Upgrading GPU

[weggie]

Hi,

Im a newbie here Anyways, im finally upgrading my 9500GT to something beefier. Here are my Specs

i5-2400
Asrock H61m-VS
8gb Kingston Memory 1333 (4gb x 2)

I already have the PSU upgrade in mind so no need to worry about that, my main gripe is... Im heavily biased towards NVIDIA cards, also I only use a 20-inch LG LED Monitor - 1600 x 900 Native Resolution. I was leaning towards a 560 or 560ti but based on research, it might be overkill for my resolution. 550ti performs well in my natve resolution. Do I shell out the extra dough for the 560? Or will the 550ti fit the bill? Or should I just wait for the mid-range Kepler's to roll out? I was hoping to spend $200 max

PS - Not gonna Overclock that much

Many thanks!

 

[inzone]

There are a couple of ways to go with this and it's going to be up to what you eventually want to do.
You can get what's just enough or you can get more that what's just enough in case you change something else down the road , like your monitor. If for some reason 6 months or a year from now you decide for whatever reason to go with a larger monitor with a higher native resolution you would already have the video card for it.
I'm sure that right now you are fine with the monitor you have but you don't knowe what can happen or what opportunity will come about that could bring you to getting a different monitor. I like the idea of getting the most that you can for the available money that you have.

EVGA 01G-P3-1561-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
$224.99 and a $25 rebate makes it $199.99 and free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604

I think that this would be a great card to pick up and it comes with a lifetime limited warranty. It also comes with a small factory overclock so as you have said you don't overclock much , then with this card it comes that way already.

 

[logox]

I would wait for the rest of the 6xx cards to release. I assume there will be price drops soon after that for the 5xx cards so you could wait for them to drop price or see what the 660 is able to do.

 

[stingstang]

Upgrading from a 550 to a 560ti isn't going to be very satisfactory. I would either wait for the 660 to come out, or get a 7870 from AMD.

 

[inzone]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

A 9500GT is way down the list of cards on the chart so you have a wide selection of cards that would be considered an upgrade. The thing you want to do is make sure that you will be able to play the games you want on the resolution you want. Like I said earlier if you come across some extra money and decide youi want a better monitor then you do want to have a card to support it and not have to upgrade the card again.

 

[weggie]

Thanks Guys,

I guess i'll see what next month brings. I dont think ill be getting a higher reso monitor, 1600 x 900 is good enough for me. Unless Nvidia rolls out some decent Kepler's next month, a 560ti would probably suit my needs for 2 - 3 years

 

[weggie]

Best answer selected by weggie.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey