Dead 7900GS replacement help

[Billy Idol]

Sorry to post a new thread as there seems to be several similar questions posed on the front page alone.. but I don't have much time on this loaner PC as mine is down.

My current rig is an e8400, 2x2gb ram, 450w Corsair PSU and a now dead BFG 7900GS OC I bought on EBay a year ago when I built the system. At the time that was the best I could find for the money, intending to upgrade my vid card and monitor soon after. Soon has come and gone and money still isn't in abundance.. and now I've fallen out of the loop on hardware.

I really only play WoW currently with the possibility of an occasional shooter or racing game down the road. I'm looking for something in the sub $100 range.. anything would work for my current needs as I'm still on the 19" CRT. So to the point- what's the best bang for my buck should I upgrade to a 16x10 monitor eventually with less than bleeding edge gaming and a 450VX? Thanks for reading.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Well how much do you want to spend?

The "cheapest" bang for the buck is probably the Radeon HD4670, around $60.

 

[Billy Idol]

I'll look into the 4670.. that sounds like a good price point. Ideally it'd be $100 or less as I said but I assume there are large gains to be had with every few dollars you can spend. Traditionally it seems that way at least I've noticed. I guess I'm wondering if there's anything that stands out. Perhaps something in the area of $40-60 that'd get the job done.. then maybe something $80-120ish? that would be a substantial bump that I really shouldn't miss. Anything spring to mind?

 

[v8envy]

It depends on your budget. Here are the clear, undisputed winners at various price points:

$50 - 4760. 512 or 1G won't matter.
$70 - 9600GT, 9600GSO
$80 - 8800GT or 9800GT (same card, different sticker)
$100 - 8800GTS or 9800GTX+ or GT250 (same card, different sticker)
$160 - 4890 or 5770

Stepping up from $50 to $100 level is a substantial jump in GPU power. As is the leap from $100 to $160.

These are $US streetprices, often with after rebate and Bing cashback. Not what you'd see at a brick&mortar store. The 4580 and 4870 used to be great buys at the $80 and $120 price points, but are no longer available.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

There are gradual increments above the HD4670, and it basically goes like this:

9600GT -> GT 240 (w/GDDR5 memory) -> 9800GT -> HD4830 -> HD4770 -> HD4850 / GTS250

Those are basically your choices for the sub-$120 range, and each is basically a step up from the other.

From newegg, these are the best deals right now, but you can check other sites too:

HD4670 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-448-_-Product

9800GT http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-028-_-Product

HD4850 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-163-_-Product

 

[Billy Idol]

Alright the situation has become more clouded. At the risk of revealing the huge novice I am I'll type it up in hopes someone can offer a bit of help. I suspect my video card is dying- one night while on WoW the screen locked up and turned red / artifact-y. Had to reboot the computer.. it lasted awhile in WoW before doing it again. I didn't notice the fan coming on as it usually did so using rivatuner I took it off auto and cranked it to an annoying level. Seemingly this worked.. I don't recall it locking up but I could be mistaken. I fired up Crysis just to see what would happen.. where it promptly locked on load screen. This time after rebooting the BIOS and.. motherboard splash screen weren't displaying properly. The colors in the splashscreen were skewed too much in favor of red, and all text was.. b0rked. Everything had special characters that didn't belong. This persisted through restarts.. I let it sit for a day or so and no change.

I've coasted along in safe mode for a couple days while researching where to go next with it. Text was fine while images were still improperly displayed. Last night all of the sudden I noticed images were fine again. I was this time able to boot into windows (XP) normally though I haven't tried nor do I wish to tempt fate with trying a 3D application. No drivers were changed at any point nor was the card removed from the system.. I blew out some of the dust and made sure it was seated soon after the problems arose but that was it. I haven't any spare parts to swap in to give it a go.

On to part 2 of the dilemma. Assuming it is indeed the video card I need to replace I can't decide what to go with. I COULD spend up to $150 but $120 is probably more of a max I'd rather stick to. I only game lightly currently (WoW) and my monitor is small with a hopefully near future upgrade to a 16x10 on the horizon. The computer is left on perpetually and is well used. I don't upgrade frequently and money is a concern. For those reasons I'm reluctant to try a stab at a used 4870 or 4850 though they seem like possibly the best solutions. Heat isn't much of a concern but noise is. I sleep in the same room and for this reason I'm a bit leery of the warm / loud running 4870. Honestly the 7900GS was fine for my current situation. Should I scour for a new 4870.. go with a 250GTS because of the lower power required.. just be content with a 4670 or 4830 or something like that? Running on a 450VX so I doubt it'd have much headroom for a 4870 even with my e8400 at stock clock. 5770 is out of reach and the 5750 isn't an impressive performer from the very little information I've looked at. The added features it brings doesn't look to have any benefit for my situation as far as I can tell.

Sorry for the wall of text. Halp

 

[blanketyblank]

4850 is very quiet on idle, but can get loud at load. I stayed away from the 4870 when purchasing my 4850 initially because they are louder and I didn't need the extra performance at 1920 x 1080.
If the 5750 is in your budget I'd go with one of those. I'm pretty sure WoW will incorporate dx11 since LotR online is doing so. The new cards OC well since they run a lot cooler than the 4xxx series so you could probably match performance on a 4870 if you got a decent OCer.

 

[nitromullet]

If the 5750 is in your budget I'd go with one of those. I'm pretty sure WoW will incorporate dx11 since LotR online is doing so.

doubtful... WoW is successful because it runs on almost all levels of hardware. Plus, Blizzard doesn't need to pay attention to what other mmo's are doing; other mmo's need to pay attention to what Blizzard is doing.

Personally, if I was looking for a cheap WoW video card I'd grab a 9800GT.

 

[novice]

"Honestly the 7900GS was fine for my current situation."

Based on that statement from the OP, I say go for the 4670 and don't look back. It is an efficient card, and unless you are trying to run Crysis in humongous resolution, it will work fine for you. I have a 512 mb 4670, along with a pair of 384 mb Geforce 9600 GSO's and they are very close to each other in performance. I spent about $65 ar for the 4670 and less than $50 ar for the GSO's. Watch newegg for hot deals on video cards. Your existing PSU will run any of these cards easily, probably on up to the 9800 GT and 4770. Pushing beyond those cards may suggest considering a PSU upgrade as well.

Here is mine, which has run great for a year with a 300W Dell PSU.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127448

 

[Denithor]

9800GT http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-028-_-Product

Seconded. This will play WoW at 1680x1050 max details smoothly - the only place you'll get slowed will be in Dalaran or Wintergrasp with way too many people around (and this is more network lag than system lag to be honest).