My Phenom 270/GtX 260... Upgrades, what you guys think?

[Chronobodi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfOspGEHXYo

excuse the moronic captions and the hand shaking, and the awful cable management...

But any how, how long will this rig in the current state will last me before it becomes a POS?

main things i do with it: from Top to Bottom on most important

GAMES
and that's about it, really. Aside from some video converting i do once in a while, but again, GAME!


Is the triple core outdated? they just came out with the six core beast, should i be concerned?
GTX 260 core 216 still beats the 5770 and any lower cards performance wise... i know there are cards 2x better than my card (5870, gtx 480)

Resolution is 1440x900, i think that's still a good resolution to me, it looks Hi-Definition to me anyway...

however, there are some limits.

my OCZ 550w with 50 Amps can only support one GOOD gpu or two middle-class gpus (like 5770 crossfire or ONE 5870)

Anyway, enough of my rants, discuss upgrades options, blah blah........

 

[obsidian86]

well you seem ok for most games till the end of the yr get back to us then

 

[ksampanna]

1) The "6 core beast " you mentioned is really a chicken when it comes to games, so don't worry about it.
2) We would like to know what is your upgrade budget (if at all any). I'l assume you have 2 choices :
[a] A decent upgrade budget - Assuming you keep your monitor, you can upgrade to a 5770. Might be slower than the gtx 260, but can achieve decent frame rates for max settings for all games @ that res. Also has Dx11, so is def more future proof than the gtx 260.
If you upgrade your monitor to a full HD, ie, 1900X1200, A 5850 is the min req. But then, obviously, you'l have to spend on the monitor & GPU.
No upgrade - Then your current system can last a couple of years until it starts playing games like a slideshow. If you can overclock both your CPU & GPU, add another year to that.

 

[Chronobodi]

no, not the 5770, GPU has to be at least 2x faster, preferably 3x faster.

Price for GPU has to be under $300

Monitor is not going to change, at least i can get higher frame rates with any future GPUs.....

Phenom ii x3 is already OCed to 3.5, GTX 260 is OCed to 700/1450 and stock 2300.

5850 is not quite 2x faster, it's more like 1.5, so yea............

 

[megamanx00]

Most games won't show much of an improvement with four cores over three. Looking at the the initial reviews of the Phenom X6, it isn't any faster than a 965BE in games so you shouldn't really worry about it. A 1440x900 resolution shouldn't pose a problem for a GTX 260 sp 216 for sometime. Unless there is a game your system is struggling with I say you leave it alone for now. AMDs Bulldozer will be out next year not to mention their next GPU, Southern Islands, will be out in the fall (it recently tapped out by the way). Thanks to TSMC scrapping 32nm and pushing back 28nm the Northern Island chips are pushed back till next year (and may be made at GF instead) while the Southern Islands will tide gamers over till then .

 

[Chronobodi]

Southern Islands? The HD 6000s already? WTF? we move too fast, son!

 

[Chronobodi]

ok guys, what about the GTX 470? how much faster than gtx 260 core 216?

 

[megamanx00]

I'm telling ya, if you want something twice as fast and are fine with your current card then you may as well just wait for Southern Islands. If you want a meaningful upgrade then perhaps you should look at a 5870 at least, though honestly I think that's absolute overkill for your resolution.

I went from two 3850s to a single 5870, now that was an upgrade . I was thinking of adding another 5870 in the fall and have an eyefinity setup. With my current 1680x1050 monitor, two 5870s would be way overkill, not that I wouldn't do it anyway :lol:

 

[Chronobodi]

Best answer selected by ChronoBodi.