video card upgrade help

[OrsunVZ]

Looking to upgrade my video card from a Gforce 8800 GT, but I don't feel like upgrading processor. That said the card I want shouldn't get limited by my processor - which I know can happen with the latest cards out there. I'm an ID10T, so any help would be appreciated. My current processor is an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Quad core processor.

Price range prefferably around $200 but I could potentially go to $300 if the difference really warrants the expense.

Incidentally I'm also only running with 2x 1G 667M sticks of memory.

any ideas?

[Gnarnok]

Personally I'd go for something along these lines orsun

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130571&cm_re=460_evga-_-14-130-571-_-Product">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product</a><!-- m -->

read the reviews.

[Diggles]

I'm not a big fan of EGVA, I prefer XFX as they've been easier to deal with.
Nvidia 460 is great choice.

whatever card you purchase, be sure to register it within 30 days with the company online or you will not have warranty support/access

[Gnarnok]

Oddly enough, I also prefer XFX but I couldn't find their 460 card. Might be on tigerdirect.

[Airyth]

Did you end up going with that card or something else and have you been happy with what you got?

I've got the same processor as you, 8 gb ram and had been running dual 8500 GTX cards in SLI mode.

Appearently the cards and Starcraft 2 didn't get along well and it blew one card and damaged the other playing it. I'm guessing it was a heat issue but I'm not that savvy on hardware. Whatever those metal cylanders are on the vid cards 5 out of 5 blew up on one card and it dosn't work and 3 out of 5 blew up on the other one and I've decided SC2 isn't a good game to play until i get a new card.

I'd previously looked into upgrading vid cards and tried to GTX 295 but found it was too big to physically fit into my computer. There's a fan and sound card at the front of the PC that kept me from fitting a 11 inch long card in there securely. The GTX 460 has smaller physical dimensions and I think that should fit. I was just curious if you ended up going with the one Gnarnok mentioned and how it's been working out.

[Zouji]

Those metal cylinders are capacitors. Just don't go poking them with your fingers or even more importantly don't poke them with a metal instrument. If they still have a electric charge inside them it could be enough to stop your heart and kill you. That is if you somehow discharge the energy inside the capacitor. Also the capacitors could still have a charge even if you disconnected the cards from the computer.

You should be fine so long as you don't get the urge to poke it to see if it is still alive.

[Vanraw]

To test this you should like the capaciters with your tounge....

[Airyth]

well i'm guessing 8 of the 10 capacitors (5 per card) have discharged any and all electrical charge which is why they exploded.

I'd hear a popping sound every couple hours playing SC2 and didn't know what was making the noise. Opened my case up and my wife's case twice and didn't even notice the blown capacitors. It wasn't until the 5th capacitor on 1 of my vid cards went that the card stopped working and my video went screwy that I actually pulled the vid cards out of the case and saw what had been happening.

[Fretty]

The 460 or 470 are great cards. I'm personally looking into either one of those myself, just wondering if the extra $50 is worth it for the 470 in the long run or if I should just get the 460 SC (overclocked).

[Vanraw]

To test this you should lick the capaciters with your tounge....

Baaa. auto spell correct for the fail. Fixed it. This is clesarly a joke

[Jarbauq]

Fretty here are some numbers to look at for the the cards you are talking about. Again in no way shape or form is this the OMFG GOD LIKE NUMBERS TO TELL ME IM RIGHT. Its more of just a benchmark to see if you think its worth spending the extra coin. Personally I'm going with the GTX460 for an upgrade over my Nvidia 9800GTX

GeForce GTX 580 3,777
GeForce GTX 480 3,534
GeForce GTX 570 3,455
Radeon HD 6950 3,038
Quadro 6000 3,038
GeForce GTX 470 2,965
Radeon HD 6970 2,953
Radeon HD 6870 2,865
Radeon HD 6850 2,693
Radeon HD 5870 2,678
WinFast GTX 460 2,667
Radeon HD 5970 2,581
Tesla C2050 2,517
Quadro 5000 2,512
GeForce GTX 465 2,489
Radeon HD 5850 2,454
GeForce GTX 460 2,330
FirePro V7800 2,315
FirePro V8800 2,289
SKD Radeon 4870 X2 2,125
GeForce GTX 460 SE 2,122

