Graphics card to replace 8800GT?

Deicist

So, my Graphics card just died. Was playing Eve last night and my PC bluescreened. Rebooted and had a load of artifacts on the screen. Mostly jumbled up letters, some large vertical blue bands down the screen etc. Switched it on today and same thing. I've reseated the card, blown off the mountains of dust that had accumulated on it (yes, heat build up is a likely culprit) but I'm reasonably sure it's fried.

Now, what's a good, cheap replacement? I'm not after an upgrade particularly, I'm stuck with a 19" monitor that does 1280*1024 so the 8800 was enough power for me. Anything in that performance bracket for a low, low price would be good.

Dehumanized

the 9600GT is basically the same graphics card, iirc.

Deicist

Hmm, after a bit of browsing (and perusing the computer build thread) I'm thinking I can stretch to a 5770. How much of a step up from the 8800 is that? Is there a chart on the interwebs anywhere that shows a reasonable (time) range of cards with their relative performance? Because that would be really handy for upgraders I would have thought.

Dehumanized

There's a hierarchy chart here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-geforce-radeon,2646-7.html

That just groups similar preforming cards, though -- it doesn't balance them against cost or how much performance each tier means. If you read the rest of the article it should have some good suggestions on some cards to look at.

Ashmadar

Before you spend on a new card, I highly suggest you try baking it. Worked for me when my 8800GT bit the dust.

Synthesis

Dehumanized wrote: »

the 9600GT is basically the same graphics card, iirc.

I could have sworn that the 9600GT was actually a substantial step down, even though it used a very slightly more modern chipset.

The 9800GT is almost the same thing as the 8800GT, to the point I think performance is almost exactly the same (the former just uses a little less juice, I think).

I could be totally off base here though.

Baking your card could work, but I'm guessing you compromise whatever sort of warranty you might be eligible. Then again, hardly every card is covered for a lifetime.

Deicist

It's a second hand card that the original owner bought the day 8800s were relased to market. At this point I don't think the warranty is an issue. I'm tempted to gave baking it a shot, but the 5770 is looking mighty tempting.... I might splash out on the 5770 and then try baking the 8800 anyway. I can always stick it in my second PC or use it as a Physx card (despite already having a first gen Ageia card in there) or something.

cheers for the help guys, will let you know how it goes.

edit: According to the Toms heirarchy chart thing, the 5770 is in the same bracket as the 9800x2 which (I'm assuming) is around twice as fast as an 8800. Does that sound about right?

Scorched

Should be about right. The 5770 performs on the same level as the 4850 by ATI, just under lower temperatures and power.

To put that in perspective, the 4850 was one generation up from the 9xxx series from Nvidia. The x2 dualcore card is probably as fast as the 4850, so you're making a massive step up anyway.

Satsumomo

Actually, the 5770 is level with the 4870, which is much better than the 8800.

The 5770 is a solid choice: DX11, very low power consumption (100W peak vs 150W peak for the 4850) and thus it runs cool and is silent.

LoneIgadzra

Yeah, ATI is definitely the way to go at the moment. Price/performance is so vastly better than Nvidia it's ridiculous.

I wasn't too impressed with benchmarks for the 57xx series and ended up getting a 4890 though. The fact is, that a 5770 is a little too comparable to a 4850 - a card that a 5750 is actually slower than under many circumstances (unless they have really changed things up in driver land since I last did research).

Granted, this is all a lot better than your 8800 GT.

nstf

Tallus wrote: »

It's a second hand card that the original owner bought the day 8800s were relased to market. At this point I don't think the warranty is an issue. I'm tempted to gave baking it a shot, but the 5770 is looking mighty tempting.... I might splash out on the 5770 and then try baking the 8800 anyway. I can always stick it in my second PC or use it as a Physx card (despite already having a first gen Ageia card in there) or something.

cheers for the help guys, will let you know how it goes.

edit: According to the Toms heirarchy chart thing, the 5770 is in the same bracket as the 9800x2 which (I'm assuming) is around twice as fast as an 8800. Does that sound about right?

Nvidia has drive locked physx. You can not use a geforce card along with an ATi one, it won't work. There are hacks to get around it but the quality is questionable.

If you care about physx you are stuck with nvidia, IMHO it's not worth it. The only real reason to buy nvidia now is if you are on an nvidia chipset, at times those don't play well with ATi cards.

The 9800gx2 can be twice as fast as an 8800. 8800gt = 9800gt, 8800gts =9800gtx = gts 250. The only change is a die shrink. The 9800gx2 is simply two 9800gt cards slapped together. However the internal SLI on it doesn't always scale that well in certain games.

maximumzero

Dehumanized wrote: »

There's a hierarchy chart here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-geforce-radeon,2646-7.html

That just groups similar preforming cards, though -- it doesn't balance them against cost or how much performance each tier means. If you read the rest of the article it should have some good suggestions on some cards to look at.

Thank you for this. The model #s on cards have confused me ever since we've moved beyond the Radeon 9800.