Wow...thanks for the great responses so far. Believe me, I was torn as to whether to stay with Nvidia or defect to ATI. I just read too many postings of driver issues with the 5770's (which was what I was considering) plus I don't know if there is something comparable to PhysX on ATI; if I am shelling out for a new card I might as well try and get the most eye candy for my $$$. Trust me though, DirectX 11 and the price is very enticing. I don't think the Fermi cards will come close in price when they release.
As for my setup, my mobo only has a single PCIe slot so SLI is not an option; that will be for my next rig!! Ultimately I am trying to get my games from running at low setting with my current card and also want to stay under the $250 range for price. I know my current card is choking my system because I think I have a decent setup otherwise:
Antec Sonata II
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz Wolfdale
4GB Corsair XMS2 DHX DDR2-800 2x2GB
Corsair HX620W Modular PSU
Scythe Ninja 2 6-Heatpipe Heatsink w/ 120mm Slipstream Fan
2x500GB Seagate RAID[1] + Maxtor 200GB
eVGA 7900GT KO Superclocked
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Windows Experience Index: 5.9
To add to the problem, I don't think I can go too high end with the cards since my PSU wont support the power draw and I only have a mid-tower case with 10.5" clearance from the slot to the HDD cage. Bigger cards from both sides are maxing me out on dimensions (I already need to pull out my case fan). I think you can start to see my predicament!
 |