Okay, so I picked up a 30" Dell LCD a couple of years ago and an 8800GTX OC from eVGA at the same time. I've been incredibly happy with it, and even that "old" card was able to drive most games at reasonable settings even at that high resolution.
Sadly, my video card just died. I was an idiot and didn't register the card back when I bought it so eVGA won't warrant it past one year. The serial sticker fell off anyway and I have no idea where it is now (they put the sticker directly behind the GPU, so the heat destroys the stickiness over time...no idea who decided that was the way to go).
Bottom line, I needed to buy a new card rather than RMA this one. So, I made another mistake, and instead of asking for opinions on the forums, went with what Anandtech and other articles said. Thought I'd be very happy with a 1GB 4850 X2 from Sapphire.
Dear lord, that thing was loud. My PC went from too quiet to hear over my central air to a jet engine idling a couple feet to my left. A little noise I could deal with, but this was a LOT of noise. In addition, in the games I play, the thing was SLOWER THAN or equal to my two year old 8800GTX, and ran hotter!
Okay, so that was a bad move and that card's going back to Newegg. I've currently fallen back on my 256MB 7800GTX, which is functional but in no way fast. What options are there today that will be at least as fast as a 768MB 8800GTX in games like WoW (you might be surprised how demanding even a 4-5 year old game can be when ran at this high res w/ maxed settings), Aion (Crysis engine), and the like, and NOT sound like a jet engine in my case? I can try to find another 8800GTX somewhere, but after over 2 years I'd expect something new to have come out that's actually better, instead of a rehash. Sadly, everything for the past long while seems to just be rebranded junk. Money is to an extent no object, but excessive noise IS a factor. I've tended to be an nVidia fanboy for ages, and this first attempt at using an ATI/AMD card for years has put a bad taste in my mouth, but I'll give it another try if people can assure me it'll be quiet and powerful. Either way, help me out!
(Rest of my relevant specs: QX9650 running @ 3Ghz, 4GB system memory, X48 chipset mobo that'll support Crossfire but not SLI--though given even a two-core single-card seems too loud, I doubt Xfire/SLI is the way I want to go.)
Sadly, my video card just died. I was an idiot and didn't register the card back when I bought it so eVGA won't warrant it past one year. The serial sticker fell off anyway and I have no idea where it is now (they put the sticker directly behind the GPU, so the heat destroys the stickiness over time...no idea who decided that was the way to go).
Bottom line, I needed to buy a new card rather than RMA this one. So, I made another mistake, and instead of asking for opinions on the forums, went with what Anandtech and other articles said. Thought I'd be very happy with a 1GB 4850 X2 from Sapphire.
Dear lord, that thing was loud. My PC went from too quiet to hear over my central air to a jet engine idling a couple feet to my left. A little noise I could deal with, but this was a LOT of noise. In addition, in the games I play, the thing was SLOWER THAN or equal to my two year old 8800GTX, and ran hotter!
Okay, so that was a bad move and that card's going back to Newegg. I've currently fallen back on my 256MB 7800GTX, which is functional but in no way fast. What options are there today that will be at least as fast as a 768MB 8800GTX in games like WoW (you might be surprised how demanding even a 4-5 year old game can be when ran at this high res w/ maxed settings), Aion (Crysis engine), and the like, and NOT sound like a jet engine in my case? I can try to find another 8800GTX somewhere, but after over 2 years I'd expect something new to have come out that's actually better, instead of a rehash. Sadly, everything for the past long while seems to just be rebranded junk. Money is to an extent no object, but excessive noise IS a factor. I've tended to be an nVidia fanboy for ages, and this first attempt at using an ATI/AMD card for years has put a bad taste in my mouth, but I'll give it another try if people can assure me it'll be quiet and powerful. Either way, help me out!
(Rest of my relevant specs: QX9650 running @ 3Ghz, 4GB system memory, X48 chipset mobo that'll support Crossfire but not SLI--though given even a two-core single-card seems too loud, I doubt Xfire/SLI is the way I want to go.)