Ahh Decisions decisions... help please!

ZuntarZuntar North Carolina Icrontian
edited March 2010 in Hardware
Classic issue here my friends!
I have been gearing myself up to update my main rig this fall (assuming the next generation of processors would be out), when I start to have issues with the one part of my rig to which i was not going to update just yet....

My 8800GTS is dying. By that I mean my fan died two weeks ago causing it to overheat and display nothing but a back lite blank screen. I took it apart and cleaned up the fan, lightly oiled the bearing on the fan and all seemed well......till Sunday night.

I an getting stuttering occasionally during games. The fancier the graphics the worse it gets.

I am inclined to say time for an upgrade, but I am not sure which makes the most sense. Maybe I should just bake it and hope!:eek2:

If I move on and upgrade, then I am inclined to lean towards the ATI side of the field for the first time. Maybe a 5000 series card, but my motherboard only has a PCIExpress 1.0 slot. Are the cards backward compatible? (a 2.1 card in a 1.0 slot) I will be updateing my rig later this fall most likely, so get a good card now????? crap, i just don't know:wtf:

What my friends at Icrontic, would you do?:confused:

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    PCI Express cards are compatible with all PCI Express slots.

    That said, you're sort of in a pickle. You clearly have to buy now, but both companies will be releasing refreshed GPUs in the fall that are faster than the ones they have now.

    Since your card is quite literally dying, it sounds like there's a Radeon 5(8/7)00 in your near future.
  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    Baking?
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    Zuntar wrote:
    Classic issue here my friends!
    I have been gearing myself up to update my main rig this fall (assuming the next generation of processors would be out), when I start to have issues with the one part of my rig to which i was not going to update just yet....

    My 8800GTS is dying. By that I mean my fan died two weeks ago causing it to overheat and display nothing but a back lite blank screen. I took it apart and cleaned up the fan, lightly oiled the bearing on the fan and all seemed well......till Sunday night.

    I an getting stuttering occasionally during games. The fancier the graphics the worse it gets.

    I am inclined to say time for an upgrade, but I am not sure which makes the most sense. Maybe I should just bake it and hope!:eek2:

    If I move on and upgrade, then I am inclined to lean towards the ATI side of the field for the first time. Maybe a 5000 series card, but my motherboard only has a PCIExpress 1.0 slot. Are the cards backward compatible? (a 2.1 card in a 1.0 slot) I will be updateing my rig later this fall most likely, so get a good card now????? crap, i just don't know:wtf:

    What my friends at Icrontic, would you do?:confused:

    I thought the 8800 GT was predominately PCIE 2.0? The 2.0 and 2.1 cards will be backwards compatible with a 1.0 spec slot, just at a limited bandwidth.

    I would encourage you to buy as much graphics card as you think you will want to take with you to your future build. If your powering a 8800 GT now, no reason why you could not consider 58xx series graphics.
  • ZuntarZuntar North Carolina Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    Thrax wrote:
    ....... both companies will be releasing refreshed GPUs in the fall that are faster than the ones they have now.

    true, but when arn't they going to be releasing refreshed GPU's?
    ;D

    Should I care about PCI Express 2.1 V.S. PCI Express 2.0? I am looking at the 5850s FWIW
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited March 2010
    Not really, no.
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