New GPU advice

[ABud]

Hi all. Im looking to upgrade my GPU with the aim of improving framerates for MS FlightsimX and Quake4 primarily. Currently im running a 6600GT 128mb card. As far as i can see ive got 3 options from what i can afford:

1. 8600GT (512mb DDR3 or 1GB DDR2)
2. 9500GT (256mb DDR3 or 512GB DDR2)

The 3rd option prob is not gonna be anywhere near as fast-

Get another 6600GT 128mb and set it up as SLi (My Mobo is Abit Fatal1ty FP-IN9). The only advantage of this is i can get the card for £10.

Also just a quick dummies question, i will be fine running DDR3 ram on my GPU and DDR2 ram on my Mobo?

Cheers,

Andy

 

[dagger]

Ddr3 version is faster. 9500gt is a renamed 8600gt, there is no difference.

 

[invisik]

may i ask how much those cost u?
wats ur price range?

 

[outlw6669]

9500GT = 8600GT with a diffrent sticker.

If those are your only choices, get the 512Mb DDR3 8600GT.
If you can save up a little more, I would highly recomend a 4670 or 9600GT/GSO as any will be much faster.

 

[ABud]

They're costing £50 - £60.

Just found an XFX 8600GT Fatal1ty 256DDR3 running @ 620Mhz which it claims is the fastest 8600GT. That better than higher RAM?

 

[invisik]

i agree with outlw6669. save up a little bit more. for a 8800gso/4670.
more memory is better u can always oc urself.

 

[outlw6669]

Meh, I would get the one with more memory and overclock it my self.
You can always overclock but adding RAM is another story...

 

[dagger]

They're costing £50 - £60.

Just found an XFX 8600GT Fatal1ty 256DDR3 running @ 620Mhz which it claims is the fastest 8600GT. That better than higher RAM?

Not sure about UK prices, but at the 1.8x exchange rate, that would be a horrible deal by US prices. You can get a far better performing 9600gso/8800gs for less than that. Search around for better deals.

 

[invisik]

cant u get one cheap from ebay?

 

[ABud]

Never really trusted eBay enough! The XFX board was £42. Looks like a 9600GT is about £75. Not sure i can stretch that far.

 

[homerdog]

Seriously the HD4670 is the card for you. It's way faster than those two choices (8600GT and 9500GT) and it doesn't require an auxiliary power connector so you won't have to worry about upgrading your power supply.

 

[-Fran-]

I agree to the 4670, do you have them around there? It should be near that price tag.

Esop!

 

[ahslan]

^+1 for the 4670

 

[emp]

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Several times faster than any 8600GT.

 

[ABud]

That ATI looks good, but i was planning in setting it up as an SLi in a few months when card prices drop some more. Maybe i'll stretch to the 9600GT, gonna get told off by the missus tho!

 

[emp]

To be honest it's not really worth doing SLI, by the time you end up wanting to upgrade there might be newer/more affordable cards at the same price range that are a lot faster. If you want to stick with nvidia that's your choice, but at your limited budget that's a luxury I wouldn't take.

 

[homerdog]

That ATI looks good, but i was planning in setting it up as an SLi in a few months when card prices drop some more. Maybe i'll stretch to the 9600GT, gonna get told off by the missus tho!

That's not such a good plan IMO for the reasons stated by emp. A single HD4670 appears to be your best option right now.