Upgrading my graphics card

I currently have an 8800GTS 320mb and was looking to upgrade. Looking around at various websites i managed to pull up these cards for around my price range. I have a 500W power supply will that be enough for these cards?

4870 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=GX-188-SP
or GTX 260 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=GX-104-GW

4890 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=GX-195-AS
or GTX 275 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=GX-116-OK

Suggestions and comments would be much appreciated.

Whether your current power supply will be enough or not depends on what else you ahve in your system and on what power supply you have... all PSUs are NOT created equally. Also, many of the higher end video cards on the market now will require 2 or more 6-8 Pin connectors - does your power supply have that?

Yeah I have three 6 pin connects so thats not a problem. Do those cards use much more power than an 8800 does?

The Radeons will almost certainly be too much for your 500W supply. I can't speak on the nVidia's as I haven't any personal experience. But my 450W supply couldn't handle a Radeon upgrade and given that the symptom is your PC shutting down mid-game then you'd really be way better off spending a few bucks on a new PSU.

I went up to 650W and the machine runs like a dream.

If you ever intend going for X-fire or SLI then maybe consider a wee bit more now and save the hassle of replacing the PSU again later.

a 500W PSU can handle the 4890. in fact, even the 4890 box stats that it requires a 500W PSU, and those numbers are usually inflated.

all in all, as long as you can get a combined 32A on your 12V rail, it should be sufficient.

Alternatively, don't believe what's written on the box and try it first hand.

If you believe that your PSU is all it's cracked up to be, slip in a 47xx or 48xx, throw a copy of World in Conflict into the DVD and wait to see if you're machine browns out.

More than likely, you'll be cursing the guy who wrote the box slip cover!

i've done so, and my system didn't brown out. in fact, a full core 2 duo system, with a HD4850, will need only 270W. remember, the 4800 series are manufactured on a much smaller die process than the old G80 cores used in the original 8800GTX/GTS/Ultra, and are therefore much more power efficient.

keep in mind, that the PSU requirement on the boxes are INFLATED, just to make sure people with poor quality PSUs can still use the cards.

So is the 4770 - smaller die process - but while my 450W PSU could cope with "normal" operation, as soon as anything stressed the GPU - WiC is a really good stressor! - it was buh-bye volts!

Guess you just have to suck it and see.

Often people seem to just look at the Total Max Watts for a PSU and not look further than that. Just because a PSU says 500watts or whatever doesn't mean it's as good as the next 500watt PSU. In the case of PSUs, you nearly always get what you pay for - don't try to cut costs here or buy off brands. You will have better system stability with multiple +12V rails and 18amps or more on each is a must. That may be slight overload, but imo it's assuredly worth it. Buy name brands, and ACTIVE PFC or Continuous is a big plus towards your overall system stability. In many ways it's the most important part in your computer, just not the most showy or noticeable to the avg. person.

But what do people think nvidia or ati?

I'll plonk my butt squarely on the fence and say "take your pick."

I'd get a GTX 260, that's what I plan to upgrade to from my 320mb 8800GTS. If I went for a GTX 275 I'd just go buy a 285 instead.

i have GTX 260 and i havent looked back, if your going for the 275 you might as well save a bit and go for the 285. as for power, there are many things to consider, how many things your running( peripherals, HDDs etc), how many Watts, how many Rails and how many Amps in each rail etc.

right now im liking ati but anyday now it could be nvidia if you want a better opinion look at some articles on different tech websites

nvidia or ati? honestly, the choice of upgrade depends on what you already have. if you already have nvidia, go with nvidia. same for ati. the two are so close right now in terms of pure performance, performance/dollar, performance/watt, that its a complete coin toss. going with what company you're already using will simplify driver installations, since both use unified drivers for all their products (unless of course, your current card is REALLY old).

as for power consumptions, take a look at this:

http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/16681/11

a complete system with a 4890 draws 309W from the wall socket at full load. and that was with a core i7 965EE to boot. assuming 80% efficiency, that means the full system is using only 247.2W. and just in case i'm not being clear enough: this is a full system. a quality 500W PSU can easily do this.

If planning to overclock, I would say get a 260 core 216. If not, get the 4870.
I dont think the 4890 is really worth it compared to the 4870/260, but I got the 275 instead of the 285, and love it.

Well I decided to go with the 260/216 card as it was a good price and free delivery from Novatech. Should hopefully arrive within a few days

No, cancel that order while you can. 275 costs almost the same money as 260/216 but has so much better scores over 3D marks and FPS performance well between 280 and 285. 260/216 is a much slower card, you will regret it if you get it. As for ATI, they are not worth your money. In my local stores 4890 is 20% more expensive than GTX 275 but it's still noticeably worse in performance when it comes to games. If you chip in a bit more money then get 285 instead and overclock it. It has quite good heat sink and better OC limits than 275, which seems high-clocked by default.

Agreed. Motherboard is most important piece of PC just after the PSU. Everything else just comes on the top of it. You can't build a solid house on a sand, you need a rock as a fundament.

The 275 costs nearly an extra £50 over the 260 which is quite a bit.

more like 42 pounds going by the links the OP gave... but in any case the 260 is a fine card, so is the 275, but it really depends on your budget, either one is fine for current games, and even the 260 should be ok for a couple years at standard resolutions.