Little advice needed, about to buy new GPU

[martyz1980]

Hey Guys,

I'm about to build my new PC and i decided to upgrade my GPU as well since i have a bit money left.

At the moment im running:
Core2Duo E6850 3.0Ghz (oc-ed to 3.4Ghz)
Asus P5B mobo
4x1 Gigs DDR2 800Mhz ram in Dual channel
Nvidia 8800GT 512 GPU

My new system is going to be:
I7-950 3066Mhz (hoping to oc it to 3.8Ghz)
Asus Sabertooth X58 mobo
3x2 Gigs DDR3 1800Mhz ram in tripple channel
GPU yet to decide

So at the moment i have an 8800GT 512 and its still a very nice card as im not a hardcore gamer.
I do play World of Warcraft a lot but that game doesn't require a high-end card anyway.
I did play some Dragon Age origins, Starcraft II and Blackops recentely and even those games my 8800 still did a nice job on imo.

Anyway im not looking for a GTX480 or a HD5970, those cards are around Eur 500 (Gbp 425)

I just want a descent upgrade for my current 8800GT512 and i have about Eur 200 (Gbp 170) to spend

When i take a look at the Tom's hardware GPU charts i see that for example a GTX460 performs twice as good as my 8800 does and the card only costs like Eur 190 here (Gbp 165)

Would this be a nice upgrade for the money or does anyone have a better reccomendation ?

Cheers in advance guys !

 

[jay2tall]

Just curious, what resolution do you game at? I suspect it isn't anything very high if an 8800GT is still working for you, although I could be wrong.

I will say the GTX460 is a very nice middle of the road main stream card. The only other one I could recommend is an ATI 6850. This card performs a little better, but from what I understand WOW favors Nvidia cards, so a 460 may be your ticket. I also think the 6850 is a little more expensive. I would shoot for a GTX 460 1GB card over the 768MB card. It has more than just more VRAM, it has 32ROPS over the 768's 24, as well as a 256bit memory bus over the 768's 192bit. Not to say the 768MB isn't a good card, but if you have a choice over the two, go for the 1GB card.

I vote GTX 460 1GB card. Your choice of brand.

 

[17seconds]

I will agree with the GTX460 recommendation. 1gb is better, unless you play at lower resolutions. Still the 768 mb version will be cheaper and will only cost you a few fps gaming, if funds are tight. You should look at some of the custom versions that come with non-reference coolers. Take a look at the MSI Hawk, Gigabyte Superoverclock, ECS Black, or in Europe, the Gainward GLH Golden Sample.

 

[martyz1980]

Thanks for the reply guys.

I game at a resolution of 1680x1050 cuz i have 21" flatscreen that has this maximum supported resolution.


I have to admit my 8800GT 512mb is overclocked about 16% so that might help a bit im the FPS im getting but still i cant understand that i see so many pple moawning about they cant play games like blackops with much newer GPU's
I did blackops (i cant tell u the exact FPS) but for me it was very smooth gameplay and if i needed to guess my fps was around 20-ish.
(remember a DvD is like 29Fps and that runs smooth as well for the naked eye)
Only thing i did see on my current card is i sometimes get a weird vertical line when moving really fast but thats all.

Cheers again guys !

 

[17seconds]

I was under the impression that Black Ops was designed to work on a wide range of systems, from low-end to high. I have heard that some of the problems people are experiencing are due to bugs in the game and should be fixed with a patch some time soon.

If you upgrade to a GTX460, you can keep your 8800 and use it as a dedicated PhysX card.

 

[martyz1980]

I was under the impression that Black Ops was designed to work on a wide range of systems, from low-end to high. I have heard that some of the problems people are experiencing are due to bugs in the game and should be fixed with a patch some time soon.

If you upgrade to a GTX460, you can keep your 8800 and use it as a dedicated PhysX card.

Ye im aware of that fact but i promised my current pc (CPU, mobo, ram and GPU) to my GF and since im not a die hard gamer i wont miss the PhysX anyway

 

[jay2tall]

^you won't really gain anything from a dedicated physx card unless the game supports PhysX. Otherwise it will just site there and do nothing.

 

[17seconds]

^you won't really gain anything from a dedicated physx card unless the game supports PhysX. Otherwise it will just site there and do nothing.

I was just saying if he wasn't using the 8800 for anything else. It would be better than just having it lie around doing nothing.

 

[jay2tall]

^I'd leave it laying around and if I got into a Physx game then install it I wouldn't leave it in.

 

[martyz1980]

Hey i just came across another card which seems to perform also very good for a descent price : XFX HD5850 Black Edition (HD-585X-ZABC) for like 199 euros (170 Gbp)

What do you think about this card against the Nvidia GTX460 which is like 190 euros (165 Gbp)

I have to say im a real fan of Nvidia, the ATI cards always screwed up on my TV back in the late 90's

 

[psychoactivist]

Do you know what physX is? I am pretty sure you do but anyways for about 200 EUR you can actually get a superclocked Nvidia GTX 470, the 470 is much faster then the 460 and has much more memory. The more mem your gpus has the higher you can bump the resolution and for games like WOW and Starcraft the higher resolution the better. I would personally go with a Nvidia GTX 470.

 

[martyz1980]

Do you know what physX is? I am pretty sure you do but anyways for about 200 EUR you can actually get a superclocked Nvidia GTX 470, the 470 is much faster then the 460 and has much more memory. The more mem your gpus has the higher you can bump the resolution and for games like WOW and Starcraft the higher resolution the better. I would personally go with a Nvidia GTX 470.

Yup you are right, i know what PhysX is but i don't really play games that feature this.
Atm i'm playing WoW in my max res that my monitor allowes 1680x1050 and my older 8800GT 512 still pulls the full 60 FPS

The GTX 470 i can get for 209 euros, this one : Asus ENGTX470/2DI/1280MD5/V2
http://www.alternate.nl/html/product/Grafische_kaarten_NVIDIA_GeForce_GTX/Asus/ENGTX470-2DI-1280MD5-V2/447260/?tn=HARDWARE&l1=Grafische+kaarten&l2=Alle+PCIe+kaarten

I have to agree, the difference between a 460 and 470 is only 20 euros so if this card is really that much better i could go for this one as well

Thanks for the imput !

Cheers