What Would Be A Good Upgrade?

I wrote out the whole story, I dono why but if you wanna skip to the main point my question is at the bottom.

Just for the record here are my system specs:

Case: Thermaltake M9 VI1000BWS Mid-Tower

CPU: (Quad-Core) Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 @ 3.00GHz 1333FSB 12MB L2 Cache 64-bit

CD: LG 20X DVD R/RW + CD-R/RW Drive Dual Layer

CD2: 16X DVD Rom

FlashMedia: Internal 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer

Fan: Thermaltake V1 CPU Cooler

HDD: Raid-0 10,000 RPM 2 WD Velociraptor's

Motherboard:Asus Striker II Formula nForce 780i SLI Mainboard

Memory: 8G Corsair Dominator DDR2

Network: Intel Pro gigabite 10/100/1000 Network Card

PowerSupply:1,000 Watts Power Supply Thermaltake Tough Power

Sound: Creative Labs X-FI XtremeGamer 24-Bit PCI Sound Card

Display: Silverstone eudemon sst-fp52 LCD Display (This thing blows)

Video: Nvidia 9800 GX2 1GB 16x PCI Express

I completed my first year of college, for the most part, and I took this to school with me so that I could have something to write my papers since my Hp Laptop did not arrive till a month after school started. They did not connect the hard drive so I had to send it back for another 2 weeks. Later I realized I hated this laptop but there was not much I could do since I had already ordered a replacement. When I got back this summer I was going to sell my comp since I used it for gaming and the only gaming i did was on Xbox.

Long story short its been on Craigslist for months, I dono what its worth at this point and I'm sick of receiving $400 offers for it so I figured I'd upgrade the graphics card and keep it.

I want to use it mainly for graphic design now and there are so many new cards out I thought it would be a ncie upgrade for it. the 9800 GX2 that is in it now produces a significant amount of heat and taked up a large portion of the case since it is a mid-tower.

Are there any better, affordable, and possibly smaller graphics cards on the market right now?

Current: EVGA Nvidia 9800 GX2 1GB 16x PCI Express

Comments and opinions would be good.

Thanks in advance.
-Lollies

Lollies said:

I wrote out the whole story, I dono why but if you wanna skip to the main point my question is at the bottom.

Just for the record here are my system specs:

Case: Thermaltake M9 VI1000BWS Mid-Tower

CPU: (Quad-Core) Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 @ 3.00GHz 1333FSB 12MB L2 Cache 64-bit

CD: LG 20X DVD R/RW + CD-R/RW Drive Dual Layer

CD2: 16X DVD Rom

FlashMedia: Internal 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer

Fan: Thermaltake V1 CPU Cooler

HDD: Raid-0 10,000 RPM 2 WD Velociraptor's

Motherboard:Asus Striker II Formula nForce 780i SLI Mainboard

Memory: 8G Corsair Dominator DDR2

Network: Intel Pro gigabite 10/100/1000 Network Card

PowerSupply:1,000 Watts Power Supply Thermaltake Tough Power

Sound: Creative Labs X-FI XtremeGamer 24-Bit PCI Sound Card

Display: Silverstone eudemon sst-fp52 LCD Display (This thing blows)

Video: Nvidia 9800 GX2 1GB 16x PCI Express

I completed my first year of college, for the most part, and I took this to school with me so that I could have something to write my papers since my Hp Laptop did not arrive till a month after school started. They did not connect the hard drive so I had to send it back for another 2 weeks. Later I realized I hated this laptop but there was not much I could do since I had already ordered a replacement. When I got back this summer I was going to sell my comp since I used it for gaming and the only gaming i did was on Xbox.

Long story short its been on Craigslist for months, I dono what its worth at this point and I'm sick of receiving $400 offers for it so I figured I'd upgrade the graphics card and keep it.

I want to use it mainly for graphic design now and there are so many new cards out I thought it would be a ncie upgrade for it. the 9800 GX2 that is in it now produces a significant amount of heat and taked up a large portion of the case since it is a mid-tower.

Are there any better, affordable, and possibly smaller graphics cards on the market right now?

Current: EVGA Nvidia 9800 GX2 1GB 16x PCI Express

Comments and opinions would be good.

Thanks in advance.
-Lollies

Well, since you have an Nvidia SLI board, the best suggestion would to head the Nvidia way so you can SLI later on. The Nvidia GTX460 is a worthy card for the price, there are 2 versions of it one with 1GB and one with 768MB, the 1GB has a wider memory bandwidth, so slightly better performance. Bench - GPU - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News
That's the comparision between the two GTX460.

Lemur said:

Good recommendation by Kurahk. I have an Asus SLI Mobo, myself. Did you mention how much you want to spend? Affordable means different things to different people.

I should have been more specific about that, I dropped the money for the 9800 GX2 when it was out so I'd do it again as long as it was worth it in comparison to the other components in my comp. The one thing i don't like about the GX2 is that it sits right about the hard-drives so it blocks some of the air flow since the case is only a mid-tower. How the changed in size compared to the 9800 at all?

