upgrade to 8800GT or ATI 4850

[rrr1431]

I'm planning to upgrade my GPU soon. I'm currently choosing between Nvidia's 8800GT and ATI's 4850 as they are in the same price range.
My question is is it better to go with the newer 4850 or the much older 8800 considering i'll probably be using them for the next 3 years or so.
My PC is pretty low end (MoBo is a ECS Geforce 6100SM-M) most of the other parts are no-name products like my RAM. I'm don't care about ultra high resolutions and super high frame rates in gaming but I do want to run more current games (as does my son) and I want to run at reasonable resolutions like 1280x1024 or so and not have to suffer watching a slide show doing it.
I know both gpu's will serve my purposes but I also want to consider future games. Will getting an (relatively) old 8800 now still get me to run games 2-3 years from now? Or will it be better to get the newer 4850 as it is a newer gpu?

 

[dirtmountain]

The 4850 is a superior GPU and would be my first choice as long as the prices were even close ($20-$40) I'm not saying the 8800GT is garbage (i have one in this system right now) but if buying new, i'd spring for the 4850

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

DX10.1 will come into play after 3 years as well. 4850, hands down. The GT will fail to satisfy way before the 4850 will

 

[harrycat88]

Don't waste your money on that 8800GT. Get the 4850 or better yet, get the 4870 and save a bunch of money.

 

[one-shot]

4850, easy choice. I'm glad I bought mine.

 

[themyrmidon]

Guys, you missed the part about the resolution, 1280x1024. Th 8800 GT is way more than enough at that res, there is no point in spending the money on a 4850, and absolutely no point [harrycat88] in a 4870. You people need to read the post.

And jaydeejohn, DX11 is coming out either this year or next, 10.1 will never come to full fruitation.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Dont you read? Reread the OPs post. Then answer the same way. Hes going to keep it 3 yrs. If hr gets a DX10.1 card, he will not only gain the use of any DX10.1 features, but the DX10.1 features that are part of DX11, which a DX10 card will not do

 

[L1qu1d]

^ exactly what ppl miss when it comes to this stuff. Look at a game like Crysis, the Game struggles at 1280x1024 with almost any card now...And games are getting more and more graphically demanding


The 8800 GT was the best Price/Performance bu not anymore

The 8800 GT is slower than the 8800 Ultra, while the 4850 is 15% faster than the Ultra, has 55 nm, and DX 10.1.

And like he said, 3 years, THats a long time, even the 4850 will show its age in a couple

When it comes to video cards there is no way to play it safe, we can't predict what engines will come out and how our hardware can stupport it. I mean what if the rest of the developers chose to what Crytek did?

No 4870 X2 in the world will be happy with that

 

[Houndsteeth]

Get the 4850 and call it done. While good deals can be had for the 8800GT, you will be more future-proof witht eh 4850 since you will get more performance for your dollar.

 

[rrr1431]

Thanks for the responses. You guys do make valid points regarding the unpredictability of future games. I'll have to consider that... Thanks again.