alright lee you've got a very decent system there & like everyone else i'd say upgrade the gpu your choice depends on what resolution you want to game at, though. for 1680x1050 - GTX 260 or HD4870 - both excellent value for money at the moment (personally I'd lean towards the GTX 260, they run slightly cooler and quieter, better performance in crysis, but don't support DX10.1) for 1920x1200 - choose between the HD4890 and GTX 275 - both great cards, GTX 275 probably pips the HD 4890 in performance, the Palit version runs quicker and quieter than NVidia's reference design - so you might want to look there. Will set you back £200 though. if you want ultimate performance at 1920x1200 that resolution - go for 2xGTX 260s or 2xGTX 275 in SLI - awesome performance. Also, get a good aftermarket cooler and clock your CPU to 3.3Ghz+
Cheers for the information earlydoors and everyone else so far! I quite like the sounds of the GTX260 or the HD4870 (My motherboard is CrossFire btw ). Although the GTX 260 runs faster, I will be wanting to try some overclocking on the card that I get...along with a new cooler for the card too... Im gona have to read up on those two cards now and see which one suits me
4850 is a good MID ranged card. somehow i feel as if you're 'cheating' your powerful system. WIth the specs you have, you're suposed to seal the deal with at LEAST a HD 4890
You haven't really said what you're playing, the GTX 260 and 4870 go back and forth, and it comes down to what you want to play, mostly..
I would like my system to be able to handle Crysis at a decent resolution with good looking graphics and a good average frame rate. If the system can handle Crysis at these details then im sure they system can handle other games just as well...
HD 4870x2...http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2GB-...-750MHz-1600-Cores-CrossFire-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDTV It's a killer of a deal...
These are both fast cards for under £150 XFX 4870 XXX http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-XFX-ATI-Radeon-HD-4870-775M-DDR5-DUAL-DVI-XXX-EDITION Review http://www.elite*******s.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=697&Itemid=27 XFX 260 Black Edition http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/896M...666MHz-216-Cores-2xDL-DVI-I-HDTV-plus-FarCry2 Review http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/xfxgtx260black/12.html
I would really prefer to go down the ATI route as my motherboard is CrossFire which means future upgrade potentials... First thing on order is a new cooler for the CPU, anyone got any recommendations asides the Freezer 7 Pro?
Good choice, most of the ATI cards out our offering better bang for the buck The Akasa Nero is pretty tasty for £25 http://www.pureoverclock.com/review.php?id=699&page=1
Single 4870 or GTX 260 216 will be perfect, and if you're in England, get the Akasa, it's been a mainstay on the buyers guide, if you're in the US, try the OCZ Vendetta.
Ok, looks like im gona have to do some comparative research between the HD4870 and the GTX 260 (216). Just out of curiosity, what does this 216 version of the GTX 260 offer compared to a standard GTX 260? My upgrade list for the next few months or so is as follows: HD4870 or GTX 260 Titan Fenrir CPU Cooler OCZ Technology 2x2GB 240DIMM PC2-6400 Gold (8GB Total) Samsung 1TB 7200RPM 32MB S300 Feel free to adivse me on alternatives, criticism welcome!
I know I'll get hit on this, but on average on real world result, the HD 4870 = GTX 260, if I am not mistaken, and the GTX260 216 is faster than both GPUs. The ATI/AMD solution is cheaper but you don't have Nvidia CUDA and Nvidia PhysX. Knowing that DX11 cards are coming up... ATI/AMD solution is quiet interesting as you don't spend a lot of money and get to save for a new GPU. Looking at teh GTX 260 performance which I find could handle 1900x1080 resolution pretty well at near max settings down to the worse case scenario med settings with native resolution for demanding games and tomorrow games, that the next GPU from either companies should no present any struggle. GTX 260 (216) is faster as it uses 216 processors instead of 192 (original GTX 260). It also heat less (I THINK it's on a smaller die.. but I might be confusing things). However, the GTX 260 can be overclocked to give you same performance as the GTX 260 216. The difference in speed is not huge, but it's there.
To add to what Goodbytes said... 4870 (1 gig) = gtx 260 core 216 for the most part. Anyone will do i think. If you mobo supports SLI, go geforce, if Xfire go ATI. Either will do very well.
Ok, looks like its going to be the HD4870 1GB version, just need to do some shopping around to see where I can get the best deals. Im not bothered if its brand new or used (eBay), if it works then it works...dont need all the fancy items that come with it to make it do its job do I? Anyone know of a good CPU benchmark program thats free?
