Buying new card

[aaron85]

I'm trying to get ready to play bioshock infinite and metro:last night.

My budget is 260 max.

My current spec is:
i3 dual core
geforce 9800gtx
PSU 600-700 watts (somewhere in that range I forgot)
Forgot my mobo specs (@ work right now)
8 gigs RAM

I'm looking to get either a geforce gtx 550 ti or a geforce gtx 560 ti. I'm not sure which one is better since both almost has the same specs except the difference is that 560 ti has more stream processors compared to 550 ti. A friend of mine says that the more stream processors the better, is this true in terms of performance?

Oh and also, will my i3 dual core cpu work well with either card, or will I have to upgrade to an i5?

 

[reaxion]

well i the 550ti is horrible don't even look at it, the 560ti is a good card, and should be able to perform with your i3, i know a few people who run core 2 extreme with a 5970 and get awesome performance so u should be fine there. May i recommend the gtx 460. its an awesome card for the price and will outperform the 550ti any day.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130750

 

[reaxion]

its more for a lower to mid range budget but for price vs performance its a nice card. Can i ask what resolution you play at?

 

[aaron85]

I currently play at 1440x900 resolution.

I noticed that the gtx 460 you recommended has similar specs to the 560ti and it's much cheaper too. The specs on both cards are close but not by much I guess. Hmm, I'm going to research more on the gtx 460 and look at the benchmark scores.

 

[amuffin]

560ti, also the 460 and 560ti use different chips. A 460 compares to a radeon 6850 while a 560ti compares to a 6950.

 

[aaron85]

I am tempted to get the gtx 460 since it's not too far off from the 560ti in terms of performance and specs. I've googled and found a few benchmarks proving that the 460 is close to the 560ti. The price of the 560ti is just way too much...

I'm thinking that I should just wait until the prices go down for the 560ti and also hope that a better card will come out that would be a better investment.

Can I have your opinions please...what do you guys think? Should I settle with the 560ti now, or wait for prices to drop and maybe settle with something different?

If I do get the 560ti, will it handle high end games in the next 3 years or more?

 

[inzone]

Everything depends on what settings that you want to play at and will you be satisfied to just be able to play the game. It is always a better idea to get as much graphics card as you possibly can since it is hard to know what games are coming out and what it will take to play them. Just look at the two fps games that came out BF3 and MW3 , both similer games but very different in graphics requirements. BF3 needs a very powerfull card for good gameplay and MW3 does not. So it is a guessing game and that is why I said you should try to get as much graphics card as possible.
The newer cards comming out will cost more so you will get less card there but the current cards should drop a little in price so you may end up with a better card by waiting. If you were able to come up with more money by the time newer cards come out then you could get a much better card.

 

[reaxion]

1440x900 you'll max most things out pretty easily

 

[diec4st]

At 1440x900 a GTX 460 will be enough. You should also consider the Radeon 6870, it's awesome for the price.

 

[aaron85]

Yea I agree that the gtx 460 and 560 is good, but...

After reading more and more about nvidia and their new 6xx kepler series coming out this year, which I hope is soon. I think the smartest thing for me to do is to wait for kepler to come out and hope that prices would drop for 460-590 cards. By then I should get some of my tax return $$ so I could maybe invest in a better card or maybe settle with 460-590 cards but at a cheaper price.

It wouldn't make sense for me to buy the 460-590 at it's current price now when I know that the 6xx is coming out this year, and when it does, prices should drop for the older cards.

Thanks for all your suggestions and opinions, have a nice day