My GPU at the moment is a Sapphire 4890. Got it for 90£ from eBay shortly after the 5xxx series came out. Frankly, it's a monster of a card for that price, or at least for the games I'm playing. Most popular titles in my steam account are Bad Company 2 (somehow I find it more fun than BF3 right now), good ol' Civ 4 (5 is a steaming pile of poo) and Shogun 2. Playing at 1920x1080. Card can get a bit too loud at times, but when I game I almost always wear headphones so not a huge issue. Thing is, I haven't changed anything in my rig for quite a while now and I'm feeling the itch to pull the trigger. Checked out the marketplace on here and eBay, but I'm a bit disappointed with the results so far. The 4890 was pretty much the top of the line single GPU card and you could find them easily around the 100£ mark. I was sort of hoping that, with the new gen card being released, I will be able to find something that would be in the same performance bracket, i.e. top of the line last gen card. Say a 570 or a 6950 for a 100£, but that was rather optimistic I wonder why the prices are still so high, relatively speaking. I guess the jump from 4xxx to 5xxx series has been pretty major thanks to DirectX, so maybe that's the reason why I could get a card that was 300£ at release, for a third of the price. Looks like the 4xx/5xx and 5xxx/6xxx series are maintaining their value a lot better. Which kind of sucks for a bargain hunter. The funny thing is, I don't really feel the need to upgrade. I just miss that buzz you get from booting up your rig after fitting it with some new kit Right now, I'm thinking about bidding for refurb cards from novatech's Ebay outlet. They have a 6950, which might be out of my price range, they mostly sell for 160£+, but those are used rather than refurbished, so maybe that will drive the price down a bit. Then again I am a bit worried that the card was returned because someone messed up flashing a 6970 bios onto it. Novatech test the cards, guarantee that they work and give a 2 month warranty, but I am worried whether this can hinder the life span of the card. They also have a 5870 listed, but I'm not sure whether it is enough of an upgrade really. Maybe if I could get it for 50£ or less. Might still end up feeling like too much of a sideways move. Last option is to wait for the 6xx series to come out and see what this does to the prices of second hand 570's. But I've been waiting so long now and I'm three generations behind already. Also, I wonder what are your experiences when switching from a high end, older card to a new and shiny mid range one. I guess you can't directly compare the fps numbers for the 4890 vs a 560ti since the 560 will be processing effects that are simply impossible to implement for the older card. One of my colleagues at my old job bought a 550 to replace his 4870 and was disappointed with the results/money value.
Prices are beginning to slip on the used GTX 580 market, so I'd wait for the 6XX series to devalue them more!
I wonder whether my PSU can handle it. Then again the 4890 is rather power hungry. A 580 would have been nice, but I guess a 570 is more realistic. I really don't want to spend much more than 100-120£ tops.
I upgraded from a 1GB 4890 to a GTX580 1.5GB. I've found performance worse in source games. FPS is a bit higher, but the game is less stable, not as smooth. I'm not sure why. :/ All other games though, play amazing. Much better than the 4890. Like GTAIV, Mirrors Edge etc. My CPU holds me back though. So i'm hoping for a cheap high-end skt775 quad in the next couple of weeks. You could wait it out until 6xx and get the 580's when they drop even more in price. They are around £250 sort of area on the marketplace at the moment. It would see you for a good while yet too, especially on that resolution (i'm on 1080 too). edit; For around £120 you can get higher 4xx cards on the MP. Soon and esp. when 6xx comes out I bet 560ti's will be nearer that price. You can get brand new 560ti for £150 I believe. Novatech had one here £154. Others will come down in the next few months.
Seems like there are a lot of us with the 48XX series considering an upgrade right now XD In the same boat myself, just not sure it is the right time with no sound from Nvidia....
4000 series user? http://rog.asus.com/82342012/news/competition-time-got-one-win-one/ Try and win a new one?
Hey, Yeah similar boat, built my rig some 2 and a half + years ago (i7 920 with GTX 275). I bought a new monitor since then and currently run a 2560x1440, 1920x1200 and 1440x900. Although I don't game as much these days, when I do, most games struggle a little. With the resolutions and monitors I'm running, I'm looking for a card with 2-3GB Vram. I went back and forth between a load of cards on both teams but settled on a 6950 2gb; due to the steep price/performance curve after this level. I found a HIS IceQ card for £165 but have been holding back in hope that the 7800 series will offer more bank/buck than 7700 series (doubt it, I know). It's just so close to new cards being released on both sides I want to wait and see, but what's been offered so far has not been that encouraging. Think I am expecting more of a difference from the sub £200 market from a 3 year upgrade gap than what is currently out there. Have a huge case of 'upgrade-itis' and I have immersed myself in far to many reviews/comparison charts that I don't think I can last much longer
Error establishing a database connection -- I'm running 2 4770's in crossfire myself. Going to grab a new card in the next month. Will probably end up being a New 6950 2GB. Depends when the 7850/70 release, their performance and their price point.
I'm running a 4870 bought eeons ago. COuld manage bc2 with very good frame rates, although I suspect that the graphics detail was reduced. Maybe you enjoy bc2 more because it peforms better with your card? I want to upgrade from 4870 to a 6XXX series card at some point, maybe the 7XXX series will devalue the 6 series some what.
Im running a 5830 plays BC2 ok not great but struggles with BF3 on medium/high so in May i will grab either a 69xx card or see what the 78xx bring to the table although i fear it will be two rich for me.
Yea the ****ing server is down all day and it's a national holiday here, so no one is doing a damn thing about it until tomorrow
