Replacement needed for ATI 2900 Pro 512mb graphics card

[Schmutz]

My graphics card (ATI 2900PRO 512mb) is faulty and I'll be returning it to ebuyer.com.

I would just like some insight as to what the best deals are on graphics cards are at the moment. I payed £170 for it, which will be reimbursed. I'm looking at upgrading to this model:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158511 - ATI 4870 1gb @ £224

Or http://www.ebuyer.com/product/153311 - ATI Sapphire 4870 512MB @ £132.96

Any better suggestions? Best price for performance is what I'm looking for. I play a lot of high spec games at 1920x1200 resolution and it would be nice to run them as smooth as possible (do 1gb graphics cards offer a worthy performance improvement over 512mb at that resolution?)

Here are my other specs:

CPU: Q6600 3.0GHZ
Mobo: GIGABYTE EP45-DS3R
Mem: 6GB PC2 6400 800mhz
Video: ------
HDD: Western Digital 500GB SATA
Sound: Logitech X-230 - Onboard soundcard
Monitor: 24" Samsung (1920x1200)
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate x64


Thank you

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

I would recommend this BFG GTX 275 instead. Faster than the HD 4870, factory overclocked and with a warranty coverage of 10 years provided you register the card on BFG's site within 30 days of purchase.

 

[Schmutz]

hi rage,

Is my motherboard not optimized to work better with ATI cards? Or is that just for dual graphics card setup? (crossfire...) I dont have any plans to use two cards

 

[dustin_ds3000]

your motherboard will work just fine with the GTX 275. your motherboard wont effect the performance of the GTX 275.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Yeah your mobo supports Crossfire, but there's no other advantage to using an ATI card in it. The GeForce card will work fine with it.

I currently use an 8800GTS 512 with the same mobo without problems.

 

[Schmutz]

Thanks for clearing that up. One last thing though, does it offer that much of a performance improvement over the ATI Sapphire 4870 512MB to warrant the extra £90? I'll definately make the most out of any extra speed/performance, but I would like to think it is 20-30% faster at high resolutions to be worth the extra cash. There are two other gtx 275 models priced just under £200 also:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161684
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161668

Could these be overclocked like the BFG model to save £30?

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

I recommended the BFG card solely for the warranty coverage. You can go with any other.

Or you can buy two of this card and Crossfire them. Fantastic performance at 1920x1200 is guaranteed.

But if you don't have a PSU upto to the task, you have a choice between the GTX 275 and HD 4870 1GB. The NVIDIA card is about 10-15FPS faster than the HD 4870 on average, from what I've seen in most of the reviews; it is not worth £90 more to be honest. A £30 difference is more reasonable. I've found a GTX 275 for £176 here. The cheapest 4870 1GB at eBuyer that I recommend is from Sapphire, and it's for £150. So unless you have to buy from eBuyer, the £176 GTX 275 is the clear choice.

 

[Schmutz]

By looking at the difference between GTX 275 & the 4870 (1gb model) and then the difference between the 1gb and 512mb variants of the 4870 there does appear to be a worthy performance improvement.

The £176 deal looks good, +++£9.00 for next day shipping it will cost me £184.

My only concerns are lack of warranty (only 1 year as opposed to the 10 years offered by BFG) And lack of brand name! (don't know if that has any bearing on the performance...) Haven't seen anything negative in reviews though and at ~£40 cheaper than the BFG one I believe I'll settle for it

Thanks for all of the suggestions, it is really appreciated

Schmutz

 

[FoReWoRd]

BFG is a reputed manufacturer and I personally would pay slightly more to ensure i get exeptional quality rather then generic crap that is guarenteed to fail within a few mins of use