9800GT for cheap, or GTX 260?

[trekkie00]

EDIT: Er, yah, typo in thread title. GTX 260.

There's a ShellShocker deal on Newegg for a 9800GT for about $60 after mail in rebate. I've been looking for an upgrade for the graphics card in my desktop (7600GT, ick) and, before I saw this, I was thinking of a GTX 260 for about $160.

I do play on a 1920x1200 resolution monitor, and usually nothing more intense than Half-Life 2 and similar games (although I do have a copy of Crysis I whip out once in awhile).

Would it be worth getting the less powerful card considering its very low price? It doesn't need to have great lasting power - I plan on upgrading my entire desktop sometime next year, most likely. Maybe later if this card works well enough and the CPU doesn't struggle on stuff.

Specs for desktop are in my sig.

 

[Da Viksta]

Re: 9800GT for cheap, or GTX 265?

your CPU may be a bottleneck with the GTX card. do you mean the 275 or 260 cos there is no GTX 265, unless you mean the 216sp version....

id personally advise you stay with the 9800GT....

 

[trekkie00]

Re: 9800GT for cheap, or GTX 265?

Yup, meant GTX 260. Hey, i was 2/3 right with the numbers

EDIT: Okay, so it looks like it doesn't come with a 2-molex-to-PCIE adaptor cable. At $10 for the cable, would it make more sense to just upgrade the (350W Antec) PSU to something cheap with the connector?

 

[hikaricloud]

Fixed the title for you mate.

I would upgrade the PSU either way.

The 9800GT isn't the best card out there, but for 60 bucks, that's not a bad deal. It really comes down to what you want to do. You're running a 7600GT right now, how is that working for you?

With the resolution you play at, I would get a beefier card, personally.

 

[trekkie00]

Thanks for fixing the title.

The 7600GT is working alright, surprisingly. I can't go too crazy with the settings, but when I'm playing Garry's Mod and no one makes a something large I get maybe 30fps, which drops to about 10 if I look at something big. It's even barely passable at Crysis, if I keep the resolution and graphics settings very very low. It's mostly just when the FPS drops to about 10fps that I can't help but think I need a new card.

 

[hikaricloud]

Fair enough. Here's the thing, if you were to get the GTX 260, you would be bottlednecked by your CPU. It may be time to start thinking about upgrading the whole machine, if you have the money. You can reuse your hard drives/optical drives fairly easily, so that will save a a bit over 100 bucks.

But if you are low on funds, you may just want to pick up the 9800GT now, and worry about upgrading everything later.

Personally, I'd think about the full upgrade, if you have the cash. You could always grab the GTX 260 now for your upgrade later this year, that would save you some cash.

 

[Slaymate]

The 9800GT requires a 400 watt power supply and the GTX 260 requires a 500 watt unit. Or that's what Nvidia lists as the minimun requirements.

 

[veg1992]

Its a good card, but it looks like Newegg pulled that card out of their Newegg shell shocker sadly...

But I'd consider upgrading the duration of your rig first anyways

 

[trekkie00]

The 9800GT requires a 400 watt power supply and the GTX 260 requires a 500 watt unit. Or that's what Nvidia lists as the minimun requirements.

Nuts, I was afraid of something like that. I was kinda hoping to just put it in with a molex adapter, but if my PSU isn't capable of handling it, I'm just out of luck.

I'll probably just wait awhile before I do anything then. I kinda need a new computer for a server (games, web, stuff like that) and the cheapest ones I could build are just about as powerful as my desktop now. I have an old laptop I can use temporarily, but was looking to replace it so i could try doing some sort of case mod with it.

So, next summer...maybe summer after that, if the i7 prices haven't dropped...I'd be building an entirely new computer. Guess it does make more sense to just wait with my current card rather than upgrade twice.

Thanks for your help with this.

 

[hikaricloud]

You can still upgrade with a 260, since that could be used in your new build.