Got a friend upgrading an 8800GT 1gb, he also has a 30" monitor which had been pummeling the 88 for a while now, although he can still use quite high settings with it being a 1gb model.

Anyhows, he can't stretch to the GTX275 or 4890. My research concludes that at £133 the GTX260 Gainward Golden Sample, basically a pretty heavily overclocked 260 216 with a fancy non reference cooler is the way forward...or is the 4870 better ? I went from a 4850 1GB to a 4980 so I've not tried either of these cards.

Anyone have any input ?

Everyting I've ever read suggests there's nothing in it really. I think nVidia has the edge in Crysis though.

I did see a 4870 for under £100!!!! Its only the 512MB one.

Yeah from what I can see the 512mb version is behind the 1gb at 1680x1050 let alone anything higher, which may be a problem with his monitor !

Really? Everything I've read says the opposite - ie. the 1GB version is only faster than the 512mb card at lower resolutions.

ive heard and seen that you can get a gtx 260 core 216 for that now

If he can he needs to push it towards the 275 or 4890 otherwise his going to be a disappointed man, is the £130 including the sale of this 88?

No the 88 is going in a 2nd pc.

Novatech are doing this at the moment:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?GW-265

This is the 216 Stream Processor model but they are selling a 192 model for £120 (though I would recommend the Gainward card)



I have to agree with Geiseric and say if your friend can stretch to a GTX 275 or a 4890 it would be a big improvement. A slight word of caution if buying a GTX 275 though, try to get a Palit one as they run cooler than my Nvidia reference cooler model. Mine was topping out at 91c in the FurMark stability test. I fitted an Arctic Cooling Accelero Extreme 280 in the end which knocked more than a third off my temps.

I don't mean to be unhelpful, but if your friend can afford a 30" screen, they should be able to budget for a reasonable £200+ card to handle it - no?

Sure there are good cards around at budget prices right now, but none will be designed with a 30" screen in mind. Mostly 20-24" I would've thought.

He has had the screen since 2007. His circumstances have since changed (had another child). Not being rude but that logic doesn't make much sense to me though, owning something 'high end' if you like (hope ChurchCat) is reading, doesn't mean you can duplicate its standing in everything else you buy.

Is it worth using it as a dedicated PhysX card alongside the new gfx card? Just a thought!

Could do but he might get more from the 8800GT in a second PC. I guess he could always try it and see what the performance is like.

I too think he needs to spend a little more money if he wants to game at the native res. The GTX260 is by no means a bad card though.

Fair play. You're right we all have to make choices about where we spend our cash. But in my view, a large monitor and a decent graphics card go hand in hand. Having a cheap graphics card for a large decent monitor is akin to running a Porsche on regular unleaded and not V-Power IMO. But hey....

I'm just not convinced there's much around the £130 mark that will be a sufficient upgrade over the 88. Save another £70 and it's looking more like it.

What about the Radeon 4770? Obviously it's not as beefy as the 4870 (or the even newer 4890), but apparently it betters the 4850 and is cheaper to run too.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/252012/a ... -4770.html

EDIT: Scrap that, you can get a full-blown 4870 for less than £130. I'd do that.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/155497

Scratch that again, If you can stretch an extra £15, this card runs much quieter and cooler, in addition to having extra memory:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... -GW&tool=3