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best GEFORCE card for £90?

Soldato
Joined
26 Apr 2004
Posts
9,356
Location
Milton Keynes
Well, if you can find a second hand GTX260/4870 in your original budget or below, go for that, the 4870 new is just around your original budget, if you're moving up to about £120, then you will definately be able to find a GTX260 most likely, but might also be able to find a 4890, in which case go for that as its just as fast, if not faster than the GTX275, and obviously faster than the 4870/GTX260.

The other option you've got is the just released 5770. Marginally slower than the 4870/260, but it's DX11 capable, capable of steaming HD audio to a reciever once the bluray manufacturers sort thier updates out, and has lower power usage (18w idle vs 60-70w IIRC). Only downside with that is the drivers are still new, so they're more likely to have teething issues than the GTX260 or 4870/90, but its still a reasonably fast card and will play anything on the market at decent settings.

My honest experience with ATI/Nvidia is both sometimes drop the ball on drivers, both have thier moments of sheer brilliance, and as even Rroff has said, Nv drivers as of late haven't been up to thier usual standard with more bugs than expected.

Only other thing to check is..do you have a DECENT PSU? I wouldnt recommend any of these cards on a cheap one, being (previously) high end cards, they are demanding cards and a weak PSU may not last that well, if you have a weak/basic decent PSU, with the lower power requirements, the 5770 is probably your best bet.


Now that your budget can accomodate, dont even look at the 9600GSO, GTS250 (AKA 9800GTX+) etc, they're not in the same league.
 
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Soldato
Joined
22 Nov 2003
Posts
2,933
Location
Cardiff
probally bought a dodgy one or somthing but it put me right off them.
I never understand this mentality :confused:

I bought a Corsair PSU last year. Fan was DOA but I didn't notice this until the PC eventually shut down after a few minutes. I RMA'd it and got a working Corsair.

I still buy Corsair PSU's.

No manufacturing process can ever be close to 100%.

Still, to answer your post, buy a 2nd hand 260.
 
Associate
Joined
16 Sep 2009
Posts
654
Location
London
I never understand this mentality :confused:

I bought a Corsair PSU last year. Fan was DOA but I didn't notice this until the PC eventually shut down after a few minutes. I RMA'd it and got a working Corsair.

I still buy Corsair PSU's.

No manufacturing process can ever be close to 100%.

Still, to answer your post, buy a 2nd hand 260.

ATI is all about optimising the card to work best around a specific game/program. a lot of people can't be bothered with that, they just want to take it out of the box and let it work which in a way nvidia provides. when i had my old nvidia card i think throughout its lifetime(4years) i only updated driver once lol.
 
Soldato
Joined
26 Apr 2004
Posts
9,356
Location
Milton Keynes
Then you lost out, as Nvidia update thier drivers for the same reason ATI do.
Both manufacturers put out the updates to try and stabilise or improve things, if they didnt think they needed to, neither would publish more than one finished set!
 
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