GTX460 upgrade advice

[bwf1975]

Hi guys, you helped me before with a i5 2500k upgrade, but now looking to upgrade my gigabyte gtx 460 1gb oc card to something more modern.

The problem is all my mates are saying sli it up, but seems it reliant on drivers and games supporting it, so prefer a single card set up.
Looking to spend £200-300, as i can sell my old card to mate, but seems really mind boggling the choice at the moment. so some helpful advice be appreciated.
happy to use ati or nvidia.
System specs are
i5 2500k with coolermaster 212
8gb corsair dd3 @ 1600
asus p8z68 mobo
corsair tx750 psu
corsair 600t se white

 

[FtsArTek]

Try get a 6950 or a GTX560 Ti or 570... You could SLI though, I had a pair of those in SLI for a while, and almost every game supported them with significant increases. The only game I found wasn't worth it was SCII. It is well worth the upgrade.

 

[bwf1975]

how do you rate 6950 vs gtx 570 for driver support and general pixel pushing?, ive heard gtx 560ti not big increase to warrent spending the cash.

 

[AbdullahG]

What's your budget?

Recommendation:
4 X GTX 580's for about $2000

Nah, I'm playing

I assume you have a $200 to $300 budget. A GTX 560 Ti (runs cool, quiet, and overclocks like a monster to GTX 570 speeds) or the Sapphire Toxic Edition HD 6950 (unlocks to an HD 6970) are your best offers. Adding a second GTX 460 is also an option.

 

[samuelspark]

GTX 560 Ti = Radeon 6950
GTX 570 = Radeon 6970

Oc'ed 560 Ti = GTX 570
GTX 560 Ti = 1.33 GTX 460

Hope this helps.

 

[Deemo13]

At this point, its more of a preference game. Sure the Radeon is going to have some FPS there and the GeForce is going to have some FPS somewhere else. There more or less even, yet some will say one or the other is better. It's your call. They're both very very good.

 

[bwf1975]

i've never liked to play with cards in overclocking, never tryed sli before as always thought that single card set ups was generally better.

 

[AbdullahG]

how do you rate 6950 vs gtx 570 for driver support and general pixel pushing?, ive heard gtx 560ti not big increase to warrent spending the cash.

Nvidia tends to do better in drivers, but it's really in multi-GPU support where you see why. I honestly would add a second GTX 460 is I were you. The jump in performance from a GTX 460 to a GTX 560 Ti is decent at best:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/313?vs=330

A second GTX 460 will be you good.

EDIT: No SLI or OCing for you huh? Well, I guess an unlockable HD 6950 (some are able to do this with just one flip of a switch) is your best option.

 

[bwf1975]

seems to be choice between gtx570 / 6970. whats opinion on Gigabyte GeForce GTX 570 SOC WINDFORCE 3X 1280MB.

 

[bwf1975]

just quick question regarding sli, my mobo has x2 pci e 16 slots.
but says that 2nd in sli only supports x4 speed whilst other is full speed, would a 2nd gtx460 still be viable.

 

[Djentleman]

Nobody has really seen a performance difference with x4 bandwith. And when they have it was a 5% difference. Nothing to get scared over.

 

[bwf1975]

ah cheers, i will be ordering my 2nd gtx 460 to sli tonight then, thanks to all for saving me a big expensive card upgrade and for some great advice.
thanks all.
can mod put this thread as solved please