Let's talk Grahics for a moment please.

First, I'll give ya the basic specs of my main machine...

AMD 9850 quad-core Proc. 2.5 ghz
4 gig ram
M4a785_m Motherboard.
Win 7 64 bit Ultimate.
And I'm running a 650 watt PS.

Very cheap PC that I use for 5 accounts. I do use other pc's for when I go past that limit.

Anyways, Here is my conundrum. I have on it an ATI Radeon 4350 , that I have been thinking long and hard about replacing. If nothing else it would be an upgrade to one of my older slave machines. (I have two, and both can run three instances of wow.

I normally use 2 monitors on my main PC, and then one monitor on my slaves. It just works fine, so I don't at this time need any fancy 6 monitors off of one card dealio.

So, my question is, and given limits on a budget, What should I look for as an upgrade. ( I do know I should upgrade my system memory, but that is for another day all together.)

For example, What kind of card should I look at for under $100.00 ?

How about if my wife relents and let's me spend $200.00?

are top of the line cards still in the $500.00 Plus stage?

Any help would be fantastic, and I do not have a preference between Nvidia or ATI at this time.

Thanks ahead of time Team DB,

Stephen

A couple of things to average. Don't take one as the most important thing, take them all and average them to find out what is important to you.

Get the most you can afford. You won't want to replace your card again in 3-6 months. Also, you pretty much won't be able to use them together unless you get the EXACT same card. And on top of that, WOW doesn't really care about dual cards. I picked a price range that sounded good to me and then looked for a card that fit into it.

Watch for other things you didn't think of. Heat, noise, reliability, power. Some things are worse than others and even if you get the graphics horsepower you want, you might have to upgrade or worry about something else.

This is just me, but go with what you like. I will get flamed for this, but I hate ATI's drivers. Don't like the install, don't like that it feels wonky and don't like where it puts stuff to adjust settings. So I pretty much stick with Nvidia. If you like one brand over another (MSI, EVGA, ASUS, etc) I would stick with it.

Just for history. I started out with a Nvidia 7600, then 8800, then moved up to a 260. I really like it. My next move would be a 470, but everyone says it is HOT and takes a small nuclear plant just for it.

I use Tom's hardware for 80% of my info, along with Engaget and HotHardware.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...-480,2621.html
Hope that helps and good luck.

Thanks Much Electron, that is exactly the kind of Advice, that I appreciate, and need.

Power is my main concern out of those that you listed, as I have great cooling on my system. Add to that, I don't believe the mother board can do much with Crossfire/SLI, And had never really intended to get into that part of the process.

IIRC, It had some kind of odd psuedo Crossfire, that would only work with low level cards, and the on board Video.

Once again, Thanks, and I'll give that site a look see, along with viewing the 260 and 470.

As a side note, decades ago, I went with Nvidia after Voodoo closed out. I still have a voodoo 3 64 mb card on a way old system, that still runs at a staggering 120 mhz. I only changed to ATI awhile back, cause the 4350 was on sale.

Stephen

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ElectronDF

Get the most you can afford. You won't want to replace your card again in 3-6 months. Also, you pretty much won't be able to use them together unless you get the EXACT same card. .

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Unless this is an above mentioned card or motherboard specific issue that i'm not aware of, this is not correct. You don't need exactly the same card to make use of more than 1 video card in your system.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ElectronDF

And on top of that, WOW doesn't really care about dual cards. I picked a price range that sounded good to me and then looked for a card that fit into it.
.

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If he is a isboxer user, than (from what i've read on this site) one can specify which gpu a wow client should use.

@ OP Two video cards does not mean sli or crossfire btw.

I'm with ElectronDF though. Noise, heat, etc are for me very important factors to take into account.

Myself i won't upgrade my system before i know the exact cata requirements and see some test results cq read some player experiences.

just a bit from my shopping around. I was looking for a 260, but they are getting hard to find. I think I will go for a 250, which seems to run as good or better than a 260 from what it says at Tom's Hardware. Seen them at $130 price point for a good brand.

Hmm, I'm kinda torn now, I do like the 250 myself, But I did find a HIS PCIe1 express card that was also a Radeon 4350.

now the one I have is a MSI PCIE 2 x16 , and I have that extra slot.

Both cards say they are crossfire ready, But Do I understand correctly, that they don't have to be by the same manufacturer, as long as they are both 4350's?

I ask cause I do use ISboxer also on occasion now.

Stephen

I wouldn't touch a HIS card again. I don't know about the other company, but they give themselves a month to process RMAs. The fan on my HIS card died and I had to buy a regular case fan and use zip ties to strap it on top of the heatsink/fan to keep it going.

I agree, all these johnny come when ever companies always do things like that. Give me a name I know for several years. The other are no more then re-branders.