Need opinions in upgrading from 8800GT

[alien champion]

My budget is around 450 dollars maximum, although I would like to avoid spending that much if possible, I also lean toward Nvidia.

Here are my specs.
Windows 7 professional 64-bit
750 watt psu
gigabyte m750sli ds4 motherboard
4GB RAM (ddr2)
AMD Phenom 8450 triple core
My current video cards are two 8800gt's

whatever advice you can offer is appreciated!

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Two 8800GTs are quite powerful and equal to a GTX285.

For a decent upgrade, I suggest getting a 5870 for $399.99 It is a dx11 card equal to two 4870s (or two GTX260s), roughly two tiers above two 8800GT's.

8800GT ~/< 8800GTS 512 ~ 4770 < 9800GTX/GTS250 ~ 4850 < GTX260 ~ 4870 < GTX275 ~ 4890 < GTX285 < 5850 < 5870

You can sell your two 8800GT's for about $140 or so on ebay.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Also, since the Phenom 8450 triple core runs at only 2.1GHz, you will need to overclock it to at least 2.5GHz.

If you can't overclock, consider upgrading to a PII triple core or quad core (if your mobo supports it) in order to prevent your CPU from bottlenecking the 5870.

Phenom 8450 overclock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae6WMkJrApY

 

[rolli59]

I would start with a CPU upgrade! http://www.gigabyte.us/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=2819#anchor_os maybe go with 955BE. Then consider GPU upgrade!

 

[alien champion]

Thanks for the help. If the GPU upgrade would not be that significant, any other general upgrade advice would also be appreciated! I wanted to swap out my graphics card though because SLI has not seen that much of an improvement for me over just running one card, one thing I've noticed is that they don't seem to like anti-aliasing that much, as turning it on in most games gives a disproportionately large frame rate drop.

 

[rolli59]

What you are running into is memory limitation on the cards with the 512mb for the AA. The other thing is that your CPU is starting to hold you back with that GPU power.

 

[sabot00]

I think 2 8800GT's in SLI is more like a GTX 260.
Why do you lean to nVidia? The only place where they are good is in the gap between the 5770 & 5850.
Get a new Phenom II X3 or X4, if you want an upgrade get the 5850.

 

[alien champion]

I just lean toward them because I've always used them, and I have an SLI board. I'm not opposed to ATI in the slightest as long as the card works with my mobo.

I've been looking at this card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143193

here are some of the numbers spit out by my nvidia control panel
These are all factory shipped settings
core clock: 600mhz
memory clock: 900mhz
shader clock: 1500mhz
both cards are running at the same settings.

 

[sabot00]

Well, short of getting a GTX 295 or SLI'ing GTX 260's you won't notice much. SLIing 9800GTX+/GTS 250's will be noticeable but not really worth it unless you can sell the 8800GT's for 80% of their original price.

 

[sabot00]

Here is the situation on Newegg.

A GTX 285 costs $349.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143190&cm_re=GTX_285-_-14-143-190-_-Product

A 5850 costs $309.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121361&cm_re=5850-_-14-121-361-_-Product

The 5850 kills the GTX 285.

 

[coozie7]

It would also be handy to know your monitor resolution, because a pair of 8800s' should stomp most games at 1680x1050 or below.

 

[alien champion]

1680x1050

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I'd say your choices for an upgrade are at the $240 level and higher....for you to notice, I'd say $330 and higher.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-310-5970,2491.html

Here's the "winners" from THG's latest (December) GFX Roundup
Best Graphics Cards For The Money: December '09

$50 - HD 4650
$65 - HD 4670 / 9600 GSO
$85 - 9600 GT
$95 - 9600 GT / HD 4830
$110 - GTS 250 512 MB
$120 - GTS 250 1 GB
$155 - HD 5770 / GTX 260
$200 - HD 4890
$240 - 2 x GTS 250
$310 - No winner (HD 5850 Honorable Mention)
$330 - 2 x GTX 260 / 2 x HD 5770
$400 - 2 x HD 4890
$410 - No winner (HD 5870 Honorable Mention)
$465 - No winner (GTX 295 Honorable Mention)
$625 - No winner (HD 5970 Honorable Mention)

 

[sabot00]

1680x1050

Why do you need upgrade? The 5850 would be overkill for that resolution, dual 8800GT's should be enough.

 

[alien champion]

I record a lot of game footage, and it is difficult to get a good quality screen capture. Also I wanted to boost my frame rate while running dragon age and fallout 3 at higher quality settings. From what I'm hearing though, it sounds like a new processor would be a better investment.

 

[sabot00]

If your not getting goof quality then use FRAPS, if you want it to be faster while recording get a faster HDD.

 

[alien champion]

I'm happy with the software I use, and the writing speed is fine, its the quality that comes out. I need to boost the frame rate of my end recording, and of my game while its running, with or without my recording software in the background.

 

[coozie7]

Odd, as I said, your cards should stomp most games at that resolution.
Before spending money, try checking that all your drivers are up to date, the BIOS is correctly configured and there are no large programs taking up memory and CPU time.
As for a replacement, the HD5850 is favourite: It's damn fast, under budget and draws less power than your current 8800s'.
If you must stick with Nvidia, fanboy Try dropping a GTX275 in there and overclock it rather than getting the more expensive GTX285.

 

[alien champion]

Well I might have a faulty card. I used to get driver failures, bsods, and CTD's with many games. However I thought I nailed that down to a bad RAM stick, which I have since removed. The crashes have all but disappeared, save for fallout 3 which crashes like crazy, though that game is notoriously buggy to begin with.

I use Nvidia's own utility to keep my drivers up to date, and I actually checked them this morning. I have tried several experiments in reducing the wear on my system resources as well, and the impact is minimal (including shutting down explorer, and just about everything else)

 

[rolli59]

It would also be handy to know your monitor resolution, because a pair of 8800s' should stomp most games at 1680x1050 or below.

Except for his X3 running at 2.1 GHz he should be all set.

 

[znegval]

Not like he's a fanboy, coozy. He has a motherboard that supports SLI only. I only bought AMD video cards so far (I'm a semi-fanboy) but if I had that kind of mobo I'd also lean a little towards NVidia.

 

[sabot00]

He should upgrade to a Phenom II X3 or X4.

 

[coozie7]

@ Rolli59: Good point, well made. Perhaps an upgrade (or overclock) there would be a better choice, as I recall Fallout 3 IS hard on the CPU and I suspect more CPU horsepower will not hurt with the video capture issues, either.
@ Znegval: The fanboy comment had a smily-I was just joking.

 

[alien champion]

hows this look?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103471

 

[bystander]

I record a lot of game footage, and it is difficult to get a good quality screen capture. Also I wanted to boost my frame rate while running dragon age and fallout 3 at higher quality settings. From what I'm hearing though, it sounds like a new processor would be a better investment.

I noticed you are running Dragon Age. Have you noticed much jagged edges on scale mail armor? Until I enabled Super Sample AA, which currently is a new feature of the 5xxx Radeons, they looked terrible. Since you are looking for upgraded quality, I thought I'd ask if this is a problem for you. I've noticed other games, like Risen also appreciates Super-Sample AA which seems to fix jaggies on textures that MSAA and Adaptive MSAA leave behind.

If you wanted to fix those jagged edges, then a 58xx card could fix that for you.

I also appreciate your quest for higher FPS. I get motion sickness at FPS some of these people consider playable. Higher FPS does help me a lot in that regard.