Graphics Graphics and PSU upgrade help...

Good morning all!

I wish to upgrade my current game rig to something that's going to run games on a big monitor. i currently have an 8800GT 512mb card that's overclocked quite a bit, and to power it is a Corsair 520w PSU.

I'm most definately going to buy one of Nvidia's new 200 series cards, so here's the first question... 260 or 280? Is the slight increase in speed very noticable?

Next of all, I'm pretty sure the 520 watt power supply won't handle that card (I also want to go quad core soon, so may aswell upgrade now) so which power supply would you suggest? I don't want to fork out for a 1Kw supply, and I still want it to be modular, and as quiet as the Corsair units are...

One final thing... a big monitor. I want something at least 26" in size, I've looked at a couple of Samsungs, and a Viewsonic one aswell. The viewsonics seem to be much cheaper, but do they have the image quality that the Samsungs and Dell monitors have?

Any help appreciated as always!

Sam.

PS: Budget for the PSU is around £80-100, and for the monitor... lets say around £450-500.

 

Define resolution on your BIG screen... if your BIG screen does 640x480... then any video card even a Geforce 6600 will do (med-low settings).
I personally beleive you won't see a large difference between what you have and the nVidia 200 series... or if you do, it would be so light that its not worth the money. The day you ruin games at medium settings and it's choppy or sideshow, that would be the time to upgrade your computer.

26inch screen resolution is not really BIG as you say. I think that getting another Geforce 8800 GT will do the trick. However, I have not experience this to truely know. Frankly, I see the SLI only useful when you have such display.

 

Either the 280, or a 4870, dont bother with the 260, its overpriced (ie not as fast as a 4870).

 

26" screen will be 1920x1200, so you'll need something that'll handle all the bells and whistles at that res. I don't think anything short of a 280 will do, tbh. That, or 2 x ATi 4870's in xfire (2 x 4870's are slightly cheaper than a single 280).

I'd also recommend the Corsair 750TX. Not modular, but it has the grunt and all the plugs in the world that you'll need.

The order of preference for TFT panels:

1. S-IPS
2. S-PVA/MVA
3. TN

TN are 6-bit with dithering so don't offer up anything like true colour reproduction. They have very low response times though.
S-IPS are more often that not the dearest, but also the best panels.
S-PVA/MVA panels offer the best of both worlds, with varying results. Most are very good though.

 

Well I was clearly talking about monitors of a size 26" and upwards, so the resolution isn't going to be 640x480 is it? I was considering getting another 8800GT, but there are so many problems with SLi that it kind of puts me off...Unless these have been resolved with more recent drivers?

I thought the 260 wouldn't be worth it... thanks

I'd love to get the Corsair 750TX, but i really want something modular as I am a bit of a perfectionist with the inside of the case being tidy.

Thanks for the help everyone, keep it coming!

Sam.

 

The new Corsair 1000w supply has been getting some fantastic reviews, okay its not cheap but one of those bad boys powering your system will mean you'd don't have to worry about stressing your psu for a very long time.

 

I was looking at it (and it's hefty price tag) and it seems a gorgeous bit of equipment... If most of the SLi issues are resolved and I do get another 8800GT I suppose I could use some of the money saved to purchase one of them, at least there is a good amount of future proofing behind having it.

 

What games are we talking about here?
I have a 24" 1920x1200 screen, and my single 8800GT handles everything at pretty much top settings (except crysis, but then, why bother with that?)

COD4, Assassin's creed, GRID, C&C3, etc. all run at max quality at native resolution.
The only concession I have to make at the moment is I'm limited to 4xAA on GRID.

You may be better off getting the screen first, then allowing the prices of the current set of Graphics cards to drop slightly.