Upgrading Help

[RoboPanda]

I want to upgrade my graphics card, which one would be best? I heard the Nvidia 460's are really good and affordable, but Nvidia has released the 500 series. I want a card that will last for a few years. My budget is around $200-300, but i'm willing to go over depending on if its good or not. My specs are:

AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 940 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
4096MB RAM DDR2
Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H mobo
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT

 

[TheTrueGamer]

If you can, wait a few weeks for the GTX 460 price drop that's bound to happen. Also, what is your power supply?

And you might want to consider throwing in 4GB more of DDR2 to keep up with today's multitasking.

 

[RoboPanda]

I have a 850w Power supply. How are the 500 series and is it worth getting that or are the 460's still good. Also do you have any recommendation on what kind of DDR2 sticks to get?

 

[TheTrueGamer]

The GTX 460 is still the king for FPS/dollar ratio and with the incoming price drop for GTX 460's it'll only appeal even more. And honestly if you are playing sub 1680x1050 resolutions the GTX 460 will be just fine. However, the GTX 560 will have that longer lifespan because of it's more fine-tuned tessellation technology (which is going to be the new craze).

So for $60 more, you can up the ante from a GTX 460 to a GTX 560Ti, for a longer lifespan and of course a longer lifespan.

Don't bother going to GTX 570 or even a 580 because you will be bottle necked by that 4GB DDR2. Which brings me to another point, how are you 4GB DDR2 configured (ie. 2x2GB, 4x1GB, 1x4GB).

 

[geofelt]

You might want to read this tom's article on best graphics cards for your money Jan 2011.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-radeon-hd-6870-geforce-gtx-570,2834.html

The market is very competitive today, so you mostly get what you pay for.
If you wait for the next best thing or price drops, you can wait forever.
Get what you need/want today.

Look at the heirarchy chart at the end. It takes two or three levels difference to be noticeable, so don't anguish over minor differences.
A GTX460 1gb is probably a good value today. Get a Nvidia card, and you can just drop it in without needing a driver change.


Also, few games today use more than 2gb of ram; in some cases, possibly 4gb.
4gb will not slow you down, unless you are also multitasking while gaming.

 

[TheTrueGamer]

You might want to read this tom's article on best graphics cards for your money Jan 2011.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-radeon-hd-6870-geforce-gtx-570,2834.html

The market is very competitive today, so you mostly get what you pay for.
If you wait for the next best thing or price drops, you can wait forever.
Get what you need/want today.

Look at the heirarchy chart at the end. It takes two or three levels difference to be noticeable, so don't anguish over minor differences.
A GTX460 1gb is probably a good value today. Get a Nvidia card, and you can just drop it in without needing a driver change.


Also, few games today use more than 2gb of ram; in some cases, possibly 4gb.
4gb will not slow you down, unless you are also multitasking while gaming.

Mm, I concur, maybe my suggestion to get 8GB was baseless. :/

But also, you still may want to wait for GTX 460, price is bound to drop.