New videocard

[jdbecks]

Hi all,

I currently use a 512mb GTX9800+ OC and have started to notice it is time for something a bit better in terms of getting a 1gb card, I assume a geforce GTS250 1GB would be an improvement over my current card, although its the same chipset with more ram.

I dont want to spend alot of money on a new card as I have just purchased a house and need to do alot of work to the house.

I was looking at the following the card

Gigabyte GV-N250OC-1GI NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 1GB ATX HDMI Graphics
Gigabyte GV-N250ZL-1GI GeForce GTS 250 Graphics Card (1GB, ATX, HDMI)

Whats the difference between the two? both cards are PCI Express 2.0 which is what I want.

[BoilerDown]

How much do you want to spend?  Are you dead set on NVidia?  Is this for Aces High or general purpose gaming?  What kind of power supply does you computer have right now?

[jdbecks]

How much do you want to spend?  Are you dead set on NVidia?  Is this for Aces High or general purpose gaming?  What kind of power supply does you computer have right now?

general gaming I have 700w or 800w PSU cant remember which one...no more than £200 I guess, would like something thats a nice little upgrade for my GPU, the rest of the system is pretty good.

[Krusty]

ATI HD 4870 or if you can price one the 5870 line.

Very cheap (relatively), superb gamer cards.

As for the GT250 being the same as your card but with more RAM: Don't do it. You've already got that card, and you're looking for an upgrade. You'd be wasting money. The amount of RAM on a video card is not what makes it fast. It's the entire cohesive product. They often tack on cheap surplus (i.e. slower) ram on older cards to market them as 1GB (or in some cases 1.5 GB+!) but this really does not help the card in any way. Sometimes it can slow the card down because the ram is slower.

I would look veeeeeery carefully at the specs of the GT250 if you really want to go that way. Scrutinize the RAM, the frequencies, the bit quality, what level DDR (2/3/4/5?) it uses, etc.

Much as I am a bit nvidia fan, these new ATI cards are really top dog right now. Cheaper, better, cooler. If I had the funds that is the way I would go right now.

EDIT: Checking here:
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=571&card2=606

They're almost 100% identical. It's just a product re-branding. Don't get it. you already have this card and it's not doing what you want. The same card with a little more RAM won't give you much of a boost. They even apparently have a 2GB version of the card, but again just tacking RAM on an older card to boost sales and make it look better.

[jdbecks]

ATI HD 4870 or if you can price one the 5870 line.

Very cheap (relatively), superb gamer cards.

As for the GT250 being the same as your card but with more RAM: Don't do it. You've already got that card, and you're looking for an upgrade. You'd be wasting money. The amount of RAM on a video card is not what makes it fast. It's the entire cohesive product. They often tack on cheap surplus (i.e. slower) ram on older cards to market them as 1GB (or in some cases 1.5 GB+!) but this really does not help the card in any way. Sometimes it can slow the card down because the ram is slower.

I would look veeeeeery carefully at the specs of the GT250 if you really want to go that way. Scrutinize the RAM, the frequencies, the bit quality, what level DDR (2/3/4/5?) it uses, etc.

Much as I am a bit nvidia fan, these new ATI cards are really top dog right now. Cheaper, better, cooler. If I had the funds that is the way I would go right now.

EDIT: Checking here:
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=571&card2=606

They're almost 100% identical. It's just a product re-branding. Don't get it. you already have this card and it's not doing what you want. The same card with a little more RAM won't give you much of a boost. They even apparently have a 2GB version of the card, but again just tacking RAM on an older card to boost sales and make it look better.

My 9800gtx was a great card and still is but I want something faster..but if the 250 series is not worth getting I wont get one then  . I will have alook at the ATI cards..Im just a little wary of getting them as I have only ever had Nvida.

wow..they are pretty much the same card   thats a good website cheers mate what would a fairly good / fast Nvidia card be? I'm a little out of the loop at the moment. What would happen if I was to SLI my card? would it double up my card in effect?

what about the following card? ATi Radeon HD 5770? it looks fairly good against mine.

