Upgrading 9800gtx

[stevieh]

system
AMD PHENOM 9950 Quad-core processer 2.6GHZ
4gig RAM
PSU JEANTECH ABOSOLUTE 1000W
MOTHERBOARD AS ROCK K10N78
GRAPHICS CARD 9800GTX
OS WINDOWS 7 PRO
Hi,im looking to upgrade my graphics card,my budget is about$150-200,im looking to play,
this years new releases ie crsis 2,fallout vegas,mafia2.
any ideas much appreciated.cheers.

 

[jyjjy]

A GTX 460 is the best card in that price range. Your processor will likely limit it a bit though, especially in games that only use 2 cores. I would get the card and save up for a new processor. Your motherboard can handle all current AMD processors, even the ones with 6 cores.

 

[stevieh]

A GTX 460 is the best card in that price range. Your processor will likely limit it a bit though, especially in games that only use 2 cores. I would get the card and save up for a new processor. Your motherboard can handle all current AMD processors, even the ones with 6 cores.

ok thanks

 

[asteldian]

If going for the GTX 460, stretch your budget to get the 1gb version, you do not want the 768mb version - the performance lost is not worth the little money saved

 

[jyjjy]

The price difference(15%) is actually exactly twice the performance difference(7-8%).
There's no real reason to avoid the 768mb card IMO unless you plan on SLIing in the future. The processing power from two of the cards could really use the extra memory and bandwidth but for a single card it really isn't that big of a deal.

 

[asteldian]

The price difference is $30 though and for 8% performance that is not bad - considering that people spend $100 to get a 5870 instead of a 5850 for a similar performance increase.

Or considering people pay the extra cash for a GTX470 instead of a 5850.

I think in the grand scheme of things, the 1gb instead of the 768 is a pretty good deal

 

[jyjjy]

Yeah, it's a good deal I'm just saying so is the 768mb card while you said, "you don't want the 768mb version." They are both pretty appropriately priced for their performance.

 

[asteldian]

The reason I say you don't want it is because while it is appropriately priced for its performance, it is just not a great card to go with - its performance is a 5830 pretty much, which itself is not a great card

 

[jyjjy]

If you think that then the 1gb card isn't a very good deal either as it would be only 7-8% faster than the HD5830.
It isn't true however, the overall performance increase from the HD5830 to the GTX 460 768mb is very similar to that from the 768mb card to the 1gb card. This is a silly conversation though. Clearly you think 15% more money is worth the performance difference. I'm just saying others might not and the performance vs price increase show that is certainly reasonable. You should give the actual info rather than making statements like "you don't want the 768mb card" because maybe they do and it is the best choice for their situation and budget(and the 768mb card is exactly equal to the guys stated max budget.)

 

[asteldian]

The 5830 is not a very good card because for 1920 x 1080 it is not powerful enough for many of the situations, at a lesser resolution a 5770 is sufficient, so why get the 5830?
I will agree that I should not have made such a statement because I am assuming the OP is playing at such a high resolution when he actually probably isn't, in which case my statement is indeed incorrect because a 768mb would be plenty for other resolutions.

But, as to why I stated the 768mb is not a good choice (for 1920 x1080 at least). The 768mb is similar performance to the 5830, similar but better. That still leves it not good enough for high resolution. The GTX460 1gb however is then more powerful than the 768mb pushing it even further ahead of the 5830 and closer to the 5850 (which is a card that is good for 1920 x 1080), which, for the price difference is well worth it - while it may not seem like a huge performance increase, in gaming terms it makes a big difference between playing games at high settings and not being able to.

That is the detail behind the statement, which admitedly was poorly executed due to assumptions and leaving no explaination

 

[jyjjy]

The performance difference I was quoting is for 1920x1200(higher than what you are talking about) so resolution is taken into account. For a single card the difference in the memory simply is not as big a deal as a lot of people seem to think even at high resolutions. The 1gb card is certainly better but whether it is $30 worth of better is a personal judgment call for each purchaser individually.