O.k, so i have this - Operating system: Windows 2.5.1.2600 (SP 3) CPU type: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E7200 @ 2.53GHz CPU Speed (GHz): 3.497 System memory(GB): 3.249 Graphics card model: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS Desktop resolution: 1360x768 Motherboad : ASUS P5QL PRO And put simply, i have had enough of my graphics card. Its shit. Stupid graphic problems keep causing my computer to crash. Far too many issues with this graphics card to be of any value and they do not update any of the problems in the driver updates. I wish to try a good graphics card but stay away from Nvidia, so i would like your suggestions. I would like a KICK ASS graphics card that is trustworthy and better than my current one. Im willing to pay a decent amount of money. Any suggestions please ?
ATI 5850 or 5870, if you can find one. I just got a 5750, and the ATI driver is alot better than Nvidia's.
if you already have, or will be getting windows 7, get a radeon 5000 series card to take advantage of directx 11
Seconding what EF2 said. They seem to be a little scarce though, for some reason... but the 5850 or, if you have the money (and it's really not that expensive compared to the GTX 295 etc), the 5870 are pretty much better than anything else you can find right now. If you don't like nVidia, now's a good time for you.
The only thing that matters is your budget, because that will dictate what card you get. Here's the most recent Tom's Hardware guide to the best video cards in every price bracket. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2404.html ATI's new cards are way way way cheaper than Nvidia's 280 or 295 and better, so they have the edge temporarily in the very high end. I'm lucky I got such a good deal on my Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P motherboard when I built this, because just last weekend I bought a second RADEON HD 4850 on craigslist locally for 80 bucks and stuck her in my rig and I now basically have no problems running any game at 1920x1080. This brings the total amount of cash I spent on my two 4850s to $94, because I had to order two crossfire bridge cables from newegg. Now I'm just saving for a new RADEON HD 5870 any time in the next year. DX11 is as big a lark as DX10 is. DX10 is two years old and almost nobody runs cards who use it, and if they do have the cards they're low-end enough so that they run the DX9 clients anyway. DX11 will be the same thing. The big big reason to get the new RADEON 5k series is totally that the power profiles are amazing. Idle power consumption of the 5870 is 11 WATTS! ELEVEN! Wow.
i had the same set up EXACT (except i am running 3.17 GHZ OC'd) i went from 8800GTS 320 MB OC to a 9800GTX+ Superclocked edition and noticed a slight increase ... i was going to get the 260 card but i got the 9800 for a mere 50 bucks TBH getting the best card now is POINTLESS in this set up ... specially at such a low low resolution so a mid - high end card is fine 260 is cheap and will be fine in this system IMO or buy a really good card and upgrade the rest (core i7 and such)
With your resolution, the super high end cards are going to be wayy overkill. I personally would go with an ATI 4870, which is available in the US for under $150. At your resolution, this card will take anything you throw at it and display crystal smooth 60fps video. You could grab an ATI 5750 for the same price. It supports DirectX 11, but is a good deal slower than the 4870. DirectX 11 seems like a good selling point, but currently no games support it. By the time games start supporting DirectX 11 only in large numbers, you'll probably be looking to upgrade again anyway. You can see a bunch of benchmark comparisons here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5770,2446.html Just look at the blue bars, which represent the lowest tested resolution. Your computer should be able to output at least that many fps.
From what I see on Newegg the 5770 and the 4870 occupy the same pricepoint. Those are probably more than capable for the resolution you listed, and are inexpensive. Breaking it down: -The 4870 has a little bit more power and will kick out an additional 5-10 fps. -The 5770 has a newer architecture that consumes less power than the 4870. -The 5770 supports directx 11. So it comes down to whether or not you figure you'll want/need directx 11 support, and whether you want a few more fps or a less power hungry card.