[gyrene81]

JD, if you're wanting to stick with the Nvidia chipset and want better performance than the 9800/250GT...it's the 260 and up...and you're starting at $200 in price...I think a 295 is still $500+...an ATI 4700 or 5700 series would get you more bang for the buck at under $200.

[jdbecks]

JD, if you're wanting to stick with the Nvidia chipset and want better performance than the 9800/250GT...it's the 260 and up...and you're starting at $200 in price...I think a 295 is still $500+...an ATI 4700 or 5700 series would get you more bang for the buck at under $200.

I can pay more to get the card that would be better for me, my budget can go higher, its just I dont want to purchase something that might be overkill when I want to spend my money on modernising my new house..its in £ not $ too 

[guncrasher]

think you should also look at what your current vc does.  If it maxes everything in the game like mine does (shadows at 2k) and fps doesn't go below 50 (most of the time is 60)  then what is the point of upgrading other than to have a new card.

semp

[jdbecks]

think you should also look at what your current vc does.  If it maxes everything in the game like mine does (shadows at 2k) and fps doesn't go below 50 (most of the time is 60)  then what is the point of upgrading other than to have a new card.

semp

Mainly for Rise of Flight, its the only game I have where I can not max everything out and it stutters alot 

[Kazaa]

I recomend the ATIHD5850, I've got one and it rocks but it's £100 more then the GTS250, best bang for the buck currently.

[Krusty]

^-- what Kazaa said. In the past I have been wary of ATI cards as well, but they clearly have a winner on their hands. It's like the leap Intel took when they released the Core2Duo chips. Definitely a good video card!

[Spikes]

The 5770. It rocks!

[Ghastly]

Krusty is completely right - given that you mention wanting to spend as little as you can get away with - but, I gotta say that something seems fishy.  The system I built out last fall (E8500 coupled with a 512 GB Radeon HD 4870) runs AH at around 90 - 100 fps flying in and around the city area with all sliders maxed at 1280x1024, although I tend not to turn on self shadowing (and maybe water reflections???)

But the 9800 GTX should only be roughly 10% slower than the HD 4870, so you should be pretty OK already.  (edit -> and the GTX+ overclocked should be just about comparable, from what I can see...)

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Sum-of-FPS-Benchmarks-1280x1024,796.html

What do you have for a processor, memory, OS, etc ?  Maybe you could post a DXDIAG.

My older system - AMD 4600+ - was less than satisfactory with the 9800 GTX I had, while the newer system would (at a guess) be fine.

I'd just hate to see post back that you spent hard earned cash to get from point A to point A.

<S>

[jdbecks]

System Manufacturer: XFX78I
       System Model: XFX nForce 780i 3-Way SLI
               BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
          Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E8500  @ 3.16GHz (2 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
             Memory: 2814MB RAM
          Page File: 1288MB used, 4547MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 32bit Unicode

[Tigger29]

The 9800gtx+ (gt250) is going to be the best 'cheap' card available.  To get anything better right now you're going to spend US$250+, but with a budge of 200 euros... well.. that's.. what?  $350 US?

For that kind of money you can get something pretty nice.

If I was going to upgrade my 9800gtx+, I'd have to go ATI... there's just no comparison right now.  I've never in my life liked what ATI had to offer, the ATI cards I've had in the past were absolute JUNK (but this was probably a decade ago) so I've stuck with NVidia ever since... but there's just too much GOOD being reported about ATI lately to ignore... and the price is right.

The C2D comparison is a great one.  I used to be a hardcore AMD fan until the C2D came out.  I'm on my second C2D processor and haven't had a single problem whatsoever.  My last upgrade was from an E6300 1.86Ghz to an E7400 2.8Ghz and only because I wanted a bit more speed.  I gave my old system to my brother and he's used it problem free for over six months now.

And while I have the money, I don't really plan on upgrading my video anytime soon.  It works well enough for everything I use it for and I just can't justify the expense at this time.