Should I upgrade my GPU?

[ali46muzza]

With Battlefield and Skyrim coming out I was wondering whether to upgrade my graphics card, I'm currently using a MSI NGTX460 oc.

I'm not sure if this card will get me the most out of BF3 or Skyrim, is there is any thing on the market that would significantly improve graphics at a reasonable price?

Thanks

Current specs:
CPU - AMD athlon II x3
Mobo - Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G
Ram - 4gb
GPU - MSI NGTX460 OC
PS - 650W
Windows 7 (64bit)

 

[rolli59]

It all depends on your monitor resolution. My gut feeling is that a GTX460 1GB is going to handle it well up to 1080P

 

[gagan_prakash2009]

screen resolution??

 

[velosse]

Your single GPU will get destroyed by both those games, your best bet is to SLI

 

[DEY123]

I have a similarly spec'd system with a bit more OCing (See my signature).

I have played the demo of BF3 at 1080 with all settings on high and anti aliasing on at 4x. FRAPS is giving me rates in the upper 40s and I have not really noticed any issues. I am sure when I install the real game I'll tweak it some more to make sure I don't get any lag but the 460 is competent at this point. I have noticed that BF3 tends to peg both my GPU (all the time) and 1 of my cores (on occasion) but not all 3 cores. Of course if you want to play on ultra or multi-screen then the 460 won't work.


As for the GPU getting destroyed by those games i would have to say that in BF3 it has not been destroyed as I have been able to play a few hours without noticing any problems that I recall.


EDIT: Adding my system in case sig does not show easily

OS: Win7 Ultimate (64 bit) PSU: Ultra X2 - 550 Watt
CPU: Phenom II X3 740 (@3.7GHz) MB: M2N-SLI Deluxe
GPU: GTX 460 1GB(core:825, Shader:1650, Memory:4100)
RAM: 6GB DDR2 - (CL4 @824MHz)

 

[ali46muzza]

I'm currently hooked up to a HDTV at 1024x768,I am looking to invest in a 1280x1024 one though.

 

[ali46muzza]

Thanks for the reply Dey123, I will have a tinker with my settings whilst playing the beta.

I have played the BF3 alpha and it worked quite well, however I do get frame rate issues with some games (Deus Ex being one).

 

[DEY123]

Thanks for the reply Dey123, I will have a tinker with my settings whilst playing the beta.

I have played the BF3 alpha and it worked quite well, however I do get frame rate issues with some games (Deus Ex being one).

One other thing. I installed Nvidia's beta drivers as well before trying. If they truly provide a 38% improvement then that might be the difference between low 30 FPS and mid 40s FPS