New Graphics Card ideas

[GommeInc]

Evening all,

My graphics card died at about 8 PM. Long story short - small funeral and want a replacement like you would a hamster.

The old GPU was a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, so something of the same spec might be interesting, but I hear tell of ATI cards having the edge as far as graphics cards go. So this could spark an interesting discussion between ATI cards and Nvidia cards as well.

Price can be anything, though I'd rather have something that wasn't too expensive for barely any advantages. The old one played The Sims 3 on full graphics and so forth and that's probably the most intense thing the new one would go through, and maybe C&C 4 if that's any better than The Sims 3 in terms of intensity at least.

So yeah, any suggestions? ATI cards are okay, I've used them before but their only downside is the CCC which isn't necessary I know, but sometimes you have to install it to fix a few errors :P

[Muct]

Woah, a fellow Sims 3 player?
These are the supported cards;

NVIDIA GeForce series

FX 5900, FX 5950
6200, 6500, 6600, 6800
7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950
8400, 8500, 8600, 8800
9300, 9400, 9500, 9600, 9800
G100, GT 120, GT 130, GTS 150
GTS 250, GTX 260, GTX 280, GTX 285, GTX 295
ATI Radeon™ series

9500, 9600, 9800
X300, X600, X700, X800, X850
X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950
2400, 2600, 2900
3450, 3650, 3850, 3870
4850, 4870
But to be honest, since the newer updates for TS3 and everything like half of these cards aren't even supported now, and yeah I'd recommend getting an ATI, I have stayed with ATI with most of my computers, and their driver updates are alot better than nVidia...
I would go for a high spec graphics card if I were you, with the new updates on TS3 ruining the performance... (Tests have been done too) and I'd try getting a 512mb/1GB card if possible for you, I mean, TS3 doesn't need anything over 1GB for MAX Settings and a good FPS...
I can't actually point out any cards for you, but above are the supported cards and I don't think you should get over a 1GB card just for TS3... Fair enough if you're planning on playing other high spec games though... :)

[GommeInc]

I seem to religiously buy it :P It's an old habit!

The old card played Ambitions at the same standard, infact the upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit Windows 7 made it work better. Only problem with that game was the crash to desktop, which was solved by editing the exe to acknowledge this PC as having more than 2 GB memory, but 1GB graphics memory would probably be a good upgrade. Just not sure what one to pick, ATI cards are kay and I've not had these problems from Nvidia cards :P Windows 7 seems to manage the downloading and installation for both :P

What card do you have, if you don't mind me asking?

[Muct]

I seem to religiously buy it :P It's an old habit!

The old card played Ambitions at the same standard, infact the upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit Windows 7 made it work better. Only problem with that game was the crash to desktop, which was solved by editing the exe to acknowledge this PC as having more than 2 GB memory, but 1GB graphics memory would probably be a good upgrade. Just not sure what one to pick, ATI cards are kay and I've not had these problems from Nvidia cards :P Windows 7 seems to manage the downloading and installation for both :P

What card do you have, if you don't mind me asking?

No idea what this is, but I know it's my first nVidia and is either a 8000 or 9000 series, atm I can't find where it says...
But for my birth-day I'm planning on getting a 2x Radeon 5970, obviously not just for TS3 but for GTA and Crysis and everything like that...
I know GTA doesn't even take advantage of the (2x) but most other games do...
And the crash to desktop is a known problem planned to be patched soon for TS3, it's been reporetd millions of times on the TS3 Forums, something to do with one of the other patches from what I've heard...

[Recursion]

I recently upgraded from an Nvidia 8800GT to an ATI Radeon HD5850, damn awesome card, but £220 may be a bit pricey for you.

And @ above, why x2 5970s? I run Crysis on max settings with my Quad Core and 5850!

[Muct]

I recently upgraded from an Nvidia 8800GT to an ATI Radeon HD5850, damn awesome card, but £220 may be a bit pricey for you.

And @ above, why x2 5970s? I run Crysis on max settings with my Quad Core and 5850!

LOL Don't ask, I just had a budget of £2250 and with me being one of them people who squeeze everything out of a good thing, I went for a 2x 5970 for future gaming lolol.

[GommeInc]

I recently upgraded from an Nvidia 8800GT to an ATI Radeon HD5850, damn awesome card, but £220 may be a bit pricey for you.

And @ above, why x2 5970s? I run Crysis on max settings with my Quad Core and 5850!
That does seem a bit over kill for my needs, but thanks for the idea :P

[N!ck]

ATi 5770 1GB ~ £130. Best bang for buck at the moment and it's serving me well so far.

The cheaper option is the 5750, but I probably wouldn't bother. Should outperform an 8800GT though.

[GommeInc]

ATi 5770 1GB ~ £130. Best bang for buck at the moment and it's serving me well so far.

The cheaper option is the 5750, but I probably wouldn't bother. Should outperform an 8800GT though.
Any particular one? There are the Gigabyte, ASUS or HIS ones on ebuyer at the moment. The HIS version seems to be highly rated, so that's tempting me :) A good suggestion!

[N!ck]

Any particular one? There are the Gigabyte, ASUS or HIS ones on ebuyer at the moment. The HIS version seems to be highly rated, so that's tempting me :) A good suggestion!

They're all basically the same apart from the cooler (and free stuff with it, if any). Try to avoid the ones with a black plastic box the length of the card and a little fan right at the end. Supposedly they're that good coolers.

Edot: I'd go with the HIS one. And none of them appear to be using the cooler I mentioned. They all probably realised it's crap and stopped using it.

[GommeInc]

That looks like a winner so far :) Thanks for the recommendation! I'll see what others suggest and maybe order it sometime tomorrow :)