video card upgrade for 24 in monitor

[dudeman007]

i have purchased a 24 inch samsung 2433bw to upgrade from my 19 inch and i wanna upgrade my video card becasue im sure i will need a more powerfull one.

my rig is a e4300 oced to 3.0 on a p965-dsr3 , 4 gigs of 6400 ram with enermax 500w liberty. im holding on upgrading the system, because well it works fine for me , prolly will upgrade somewhere in july to wait for better prices and bang for the buck.

my current card is a 8800gt 512 from xfx , and i would like to get a 4850-4870 or gtx260, my question comes from the cheaper 512 card will do enough for my monitor or should i hold and spend more on 1gb cards?
ati 4870 prices is very tempting but has teh same 512 or ram ..

ati has announced their price cuts , and i have until march 16 to receive the card(dont live in the stated , and my brother needs to fly it over).

any advice or recommendations?

 

[jamesbond007]

I can tell you that my 4870 512MB is freaking LOVELY.

I have a 24" screen and run 1920x1200 on all my games. The only game I've come across where I can't max the settings is Crysis, but I still play with everything on "High" ("Very High" is the next level up) I also have 2xAA on and the game plays like butter. My CPU is a Q9450 @ QX9770 speeds (3.2GHz, 12MB L2, 1600MHz FSB) and I have 8GB of DDR2 at 1066MHz. My videocard is overclocked to 790MHz on the core and 1090MHz (2.18GHz DDR) with a default speed of 750/800. I bumped up my fan speeds to 35% to keep the GPU fan at a slight buzz and my idle speeds around 58C.

ANYWAYS, a single 4870 would suffice current games. I bought a second 4870 and plan to run Crossfire in a few days when I get it from NewEgg. It came to around $130 after s/h for the HIS brand and I think there's a deal on the ASUS ones now too. (check slickdeals.net) I had a $50 gift card for NewEgg and I couldn't resist the upgrade since I've always wanted two GPUs. I don't need it now, but it should help me play future games and increase my e-penis by about 16 inches.

 

[angry hampster]

I'm going from an 8800GT to a 4870 512MB card tomorrow. I also have a 24" screen.

 

[Denithor]

For 1920x1200 in most games the 4870 512MB is the best "value" for the money.

The 1GB card definitely brings higher performance but also costs quite a bit more. Same for the GTX 260.

And make sure you don't buy a 512MB GTS 250 - which is just a rebadged 9800GTX (which is itself a rebadged 8800GTS 512MB).

Read this article for a quick run-down of today's mid-priced cards. Very informative. And take a look especially at the 1920x1200 charts listed in the performance review section.

 

[angry hampster]

....and here's an article comparing the 4870 1GB to the 512mb and other cards:
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3415&p=4