Upgrade to GTS250 1GB

Hey guys, I am currently helping my friend upgrade his computer. He just bought a GTS250 1GB from his friend for $50, but we just realized that it would block all but 1 SATA port. I offered to trade my 9800gt for his GTS250 1GB. He said ok, but he wants an additional $20 for it. Is it worth paying $20 extra to upgrade to the GTS250? Thanks in advanced.

Update: Added poll in the post.

kurahk7 said:

Hey guys, I am currently helping my friend upgrade his computer. He just bought a GTS250 1GB from his friend for $50, but we just realized that it would block all but 1 SATA port. I offered to trade my 9800gt for his GTS250 1GB. He said ok, but he wants an additional $20 for it. Is it worth paying $20 extra to upgrade to the GTS250? Thanks in advanced.

Keep the GTS250 for your Phys X card and buy a new one for the main graphic card.

C32C3 said:

Buying a used graphics card is very risky because you have no idea how much useful "life" it has in it. If it dies on you or begins to give you problems soon after you've purchased it you cannot return it for a refund.

That being said, I have a Geforce 9800GT in my backup computer. I purchased it three years ago and although its still serving me well I will upgrade it this summer when the sales are on.

I found this link for you which I think might help you in your decision

NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250: A Rebadged 9800 GTX+ - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

The 1GB GTS250 is definitely an upgrade from your 512MB Geforce 9800GT. However, buying a new card is better.

Hey, thanks for replying, you're right about the useful life of the graphics card. If I do have problems, there would be no warranty for me for the GTS250 while my 9800gt has about 1 or 2 more years of warranty left. The link that you posted doesn't show the difference between a 9800gt and a gts250, but based on specs, I know that my 9800gt has 112 shaders compared to the gts250's 128. That would yield a ~15% performance increase, so $20 is an ok deal, but the thing that is pulling me back is that I am currently using the gts250 and the max temps are quite high compared to my 9800gt (90C vs 60C) and the gts250 only has 2 dvi ports and a s video, while mine has a dvi, vga, and hdmi port.

Crispy said:

kurahk7 said:

Hey guys, I am currently helping my friend upgrade his computer. He just bought a GTS250 1GB from his friend for $50, but we just realized that it would block all but 1 SATA port. I offered to trade my 9800gt for his GTS250 1GB. He said ok, but he wants an additional $20 for it. Is it worth paying $20 extra to upgrade to the GTS250? Thanks in advanced.

Keep the GTS250 for your Phys X card and buy a new one for the main graphic card.

I am not planning on buying another video card anytime soon, that's why I am wondering if it is worth the $20 to trade up to a GTS250 1gb from a 9800gt 512mb.

Can those that vote in the poll please defend your positions please. Thanks

C32C3 said:

I really don't mean to offend so please forgive me if I do but I am surprised that you are polling on this issue.

Well, apparently I got more people voting in the poll than replies, but I have decided against trading and paying $20 for the GTS250 since I just increased the volt on my 9800gt to 1.2v and overclocked it to the same clock speeds as the GTS250, which provides about the same performance.