Also here is a link for a deal at Newegg today for a GTX460
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127551&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL011811&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL011811-_-EMC-011811-Index-_-DesktopGraphicsVideoCards-_-14127551-L022D">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 7551-L022D</a><!-- m -->

[Airyth]

FYI your spelling is still off Vanraw

I wasn't going to call the spelling police on you until you replied to correct yourself and left tongue mispelled and then proceeded to misspell clearly correctly.

Have you been drinking this afternoon sir?

[OrsunVZ]

I haven't upgraded cards yet, no. I am going to wait a couple months before I decide what I want to get. but the 460 looks like the direction I'll be leaning. Certainly the price range is right.

[Gnarnok]

Did you end up going with that card or something else and have you been happy with what you got?

I've got the same processor as you, 8 gb ram and had been running dual 8500 GTX cards in SLI mode.

Appearently the cards and Starcraft 2 didn't get along well and it blew one card and damaged the other playing it. I'm guessing it was a heat issue but I'm not that savvy on hardware. Whatever those metal cylanders are on the vid cards 5 out of 5 blew up on one card and it dosn't work and 3 out of 5 blew up on the other one and I've decided SC2 isn't a good game to play until i get a new card.

I'd previously looked into upgrading vid cards and tried to GTX 295 but found it was too big to physically fit into my computer. There's a fan and sound card at the front of the PC that kept me from fitting a 11 inch long card in there securely. The GTX 460 has smaller physical dimensions and I think that should fit. I was just curious if you ended up going with the one Gnarnok mentioned and how it's been working out.

Did you cap your fps during load screens/menus? There was/is? a bug where SC2 didnt limit the frames automatically and it was causing this kind of same damage. You need to add a line to a config file manually to do this.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dailytech.com/Hot+Starcraft+II+is+Frying+Graphics+Cards+Blizzard+Issues+Temporary+Fix/article19224.htm">http://www.dailytech.com/Hot+Starcraft+ ... e19224.htm</a><!-- m -->

[Airyth]

i definately didn't do that and it likely could be what caused it

Thanks for the advice and i'll do that before trying SC2 again

[Jakensama]

Im looking at the 460 as well, is there a preference with manufacturers: i see PNY/Asus/Gigabyte/EVGA/etc..

Looking atthe MSI one.

[Diggles]

Im looking at the 460 as well, is there a preference with manufacturers: i see PNY/Asus/Gigabyte/EVGA/etc..

Looking atthe MSI one.

Asus is definitely #1 on any list.

EVGA & PNY are kinda 'eeh', not great but not bad.

I've never been a fan of gigabyte or msi

[Jarbauq]

I have an MSI card now and its a sick card. I normally stay away from PNY but XFX, EVGA, Asus and MSI are cards I would have no problem buying. Good warranties and normally good reviews.

[OrsunVZ]

By the way I grabbed the EVGA 460, and I am VERY VERY happy with it.

[Kakarat]

My EVGA 260 is still working great. ...it plays most games without overclocking it.

But I overclock it cause I can

[Airyth]

I've got the MSI N460GTX en route. I'll let you know how i like it once it arrives and i've had time to install it and see how things go.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/MSI-N460GTX-OC-Overclocked-Graphics/dp/B003VWW4AI">http://www.amazon.com/MSI-N460GTX-OC-Ov ... B003VWW4AI</a><!-- m -->

[Diggles]

MAKE SURE YOU REGISTER YOUR CARD WITH THE MANUFACTURER WITHIN 30 DAYS, DO IT NOW!

Not doing so = no warranty

[Jarbauq]

Here is a deal on a card for those that still need an upgrade.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.buy.com/prod/evga-01g-p3-1452-tr-nvidia-geforce-gts-450-superclocked-1gb-gddr5/q/loc/101/217185484.html">http://www.buy.com/prod/evga-01g-p3-145 ... 85484.html</a><!-- m -->