Best Current Single Graphics Card

Hey guys.

I'm in the market for a graphics card and wondering what the best available single graphics card is? I have one PCI x16 slot on the motherboard, and currently have an 8800GTS 640mb, but am selling it to a friend for a good deal.

I'll be playing all up to date games such as Far Cry 2, Crysis etc, so games that will really push a GPU.

I have an E6750 @ 3.4ghz (But moving to Quad Core soon)
4GB 1066mhz RAM
ASUS P5K-E

So any suggestions?

Currently the HD 4870X2 is the fastest single card.

You will need a good power supply. 650 to 750 from a upper tier company.
Corsair, PC Power&Cooling there are others also.

The HD4870X2 requires 2 PCI-E connectors, a 6pin and a 6+2pin.

No, the HD 4870X2 does not require two PCIe connectors, it requires to expansion slots (like most mid- to high-end cards).

Single GPU crown - GTX 280
Single PCIe crown - HD 4870X2

What are the two expansion slots about?

If you purchase a HD4870X2 be warned, it can cause heating issues within your case and the card itself, make sure you have good cooling/airflow.
And what resolution do you use? a single GTX260 or HD4870(1Gb) will run everything except GTA IV perfectly @16x12 or less.

First of all....Sell all that suff, no point upgrading one part if you're not going to upgrade all. The motherboard is worth nothing...the 4GB of memory is worth as much as 1GB was worth 3 years ago. (ok basically im saying sell just the MOBO at least)


HD 4870 ( Check the specs as some mfct like to do dumb ish like to using cheap memory (for cheap price) to fool consumers.

Get a HR-03 GT Thermalright heatsink. And use a SilentX 92x92x25mm - 11dBA - 32CFM Fan

Giving you a quiet 11DB graphics solution. With great "quality" cooling performance.

Make sure your motherboard is an Nforce.

I agree Quad core is the way to go or the I7.

My only downside of the I7 is that the MOBO's are expensive still (for the moment)

Get some corsair memory, i prefer low latency memory, it makes more sense to me. And,,, if you're using a Core 2 don't get DDR3, waste of money.

This is my first post i just wanted to act like i knew stuff!!

Ignore Pharo Surreal. The stuff you have is fine. In fact, I would probably take something like that P35 based board you have over almost any Nvidia Nforce board. Not to mention that there isn't an Nforce board for i7, so even if you did take his advice, it would be impossible to follow. 4 gigs of RAM is fine too.

Now for graphics, you want either a GTX 280 or a 4870x2. Both are excellent, the 4870x2 is a bit faster, but more expensive as well. Also make sure you have 64 bit windows if you want to use all of your RAM. Both the 4870x2 and the GTX 280 have an effective framebuffer of 1GB, which will allow you to use under 3GB of your RAM on a 32 bit OS.