Upgrading from 2x GT8800 SLI to GTX 460

[xeefer]

Hi everybody,

Would appreciate any advice on upgrading my PC as some of the games are starting to run a bit slow. I've been looking at swapping the 2x 8800 GT's for a GTX 460 but would this make a significant difference?
Not had any experience overclocking but am also willing to try this route.

System:
MSI P7N mobo
Duo E8400 3.00GHz
Twin 8800 GT in SLI
4 GB DDR
Window Vista 32bit

Thanks

 

[mrjericho1991]

Yeah that would be really good upgrade from powerful directx10 gpus to a directx11 powerful gpu,how ever if i would be you,i would wait for upcoming gtx 560,it would be latest,would have good and better speed,and you will be fine,but 1 more thing i would also suggest you to get a quad core,even a q6600 will do good job as you overclock it,and it would be future proof tooo,but q8200 is also not a bad choice,after these two upgrades you will be fine with directx11.

 

[jerreece]

Here's a comparison of a single 8800GT vs GTX 460 1GB. You could in theory 'double' the results for the 8800GT to simulate SLI scores.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/178?vs=180&i=87.90.93.102.99.115.118

GTX 460 1GB review that compares to single 8800GT
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3809/nvidias-geforce-gtx-460-the-200-king/6

The GTX460 does more than double an 8800GT. So even if the 8800GT in SLI gives 100% increase, the GTX 460 is still faster. HOWEVER, you have to consider whether it's enough of an improvement to be worth doing.

Honestly, I'd think you'd want to get into a GTX 470 or something faster to truly make it worth the money. With the GTX 470 at $250 or less these days, it's definitely an option to consider.

 

[xeefer]

Thanks for the advice guys.

 

[xeefer]

Would a quad core improve things much? Maybe overclocking would be a good fix for now?

 

[jerreece]

Depends on what you play. The E8400 can definitely go beyond 3Ghz. LOTS of folks OC'd this in the day. Most games do very well with a fast dual-core. So if you can OverClock that E8400 more you could possibly get some more performance. Then again, it goes back to what game you play to begin with.

Some games, Bad Company 2 for instance, now like multi-core CPUs and perform better on OverClocked quad-cores.

What resolution is your monitor? And do you find that your games don't perform well enough for you now?

 

[xeefer]

Thanks Jerreece,
I'm using a Samsung Syncmaster 22inch running at 1680 x 1050. I've not had any real issues until recently buying Civilization5 which can be really slow.

 

[jerreece]

Games like CIV5 can be CPU bound, as there are a lot of units on screen that it has to do calculations and such for. So your slowdown may or may not be video card related. Of course you can always turn down graphic settings and see if this helps. If your performance improves, then you know it is your video card setup that limits you.

If you reduce graphic settings, and things still run slow, then it's a CPU limitation.

# Civ 5 is completely rewritten with a highly distributed processing model. Instead of large subsystems, every task is broken down into hundreds or even thousands of "jobs" that can be queued and processed independently of each other.
# This allows Civ 5 to take full advantage of multithreading and the latest graphics hardware on the high end, rendering tens of thousands of warriors on one screen in a vivid demonstration of how much more complex Civ 5 scenes could be.

http://www.civilization-5.net/civ5/news/item/16-scalable-system-requirements

Overclocking your CPU is probably your best bet. Seems the game is multi-threaded, so more cores (QuadCore) or a very fast Dual-Core are probably called for.

 

[christop]

overclock you cpu I am running my 8400 at 4.2 water cooled with a 5850 and play games at 1600x1200 on a 25 inch monitor with no problems at all.

 

[Confusedracoon]

I wouldnt say the gpu's need replaceing, 8800GT's are Rather nice, i had one my self.
asJerreece said, it sounds like you may be starting to hit the "minimum requirment zone" with your cpu. (It feels horrible when that happens)

I'm running a intel 2 quad Q8200 at a stock speed of 2.33ghz and i can run BFBC2 and other very recent games just fine. I am however intending to start OC'ing it when i get home from a trip up north.

how you get a good resualt what ever you do any ways =D