Worth the upgrade

[c0il1980]

Hello,

I was looking into upgrading my current 8800gts 512 sli setup to the 470gtx. I was wondering if anyone knows if I would see enough improvement to justify the purchase. Would it be a dramatic increase? I'm kinda on the fence about it.

My current setup is:

Cpu: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550, 3400 MHZ
Mobo: EVGA 132-YW-E178-A1 nForce 780i SLI FTW
Mem: 8gb Corsair XMS2 pc8500 5-5-15
Video: Evga NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512 in sli
HDD: 2x WD 500gb in raid 0
PSU: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750
Case: Lian Li PC60B

 

[bystander]

It would likely be a dramatic increase, assuming the games you are playing are currently struggling.

If your 8800 allows you to max the games you currently play, then you might not notice much of a change.

 

[c0il1980]

Yea, the games aren't really struggling but some of the newer games I really can't bump up the detail as high as I would like. for instance starcraft 2. I would like to run at ultra settings at 1920x1080 with great framerates. My current setup runs it on high at the resolution but sometimes I do get a bit of stuttering.

 

[bystander]

Then you will see an noticable improvement. It's a large improvement and your system should have plenty of power to run it.

 

[17seconds]

It would be a dramatic increase in performance, allowing you to play any game at maximum settings.

 

[c0il1980]

Great, eventually I would throw a 2nd 470 in there down the road even. Not sure if my psu could handle that though.

 

[wa1]

You have a great PSU there, i would say yes you can add the 2nd GTX470 in your system...

 

[megamanx00]

Two 8800GTS cards in SLI is only a little slower than two GTS 250s in SLI. Knowing that you're not going to see a huge increase by going to a GTX 470 except in the cases where your two 8800 cards run out of memory due to their 512MB. Overall it would be a significant increase, but not a dramatic one. You would certainly get less stuttering and smoother gameplay though. If you can afford it go for it. I think two GTX 460s would be a better option though and you should be able to run them on that PSU.

 

[c0il1980]

I made the jump from the 2 8800 512's in sli to a 470gtx. Once the price of the 470 dropped to the $250 range I knew it was time to pull the trigger. I have to say I couldnt be happier. My scores went up quite a bit in 3dmark vantage and all my games run at 1920x1080 high settings with ease. I already did an overclock of 690/1380/1790 to the core/shader/mem. I tried to go a bit higher but I was getting artifacts at higher clock speeds.

These are my 3dmark vantage scores before and after:

Performance setting overall score
8800 sli = 12,269
470 stock = 17,797
470 oc'ed = 19,580

1920x1080 with all extreme settings the gpu scores were
8800 sli = 6679
470 stock = 11968
470 oc'ed = 12563

Eventually, I think I might grab another 470 to put into sli as well. But for now the single card seems more than plenty.