Upgrade advice

[tusken_raiders]

Greetings all,

I'd like to upgrade my video card for the holidays, however, I have some questions. Correct me if I am wrong, but I have heard that ATI cards are the best value right now, so I am shying away from the GTX series.

I am very interested in the new Radeon 4850x2, but I'm not sure if my power supply is beefy enough to run it (Corsair HX 520w).

Also, is the 4870 a better value than the 4850x2? I am looking to get a card that will last me a fairly long time, and am willing to spend some extra money on a card that is more future-proof. $400 is the most I am willing to spend, however.


Here are my current system specs:

C2D e6600 @ 2.6 ghz
EVGA nforce 680i
4 GB Corsair DDR2 800
BFG Geforce 8800 GTS 640
X-Fi XtremeGamer
WD Caviar 250 GB
DVD-RW
Corsair HX 520w
Antec 900
Acer monitor @ 1680x1050
Vista 64

Thanks much!

 

[sefit]

No, your PSU can not handle 4850x2 despite it´s good brand. You need to change it definitely. If I was you I wouldn’t definitely kick off Nvidia out of game. You have 680i and you might get 260+ (216), some nice OC version + OC it a bit more and beat off 280 GTX.

Next step should be new CPU because this one might be bottlenecking your GPU - e8400 maybe because your mobo does not OC well. In near future there will be still a way to go SLI and to get 2nd 260 (216) with new 24 inch monitor.

GTX260 (216) and some PSU like Corsair TX750W for start should be in your budget range…I think, not sure I am living in Belgium but you guys there you have everything dirty cheap in US not as here in Europe:-(

And if you want to go definitely for ATI…get maybe 4850x2 like you wanted with that PSU and new mobo p45 and good heatsink to OC your mobo to 3+Ghz to avoid bottleneck...and I would recommend 24 inch monitor…

that’s your choice

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Stick with a single HD4870 (or equivalently priced GTX260), and then take your savings and then re-invest into a new card next generation. $200 now and then $200 in 12-18 months with last much longer than $400 now, especially at your resolution which isn't too taxing in current games (even for a 512MB model), but will be taxing in next gen games for even an X2, when a well priced DX11/Larrabee card would be nicer.

 

[Dekasav]

Yup. $200 now and $200 later is a much better idea. Graphics card technology moves too fast to use all your funds for one upgrade, it works better to upgrade every 18 months or so than twice the $$ spent in 3 years.