Is a GT 440 better than my 9800GT??

[deejayburnout]

Been digging a bit further and found that a GTX 260 is still a good card, not far off a GTX550.

Get some on ebay for much cheapness.

Might go for one of those.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Going to look at these AMD cards as to be honest only ever look at Nvidia cards. Sticking to what I know I suppose.

Give myself a £100 budget and see what I get.



Sent from somewhere other than my PC.

I have had the following cards in recent years:
1.)8500GT
2.)8800GTS 512MB
3.)HD3870
4.)HD4830
5.)HD5850

Mates have had the following:
1.)9600GSO
2.)9800GT
3.)HD5850
4.)HD4670
5.)HD5770
6.)HD6870

Drivers have been fine for all these cards.

The HD6850 1GB is a good card for the price and MSI are supposed to have a decent warranty.

[teppic]

Been digging a bit further and found that a GTX 260 is still a good card, not far off a GTX550.

Get some on ebay for much cheapness.

Might go for one of those.

It's a reasonable budget-standard card, but it's got low memory and no DX11 support, and will struggle to run anything recent. If you're willing to go up to £100 I would forget it, as the 6850 is in a different league.

[deejayburnout]

Will defo consider the AMD cards now as all the advice and research I have been doing is pointing to them.

See what's available for the best price at the time I suppose.

Better hope the kids don't need any new clothes anytime soon. Daddy needs a new 6850.

Sent from somewhere other than my PC.

[deejayburnout]

Going to buy a 6850 when I get home tonight.

Found a XFX HD 6850 on eBay for £89.99 with free postage.

The spec is better than the Nvidia equivalent that I looked at which was the GTX 550 TI.

At that price I cannot complain. I think it has the stock cooler on it.



Are they ok with the stock cooler. I think they look good too.

Sent from somewhere other than my PC.

[teppic]

Is that new with a full warranty? As that's what you should pay for that. Maybe look at this:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...685x-zcfc.html

[JimmyBoy]

If its budget your worried about maybe look for a second hand ati 5770, you can get them for around 45 quid and will give you a pretty good performance for 45 quid mate

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Going to buy a 6850 when I get home tonight.

Found a XFX HD 6850 on eBay for £89.99 with free postage.

The spec is better than the Nvidia equivalent that I looked at which was the GTX 550 TI.

At that price I cannot complain. I think it has the stock cooler on it.



Are they ok with the stock cooler. I think they look good too.

Sent from somewhere other than my PC.

Get 20 posts on Hexus and you can qualify for free Scan postage.

[deejayburnout]

Quite happy to pay for the 6850 new. Gonna improve my gaming big time. My aging 9800GT is the weakest part of my rig and good old Barclay card can save me from waiting.

Looking on eBay, can probably sell my 9800 for £20 or so. Others are going for the same.

Must say thanks to everyone for all there input and advice here. All been very helpful.

Sent from somewhere other than my PC.

[deejayburnout]

i have just popped my Radeon Cherry. Jumped from Nvidia to AMD.

The HD 6850 is ordered and i am looking forward to my newer faster gaming.

[teppic]

Did you buy it from ebay or the XFX card I pointed to at Novatech?

You should see a nice increase in speed, and you'll have DX11 on top.

[deejayburnout]

i actually forgot to check that one out on novateck, as i was at work on my blackberry.

Ordered it from eBay. Fully warranty and returns. Good seller too.

[teppic]

Ah ok. I think the ebay one is a reference model, while the one at Novatech is a custom cooler, so probably a little quieter, but they're the same GPU, same speed.

[deejayburnout]

Not really fussed about the noise. My 9800 sounds like a jet when playing games anyways.



Sent from somewhere other than my PC.

[teppic]

Sure, well if it is a bit noisy you can just adjust the fan with MSI Afterburner or something similar. It'll be a lot quieter than your 9800 anyway!

[simontompkins]

There's a really good chart over at Tom's Hardware that will give you a good idea of where your card is. Only thing I'd disagree with is that Tom recommends a card at least three levels higher than you current. while this is a good rule of thumb if you want to know how much a new card is better than your old one it's not the best way of deciding which card to buy. I know its a bit time consuming but work out.

1. Decide how often you are going to replace your card. In my case I wanted something that was going to last and so probqably went above the sweet spot for performance/price.
2. Spend time looking at how much a graphics card cost 1 or 2 years ago. Look at how much the same card costs now. Calculate the devaluation rate. If you're good with money save part of your budget for next year's purchase.
3. Also look at ebay prices for resale value on 1 and 2 year old cards
4. Be careful about power requirements, some of the newer graphics cards have surprisingly low power requirements in many cases lower than an older, slower card. This speaks to thinking how much you'll spend on electricity through the year. Think about how often you play games, some of the faster cards are great but they have quite a high idle power consumption rate.

For an idea of where your card sits the following link list GPU's on a hierarchy chart
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ew,3107-7.html