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An interesting series of events lead me to buy a BFG 8600 GT to replace a video card that died - an HIS Hightech Radeon X1950 Pro - in the middle of a LAN party yesterday. I didn't really have time to do a lot of research at the time, and the only thing I cared about at that moment was getting my computer to POST. Plus the 30% off sticker on the box at CompUSA looked rather appealing, and the LAN admin who was kind enough to drive me to the store said it was a great card for the price.
However, after looking at benchmark results at Tom's Hardware and reading a few threads here I'm starting to get some serious buyer's remorse. Since I'm a pretty heavy gamer (I was at that LAN party from open to close: 24 hours), and since I have a 24" monitor (Also bought at CompUSA for a steal on black Friday) should I just stick with it, or try to sell it and replace it with a better card?
I know the HD 3850 is in the same price range and performs a lot better, but I'm a little... suspicious of ATI cards right now. I'm still a little puzzled as to why the X1950 died in the first place. The circumstances surrounding it's death suggested overheating, but I've never had an overheating problem before. I just bought the card in October (to replace a 3 year old GeForce 6800 GT... that also died) and it worked fine in the weeks leading up the LAN. I think it was perhaps the motherboard or PSU that killed the card, though neither of those things are an issue anymore (I'm using a mobo borrowed from the LAN admin mentioned earlier, since I was using AGP before, and I picked up an 850W PSU while at CompUSA as well, which is probably overkill).
However, after looking at benchmark results at Tom's Hardware and reading a few threads here I'm starting to get some serious buyer's remorse. Since I'm a pretty heavy gamer (I was at that LAN party from open to close: 24 hours), and since I have a 24" monitor (Also bought at CompUSA for a steal on black Friday) should I just stick with it, or try to sell it and replace it with a better card?
I know the HD 3850 is in the same price range and performs a lot better, but I'm a little... suspicious of ATI cards right now. I'm still a little puzzled as to why the X1950 died in the first place. The circumstances surrounding it's death suggested overheating, but I've never had an overheating problem before. I just bought the card in October (to replace a 3 year old GeForce 6800 GT... that also died) and it worked fine in the weeks leading up the LAN. I think it was perhaps the motherboard or PSU that killed the card, though neither of those things are an issue anymore (I'm using a mobo borrowed from the LAN admin mentioned earlier, since I was using AGP before, and I picked up an 850W PSU while at CompUSA as well, which is probably overkill).