Upgrading from 9800 gtx + to ?

[apos2009]

Hello to all!and have a good year! its been a long time posting so i need ur help once more.
I have the gf 9800 gtx + 512 mb and i want to upgrade. I had changed my monitor a year ago and from 17" gone to 20" my res now is 1600x900.I will save up money for a good card. i was thinking for hd 6950 but i think its a waste of money for that resolution but its future proof .i dont know really what to choose.i am between 6870-6850 and 6950.Games that i play are crysis Gta iv, metro 2033 . also tell me if the cheaper hd 6870 -6850 are futureproof for that res
My system is:
AMD PHENOM X4 9950 OC@3GHZ
4 GB MEMORY
HEC 500W PSU
ASROCK 780G MB
2 HDDS

[Delavan]

Your PSU, if I'm not mistaking, is really crappy (sorry about that). HEC is one of those company that sell unreliable PSU...I wouldn't put any good card within a 1 mile radius of that PSU...

Whatever you do, change it...also, if that Quad you have is one of those PRE-Phenom IIs, you'll probably bottleneck one of the latest cards...and at your resolution, you don't need a HD6950...

I'd say HD6870 + a decent 650 watts PSU....

[Blu]

Yeah I would agree on changing out the PSU for something better, if your really looking on future proofing your graphics card. There really isn't a way of doing this as every next gen of cards that come out are going to be better then the last one you just bought, I would just focus on something that will let you be able to play what you want to play for a good period of time and be good enough to play the newer stuff at a decent resolution on decent settings if not already the highest you need. Since I myself am a nvidia fanboy I would suggest something like a GTX 460,
NCIX.com - Buy EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Fermi 675MHZ 768MB GDDR5 Dual DVI Mini-HDMI PCI-E DX11 Video Card - 768-P3-1360-TR In Canada.
You can get it under $200 with the mail in rebate, however the new ATI series of 6850's can be unlocked to run at 6870 clock speeds which is a better bang for your buck, so if you can find one on sale for around 250-270 pick it up and look for the unlocking thread here that lowfat made.

[ilya]

HEC=Compucase AKA the guys that make those Cougar PSUs. Nothing amazing, but reliable enough for a tight budget build. A more reliable unit would be recommended though, since a 500W unit that probably can't deliver full load is a bad idea for a higher power GPU.

To the OP, do you NEED to upgrade? 1600x900 doesn't seem to be too high a resolution for a 9800gtx+.
As mentioned in the previous post, you're going to run into bottlenecks and you won't get much of a noticeable boost with a new GPU. (which would be a total waste of money)

I would look into a platform change before considering a GPU upgrade in your case. (possibly a PSU change first)

[_dangtx_]

first thing you need to do is hunt down a decent 24 incher. then decide on a gpu. i wouldnt get another gpu for that screen.

as you said, 6950, the early reference ones you got good chances of unlock, so far.

[apos2009]

no HEC is good company as i know! the psu seems real good .No i dont think i will be bottleneck on quad core even i have heard others with dual and 6850-70 dont get bottlenecked.as of 9800 i wanna change it because it broke down one month ago and i used the oven trick to fix it .LOL.i just want to go with Ati now because of power consumption.and i am not gonna change my monitor i am happy with it

[upcoast604]

Having used a 9800gtx+ and then going to gtx280 it was a big jump, a gtx460 192bit is about on par with gtx280. I don't think your cpu will be that bad but psu should be upgraded to a good single rail ie corsair or seasonic 600-650w. Resolution is subjective depends if you like aa/af high settings, I'm looking into a gtx570 because I really like aa/af high settings and the gtx280 is slumping on current and a few past games @1680x1050. So depending what games you play and quality settings you want the gtx460 192bit 768MB, 6850, gtx460256bit 1GB or 6870 would be a good start to pour over benchmarks reviews.

[apos2009]

my psu has already 2 pci-e 6 pin. or i can go with gtx 470