upgrade from an x1950 pro?

[Mayor McCheese]

Thinking about buying a new video card.
I just got an e2180 and have it @ 2.7ghz and my performance in ut3 just about doubled. Cod4 got a little better, but bioshock didn't improve at all. So it got me thinking that maybe the x1950 pro I have was bottlenecked by bioshock.


with the drop in price of the 3870's and the debut of the 9600 gt I'm seeing some prices that I like. I'm open to any suggestion, even the 8800 512 gts looks good. But what I want to know is what card would be the best bang for the buck, but still be a great improvement over the x1950 pro I have now? Or would it be better to wait for a price cut or for a new card coming out?


bioshock fps (40-50) (max qual @ 1280x1024)
cod4 fps (20-40 max qual @ 1280x1024 4x aa)
ut3 fps (40-60 high settings @1280x1024)

 

[imported_Scoop]

Even the HD 3850 gives you a noticable improvement in performance and of course 3870/9600GT would be the next step, 8800GT after that and if you have the money 8800GTS. Though if you're thinking about the GTS 512 I would advice to wait a couple months for the new Nvidia 9-series cards.

 

[error8]

In my opinion the 8800 GTS 512 is to expensive for the performance that it delivers. I guess you could buy the 8800 GT, which is marginally slower then the GTS or the ATI 3870. This ATI is a great card since its price dropped, and it also has direct X 10.1 support. The 9600 GT is still a viable option if you can get it cheap enough. People on this forum will advise you to buy the 9600 GT since your gaming resolution is quite low, but if you have the money I would say to get one of those other two, maybe for the next generation games that are to be launched.