Graphics card upgrade for P35 / Q6600 system

[tfboy]

Hi guys.

Unfortunately, I've been soo busy with work that I've completely lost touch of the current GPU market and what represents the best bang for buck.

My friend for who I built a system 6 months or so ago now wants to upgrade the graphics card (he's running on an old nvidia 6600 or something like that).

Current system is as thread title. Quad core 6600 running at stock speeds on an Intel P35 motherboard (can't remember exactly which one) and has 2GB RAM running Vista. He's also just bought a new 22" TFT monitor which is running at the standard 1600x1050.

He's not massively into running Crysis at the top levels everywhere and has asked me what he could get for £350. Now I think that's over the top and a top end card would probably not run at its optimum with the rest of the system.

So what do you recommend? Maybe a couple of option are available if he has a budget of £350 (not just upgrading graphics card but something else too so it's a more "aligned" system)?

Thanks

[Mblaster]

I'd probably go for a HD4870 and an extra 2gb of RAM, and that'll leave you with over £100 spare from the £350.

[!TIMMY!]

I'd probably go for a HD4870 and an extra 2gb of RAM, and that'll leave you with over £100 spare from the £350.

Ditto that, and maybe a better cooler for the Q6600 and overclock a bit? Plus you can add in a 2nd 4780 at a later date for some Xfire action.

[ikix]

Yup, HD 4870, 2GB more RAM, Cooler to overclock the CPU and maybe a hard drive if hes running low on space.

[tfboy]

Cheers for the response guys

A 4870 + 2GB RAM looks like a good choice for just over £200

[poo417]

Have to agree with everyone above as the best way top go and should leave him plenty of time before needing to turn settings down in games.

[tfboy]

Come to think of it, it seems that the cost of high performance cards has dropped over time. Of course, the performance increases as technology progresses, but to have an equivalent "high end" card (without going down the ridiculously expensive routes) seems to cost less than what would have been the equivalent a year or two ago.

I read that very interesting hexus review comparing 10 recent cards and included various setups such as crossfire previous gen vs current single gen ati/amd vs current nvidia range, and in terms of value for money, this seems very very good.

I might as well upgrade myself, but then again, I remember spending the best part of £200 on a 7950 a year or so ago and have hardly used it since as I'm never at home and around to play the recent visualcandy games