Upgrading from 8400GS

[zak4994]

Hi everyone!

As the title says and my sig shows I have a 8400GS and I want to upgrade.

Again as my sig shows, I only have a 19" monitor on which the maximum res is 1440x900.

I have a budget of £90-ish to use on a GPU and don't worry about my PSU.

I mentioned my maximum res so you guys know that I won't need some super powerful card (for £90-ish) that can run games at res of 1920x1200 flawlessly (exaggeration).

I just want a nice card that works well at 1440x900 or lower as I don't mind playing at 1280x800, or anything lower, as 1024x768 is the lowest I'm willing to go in res (except for Crysis lol).

Help please!

Thanks guys.

PS: Do not worry about PSU wattage as I'm getting new PSU soon and I'm also running Vista 32bit

[Rastalovich]

512MB Palit 9800 GT, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), 1800MHz GDDR3, GPU 600MHz, 112 Cores, 2xDL DVI-I/ HDTV £83.41 - nVidia

OR

512MB HiS HD4830, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), 1800MHz GDDR3, GPU 575MHz, 640 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ HDTV, HDCP £100.10 - AMD/ATI

Postage required on both, probably under £10.

For £20 more u can get a 4850 in the ATI camp. £50 more u can get a 9800GTX+ for the nVidia camp.

Personally, I'm thinking at ur resolutions, both the top cards would be good, for the money ur looking to spend. If I could scrape £20/£50 more, I probably would.

There are ofc, other shops to try that may have offers, but for this budget range, these cards are the ones ur looking at.

[zak4994]

That sounds ok but a bit on the expensive side. I don't have an extra £20/£50 to use. I was thinking about getting a 9600GT or a GSO as they are cheaper. What do you think?

Save up for a 9800GTX+ to buy a 9600GT and save money?

I'll need money in the future for more parts.

[Rastalovich]

I dont know about getting a 9600 for around £66 when u can get a 9800 for around £83.

Way I usually look at it, if u set aside £100 for something, try and get the best something for that cash.

Now if ur looking at the mid range market specifically, the 9600 would be a cheaper alternative. Although u can spend up to £100 on one that has more memory (no use to u at those resolutions) and already oc'd.

Or get a basic 9800 and oc it urself

[gotmaxpower]

I'd get the 9800GT. Its dirt cheap at £83, and its a 55nm version of the 8800GT, so you're guaranteed great temperatures and a stable GPU.

It should hold out for a couple of years if you treat it right, although, you might want to consider upgrading a year or so down the line.

Best of luck.

[zak4994]

9800GT it is.

[ikan dugong]

great recommendation and decision. just a lil bit more recommendation, if tou have some spare left to spend, get another 2Gigs of memory, they're cheap, and significantly improves performance under Vista.

[zak4994]

Originally Posted by name='ikan dugong'

great recommendation and decision. just a lil bit more recommendation, if tou have some spare left to spend, get another 2Gigs of memory, they're cheap, and significantly improves performance under Vista.

2GB more?

That would lead to a total of 4.5GB of RAM and I don't want to run a 64bit version of Vista.

I find 2.5GB enough but what do I know, I'm still a n00b.

[zak4994]

Couldn't find teh 9800GT!

Damn PCWorld, Amazon are out of stock.

They have been for quite some time.

And the only stock eBay has are 9800GT that are selling for £120.

Not worth it.

Oh well I got myself a dirt-cheap XFX 9600GT XXX ed. for £40!

[ikan dugong]

cheer up man! 9600GT is nice! and you got nice bargain also! it plays most games in 1440x900 (in high quality settings), even Crysis Warhead (in medium - high quality setting)

my previous recommendation before is about getting 4GB in Dual-channel config (2x2Gigs), if the chipset supports. you can keep the 512MB somewhere else

Games and apps nowadays really memory-demanding, 2 gigs is ok, but with 4gigs, nothings gonna go wrong, right? Vista recognize for up-to 4gigs, and it also keeps your PC's resource healty all the time. (and it's cheap, you can find one for $20 -$30 easily). goodluck.