Video Card Upgrade

[evancolson]

My current 8800 gts 320mb is not sufficient for the gaming experiences I want to have with games like Crysis, COD4, and World in Conflict, so I was looking to upgrade. The problem is - I don't really know what to do at the moment. Should I get a 9800 GTX or 9600s in SLI, or wait for the next-gen ATI/NVIDIA cards. Also, I'm currently running a meager e4400 overclocked to 3 Ghz, and I'm wondering how much it would bottleneck the setups enumerated above.

[vertex112]

I would say hold out just a little longer for next gen cards, I am in the same position as you are. From the looks of it, These next gen cards are looking to be monsters. So, just hold out. As for e4400 oced to 3.0, I would say that will be sufficient and would not affect newer games, such as crysis, since most ppl only get 20-40 fps.

Ps. Man, I can't wait to drop $600 on my latest upgrade! New case+gpu here we go!

[MpG]

Yeah, at this point, you REALLY want to try and sit tight for another month or two. All kinds of fun stuff slated to be released from Nvidia and ATI, all of it a jump above your present card. Worst case scenario, if you don't like what you see, the current-gen stuff should become cheaper at that point too.

[vertex112]

Yes, that is another good point too. If you don't want to drop loads of cash, there will be some nice price drops, although I would get the new cards *drools over keyboard*.

128sp on gtx=13000 3dmark.
imagine 240sp gtx=20000-240003dmark :)

btw, nice oc on the 3870x2.

[belgolas]

Yeah I am in the same boat and I am waiting a month or 2. Your CPU will be good for a long time. Generally CPU's in most games don't affect Frames Per Second as much as a GPU upgrade.

[b1lk1]

Without a doubt wait for the next generation. There is pretty much nothing out except the dual GPU cards that will make enough of a difference. SLI/Crossfire is a waste of money too.

[Sniper]

Originally Posted by b1lk1

Without a doubt wait for the next generation. There is pretty much nothing out except the dual GPU cards that will make enough of a difference. SLI/Crossfire is a waste of money too.

How so? I have 2 8800GT's in SLI for under $400 that's a pretty good bang for my buck if you ask me. It'll hang with close to everything out there on the market today maybe cept for the GX2's but I haven't seen much done on them yet.

I know what a 9800GTX is & my setup will hang with that no problem at all for under the cost. It's to each his own I think.

Just looked & the 9800GTX's are way down in price as well which is about the same as my setup. so they are abit cheaper now. Still was worth it for me to buy my second card rather than lose out money on it by selling it used to buy something newer imo though.a

[belgolas]

Next mobo I buy I want to be able to crossfire or SLI.

[Sniper]

From what I understand Crosssfire seems to give better performance for an ATI card but SLI already has it in the performance issue as the Nvidia cards are higher quality chipsets?