Hi all, A little history; While playing company of heros my system crashed and on re-boot there were screen artifacts while I was still in the BIOS... O dear! The system did POST however but never made it to the log-on screen. Long story short after goggling it I decided that I should re-install windows which I did, with difficulty because of all the artifacts but I managed it! So when the first part of the installation was complete and the system re-booted there were no more artifacts! Hurray! The victory was short lived however because the system then went on to load drivers for everything and on re-boot the artifacts were back after some more googling it appears my graphics card is to blame (however I do not have another card to prove it with). Ok so that is the history over here is the deal. My system is currently the following; Mobo Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R cpu Q6600 Core 2 Quad (G0) gpu Nvidia XFX 8800GT (now fried) ram 8GB psu silver stone 500W OS windows 7 64bit I don't have the money to get a new rig (i wish) I can only afford to replace the gpu. Any suggestions for a card around the £150 mark that would replace my (now fried) 8800GT? I have looked at some old threads about replacing a failed 8800gt and at the time people were recommending HD6850, HD6950, GTX560. Thanks in advance all for your help!
GTX 560 Ti prices start around 160 pounds. They're very popular cards. If your budget can stretch, get one, it'll last you a good while.
Around that price mark you're looking at a 7850 (slightly over budget) or a gtx560ti (due to drop in price soon), but the newer generation of AMD cards run on alot less power than the current nvidia crop. 560ti's use two pci power cables and consume upwards of 200w, so your psu might not be able to handle it. At the moment 6870's are looking pretty good for the money too theyre currently at the £100 or so mark and get a slight boost over the 6850.
£25 more would get you a new 7850 like this; http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...aphicscards/amdhd7850series/fx-785a-cnjc.html although im bias, and I did my research recently, it would still get my vote. They are good cards to OC also if your interested in that kind of thing.
I stand corrected, had no idea the 660 had been announced yet. Prices do seem to be fluctuating to extremes witht he 560ti all the same, one week to the next the difference can be £20-25 across the board. Supply-demand in action I suppose. If you are lucky you might spot the odd 448 core going for £150 though, which is a bit of a bargain if you have the PSU to handle it.
Thanks for all the responses. I am torn between coming in under budget with the 6870 or slightly over budget with the 7850. A GTX 560 Ti would be nice but it sounds like it would require me to get a new PSU... Is it better to go for an older top of the range card or a more recent middle of the range card? Cheers
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1280...-gddr5-gpu-732mhz-shader-1464mhz-448-cores-2x 560 Ti 448 - almost as good as a 570 (i.e. only a few percent difference most of the time)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-168-MS This 6850, although a bit older now, will still be a big step up from a 8800 gt and for that price you could throw in a new psu if you don't think yours is very good. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/600w...-80-eff-80-plus-eps-12v-quiet-fan-atx-v23-psu for example.
Just thought I'd put in a recommendation for the asus dc2 7850 as I recently just bought one Its really cool and quiet, even when I overclock it to 1050mhz core and I can't remember what for the memory. It runs pretty much everything (other than witcher 2) at full settings 1080p. If you can stretch the budget its a great card. If not, the 560ti and 6850 are meant to be good aswell.
Not for £160, that is HD7850 money. A HD6850 for £85 (new) should last you a good while if you don't fancy spending too much.
or you could try your luck at getting something like this on ebay for a decent price. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/XFX-Radeo...TV_Cards_TW&hash=item3cc9705a32#ht_500wt_1156 or this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GTX-570-C...TV_Cards_TW&hash=item416944e25f#ht_886wt_1154