My faithful 8800GT seems to be dying. It has been making a buzzing noise for a while now, which isn't fan related so I'm assuming is a dodgy capacitor. Now, while playing Oblivion, I'm getting artifacts followed by complete system lockups, requiring hard restart. I'm likely to be upgrading my MB/RAM/CPU/GPU in about 6 months time. What I may have to do however is replace the GPU now with something of around the same level to allow me to play some games on the PC. So my question is what current GPU can I buy of around the same DX9-power as the 8800GT? A quick cross-check of videocardbenchmark.net and scan.co.uk finds an AMD 5670 at around £65 - does this sound sensible?
A new Sapphire card has recently been re-released called the Sapphire HD 5850 XTREME available for £115... http://www.ebuyer.com/product/265355 I think that'll be the best bang for buck. If you did want to go the Nvidia route again then a GTX 460 1GB is a meaningful upgrade such as an MSI or Gigabyte brand card. Then again at the £150 mark you really may as well get a GTX 560 for a few pounds more. For example the MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti TWIN FROZR II is currently on offer from SCAN for £185.99 under the today only section. A GTX 560 would also transfer well for a complete new build as it's the latest thing!
going by hwcompare.net, and my recent GPU shopping (ended up with a GTS450, fold away!), you're dead right. The 5570 is much slower, the GT440 is slower, but the 5670 is slightly faster than your 8800gt. The next step up is 5770/GTS450 which are a bit pricier, but there is a performance jump.
Why not buy a good fast card now that you can carry over to the new build, seems like abit of a waste if it's only going to be used for a few months.
Yeah, that was my thought. My worry is that in six months time I may be able to get more power for the £150-200 I was thinking of spending on a new mid/high-end GPU, and that a small short-term expenditure on a replacement may be worth it?
On the flip side you could be enjoying very good graphics in the here and now and also with the same card in the new build. I'd be willing to wager that you'd even be able to sell the card for a decent amount if and when a better GPU tickles your fancy a few months down the line. Probably be cheaper instead of buying a single slower card now and a faster one in the future anyway!
