Should i upgrade now or later?

[Jara]

Hello, recently I've been wanting to upgrade my graphics card (GTX275) mainly because its become like a heater and the fan whines so loud. The card idle's at 57c and load is 92c but we are very close to summer (Australia) so temps will go up 8-10c i imagine.

Now should i upgrade to a gtx 470, 6970 2gb or wait for the 28nm cards? The only reason i ask is because i presume my current system would bottleneck the 28nm cards while being okish for the 40nm cards.

My specs are
CPU: Q9400@3.2ghz (typhoon cooler)
Mobo: gigabyte ep45t-ud3lr
Ram: 4gb corsair xms3 1333
PSU: corsair HX 620w <-- would this psu be enough for a gtx 470 or 6970-2gb?
HD: 500gb seagate
Case: Antec 300
OS: 64bit vista

 

[Maziar]

Hello and welcome to the forums !
Well,if you wait,you can't every buy anything because there is always something new around the corner.
Going from GTX 275 to 6970(I don't recommend GTX 470 because it runs hot,go with 570 instead) will give you a significant boost in performance

 

[beltzy]

You should compare the 6970 to the GTX 570 (470 was the previous generation of cards from NVidia). Either of these will be a very big upgrade from your 275! Your PSU should be fine for either of these cards.

Will the new cards improve the performance of the current cards? Yes. However, the higher end cards could be 3+ months away.

If you increase your overclock a bit to 3.5GHz+ you will experience nearly identical game performance to a more modern quad core CPU in almost every game. As long as you have a dual core, OC'ed processor you really aren't going to significantly limit your GPUs unless you REALLY have a lot of horsepower (like multiple cards, etc). May lose a couple FPS, but nothing earthshattering. Check out some benchmarks comparing CPUs in some of TH's recent analysis of performance for new titles. Skyrim shows significant performance increases based on clock speed, but if you're running faster than 3.5GHz you should be within 10% of the performance compared to the same GPU with a sandy bridge CPU.

 

[swifty_morgan]

did you pull the card and put the exhaust port up to your lips and blow air through it........ blowing the dust out the opposite way it goes in.... or did you disassemble the heat sink and fan, clean it, reapply thermal paste and reseat it ? you may be able to salvage your card.

 

[theuniquegamer]

Your system specs are nice and they won't bottleneck your new gpu. I think you should wait for the 28nm series because due to die shrink they will run cooler and energy efficient than the 40nm. And psu is decent so it can handle a 28nm gpu.

 

[ram1009]

IMHO, you should always delay upgrades as long as possible. Seems like a no brainer to me. Also, stay away from ATI/AMD GPUs. Buggy drivers.

 

[Warmacblu]

I also have a GTX 275 and have decided to wait for Kepler because the games I play now run just fine.

If your computer can run the games you play, then there is no point in upgrading. If you are concerned about the heat and noise then just spend $20 on an aftermarket cooler for the GTX 275 and call it a day.

 

[geofelt]

When you have an itch.... scratch it.

Go ahead and get your upgrade.
Make it a significant jump, or you may be disappointed. Something like a GTX570.
Your psu is capable of running a card as good as a GTX580.

I would favor a card with a double slot direct exhaust cooler. That gets the heat out of your case faster, and does not heat up your cpu.

The early 7000 series cards are rumored to be rebranded mid range cards. The top end 28nm cards will come later in 1Q, and will be priced at what the market will bear.
The market is competitive, so you will get fair value at every price point.

You might check e-bay for a good deal on a used card from a reputable individual.

 

[Jara]

Thank you all for the replies & welcomes.

I have decided to wait considering every new game i have played ran fine, but i have brought a few things to hopefully change my situation.

Oh btw i meant gtx570 i somehow typed 470 twice and didn't realize haha.

instead of another reply ill just update this one, I did everything oil the fan, clean out chunky piece of dust & re-seat the gpu.

Idle temp is 38-39c and load is around 64-68 at 55% with no whine so i'm really happy