Upgrade :(

[swedxza]

So.... ummmm..... here in my country the HD 4770 card is about 130$. I am planning to upgrade from 8800GS and i don't know if the cards available with the current cooler are performing well in terms of heat dissipation. I had some problems while playing Prince of Persia 2008..... at some point the game's framerate went below 15 FPS, but only for 1-2 seconds, although this happened quite often ( 2 or 3 times once in a minute). I'm guessing its the card.... I measured the temp using Nvidia System Tools for aprox 30 mins of gameplay and the max temp was 59 degrees Celsius. Is it the VGA card or the PSU? :(( . I have a 45 nm Intel E7300 with Coolermaster Vortex 752 cooler, some 120 mm case cooler and a MSI P45 motherboard with heatpipes (I'm a temperature freak!! =P) and a 500W Raidmax PSU (120mm fan). Anyway.... what should I do? new PSU or new card? or maybe both? =D
Thank You!

[-RK]

59c should be fine.

Is Prince of Persia the only game with the problem?

[swedxza]

Well surpprinsigly yes. In World of Warcraft I had no such problem..... and I run it for hours.... The only problems appear in cities or battlegrrounds.... but I think that's because of the huge number of textures from other players and possibly internet connection. Also I tried Demigod (1280x1024) and still running well, although not very rich textures.... but they should compensate in number.... quite a large number of units. Anyway, thanks for the reply... I'm seriously thinking about an upgrade and it seems 4770 is the best price/performance choice for now. I heard Nvidia also plans to launch GT214 wich will also have GDDR5. Do you know when it will be available?

[-RK]

Ehh, I did some looking, and so far most of the stuff on GT214 looks like BS.

It's really up to you man, the 4770 would be a fair step up from your current card, but personally I'd wait until some of the manufacturers stick aftermarket coolers on them and they get more overclocking support.


If that's the only game you're seeing the problem in then I'd guess it's something in the game itself, not your hardware.

[swedxza]

Thanks a lot mate. It's probably the best to wait until some more efficient coolers will be used for 4770. From what I've seen that card has it all, at least it will be OK for 1, 2 years from now on. At the rate at which technology is developed is really hard to keep up these days :(( I hope HIS will use their IceQ 4 cooler on 4770, or perhaps IceQ 5? :O

[-RK]

Well, I'm thinking that in 1-2 years games will be cropping up using DX11 so it's gonna be time for upgrades anyway at that point.