Request Advice on Video Card Upgrade

[WDF01]

I currently use an Nvidia GTX 295 and play mostly FP shooters (MW2, Mass Effect 2, Fallout New Vegas) role playing (Oblivion) and strategy (Shogun Total War, Civ V).

Although I don't have a 'problem' playing the above, with MW3, Skyrim and ME3 due out soon, I am curious as to whether or not moving to something like a GTX 580 with its DX11 capabilities might be worth while. My existing card will exceed the minimum specs on the new games, so I expect them to play, even to a reasonable level of graphics with decent frame rates. But I always wonder if I'll be missing out on a better, more realistic experience and whether or not a new card will get me there.

My rig has an i7 920 CPU running Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit on an ASUS Rampage II Extreme mobo with 6GB RAM.

Another path to follow might be to await the next gen cards (GTX 600 family???), but who knows ahen they'll be available.


Any thoughts about my upgrade path are welcome.

Thanks,
- WDF01-

 

[Kari]

I dont think you are missing anything too important without dx11, especially so close to the next gen cards, I would wait. The move from 40 to 28nm should give nice boost on perf/watt over current offerings.
Rumours still has it that amd might get something out by the end of the year, nvidia sometimes in q1.

 

[Chainzsaw]

Check this out to see how your GPU compares to newer ones:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

It was a pretty powerful card for its time.

So after looking at this information....I would say you won't be missing much with a newer graphics card.

My advice would be to wait until the newer gen GPU's are out and then compare them again to what you have. They should be coming out the end of this year/ 1Q of next year.

 

[Kari]

that]http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

that 'test' is utterly useless, it shows gtx 285, 280 and 260 being (a lot) better than the 295 and hd6950 beating both 6970 and 6990.

 

[Chainzsaw]

It wasn't meant to be a through guide, more like a rough estimate.

I know some of those are wrong - but it should give him a general idea of where it sits.

Oh well, I stand firmly on my original answer - no a new graphics card won't give you much.

 

[WDF01]

Good advice by both parties - thanks. I'll wait and see how it looks with my current card when the new games come out. Waiting until 2012 Q1 to upgrade might not be too painful.

However, if I get the problem experienced by the Tom's HW Battlefield 3 testers (see: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-14.html), which says DX10 on Nvidia 200 series cards is poor, I'll have to act faster.

Thanks again for your help,
- WDF01-

 

[ulillillia]

There's also Wikipedia that helps:

Nvidia cards
AMD cards

I used Wikipedia as my primary decision research tool toward what video card to get since my GeForce 7600 GT is 7 generations behind (and now, about to become 8). Then again, I don't do any gaming on my computer outside console games on a TV tuner.

 

[makafri]

I dont think Mw3 would need more video card power