Need quick help with RMA decision. EDIT: Need new advice.

[shortylickens]

Yippeeee.
Now I can play Crysis at High detail.

You know what? The game is still a great big MEH.

 

[octopus41092]

If you could I'd get the money back and buy an HD4850.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: Denithor
taltamir +1

I had nearly the identical thing happen about a year ago, an x1900gt died on me 11 months after I bought from newegg. They offered to replace it with an open box x1950pro or refund my original purchase price (less shipping). I opted for the cash and then found the deal at BB for a 7900GS @ $45. I was happy, with both newegg's service and the deal at BB.

I would suggest that you take the cash and then buy either a 4850 ($140AR) or a GTX 260 ($225AR). The GTX is honestly probably somewhat overkill for your setup, you will probably be at least somewhat CPU limited especially if you game at lower resolutions.

those are by far the two best deals right now. 4850 is ~ 10-15% faster than 9800gtx, and gtx 260 is ~20% faster than 4850 and is a true high end card. I game at 14x9 so the 4850 for $140 was the right move for me. If you're at 16x10 you're likely still ok, if you're at 19x12 or higher then definitely go with gtx 260.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
BUMP!!!

The bastards never sent me a 9800GTX but instead refunded my money.

I got the Vision Tek 4870 instead.

First off: Its a fuckin monster. Its longer than my penis and weighs more than my ego.

2nd: I keep reading different things about Catalyst these days.
The last time I had an ATI card was the X800 Pro, and I stopped updating drivers after a while because they usually caused more problems than they fixed.

Which Catalyst should a guy use if he has no interest in overclocking and just wants his card to be stable?

Should I assume no one here will recommend the silly little Java program that ATI pushes alongside their drivers? I believe its called CCC or something similar.

The VisionTek box came with 8.6 but I see 8.7 is the latest on the ATI site.
Is it safe to assume that the drivers in the box will actually work properly?

they probably just assumed that anybody in his right mind would go for a next generation card. besides, that 9800gtx is a deactivated item; they probably ran out of them before you made your choice.

 

[shortylickens]

Further updates:

World in Conflict looks awesome, but since it was a great game to begin with I havent really changed my opinion of it.

Call of Duty 4 only improved slightly, I guess the 8800GT was all it really needed.
I can now use ultra settings in Oblivion with all the enchanced graphics mods.
Test Drive Unlimited runs smooth at 2048x1536, which doesnt mean much but its still pretty cool.
Neverwinter Nights 2 finally runs well at 1600x1200. Now if the gameplay itself gets better we will have a winner.

Grid was included free with the card. I dont even know what its about but I'll try it anyway.

I guess the only thing left is to go out and buy Mass Effect.

 

[Tempered81]

Originally posted by: ashishmishra
I would get the money back and try to snag one of those 4870/GTX-260 deals that are popping up recently.

good job on the 4870.

the 8.8 catalyst beta is out, if you don't like betas stick with the official 8.7. get a program to adjust your clock speeds & fan settings.

see what kind of overclock you can get - good luck!