GPU Upgrade

billin30

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Jul 15, 2008
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My system is in the signature below. I have been thinking about upgrading GPU's for a while now. I have the 8800GTS's in SLI and they have been doing pretty well, but I have some money to spend and was hoping to crank up some settings.

Been playing BFBC2 and wanna get into BioShock 2 and the Fallout when it comes out. Some pretty graphic intensive games.

I have been waiting to see what Fermi looks like when it comes out in both the price and performance categories just like everyone else. I would really like to stick with Nvidia since I could use one of my old cards for physx. I would probably be looking at the 470.

I have also been looking at the 5850/70. Would rather stay with nvidia due to the physx and driver cleaning I would have to do, but if the price is right.

Just wondering if its even worth it to upgrade right now. I am looking to spend like 300-350. That gonna get me a good enough upgrade? CPU gonna bottleneck me at all? I have the Q6600 at 3.0 right now, havent really tried pushing it any further. Think I already have the voltage at 1.375.

Thanks
 
In that price range you aren't going to do much better. SLIed 8800GTS 512mbs should be about on par with the HD5850 already.
I wouldn't worry about it for now. Think about upgrading when you actually start running into games in which you aren't getting the performance you desire.
 

flyinfinni

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You honestly don't NEED to upgrade, like others have said, you've already got about the performance you'd be buying. The thing that you would gain with a 5850/70 or GTX470 is DX11 support. If that is something you are interested in, then it may be worth the upgrade if you can sell both of your 8800GTS's. As far as which card you should actually get if you DO want to upgrade to DX11, its really hard to say until Fermi is released. Right now, I would say get a 5850 and then another later for Xfire if you need it though that would require a new Mobo. A 5870 is a little above your current bugdetary requirements, but if you sell your 8800's then you most likely could get it, and it would actually show a bit more performance than your sli setup. PhysX really isn't that big of a deal (I see it as a gimmick and not worth paying extra for), and you're better off selling your current cards anyway, especially since otherwise its really not that worth upgrading for you right now. If you really do want to upgrade- wait until Fermi is released and then decide.
 
I think Bioshock 2 looks better than 1 in some regards, but admittedly some of details in the levels, most tellingly water effects early in the game, were given more attention in the first game. Still, Bioshock 2 is pretty good, I like it. If you get a GTX 470 you will be able to use one of your 8800GTS cards for PhysX. A GTX 470 will likely be faster than your two 8800GTS cards (that's if it's on par with the 5870 as claimed), but we'll see. Even so, I don't think $350 is worth a small performance upgrade for most games, and only a significant increase in the few games that make use of PhysX.
 

flyinfinni

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I have serious doubts that the 470 will be on par with the 5870... not from what we've been "seeing" with the unigine heaven stuff and whatever other crap is flying around. My guess is it will beat the 5850 by a bit, but won't pass the 5870. It will be interesting to see though.
 

billin30

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Yeah I was kinda thinking along the same lines as everyone else. My cards do well in everything until I start trying to do AA, then they really suffer. Also, I am gaming at 1920x1080 on a 24" Asus
 
Everyone Know right now that I called out 5.768976%.

I will spend hours trying to finding/making benchmarks that replicate that if needed.

And, OMG I hope/pray that the GTX 470 is 15% faster, that would mean a 260$ Radeon 5850!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:) :) :) :) :)