HDMI input too.

Typical.

Ta FJ, had a bit of a look around, but I have nothing to judge them on other than price at the moment as my knowledge, little as it ever was, is years out of date.

Post by **FatherJack** » September 30th, 2009, 21:06

Tom's Hardware recommended all the ones I mentioned as best value for money in that price bracket in a brief August article, if that gives you more confidence in them.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » September 30th, 2009, 21:26

Lateralus wrote:Bugger, just saw Sol's post about monitors, and his one is available for 8 quid more, with full HD resolution and HDMI input too. Typical.

cancel the order?

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » September 30th, 2009, 21:31

Was completed and shipped before I got home from work. It's no big deal though in the grand scheme of things, and the Samsung one will still be a big upgrade from my current one.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » September 30th, 2009, 21:55

Doesn't matter, might as well spend the extra now and get something that'll last longer.

Post by **HereComesPete** » September 30th, 2009, 21:56

Lateralus wrote:Typical.

That's why you ask the bitches!

amblin · Post by **amblin** » September 30th, 2009, 21:58

Post by **HereComesPete** » September 30th, 2009, 22:01

amblin wrote:Don't forget your basic right to return. You can send it straight back or even refuse delivery and get a full refund.

distance selling lawses, if they press for a why why say their advertising conned you into thinking full hd, that always works in shitting them up a bit.

You can buy my 8800gtx if you want, I'll take that £100 off you.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » September 30th, 2009, 22:02

As far as graphics card, I'd probably take This it's just over your budget, but should give you a noticeable improvement over a 4850.

Otherwise, I'd probably look for a GTX 260 and hope for a bargain.

I'm not a massive fan of ATI drivers, and they suffer a little from some games being optimised rather towards nvidia, but the hardware is decent enough, and I've had no huge problems.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » September 30th, 2009, 22:07

amblin wrote:What kind of GTS do you have? Mine is the BFG 8800GTS OC, which is rather spiffing for what it is and I feel no need to upgrade to mid-gen, especially when I really need a good terabyte of storage before thinking of anything else.

Ahh, now there's a lot of stuff to know here.

The thing that matters is the chip on the 8800GT/S cards.

The early G80 ones had 320/640MB of ram, and weren't super awesome, unlike the 8800GTX which was G80 and awesome.

The later GT and GTS used the G92 chip, which was considerably faster and more efficient (and put the GTS almost as fast as the G80 GTX cards) those use 512 or 1024MB of ram, and can still be found as the 9800GT (though, with a die shink)

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » September 30th, 2009, 23:04

I'd say get a 4870 if you could stretch a little bit, we've got one of these Sapphire HD4870 Toxic's in the family, it's quite a good card but it's £130.

Otherwise, I'd suggest a 4850 like this one

I've not had any real driver issues for quite a while with the ATi Cat drivers, nor have anyone who have been benchmarking them (Tom's Hardware, Micromart etc...). Berk's just like a bull and hates Ati's red colours.

Might want to wait a week or two for prices to change as well, ATi released some new cards last week so it'll take a little while for all the prices to fall everywhere.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » September 30th, 2009, 23:16

buzzmong wrote:I've not had any real driver issues for quite a while with the ATi Cat drivers, nor have anyone who have been benchmarking them (Tom's Hardware, Micromart etc...). Berk's just like a bull and hates Ati's red colours.

Which of course is why I have a 4870x2 in my machine.

I should be a little clearer, the drivers aren't so bad, but the software is lacking some of the fine control granted by the nvidia control panel, like it lacking per-application settings.

Also, there's still fairly critical issues with CoH, rendering it unplayable on some ATI machines, and just crap on others (due to weird nvidia related coding hacks)

So yeah, the drivers aren't terrible, but there are problems with older games, which benchmarking sites don't often test.

Also, tom's hardware is terrible these days, so much so that it fell out of my tech bookmarks.

Post by **HereComesPete** » September 30th, 2009, 23:20

I'll tell you what I hate about the ATi's, their inferior warranties and their increased heat production/electric consumption.

Instead of 4850 or 4870 I'd say get a gtx 260 or try and stretch to a 275.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » September 30th, 2009, 23:25

HereComesPete wrote:I'll tell you what I hate about the ATi's, their inferior warranties and their increased heat production/electric consumption.

Instead of 4850 or 4870 I'd say get a gtx 260 or try and stretch to a 275.

The ATI warranty situation is getting a little better these days, but I basically agree, 2 years (usually) for ATI. 5-10 years for Nvidia if you go for a premium brand.

Not sure about the 4800 vs GTX2x0 power consumption, so there.

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » September 30th, 2009, 23:38

I've never had an ATi card die of it's own accord though so the warrenty doesn't interest me too much, besides 2 years down the line on a gfx card normally means it's upgrade time.

Infact, the only ATi card that's died was my 9500 Pro which was obliteratedby a hefty power surge and my silly brother wasn't using a surge protector on the machine I'd put together for him. Even then it was a couple of years old at least as it had been my main card.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » September 30th, 2009, 23:50

buzzmong wrote:I've never had an ATi card die of it's own accord though so the warrenty doesn't interest me too much, besides 2 years down the line on a gfx card normally means it's upgrade time.

Infact, the only ATi card that's died was my 9500 Pro which was obliteratedby a hefty power surge and my silly brother wasn't using a surge protector on the machine I'd put together for him. Even then it was a couple of years old at least as it had been my main card.

<a href="http://www.dansdata.com/gz039.htm">The protectors! they do nothing</a> really, I've played games through thunderstorms that nailed half the appliances in the house with no ill effects to the machine, I imagine it was more likely a poor PSU and poor on card power management.

I've had a couple of every kind die, but I'd rather have a warranty that lasts a while and pays out by default, rather than one that gets weaselled around as much as possible.

Warranties are important to consider if you're an occasional upgrader like Lat. If I lose a bit of hardware, I'm usually able to replace it with a spare I have around, then look at replacing it with an upgrade. If you don't have spares or the money to replace, you could be well in the shit.

Post by **deject** » October 1st, 2009, 0:00

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:As far as graphics card, I'd probably take This it's just over your budget, but should give you a noticeable improvement over a 4850.

that is quite a good card, can't really go wrong with it.