Current build:
intel q6600
4gb ram
650w ps
8800gtx
vista 64
So far, I haven't really hit anything other than crysis that I can't run well, but I'm thinking of picking up bad company 2, which looking at benchmarks I probably won't be able to run that well maxed out. But the more pressing issue is the constant overheating and crashing of my current card, and that's only going to get worse as my room temperature goes up in the spring / summer.
Usually I don't do individual upgrades, I ride a pc until it can no longer keep up, then just build a new one. My current guy is just under 3 years old, I'm hoping to get another year or two out of it, and given that I haven't been cpu or memory bound by anything yet, I think I'll be fine with that.
Anyways, on to the important stuff. I've previously always gotten nvidia cards, they've been the performance king each time I've built a machine. However, the price, power, and heat of the 480/470 have completely turned me off, given their minimal performance gain over the 5870/5850. The only minor advantages I see to them are the physx stuff (that hardly any games make use of) and whatever IQ bump the tessellation edge they theoretically have provides (probably a ways away before we find out in anything other than technical demos). The next level down, nvidia's 260/275/285 just don't seem to compete on a price vs performance level with any of ati's stuff. So, we're off to ati land. I've been somewhat eyeing the 5850, my only hesitation is that I'll either be dropping $300-350 on a card I'll be replacing in a year or two when I do the rest of the system, or I'll keep it and have a vid card a couple years behind the rest of the machine. Is there a better option in the $150-200 range that will give me a big enough performance boost to make it worth it, and still hold me over for up to 2 years? And more importantly, what are good brands for ati cards? EVGA's been great to me, but they're obviously not an option if I go ati.
intel q6600
4gb ram
650w ps
8800gtx
vista 64
So far, I haven't really hit anything other than crysis that I can't run well, but I'm thinking of picking up bad company 2, which looking at benchmarks I probably won't be able to run that well maxed out. But the more pressing issue is the constant overheating and crashing of my current card, and that's only going to get worse as my room temperature goes up in the spring / summer.
Usually I don't do individual upgrades, I ride a pc until it can no longer keep up, then just build a new one. My current guy is just under 3 years old, I'm hoping to get another year or two out of it, and given that I haven't been cpu or memory bound by anything yet, I think I'll be fine with that.
Anyways, on to the important stuff. I've previously always gotten nvidia cards, they've been the performance king each time I've built a machine. However, the price, power, and heat of the 480/470 have completely turned me off, given their minimal performance gain over the 5870/5850. The only minor advantages I see to them are the physx stuff (that hardly any games make use of) and whatever IQ bump the tessellation edge they theoretically have provides (probably a ways away before we find out in anything other than technical demos). The next level down, nvidia's 260/275/285 just don't seem to compete on a price vs performance level with any of ati's stuff. So, we're off to ati land. I've been somewhat eyeing the 5850, my only hesitation is that I'll either be dropping $300-350 on a card I'll be replacing in a year or two when I do the rest of the system, or I'll keep it and have a vid card a couple years behind the rest of the machine. Is there a better option in the $150-200 range that will give me a big enough performance boost to make it worth it, and still hold me over for up to 2 years? And more importantly, what are good brands for ati cards? EVGA's been great to me, but they're obviously not an option if I go ati.
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