Current card = to GTX280?

jabberwhacky

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Dec 31, 2007
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It seems as though my GTX280 has died and while I'd like upgrade, I'll be moving in 2 months and just need a replacement so I can resell the computer before leaving. The other parts are an E8400 cpu, P5QL SE mobo, 4gigs Crucial ram, and a 640gb 7200 hdd. What would be the best (or some of the best) card/s to buy? Price to performance is very important since I'll be reselling it, I don't want the latest and greatest $500 card to put in this older machine.
 

jabberwhacky

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Ah ya sorry I'm on a 24 inch monitor, 1900x1200. I'm so confused by the market, I got my card just over 1 year ago and I thought (maybe I was wrong?) it was pretty high end, if memory serves there was only the 285 above it and then shortly after the 290/295. Now, when I check out Newegg, there aren't any 280's for sale at all. Pretty sure I paid around $300 back then too.

I'll check out the 5850, thanks guys.
 

4745454b

Titan
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Are you selling the monitor to? The better question might be what resolution will the guy buying the computer be playing at. I'd just go for the 5750/5770. Market the DX11/eyefinity features as that might help you sell the rig. A P5Q with a fast dual core and a reasonable DX11 card can probably fetch around $500ish right now. You might even want to consider selling it with no card and let the buyer buy whatever he wants. No sense in putting money into something your going to be selling.
 

jabberwhacky

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Yes I was hoping to sell the whole thing as a package. A very large percentage of the foreigners here in Korea are English teachers (like me) and gamers (like me) and, like me, they don't know what the heck is going on when they first arrive, which means gaming rigs sell for a pretty high premium. Being able to see all the parts in English and have the whole thing already assembled is quite handy for most people.

I like your idea of just reselling it without the card, but the problem with that is I can't last the next 2.5 months gaming on my old Vostro 1400 laptop :) So I definitely need a vid card in the interim.

I'm really not eager to drop $350 on a 5870 (prices are higher here than back home) but I am leaning that way, due in part to the fact that I'll be using it for a few months and the afore-mentioned premium on reselling computer stuff. However, my biggest fear is that in the next 2.5 months, the next gen of video cards are released and then I'm stuck with a very expensive, low-value old-generation card.

Choices, choices ><
 

jabberwhacky

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One more question: if I go with the HD5850, when will I start to be limited by my E8400? My friend is telling me some silly analogy about a jet engine in a car chassis but I think he's wrong; a 5850 coupled with my older E8400 is not overkill. Who's right?
 
HD 5850 with an E8400 is a good combo. because E8400 is still a good dual core CPU.
So you will be fine with all VGA-limited games, but in some games which are CPU-limited and benefit from a quad core CPU(like some RTS games,or games like Prototype),your CPU may limit the performance(but don't worry,it won't be anything terrible)