How does Ultra Mode look like on a higher end card?

As to how Ultra Mode looks, check one of the sticky threads: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=219534

As to the graphics card I hope you meant to type GTX 460 since a GTS 240 would be a downgrade, and a GTX 280 is hammered by both the GTX 460 and the RadeonHD 5830, both which cost around the $200 mark... significantly less than what the GTX 280 would have cost before it was pulled from the market. You'll only find GTX 280's on the used market, but they tend to actually be fairly cheap for two reasons:

• A: Nvidia end-of-lifed them. There's no more left on the direct retail market.
• B: They draw massive amounts of wattage for lower performance than equivalent cards from AMD.

Now, I've got several posts on these forums detailing why gamers shouldn't be looking at Nvidia cards right now, ranging from shoddy build quality and outright lies to ODM's and OEM's resulting in class action lawsuits, to the sheer expense and power draw of the current high-end cards.

There's also the most recent Nvidia controversy, with one of the few good board partners (XFX) being kicked to the curb, and the BFG scandal. If you didn't hear about the BFG scandal, here's the short synopsis.

BFG used to be one of Nvidia's major board partners, and was considered one of the Top-Tier Nvidia vendors. As Nvidia ramped up to the launch of Fermi graphics cards (GTX 480 / GTX 470) Nvidia declined to provide BFG with Fermi chip allocations. Since BFG couldn't build Fermi graphics cards, BFG lost contracts with major retailers, specifically Best Buy. The resulting loss of a sales channel and a entire line-up of graphics cards drove BFG into bankruptcy.

Now, this month, it's come to light that Nvidia is now directly selling graphics cards built by FoxConn through Best Buy. Evidence has also come to light that Nvidia may have deliberately declined to provide BFG with Fermi chip allocation specifically with the aim of taking over the direct retail channels used by BFG, and that Nvidia may have locked other vendors out of the Best Buy sales channel.

If you are thinking that such actions are illegal and against existing anti-trust legislation, you would be right. Now whether or not that scenario is provable within a Court System really depends on whether or not Nvidia is able to survive their other legal troubles.

If you are also thinking that this has Nvidia's other partners scared that they'll be next on Nvidia's hit-list, you'd also be right there too.

Attempting to ignore the completely unpleasant situation that is Nvidia the Company, there are also the Nvidia products. The only graphics card that really makes sense in terms of financial price, power consumption, and performance in the Nvidia line-up right now is the GTX 460. In 2x SLI mode the GTX 460 can keep up with RadeonHD cards released 10months prior. It single card mode though, the large-memory spec GTX 460 only barely outdoes a filler card designed to clear out AMD's binned chips.

That's not a good thing mind you, at least not from an investors standpoint when a brand new chip respin has trouble keeping up with the competitions binned for not meeting original QA standards product. It was a great thing for consumers since the GTX 460 did manage to push AMD to lower prices on the RadeonHD 5x00 series cards.


Now, if you want to buy an Nvidia card, and you don't care about the companies behavior or how bad their product line is right now, and you just have to have that Nvidia badge on your graphics card, the EVGA GTX 460 1gb is your best purchase. It's going to give you a world of performance difference over your existing 9800, and will be capable of pushing Ultra Mode at 1920*1200 with everything but Ambient Occlusion maxed out.

If you don't absolutely have to absolutely have an Nvidia badge on your graphics card, I'd honestly wait for November.

Thing is AMD is trying to launch their next generation chipset, the RadeonHD 6000 series. We don't know much about the cards yet, just rumors. We do know that the price points of various current AMD graphics cards will likely drop on the launch of the RadeonHD 6870 and 6850. One of the reports states the 5830 will be phased out completely, and that the the 5850 will be dropped closer to the $200 mark from the possible $240 one can be had right now.

AMD would like an October launch, but if TMSC is running into production problems (again) that will produce chip delays and shortages. Right now neither Global Foundaries or UMC are reportedly in a condition to handle producing RadeonHD 6x00 chips... UMC because their tech is reportedly behind TMSC's, and Global Foundaries because they are busy with Bobcat and Bulldozer.

Anyways, right now, bang for buck, the RadeonHD 5850's $240 price point is hard to ignore.

If you don't want to spend that much, the RadeonHD 5770 will give you a decent boost in performance over a 9800, and you can have one for around $120 if you shop the mail-in rebates.