my 7800GT is broken, time to upgrade?

[gozulin]

My evga 7800gt is broken and I'm about to RMA it. I can either get a cheapo card while I'm waiting for a replacement or buy a new, better card and sell the replacement on eBay when it arrives.

I have a 30" dell so I could use the extra horsepower. I don't want to spend over 250 bucks for a gpu, is there one I should get right now or should I wait?

That is the question.

 

[bladder23]

250 bucks could get you a lot

 

[RussianSensation]

$250 is good for 8800GTS 320mb which isn't going to be fast enough for 2560x1600. But if you were comfortable enough to play with 7800GT on that monitor with medium settings, etc., then it should be fine.

 

[gozulin]

I take it you would recommend I wait until a 768MB+ gpu is available for $250 or less ?

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: gozulin
I take it you would recommend I wait until a 768MB+ gpu is available for $250 or less ?

In my view, it makes sense to upgrade when:

a) you have spare cash you wouldn't mind spending
b) the performance you are getting is not satisfactory
c) there is an outstanding deal/sale

Unfortunately I'll probably be another 6 months or maybe more until 8800GTX 768 or a card of similar performance costs $250. I would have thought that when you purchased a 30 inch monitor, you considered in advance that gaming at 2560x1600 is expensive.

By the time 8800GTX 768 is $250, games like Crysis and Quake Wars and Unreal 3 will undoubtedly be far too intensive for it to handle with all settings on high on a 30 inch monitor. Of course you can still play in non-native resolution or a better option would be to lower some of the image quality settings like shadows, AA is probably overkill at 2560x1600. But as I said before if you found 7800GT adequate for your gaming needs (and settings) at 2560x1600, then 8800GTS 320 at same settings will produce faster frames.

There will always be something faster like 8900GTS and then Geforce 9 (although 8900 series should be released this summer, just not sure what month). Do you know what card they will be RMAing to you? Let's hope it's not 8600 series. You can always sell the card and then upgrade. This is a good option because:

1) maybe they'll send you a faster card than 7800Gt like 7950GT
2) by that time there could be a price drop
3) you can sell the card you get and then upgrade to say 8800GTS 640mb version.

 

[f4phantom2500]

i personally would huff it until the replacement card comes in and then just use that until nvidia comes out with a card refresh. everyone says GF9's are due sometime this year, you'd might as well wait and get a DX10 card that's worthy of DX10 games.

My 2 cents.

 

[Matt2]

I can honestly say they aren't likely to send you another 7800GT. They'll give u something like a 8600GT/S or 7950GT.

I wouldnt accept anything but a 7950GT in that case.

 

[gozulin]

Originally posted by: Matt2
I can honestly say they aren't likely to send you another 7800GT. They'll give u something like a 8600GT/S or 7950GT.

I wouldnt accept anything but a 7950GT in that case.

Oh? That implies the 8600GT/S is an inferior card to my 7800GT, in which case, I'm surprised they would offer it in exchange. Is eVga notorious for doing this?

Do you think I should email customer support to prevent something like this from happening in the first place? Or should I just wait and see?

I have no experience with RMA'ing graphic cards.

Maybe they'll send me an 8800GT.

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: gozulin

Originally posted by: Matt2
I can honestly say they aren't likely to send you another 7800GT. They'll give u something like a 8600GT/S or 7950GT.

I wouldnt accept anything but a 7950GT in that case.

Oh? That implies the 8600GT/S is an inferior card to my 7800GT, in which case, I'm surprised they would offer it in exchange. Is eVga notorious for doing this?

Do you think I should email customer support to prevent something like this from happening in the first place? Or should I just wait and see?

I have no experience with RMA'ing graphic cards.

Maybe they'll send me an 8800GT.

I said they wouldnt send you a 7800GT becaused I dont think they have any besides the defective ones they receive from RMA.

Since they likely wont give you a 7800GT they'll send you something "comparable". There's been a few members on this board that have received a 7950GT instead. This would be a huge upgrade for you.

At least one guy that I know of had an 8600GT (maybe a GTS, I can't remember. Since the 7950 is generally faster than an 8800GT/S, that wouldnt make sense. The member in question contacted EVGA and he got them to send him a 7950GT instead.

 

[n7]

See what comes back from the RMA.

Obviously, to play most newer games @ 2560x1600 high settings, you pretty much have to have an 8800 GTS+.

IOW, 8800 GTX, or you want fewer potential driver issues for Vista use, an HD 2900 XT 512 MB/1 GB.

But if you don't mind running 1:1 pixel scaling for games (i assume you do that now), then i imagine at the $250 range, the 8800 GTS 320 MB is the best you can get close to that price...

 

[gozulin]

Well, I used the 7800GT to play on my 24" monitor, it was ok at 1920x1200 for several games. I hadn't used it for months before I tried it again on my 30" (I don't do a whole lot of pc gaming, though that may change if the right game comes along (starcarft 2? Bioshock?).

I'd like to play Company of Heroes at native res. That was the game that crashed my 7800gt.

Now I have to figure out what to buy as a replacement while my card is going through the RMA process.