Spark wrote:

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

Spark wrote:

Yes, but what about in a year's time or so? That's what I'm worried about.
All you can really do is to avoid bleeding-edge and buy mid-high parts. Then you hope for the best, knowing that Nehalem will make a monkey out of your rig when the time comes that >2-core CPU's really shine in gaming and that you probably won't be able to max out new games within a couple of years.

As for video cards, think about the games you play, look for benchmark results on the cards you're considering, and take a look at driver stability. This is one of the most important parts to not skimp on for longevity. My 6800 Ultra was acquired for a bit of a premium, but it has lasted me a terribly long time.
From what I've heard, ATi is a bit more reliable. This card itself (9600PRO) has performed way beyond my expectations: it could, for a while, run WiC on medium and can run CoD4 smoothly at a low resolution despite not being 'supported'.

So I go with the 4870, yes - is "Sapphire" a good brand?

EDIT: Just reading the post above, retract above statement. Help?

Another thing: I've never overclocked before, just how easy is it to do? How big are the risks?
The 9600 Pro was an instant classic. A year ago, mine had broken down for awhile, but somehow revived itself in about a month, collecting dust on the parts shelf. However, throughout its life I've had off and on issues with some games in ways that never seemed to happen with the 6800 Ultra. Again, your best bet is to look up performance on the games you play and, as suggested above, look for current issues and decide on whether or not you want to hold out for fixes...with either NV or ATI AMD.

As for overclocking, I'm all about longevity, so I always refrain from dabbling if I can run my games at 40+ frames.

Last edited by unnamednewbie13 (2008-09-22 18:23:10)