New GPU Required

Sorry to bring up an old post but figured there was no point starting a new one.

I'm back... with the 2nd dead 280 in 12 months so I need a new card, and preferably not a 280.. Always been with Nvidia up till now but I have no problems with changing to ATI if it isn't too much hassle. Looking at the thread the 5870 seems to be the most reccomended choice, just checking that it is still what people would reccomend and would work with an i7 and a 620 Corsair PSU. Am currently on XP but would people reccomend upgrading to Windows 7 as well? Thanks for your time.

The 5870 is the one to go for really. It's no hassle, just gotta uninstall your Nvidia drivers and install the new ATI ones.

Windows 7 is a must for your rig so that you can use DX11, as in BC2 especially (not sure if you play it) you won't really utilise much of your PC's power on DX9 settings I wouldn't have thought.

Btw, how come two 280's died on you?

*shrug* First was under warranty so didn't really pay attention but I get PC crashes when loading graphics intensive games or movies at the moment, not sure why but it has gradually been getting worse to the point not, where the second the image is loaded, the computer crashes. I assume its the graphics card, but I wouldn't really know to be perfectly honest.

Yeah it sounds like it's the graphics card. I know plenty of people had 280's die on them, just never really knew what went wrong.