Lollies said:

Lemur said:

Good recommendation by Kurahk. I have an Asus SLI Mobo, myself. Did you mention how much you want to spend? Affordable means different things to different people.

I should have been more specific about that, I dropped the money for the 9800 GX2 when it was out so I'd do it again as long as it was worth it in comparison to the other components in my comp. The one thing i don't like about the GX2 is that it sits right about the hard-drives so it blocks some of the air flow since the case is only a mid-tower. How the changed in size compared to the 9800 at all?

Tell us your budget and we'll tell you what card suits you best (size, performance, etc).

SlackerITGuy said:

Lollies said:

Lemur said:

Good recommendation by Kurahk. I have an Asus SLI Mobo, myself. Did you mention how much you want to spend? Affordable means different things to different people.

I should have been more specific about that, I dropped the money for the 9800 GX2 when it was out so I'd do it again as long as it was worth it in comparison to the other components in my comp. The one thing i don't like about the GX2 is that it sits right about the hard-drives so it blocks some of the air flow since the case is only a mid-tower. How the changed in size compared to the 9800 at all?

Tell us your budget and we'll tell you what card suits you best (size, performance, etc).

500

thefabe said:

XFX has a single slot 5770 with DX 11, 2x DVI, 1 mini Display port and a 1gb of DDR5. Which would hep illuminate your hard drive air flow problem. Newegg.com - XFX HD-577X-ZMF3 Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

You could also for the $500 get 2 Nvidia Evga GTX460 superclcoked cards. But then your going to really decrease your air flow and the cards are long Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1373-TR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) Superclocked EE 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Or you could just buy the GTX 480 Superclocked Newegg.com - EVGA 015-P3-1482-AR GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) SuperClocked 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

You have penty of power for either but you'll still have your air flow problem. Fabe

Yeah I like a ton of those options, having a Mid-tower just adds some significant restrictions. I could fit another card in but then I dono if there would be room for the eSATA port I have for my External enclosure and sound card etc...

Its hard to compare from a picture but I'm assuming size has not changed much compared to the 9800 GX2?

I was looking at the GTX 480 before you mentioned it but I like it even more now that you mentioned it. I don't have significant air flow "problems" but the variable speed fans are always running at 1700rpm vs 1300rpm so I'm just assuming it needs the additional cooling 9But again that is assuming that it is set-up properly with the display). Plus the CPU fan, Thermaltake V1 is oriented so that it blows up into the power supply. But again a lot of this is just assumption on my part.

Maybe swapping out to a High tower would be beneficial in the long run if I ever did decide to SLI.

Lollies said:

SlackerITGuy said:

Lollies said:

I should have been more specific about that, I dropped the money for the 9800 GX2 when it was out so I'd do it again as long as it was worth it in comparison to the other components in my comp. The one thing i don't like about the GX2 is that it sits right about the hard-drives so it blocks some of the air flow since the case is only a mid-tower. How the changed in size compared to the 9800 at all?

Tell us your budget and we'll tell you what card suits you best (size, performance, etc).

500

Well, since the 9800 GX2 is a fairly beefy card (probably the same size as a high end GTX 200 series card), you should have no problems going with either a GTX 470 or GTX 480.

I'd recommend going for a GTX 470, since there are no GTX 480s with custom/aftermarket coolers within your budget IIRC, and trust me, you'd like a GTX 470/480 series card with a custom cooler (both cards can get up to ~100 Celsius with the reference one).

Here's a few I've been keeping an eye on (I'm looking to upgrade to a GTX 470 fairly soon):

Newegg.com - MSI N470GTX Twin Frozr II GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Newegg.com - Palit NE5TX470F10DA GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card (my favorite one as of yet)

Newegg.com - ZOTAC AMP! ZT-40202-10P GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE Super Overclock Series GV-N470SO-13I GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

SlackerITGuy said:

Lollies said:

SlackerITGuy said:

Tell us your budget and we'll tell you what card suits you best (size, performance, etc).

500

Well, since the 9800 GX2 is a fairly beefy card (probably the same size as a high end GTX 200 series card), you should have no problems going with either a GTX 470 or GTX 480.

I'd recommend going for a GTX 470, since there are no GTX 480s with custom/aftermarket coolers within your budget IIRC, and trust me, you'd like a GTX 470/480 series card with a custom cooler (both cards can get up to ~100 Celsius with the reference one).

Here's a few I've been keeping an eye on (I'm looking to upgrade to a GTX 470 fairly soon):

Newegg.com - MSI N470GTX Twin Frozr II GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Newegg.com - Palit NE5TX470F10DA GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card (my favorite one as of yet)

Newegg.com - ZOTAC AMP! ZT-40202-10P GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE Super Overclock Series GV-N470SO-13I GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

I've always stuck with EVGA, Asus, and LG. I've never used anything made by any of those brands, do they generally make pretty good stuff?