Graphics Card Upgrade?

[SuperBeatBoy]

I think its about time i upgraded from my 512mb 8800 GT. I have been out of the loop for quite a long time, so i was wondering if you guys can give me some examples of some good graphics cards, looking for one at a reasonable price.

Thanks

[eastyy]

what system do you have ?

i had a 8800gts and upgraded to a 460 2gb i do not run at very high resolutions only 1280 or 1024 and it was not a massive improvement

my processor is a 6600 intel quad core

[SuperBeatBoy]

I have a 6400 Intel Dual Core. I know its preety old, but it does the job for now.

[SuperBeatBoy]

Just thinking, instead of buying a new card. Maybe i should get a new cooler for it, the stock one on it is one loud bastard when its fully going and quite flimsy looking.

Any suggestions or opinions?

[Solar]

i had a 8800gts and upgraded to a 460 2gb i do not run at very high resolutions only 1280 or 1024 and it was not a massive improvement

Same here really, only I had the second edition 1gb 8800GT (quite a lot more powewrfull than the OPs), upgraded to a 460 1gb and it's not a massive improvement at all, it is nice how i can play all my games with 32x antialiasing and 8x transparent AA though

If I knew what I know now, I would wait another year before upgrading the 8800gt, unless I had money to waste on a 580 or some thing.

[monel]

I have a Phenom X4, I thought it was decent when I bought it but apparently not.

Would I be better off getting new graphics card (currently on-board) or a new motherboard plus processor?

[eastyy]

I have a Phenom X4, I thought it was decent when I bought it but apparently not.

Would I be better off getting new graphics card (currently on-board) or a new motherboard plus processor?

phenom x4 is fine ...i recently got one and it works grand (probably a bit better then my intel 6600 )


if you have just on board then a new graphics card would be good i picked up a 5750 and roughly bench mark wise its a bit better 3dmark score then my intel 6600 quad and 460 geforce


i did LOTS of digging around and its weird that the new current gen lower price graphics cards (say the 50 to 100&#163 are not really that much faster then my old geforce 8800gts

got to say never really encountered that many demanding games lately

[eastyy]

Just thinking, instead of buying a new card. Maybe i should get a new cooler for it, the stock one on it is one loud bastard when its fully going and quite flimsy looking.

Any suggestions or opinions?

what games do you play ?

i never have bought a new cooler ..guess the noise never bothered me

[SuperBeatBoy]

Two Worlds 2 ATM. Sounds like a jet engine starting.

[eastyy]

what resolution do you run games at normally ?

those type of games (small developer not a huge budget) two worlds/gothic 4 usually are not that well optimised and need a powerful machine to run well

oh was it always loud ?

[monel]

phenom x4 is fine ...i recently got one and it works grand (probably a bit better then my intel 6600 )


if you have just on board then a new graphics card would be good i picked up a 5750 and roughly bench mark wise its a bit better 3dmark score then my intel 6600 quad and 460 geforce


i did LOTS of digging around and its weird that the new current gen lower price graphics cards (say the 50 to 100&#163 are not really that much faster then my old geforce 8800gts

got to say never really encountered that many demanding games lately

Thing is, I didn't know the Phenom 2 and later were out at the time I bought it, but I didn't want to spend too much so I guess it was the right choice. It's a decent motherboard with a decent on board graphics card (geforce I think) but after a while I wanted to tried to emulate the PS2 but it wasn't having it. Crappy frame rate. Do you need something like a 3ghz+ machine to run PS2 emulation?

Could a graphics card maybe improve emulation on my current machine?

[eastyy]

what geforce model ?

there is not a huge difference between the phenom and the phenom 2 checked with the benchmarks and was about 5 -15 fps difference at a 1680 depends on the version though

[SuperBeatBoy]

what resolution do you run games at normally ?

those type of games (small developer not a huge budget) two worlds/gothic 4 usually are not that well optimised and need a powerful machine to run well

oh was it always loud ?

Its always loud when its heavy load, this happens on all games not just Two Worlds 2. I've read its the norm for stock coolers, going to order a Zalman VF900 to replace it.

The resolution i have it running is 1680x1050.

[eastyy]

oh well at that resolution may see more of a benefit from a new graphics card

think anything above a ati 5800 series or a nvidia 460 series would be fine

though with the new batch of graphics cards released will imagine there will be a price drop soon

here are some comparisons

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU/87

[Cornflakes]

If you get a new graphics card and your board has a second pcie slot, you can use your old 8800 as a physx card, just a thought.