What's the current GPU situation?

[DiGiTek Systems]

I have been out of the gaming/gpu 'game' for some time now mainly due to me supplying onboard graphics for business/education, but anyway...

I ask this, as a rule of thumb what is the current situation between nVidia ans ATI? who offers the best low-end/middle-end/high-end graphics?

The last time i was up to date was when ATI were better with i think the first incarnation of 9600 (Pros etc.) I know you now have 9800GTS/GT/GTX and the newer 250's/260's. ATI i have no idea on their ratings.

Also, with not much price difference between my current card XFX 9800GT (approx £60) and a £100/110 240GT iirc how much increase is there likely to be?

Thanks

[Gibbo]

Hi there

ATI have the market cornered at the moment to be honest. Best value gaming cards are the 5770's and 5850's. :)

[Aaron]

To answer your last question first, nVidia just rebranded a whole bunch of cards a while back. The 9800GT is effectively the same card as the GT250 (as far as I remember - it might be the 9800GTX), so if you went from a 9800GT to a 240, you probably wouldnt notice much difference and could even be taking a step backwards.

At the moment, ATi is king with their 58** range :) But nVidia is getting ready to release their new set of cards. But these are expected to retail pretty high. However, in my opinion, I'm not expecting these to offer such good performance/£ as the current ATi range :)

[El Wayneo]

YOu 9800GT is actually two or three steps higher than a GT240.

A HD5770 would be a good upgrade as Gibbo says, about £120.

[DiGiTek Systems]

Thanks for the responses guys. HD5770 looks good.

But this begs the question, why is my 2-3 year old card better than a much newer and more expensive one? When i bought the card it was about £115 i think. same price for one now is going backward?!?!?!?!?

[El Wayneo]

Exchange rates, Nvidia managing to add sound on the cards probably reckon its worth another £40.

[Aaron]

Yeah, as EW says - exchange rates will be the biggest culprit. But also just the fact its a 'new' nVidia card, people will pay the money for it. Without sounding patronising, if you hadnt found out that a 240 was actually a worse card than your 9800GT, you may have bought it. And many other people would do - just see a newer card and assume its better. nVidia can charge higher prices because thats the price people will buy at! :)

[kr00t0n]

5770 is the way to go.

I have a pair in crossfire and they FLY! :D

[BeeP]

I still only have one but it does the games I play very nicely.

[coiler]

I have been out of the gaming/gpu 'game' for some time now mainly due to me supplying onboard graphics for business/education, but anyway...

I ask this, as a rule of thumb what is the current situation between nVidia ans ATI? who offers the best low-end/middle-end/high-end graphics?

The last time i was up to date was when ATI were better with i think the first incarnation of 9600 (Pros etc.) I know you now have 9800GTS/GT/GTX and the newer 250's/260's. ATI i have no idea on their ratings.

Also, with not much price difference between my current card XFX 9800GT (approx £60) and a £100/110 240GT iirc how much increase is there likely to be?

Thanks

For £110 you would go for a GTX 260 if you can find one - if you really wanted nvidia, it would absolutely wipe the floor with your 9800.

An Nvidia GT 240 is nowhere near £110 = its actually a £59 budget card

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/Nvidia+GT+240+Series/Arianet+GeForce+GT+240+512MB+GDDR3+PCI-Express+Graphics+Card+?productId=38704

[DiGiTek Systems]

hence me stating i'm not up to speed in the old graphics cards market anymore :(

think a little reading up is needed and in the meantime a 5770 may be the way forward

[coiler]

concur for a bargain 5770. Nothing compares in the DX11 card market for £100 ish!

[DiGiTek Systems]

its a sad state of affairs when all i know and work with is celerons/p4s, 512Mb Ram, Intel 82865 and beige cases :eek:

[BeeP]

Hehe, it doesnt take long to get back up to speed m8.

[Ropster]

got to agree, i started to build a new box,(last on i built was about 5 years ago) and was totaly confused by the modern processors and gpu's
was looking at stuff thinking, that must be better than my old 6600 gt but the benchmark sites were saying no. much confusion

[I3R0K3N7FEET]

something ive not seen people mention much is nvidia are offering 3D surround sight too,.. effectively eyefinity ripoff with added 3D...

[RDRUNR]

I'm looking at getting an ATI 5770 1GB, I'm sure it will make a nice replacement for my ATI X700 256mb card. :D

[greenpanda]

Any news on whether the 5830 can be oc or modded to 5850 speed?