1920x1200 Gaming

[Barrichello]

Hi guys

I purchased the following last week....

Intel Core i7 920, D0(SLBEJ) - S1366 (B), Nehalem, 2.66GHz, 8MB Cache, 20x Multiplier, 130W, Retail
6GB (3x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3, PC3-12800 (1600MHz), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24
Asus P6T Deluxe, Intel X58, SLi/Xfire, Sok 1366, PCI-E 2.0, DDR3 1066/1333/1600(OC), SAS/SATAII,

And now i need to decide on a graphic card, and some advice from you experts would be most welcome.

I do not play games at highest settings at 1920x1200 (native res of my monitor) and on my current PC set up (including Nvidia Geforce GTS 8800 320MB) and i find most games play ok at this res (as long as i dont pump up the AA etc) This card though will be going to the missus PC so i need to find one that will do a similar job in my new set up. Im wondering is something like a GTS nvidia 250 like this http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB...DTV-DVI-Retail be a natural replacement (like for like now in 2009) How much better will this card be compared to my current 8800 GTS 320mb? With DX11 not far away, i dont think now would be the time to go for a crazy high card right now.

I have noticed that ATI cards are now looking like good competition, but i had a real bad experience with my last x1950 card and has put me off. It seems most games are optimised/advertised as nvidia recommended, is this just a sales ploy? or is there really a difference how these (badged nvidia) games perform?

Sorry for the wall of text but any opinions on my next purchase thankfully accepted

[Blaineoliver]

I would so go for a HD 4890 or similar. The 250 is a rebadge of the 9800GTX+ which was a rebrand of the 8800GTS 512mb, and so fourth.

[GeorgeStorm]

Based on the rest of the specs
I would go 295/4870X2
I mean, to game at that res, you need a pretty powerful card
And for it to not waste the power of the cpu too much.

[Peter Parker]

295 is a nice card but expensive. Standard GTX260 with 216 cores is good value and in theory at least twice as powerful as your 8800GTS 320 with only 96 cores. Well, that's the upgrade route I took from the same card.

[CooperXS]

nvidia badged games perform good on 1st release date, since nvidia been working hard on driver optimizations. But as time passes ATI gets their drivers up and running for the latest titles. And titles themselfs get few patches (which is almost a neccesity these days :/)
Hexus has good article on cards in your range: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=18359&page=1
Personally I'd go with single-chip solution best suited for titles you play. SLI/CF so as dual-GPU cards can be major PITA from personal experience and don't increase minimal frame rates in 90% of the games out there.

As for issues with ATI cards...well these days are long gone and ATI made a big step towards improved drivers and overall performance. Not perfect of course but NVidia is no better in general.

[2Cold Scorpio]

The GTX 285 (especially the version with 2GBs of VRAM) looks pretty solid to me. Better than the 260, even better than the 280 (the 285 is basically a 280 with lower power requirements & temps and slightly faster speeds), and doesn't cost an arm and a leg like the 295 does. Sounds like a happy middle ground to me.

[jim]

Most reviews have really blasted the GTX 285 lately - the GTX 275 is very close to it in terms of performance, and the £100 premium isn't really justified.

[2Cold Scorpio]

Most reviews have really blasted the GTX 285 lately - the GTX 275 is very close to it in terms of performance, and the £100 premium isn't really justified.

Hmmm...I hadn't seen those; I might have to go take a look...

[scaryjim]

If you're mostly gaming at 1920 x 1200 a GTX295 or 4870X2 is overkill. Since you're looking at the GTS250 I assume your budget is around £100, in which case I'd get a 4770. It should be silky smooth at 1680 x 1050 and acceptable at 1920 x 1200. The GTS250 @ £100 isn't a bad option if you prefer NVidia though - although I notice that it's only the XFX version that's come down to that price - the rest are still significantly more than £100. The 4770 is generally around £80 - £90, which is a decent saving for a card that will perform almost as well.

If you can stretch the budger over £100 the 4870 512MB has now come down into a more midrange price: I believe novatech are currently doing one for £115!! That's certainly worth a look, as is the GTX260 which has also been price cut.

I understand your concern about DX11, but it'll be a few years before games start relying on DX11, and of course since you've gone i7 whether you buy NVidia or ATI midrange cards now you can always get a second similar card for SLI / CrossFire purposes in a few month's time if you find you can't push enough frames at 1920 x 1200 to satisfy you Hexus has a 4770 crossfire review it might be worth perusing...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You can an XFX HD4850 for around £86 from Scan:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB...VI-XXX-EDITION

You can also get two HD4870 1gb cards for under £143 delivered:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-X...VI-I-HDTV-HDCP

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164557

[dave87]

Title changed for you

[Barrichello]

Title changed for you

cheers for that dave

Thanks for all your idea's guys. I really could not decide what to get.

But yesterday caught up with a ex work mate of mine yesterday and while i popped over i saw his pc, he has a GTX 260 and it played all his games fine at 1920x1200. I decided to get the exact same card as his, as a bonus it was on "today only" special http://www.scan.co.uk/product.aspx?ProductId=28567 £142 seems ok for this to me, especially when he told me he paid £260 for same card last year

Should arrive saturday so can start putting the new machine together. Just need to decide if i should reinstall xp or try the win 7 release candidate. hmmmmmmmm

[scaryjim]

That's a decent card card, Barichello

If you have got the Windows 7 RC downloaded I'd use it now, if I was you - I'm currently planning to roll it out to pretty much every PC I use. My main PC has an NVidia 8800GTX and the drivers for it on Windows 7 are rock solid. The UI has a lot of very nice tweaks over and above the Vista UI, and it seems to be very stable and performs well. My only issue with it is making it talk to Windows XP nicely over a network, but I've not actually tried *very* hard and I'm sure if I bothered I could sort it out...

[Barrichello]

That's a decent card card, Barichello

If you have got the Windows 7 RC downloaded I'd use it now, if I was you - I'm currently planning to roll it out to pretty much every PC I use. My main PC has an NVidia 8800GTX and the drivers for it on Windows 7 are rock solid. The UI has a lot of very nice tweaks over and above the Vista UI, and it seems to be very stable and performs well. My only issue with it is making it talk to Windows XP nicely over a network, but I've not actually tried *very* hard and I'm sure if I bothered I could sort it out...

Built the new machine yesterday, and yep, i have installed Windows 7 and worked a treat, really impressed. The card came with Farcry 2, and i played it at 1920x1200 with mid to high settings and its very smooth (with more room for tinkering upwards on settings i think)