First off, I use a 30 inch LCD, so I have tough video requirements. Plus I have a ridicuolous taste for graphics eye candy.
Its been a while since I upgraded my video cards, and up to last month, I was using EVGA 8800 GTX Superclocked version in SLI. Then things progressively got haywire because after tow years of overclocking, the graphics memory went kaput. I had visual artifacts galore, no matter what I did. The cards went back to EVGA for two 9800 generation mid-level cards.
Seeing my frustration with a locking up computer and knowing that I had to RMA the video cards, my wife quietly went down to Best Buy and bought the best thing (sorry about the pun lol) they had on the shelf.
The box looks like a regular old BFG GTX 260 OC. The actual video card was a GTX 260 Maxcore OC, otherwise known as SP216. Its clocked 590 Mhz instead of 576 Mhz, and I immediately brought it up to 675 MHz
I'm a water cooler, but I admit this video card runs just fine the way it is and I haven't been inclined to strip it out yet.
Yes, I know its a BFG. However, I can't be an ass and scream "Its not an EVGA!!!" At least BFG now has a convoluted trade up program, but their warranty doesn't cover additional overclocks or stripping down for water cooling. Oh well.
However, it is clear that I cannot do with a single GTX 260 Core 216. At 4 MP and 8xAA and above, the minimum frames are too low. I need SLI something or another (ie, GTX 295 minimum).
I can (1) go out and get another one of these cards (which isn't that sexy a suggestion), (2) I can get one GTX 295 and trade this card up to another GTX 295 (which takes forever), (3) I can get two GTX 285s and then play the waiting game for a trade up to a GTX 285, (4) chalk this BFG card up as water under the bridge and use this for something else, (5) go the extreme moronic route, make this BFG GTX 260 into a single slot card with a water block and replicate the grossly excessive EVGA Classified route with four videocards.
I hear that the BFG trade up program takes forever because they don't cross ship, and they need to take their own sweet time to test the return cards first. Plus, you only get "credit" and its only at their BFG store where everything is overpriced and everything nice is out of stock. I don't know if this is true. Maybe someone has feedback.
Money isn't really an issue, but my computer is a device. Its not an anatomical compensating extension I'm getting too old to worry about that anyway
Hope to make a sensible decision, but its becoming increasingly difficult.
Its been a while since I upgraded my video cards, and up to last month, I was using EVGA 8800 GTX Superclocked version in SLI. Then things progressively got haywire because after tow years of overclocking, the graphics memory went kaput. I had visual artifacts galore, no matter what I did. The cards went back to EVGA for two 9800 generation mid-level cards.
Seeing my frustration with a locking up computer and knowing that I had to RMA the video cards, my wife quietly went down to Best Buy and bought the best thing (sorry about the pun lol) they had on the shelf.
The box looks like a regular old BFG GTX 260 OC. The actual video card was a GTX 260 Maxcore OC, otherwise known as SP216. Its clocked 590 Mhz instead of 576 Mhz, and I immediately brought it up to 675 MHz
I'm a water cooler, but I admit this video card runs just fine the way it is and I haven't been inclined to strip it out yet.Yes, I know its a BFG. However, I can't be an ass and scream "Its not an EVGA!!!" At least BFG now has a convoluted trade up program, but their warranty doesn't cover additional overclocks or stripping down for water cooling. Oh well.
However, it is clear that I cannot do with a single GTX 260 Core 216. At 4 MP and 8xAA and above, the minimum frames are too low. I need SLI something or another (ie, GTX 295 minimum).
I can (1) go out and get another one of these cards (which isn't that sexy a suggestion), (2) I can get one GTX 295 and trade this card up to another GTX 295 (which takes forever), (3) I can get two GTX 285s and then play the waiting game for a trade up to a GTX 285, (4) chalk this BFG card up as water under the bridge and use this for something else, (5) go the extreme moronic route, make this BFG GTX 260 into a single slot card with a water block and replicate the grossly excessive EVGA Classified route with four videocards.
I hear that the BFG trade up program takes forever because they don't cross ship, and they need to take their own sweet time to test the return cards first. Plus, you only get "credit" and its only at their BFG store where everything is overpriced and everything nice is out of stock. I don't know if this is true. Maybe someone has feedback.
Money isn't really an issue, but my computer is a device. Its not an anatomical compensating extension
I'm getting too old to worry about that anyway Hope to make a sensible decision, but its becoming increasingly difficult.
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