Just looking for a few words of advice, if anyone has them, about what would be the best option for me currently. I've been running with an NVIDIA GTX 280 throughout WotLK, though just recently it started acting up (screen locks on loading the game or running anything video related, giving a messy rgb image that can only be solved by resetting the machine - though it runs fine after that until the next boot up) and I'm told this is due to heat damage to the memory on the card or some such. Anyway, looks like I'll be needing a new GPU (and possibly some additional cooling I guess). Here's some general specs:
Board: MSI 680i SLi (Socket 775) DDR2
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.00GHz
RAM: 8GB DDR2
PSU: 850w
It's all housed in a large coolermaster case with lots of fans etc.
Now as I'm going to be spending some money on a replacement card, I guess I may as well upgrade. Considering getting hold of a GTX 480 as a single GPU solution. I know they run hot (though apparently designed to cope with it) and power hungry, but in my mind that's better than trying to run two ATI cards in SLi?
As I'm replacing stuff atm, I'd like to be able to use the opportunity to get my system set up to be capable of playing Cata smoothly at full whack, come expansion time (for instance is it really worth shelling out for a top of the line card for that, or would money be better spent on switching out the board for DDR3 or CPU etc?). So any tips or general advices with that in mind also appreciated.
Thanks.