hogso Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Long-ish story short - the other day my monitor on my PC at home started doing some very funny things. Screen turned mostly green, fuzzy, flickery, black lines and pixelation all over the place. I had recently updated graphics drivers, as I had started gaming on it for the first time in ages. I thought the new drivers might be the problem, but having done a system restore to before the driver update, the problem persits. On 1980x1080 the screen is unusable. I know it's not the monitor, as I also plug my PS3 in there and it works fine. I also plugged my PC into my TV via HDMI and the same thing was happening. Curiously, if I set the resolution to 640x480, it's just about usable, but is still, well, pretty ****. Having done a bit of research online, the likelihood is that my graphics card is on it's last legs. It's old, so it's no real surprise, and I presume that it's the bit of use I got out of it gaming, rather than the driver update, that tipped it over the edge. SO I need a new graphics card. I don't need to go overboard and buy a card that will play the latest on ultra or anything like that, and was hoping to spend ~£100. The think I have found the best solution in this GTX 650Ti which is £102 on there, and is actually slightly better than my old card. My question is, quite simply, does anyone have any better alternatives for around the same price, or know where I could pick it up cheaper? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Posted April 3, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted April 3, 2013 Well, if I'm looking to buy a graphics card I generally look here and they seem to agree with your choice. Anyway, a slightly cheaper version is here which has the added bonus of not coming from amazon. And you get a free download of AC3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrenm Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Yeah I'd definitely go eBuyer. What's your old graphics card? A 650Ti is above what most people would need. I've just bought this: http://www.ebuyer.com/396969-gigabyte-gtx-650-1gb-gddr5-vga-dual-dvi-hdmi-pci-e-graphics-card-gv-n650oc-1gi but I need to upgrade my CPU, mainboard and memory to take full advantage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hogso Posted April 4, 2013 Author Share Posted April 4, 2013 (edited) My old graphics card is a 8800 GTX, which was released 6 years ago, I've had it for about 4. I could do with a new one, regardless of whether it works or not, really. I've had a further look at the 600 series, and am tempted by the GTX 660 now. It is more or less 50%+ better for the same increase in price when compared to the GTX650Ti, so I might go with that for a bit of an increase in performance. I've entertained the idea of getting Skyrim on PC at some point, and I'm sure it'd look swell on that card. The difference in performance between my old card and that one is pretty obscene. A question for anyone more experienced with graphics cards - should I be particularly wary of the cheaper versions of these cards? Is it safe to assume the build quality will be worse, and therefore it's better to spend an extra 20 or so quid on a card with the same spec? Or does it not matter? Is there something I'm not clocking in the specs aswell, like do some come ready overclocked or something? Cos the GTX660 on ebuyer ranges in price from ~£150 to ~£250 Edited April 4, 2013 by hogso Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hogso Posted April 5, 2013 Author Share Posted April 5, 2013 Bought this MSI build GTX660 card today, should have it monday. So, I spent a little more than I originally planned to. OK, so, quite a bit more. Like, 50% more, I guess. But ah well. I will be a happy chappy when it's running Skyrim to a nice spec Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Posted April 5, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted April 5, 2013 Noice. Don't want to get your hopes up but ebuyer have a habit of delivering really quickly. Might be worth being in tomorrow morning... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hogso Posted April 6, 2013 Author Share Posted April 6, 2013 Good call Anthony, just had a text from them with the Hermes tracking number, telling me it's out for delivery now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hogso Posted April 7, 2013 Author Share Posted April 7, 2013 It was delivered yesterday morning, but I went to the football, so our only got to grips with it this morning. What better way to spend to spend a Sunday morning than fiddling with a computer? Hmm yeh. So it's up and running now, tried a few things that my old card struggled with, and it's running them with ease. The difference is incredible. Looks like the next steam sale is going to be an expensive time for me... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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