Thoughts on gfxcard-upgrade (nVidia = no thx)

[Zyn]

Right, so ... I've been thinking to retire my near 3 year old nVidia 8800GTS 320mb card, as it seems to be the bottleneck of my system. On top of that, I keep getting this delicious nVidia-related error every now and then, sometimes several times a day:

The driver nv4_disp for the display device \Device\Video0 got stuck in an infinite loop. This usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Please check with your hardware device vendor for any driver updates.

Took years for this error to start popping up, and many suspect it's something with the drivers in the last 6 months, or the card itself breaking down. And when this error happens, my entire system freezes. Only way to fix: Push the RESET-button.

Since I am not exactly rich, living of welfare like half this country, I've been looking at cheap cards that still have great performance. So what I got is just a maximum of 1500 SEK (€146 / $215 ) to spend, and since I've been out of the loop of computer hardware for a long time, can you please recommend what card I should purchase? Particularly ATI-cards, as I've had enough with these infinite loop bullshit freezes from nVidia.

[Zirconium Blade]

Running an XFX ATI HD 4890 and love it to bits.

[Zyn]

Yeah I've been looking the the ATI 4850/70/90 models, and probably picking the ATI 4870 1GB DDR5 model, as it's just within my price-range. Looking around, the 4850 seems to be the best card on the market at the moment when it comes to perfomance and price ratio. However, since I want a bit more juice, I see recommendations for the 4870, as it's up to 25% better (not always obviously) but 50% more expensive.

But the thing is I'm on an Antec 450W PSU (I think I am :/ ), and by AMD's own system requirements, the 4870 require 500W. But I guess their numbers are like up to 50W-100W more than the required minimum.

[Shade-of-Grey]

i know u dont want nvidia but you cn get a geforce 260 by evga (great company) for 159$ on newegg right now. that's pretty much a steal.

[Zyn]

i know u dont want nvidia but you cn get a geforce 260 by evga (great company) for 159$ on newegg right now. that's pretty much a steal.

Here's a problem: I live in Sweden.

[Maxey]

Does newegg ship to Europe? Besides, the shipping tax would put a few more dozen euros onto that price.

[Zyn]

From their site:

Does Newegg.com ship internationally?

Newegg.com does not currently ship internationally; we only deliver to locations within the United States and to Puerto Rico.

[Maxey]

sog is oblivious like that. He probably only learned today that you're Swedish.

[Rob]

I'm more than satisfied with my GTX 275. Yes, it's nVidia.

[Shade-of-Grey]

naw i knew he was a swede i just forgot about shipping