Upgrading from HD4870, considering GTX 460

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quartapound

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Feb 19, 2013
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Hey guys,

I'm posting here because I'm curious if this sounds like a good deal or not... I found a ZOTAC GeForce GTX 460 1 GB card on kijiji, the guy is only asking $50...

I want a new card so I can play Crysis 3, because I only have an HD4870 right now.

Crysis_3_Benchmarks_Grafikkarten_1080p_Medium_FXAA_4x_AF_PCGH.png


that's the latest Crysis 3 benchmark and the GTX 460 seems to do pretty good...


Is it worth getting the GTX460 for only 50$? Or should I wait and save for something better? seems like a pretty good deal for the money... I don't have much cash to upgrade right now and it seems like this card would do okay with Crysis 3

the rest of my system specs are as follows:

AMD Phenom II x4 925 (OC'd to 3.5 ghz), 4GB DDR2 Ram, 750watt Thermaltake PS, Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe Mobo, 32gb SSD for windows 8, multiple other HDD's for program files/storage

Thanks for any input you can give me!
 
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A GTX460 is at best only a slight upgrade from a HD4870, if it is a 256bit version; the 192bit version isn't an upgrade at all. Of course, if Crysis 3 strongly favors nVidia, it may be more of an upgrade than it appears.
Still, in your place I'd suggest saving for a HD7850 or GTX660. A GTX650Ti is also an upgrade, but may also not be enough to be worth its price.
A GTX460 is at best only a slight upgrade from a HD4870, if it is a 256bit version; the 192bit version isn't an upgrade at all. Of course, if Crysis 3 strongly favors nVidia, it may be more of an upgrade than it appears.
Still, in your place I'd suggest saving for a HD7850 or GTX660. A GTX650Ti is also an upgrade, but may also not be enough to be worth its price.
 
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quartapound

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Feb 19, 2013
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thanks for the quick response, my main reason for going with the GTX460 is because it's a Directx 11 card, and I found one cheap... the 4870 is only 10.1 (which Crysis 3 doesn't support)

...but as you said... when googling benchmarks for the 4870 vs gtx460 the performance is only marginally better ... ~14%

I doubt I could find a better card for 50$ to play Crysis 3 on, but maybe I'll just have to save some more
 
Well, if it's just to get DirectX 11, that is a pretty cheap way to go. A GTX650Ti isn't too pricey though, just $140-$150.
A good game will still be a good game, even on lowered settings; if the GTX460 has the performance you need, it certainly is the cheapest solution.
 

wiggbot

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Dec 22, 2012
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crysis_3

Save your money. "Upgrading" to a card two generations behind in order to meet minimum requirements for a game is not worth it.
 

amirp

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If $50 isn't too much for you I would buy it for a few reasons:

I used to own a gtx460 before giving it to my friend, it overclocked extremely easily from stock 675 mhz to 920... a massive performance boost was seen as a result bringing it close to a gtx 470 in some games.

You can probably sell the 4870 for ~$30 pretty easily... hell if you were in toronto I'd pick it up for my second PC ...

EDIT: is it the 1gb or the 768 mb OR the SE version of the GTX 460?

I would only buy it if it is the standard 1gb GTX 460 (NON-SE which was the slowest I believe)
 

amirp

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Also I forgot to mention, the gtx 460 is equivalent to the gtx 560 (the 560 is just running at a higher clock rate, which I can say with confidence can be achieved by every gtx 460 with slight overclocking...they had a massive OC potential)

Here is a comparison between a 4870 and a gtx 560 ...

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/543?vs=513

If you look at the benchmarks there is a fairly significant difference between the two...for only $50. In some cases the 4870 is unplayable and the 560 (a 460 OC to 810 mhz) is playable.

So again to reiterate, if $50 isnt too much for you, you can sell the 4870 for ~$30, and it is the 1gb version of the Gtx 460 then I would buy it personally.
 

quartapound

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Feb 19, 2013
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Hey guys, sorry about disappearing, I was out of town enjoying the last bit of my 'reading week' .... although I tried to get my hands on the 460 before I left and got "kijiji'd" ... the guy totally flaked out.

since then, I've been looking at other video cards (mostly the ones you guys recommended) as well as comparing them to the crysis 3 benchmarks, and also the bit mining hardware comparison board.

....I recently started bitmining with my 4870 (for fun, I know it's not going to be very profitable anymore, with ASIC's and FPGA's becoming popular)... however I don't pay for electricity and it seems like a good way to recover some costs of the video card.

with the 4870 i was able to do ~90 MH/s ...in two days I got about 60 cents US, haha...


I'm quite interested in the 7870... I can find it for $229, and most people say it can do over 400MH/s...which should be good for at least $45 in bit coins a month... and I know the games are going to be much more impressive.


I'm planning to go pickup the 7870 now, thanks for all the advice everyone gave me!
 
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