Video Card

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bmoney9

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 16, 2006
Messages
236
Ok here I am and have decided on getting a single GPU. The 4870 1gb seems like a great upgrade. There are many manufactures out there and see that HIS with the Ice Q cooling system is legit. Is it worth the money or should I go with a Sapphire and normal heatsink and fans? I do prefer quiet components. Also,

I was looking at Nvidia chipsets as well and see the gtx 285 was nice. Is this card better then the 4870 1gb? I mean if it is better then the 4870 1gb is it worth the extra money, like is it that much better performance then the 4870 1gb because if it is I will go with that and spend the extra cash.

I wouldn't mind going with an Nvidia card. And if I do go with ATI I'm sure ill wait for more price drops because of the new cards on April 6th.

Thanks for all the help.

I play on a 26" Soyo Widescreen at 1920x 1200
 
I see you have a P45 motherboard, I don't know if you have two PCI-E x16 slots or not but if you do I'd suggest going with an ATi card so you can Crossfire later down ther road. :)
 
CHAoS_NiNJA said:
I see you have a P45 motherboard, I don't know if you have two PCI-E x16 slots or not but if you do I'd suggest going with an ATi card so you can Crossfire later down ther road. :)
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later down the road the 4870 will be superseded by faster cards with newer tech for the money. upgrading to another 4870 down the road would be almost silly especially at this point since we are not far from 40nm cards and such.
 
bmoney9 said:
ahh i see. you think a gtx 285 will be ok on my rig? I think i have enough power from psu to handle it. I will OC my Q6600..just wanna pick out a vid card
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an Antec earthwatts with a gtx285 and overclocked q6600 might be cutting it a little close. most of the 500watt earthwatts are basically Corsair 450 watt units with cheaper caps.
 
I had the same power supply and was considering the same upgrade to a GTX 285 not too long ago. The Earthwatts was a solid unit for my 8800 GT for about a year, but I figured it was time for an upgrade. Video cards are going to continue to become more power hungry so 500W probably won't cut it for much longer. That was my logic, at least, as I considered a new power supply. I see you have a Q6600 and I have an E8400, so you'd be cutting it even closer.

Ultimately, it doesn't cost too much for a good power supply. I bought a PC P&C 750W Silencer (has a nice +12V @ 60A) for about 100 bucks AR along with an EVGA GTX 285 last week and things have been going well ever since. Overclocking to stable SSC speed was not a problem although FTW speeds were, as I suspected, out of reach. I run a similar setup with a P35-DS3L and a 1920x1200 resolution (24" BenQ) so I would have to recommend the GTX 285.

If you're not willing to shell out for a new power supply, just keep in mind that the Earthwatts might not get the job done if you decide to go the route of a GTX 285, which again I recommend as far as a single GPU card goes. I too didn't want to go the route of a dual-GPU card.
 
mpenna said:
I had the same power supply and was considering the same upgrade to a GTX 285 not too long ago. The Earthwatts was a solid unit for my 8800 GT for about a year, but I figured it was time for an upgrade. Video cards are going to continue to become more power hungry so 500W probably won't cut it for much longer. That was my logic, at least, as I considered a new power supply. I see you have a Q6600 and I have an E8400, so you'd be cutting it even closer.

Ultimately, it doesn't cost too much for a good power supply. I bought a PC P&C 750W Silencer (has a nice +12V @ 60A) for about 100 bucks AR along with an EVGA GTX 285 last week and things have been going well ever since. Overclocking to stable SSC speed was not a problem although FTW speeds were, as I suspected, out of reach. I run a similar setup with a P35-DS3L and a 1920x1200 resolution (24" BenQ) so I would have to recommend the GTX 285.

If you're not willing to shell out for a new power supply, just keep in mind that the Earthwatts might not get the job done if you decide to go the route of a GTX 285, which again I recommend as far as a single GPU card goes. I too didn't want to go the route of a dual-GPU card.
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Ok. Thank you for the advice. Yea I really don't want to get a new PSU but I might if i go the route of a GTX 285. I am still considering the 4870 1gb. But I think in the end ill save up for a new PSU and get the GTX 285. It's just that I don't want my current PSU to go to waste if it still works perfectly fine. So maybe I will sell it on here.
 
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