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Is now a good time to upgrade?

Associate
Joined
18 Apr 2006
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125
Location
Hampshire
Is now a good time to upgrade? spec please

I tend to upgrade every couple of years to keep games playable, I've been happily running an nvidia 8800 GTS 320mb but it's just died a death.
I've currently got an IP35 Pro mobo.

Conceding to your greater knowledge, is now a good time to upgrade? or is there a new chipset / pipeline about to break that will drop all the current cards in price?

If now is as good a time as any, what are currently the best performing cards (nvidia or ati) for up to and around £250?
(If the mobo is too out of date for new tech, advice here would be appreciated)

If now's not a great time, can anyone recommend any budget cards that'll do a reasonable job until the next big thing?

Really appreciate your time,

Tree
 
Last edited:
Associate
OP
Joined
18 Apr 2006
Posts
125
Location
Hampshire
Thanks for the advice, there are a whole bunch of 5850s £250 - £316, all with max ratings.
Money's not running freely but is it worth making the leap to the 2 gig cards at the top?

If not, are the XFX, Asus, Sapphire ones all more or less the same or is there a clear winner?
 

C64

C64

Soldato
Joined
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London
5770 should see you through for a while if you game at 1680-1050

24" monitors are a different story you'll probably need a 5850 if you like running things with all the bells and whistles.
 
Soldato
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telford, shropshire
as c64 mentioned 5770 might be a decent bet, what sort of resolution/screen size do you game on ?

not a real lot of difference between the manufacturers in my experience, if you have a personal preference then go with it.
 
Associate
OP
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I'm currently running two monitors, but game at 1440 x 900. Planning to upgrade that in the not too distant future though, maybe that lends more to the 5850 for slightly more future proofing.

Is the extra £50 worth the extra 1 gig onboard ram to go from say this one to this one?
 
Associate
Joined
24 Jul 2005
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483
I run a 4870 at 1440 x 900 and it handles it mostly fine with a little gas left in the tank. 2x AA on most games, and 4x AA on some (and none on the others :p).

Runs fine in my living room at 1080p too. Mass Effect 2/Batman AA with 2x AA at 60fps/50fps most of the time, etc.

A 5770 would be a bit better since it still has a bit of gas left in the tank to overclock the core. My 4870 won't budge past 810 core easily, but most 5770s will hit 900-950 core.

If you haven't got too much to spend, a 5770 will last you a while yet :)

Edit: And no, 2 gig models are fairly pointless!
 
Associate
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27 Dec 2008
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559
At the moment the 2gig cards arnt neccosery, you might see 1 or 2 extra fps on some games but its not worth the extra cost for something you wont notice when you are gaming.

As Canealot said a 1440x900 a 5770 is really what you want at that rez as it will play any game you have with ease, you can overclock it well and later on you can xfire another one which brings good fps (better then a 5870).

This is a good 5770 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-219-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1515

you get a nice 3 year warrenty with it.
 
Associate
OP
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For the future proof gain, I went for the Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card.

Really appreciate everyone's advice. Thanks!
 
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