Video Card Upgrade

VulnoX

Hi all, I love computers and that, but I have fallen behind on the advances in Video Cards. I have an Nvidia Geforce 8800GT 512MB DDR3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130319

What is a decent upgrade for this that will stay in the $150-ish range. If you go higher on price, but for a damn good reason (Its twice as fast, will last me 2 years, etc, I am all ears).

I mainly only play WoW, TF2, etc, on it. A lot of my gaming is on my Xbox 360. So I am not trying to get Crysis running or any of that, just want great performance. My 8800GT runs WoW at Ultra in 1680x1050, but can get skippy in some spots.

Thanks all!

Scrublet

People in here can help you, but I would go point this question in Moe's at this thread. Personally, on paper I think the geforce gtx 260s seem like a good deal at your price point, but I know some of the AMD cards are supposed to be good right now. I just prefer Nvidia.

Viscountalpha

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showpost.php?p=10772990&postcount=4

GTX260 or the GTS250 is probably your next upgrade.

X3x3non

A 8800GT is a very damn respectable card. If you are playing WoW and TF2 on it I am pretty sure it is not a bottle neck. What other components do you have in your computer? What you said about WoW skipping makes me think you need a RAM upgrade more than a new graphics card.

VulnoX

X3x3non wrote: »

A 8800GT is a very damn respectable card. If you are playing WoW and TF2 on it I am pretty sure it is not a bottle neck. What other components do you have in your computer? What you said about WoW skipping makes me think you need a RAM upgrade more than a new graphics card.

Yeah I was planning to do a RAM upgrade as well.

I have an Intel Q6600 OC'd to 3.0GHz
4GB G-Skill 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231145)
Western Digital Velociraptor 10,000RPM 300GB HD (Main), 500GB and 1TB Storage Drives
An ABit Mobo I can't remember the info on, but its a good one from reviews
Dell SP2208WFP 22" LCD Monitor 1680x1050
Windows 7, newest drivers and everything, RC1, clean install.

Don't get me wrong, it runs GREAT, rock solid, no crashes, lock-ups, etc. I notice the RAM usage getting in the high 70's, so I was going to do a memory upgrade, make the 8GB jump since its $50. I am running the 64-bit Win7 also.

Thank you everyone else for your replies and links!

X3x3non

Nice dude, you already have a sweet machine. I think I would wait a little longer before I upgraded any of those components.

Viscountalpha

Yea, A GTX260 isn't going to be held down by that nice system. 8gb of ram isn't going to hurt either. Good luck with your upgrades.

VulnoX

Good stuff, I appreciate all your replies. I still may grab some more memory just because and then see how it goes. I might also benefit from overclocking the video card, I have PLENTY of cooling in my big Antec case (its the pretty popular one with the big-ass 200MM fan on the top, and I have about 5 others for HD, video, Processor cooling, etc).

Don't like OCing video cards, but maybe it will save me some money.

Thanks again all!

Apogee

Honestly, I'm not sure you need to upgrade at all. Maybe a GTX260 (make sure it's a 215 core, not 192), but other than that... do you really need 8 GB? I mean, that's like running WoW 3 times concurrently with Windows going and some room to spare...

W2

Is there an element of WoW that specifically gives you stuttering? My rig is very similar to yours and it would struggle most of the time in Dalaran in peak times, which was a connection issue more than anything.

Your current machine will run Crysis at a level that is more than acceptable, by the way, I've never been sure where people get the idea that you need a bunker-sized chess playing supercomputer to be able to even load the game. :P