New Graphics Card

Hi All,

Any and all help appreciated. I upgraded around a year and a half ago bar my graphics card.

Here is my current setup:

Item: AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2.8GHz 9MB Cache Socket AM3 Retail Box Processor

Item: Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 HyperX Memory Kit CL9(9-9-9-27)

Item: Arctic Power 700W PSU - With PCI-E, 4x SATA, 20+4, ATX12V, 8pin +12V Connectors - Retail Boxed

Item: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - Licence and media - 1 PC - OEM - DVD - 64-bit - English

Item: Kingston SSDNow V-Series 30GB 2.5" SATAII Solid State Drive

Item: Western Digital WD15EARS 1.5TB Hard Drive SATAII 5400rpm 64MB Cache - OEM Caviar Green

Item: Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 880G Socket AM3 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard

Nvidia 9800 GTX

As you can see - the card is old. I want to upgrade with something that will keep me going another while. Cost isn't a massive issue but waste is - I don't want to spend an extra 100 quid for a not massive improvement.

Appreciate all and any recommendations.

deconduo

This would probably be the best card you could get before your CPU would start to bottleneck it:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/EAH6950-DCII-2DI4S-1GD5-Graphics/dp/B004SOOF1O/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1319375298&sr=8-6

Jonny7

Take your pick
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_560_TOP_Direct_Cu_II/27.html

For reference the 9800GTX+ should be somewhere around 6670 performance

Rough prices
ATI 6850 - 130 euros
ATI 6870 - 150 euros
Nvidia 560 ti - 200 euros
ATI 6950 - 200ish euros

200 euros is really the price performance sweet spot.

Thanks for the advice!

I'm looking at the 6950 and the GTX 560 Ti.

I've gone Nvidia the last couple of cards because two ATI failed on me in a row.

Would you say I will notice much of a difference between the two (bar the 5% benchmark performance) ?

Also - the Nvidia cards im looking at have mini hdmi - I know you can get an adapter for normal Hdmi ports but is there any effect on quality with this?

Cheers again,

gerryk

I have 2x reference (MSI) 6950s that I had running 24x7 for months, mining BTC, and they hardly broke sweat. Temps were around 75degrees, with fans running about 65%. They raun under 100% load for probably 90 days continually.