Graphics Advice on upgrade please

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Thermal5, 3 May 2009.

  1. Thermal5

    Thermal5 R.I.P

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    I'm about to buy a new graphics card and wondered if someone could give me some advice preferably with a graphics card manufacturer who has good customer service if any problems ever did arise with the card (hopefully never) lol.

    I know of several online retailers those being the below,

    http://www.cclonline.com
    http://www.scan.co.uk
    http://www.dabs.com
    http://www.ebuyer.com
    http://www.novatech.co.uk
    http://www.overclockers.co.uk

    If anyone knows of any others please let me know and could someone please recommend a decent NVIDIA GTX 260 (216 Core) Max budget is £170.

    Thank you.
     
  2. smc8788

    smc8788 Multimodder

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    Just get the cheapest one you can find from a reputable site (out of those you listed that would be Scan, ebuyer and novatech). You should easily be able to find a 216 SP GTX 260 for under £150 on any of those sites.
     
  3. Thermal5

    Thermal5 R.I.P

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    Thanks smc8788, I'll have a look later on and see what's on those three sites, Scan, ebuyer and novatech, I've been looking at the Zotac GTX 260's on ebuyer because the 8800 GT I had of their's was rock solid and they have a 5 year warranty! but just wondered if anyone could recommend anything else :)
     
  4. smc8788

    smc8788 Multimodder

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    They're all the same to be honest, most just use the reference design (some have different coolers, though). Some have longer warranties than others which may be worth paying a bit more for, but remember that in all likelihood won't be keeping the card for 5 years, more like 1 or 2 (do you still use a card that you bought 5 years ago?), hence they are just a bit of a gimmick really. Oh, and make sure you don't get drawn into paying loads more for a pre-overclocked model.
     
  5. Thermal5

    Thermal5 R.I.P

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    Ok thanks again.

    Just wondering though with the pre-overclocked models I'm assuming they add on a premium of say an extra £40 and the real performance is only like 5 FPS difference which doesn''t really justify an extra £40 for a mere 5 FPS increase does it?
     
  6. smc8788

    smc8788 Multimodder

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    Well, no, and there's also the fact that you can easily get that 5 FPS out of a stock card by overclocking it a bit yourself using Rivatuner.
     
  7. Thermal5

    Thermal5 R.I.P

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    Thanks for the info smc8788, what I can now tell you is I went for this http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?BFG-MC260 it's the BFG GeForce GTX 260 OC MAXCORE and it cost £166.75 (£173) with next day delivery.

    I know it cost more than standard GTX 260's and I wasn't going to go with an overclocked card but from what I heard about BFG cards from friends and the fact that I heard BFG have excellent warranties I thought it would be worth paying the extra premium for that alone.

    What do you think :)
     
  8. adam_bagpuss

    adam_bagpuss Have you tried turning it off/on ?

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    look at scan for the 260(216) XFX brand its £148 with fry cry 2 and is bargintastic

    XFX carrys a 2 year warranty too
     
  9. Abhorsen

    Abhorsen Minimodder

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    I had to return an 8800 GTX to Overclockers, their service although it took about a month from me sending it was fine. Got a replacement card, no issues..
     

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