Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question

Need help deciding on a upgrade from a GTX 460 (3Part Question)

Tags:
  • Gtx
  • Computers
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
Share
July 2, 2013 1:16:14 AM

Hello Everyone!
Recently, I got a free computer!!!!

It's brand new to me......I'm upgrading from an Compaq Presario Athlon from 2004 lol!!!! One of the first things, I will eventually want to do is upgrade my video card. However, I have 2 questions (3 really :??: )

1-How old is my current GPU and can I keep it for a few more years and have it play games (Currently Most games I try from the "Can I run it" website pass, from Min to Optimal)

2-What is a current card that's a good upgrade that won't break the bank (130.00 to 175.00)

3-Overall, how "Old" is my system....Like I said coming from my old dinosaur this thing is amazing......I now have key components to build from.

Specs:
CPU: AMD Phemon II X4 955 @ 3.2Ghz
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS9500A-LED 92mm Blue Led w/ Arctic Silver thermal paste
Motherboard: Asrock Extreme3 870 w/ Sata3 and USB 3.0
GPU: EVGA FPB Geforce GTX 460 768mb
Case: Thermaltake Chaser A31 w/ (4) 120mm Fans, 3 are blue led
Power Supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro M600 Modular
RAM: Corsair XMS3 6gb DDR3 1333
SSD: OCZ 60gb SSD
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 640gb SATA 6.0gb/s
Optical Drive: Lite On 24x DVD/RW Model iHAS424-98 LightScribe Support
OS: Windows 7 64bit Ultimate

More about : deciding upgrade gtx 460 3part question

July 2, 2013 5:09:34 AM

Not bad - will run anything at 1080p though settings will usually have to be reduced. It's comparable to a modern mid to low end setup. For a good upgrade, I'd recommend a GTX660 (saw one recently at £140).
July 2, 2013 5:38:00 AM

sam_p_lay said:
Not bad - will run anything at 1080p though settings will usually have to be reduced. It's comparable to a modern mid to low end setup. For a good upgrade, I'd recommend a GTX660 (saw one recently at £140).


Good shout on the card. Would give you a noticeable boost in performance without breaking the bank. Something like the EVGA 660 from ebuyer would be about right : http://www.ebuyer.com/444425-evga-gtx-660-2gb-gddr5-hdm... although that is £149 but comes with a free game. I am sure sam_p_lay will be able to find you an even better deal though if you ask nicely :D 
Related resources
July 3, 2013 12:27:47 AM

Yeah, I was looking at the 660.....I'm not a PC Person at all, I just happened to get this "Rig". It seems that my GPU needs at least 1gb Ram to get the settings higher on some games.....

Is the 460 obsolete already? What about over clocking it? I have 4 case Fans and nothing seems to overheat. SpeedFan has me always in the low 30s.

Truth be told, I'm super nervous about installing anything....I usually pay someone to do it!!!

Edit:
I can spend about $150.00
July 3, 2013 1:13:23 AM

I wouldn't call the GTX460 obsolete - it's comparable to a Radeon 7770 in modern GPU terms, which is a GPU that's still frequently recommended around $100. The GTX460 was generally very overclockable indeed, though I think your 768MB version is slightly different (in more than just memory amount) and may perform a little lower.

In your budget, you could get a GTX650 Ti Boost, which is almost the same speed as the GTX660 but more affordable. It's a really incredible level of performance for the money. It'll max most games at 1080p, and still deliver excellent results on more demanding games like Crysis 3 when you reduce settings slightly.
July 3, 2013 1:50:04 AM

So is it not worth overclocking my card at this point?
Don't get me wrong......I'm blown away at what this computer does so far......(Refer to my dinosaur at the top),

It bugs me that on all of these games, they pass requirements but need 1gb for "Reccomended"

Is there any other card suggestions between the 460 and the 660ti?......?
July 3, 2013 1:53:13 AM

GTX660 Ti is a bit out of budget for you and it's not a good purchase anyway at its usual price. For $150, you're not gonna get any better than the GTX650 Ti Boost and it honestly won't disappoint. As long as you're not expecting to max Crysis 3, you'll be pleased with it :-) Battlefield 3 should max absolutely fine at 1080p (though multiplayer is a bit more dependent on CPU so no guarantees there).
July 3, 2013 1:58:07 AM

I think within your budget the 650ti boost is the best option although there maybe an AMD card that might be worth looking at but will have to go have a proper look at price / performance.

In terms of overclocking the card then it may give you a small boost but as you mentioned it is the available vram that stops you from being able to add the extra bells and whistles (Anti aliasing is a big vram user). I am using overclocked 560 ti's in sli and whilst being still a relatively powerful option in terms of raw power they unfortunately only have 1gb vram onboard so that is really what limits me. Unfortunately it is part of the way that everything progresses.
July 4, 2013 1:21:07 AM

So it sounds like the 650 ti Boost. Now here is where I get confused....
I understand it's an Nvidia 650 Ti engine.....
However, different companies have different varations of the card!!

Key differences seem to be Clock Speed Preset......
I'm sold on the 650 Ti from your guys feedback.......I'm just not sure which card to buy!!!!

???
July 4, 2013 2:22:12 AM

To be honest, it's not that important. The biggest average framerate gain you'd ever see from a factory-overclocked card will be around 10%. So nothing too noticeable. Generally, those highly overclocked models will cost so much more than the base model, they're usually a poor value prospect relative to the GPU above (in this case the GTX660).

If you want a rough estimate of performance gain, calculate % clockspeed increase over a stock model, then roughly 70% to 75% of that clockspeed gain will translate to performance gain. Some games it's a little more, some games it's a little less. Often you can get a more modest factory overclock for little to no extra cost.

Of course if you're overclocking then these factory overclocks are irrelevant anyway so just decide by the cooler (MSI's Twin Frozr, Gigabyte's Windforce and ASUS's DirectCU II are three of the best). Other consideration is warranty duration, which depends on what country you're in.
July 4, 2013 2:57:03 AM

I think you do! Looks like an awesome deal to me :-)
July 4, 2013 3:01:49 AM

Good!!!!
Looks like I won't have to pay anyone to install it......

I looked inside of my case and it's got plenty of room for me to manuver, and I can actually see what I'm doing!!!!
July 4, 2013 3:22:35 AM

Good man :-) Anything you paid for a two-minute job would be a rip. Graphics cards are right up there with RAM in the ease of upgrades dept!
July 4, 2013 3:34:40 AM

My last graphics card......(an AGP 8x Lol) I managed to break a capicator off of the motherboard.....
I think the card was too big!!! It made me nervous to touch anything PC since then!!!

I have plenty of room with this case...I can see visually what needs to be done before even attempting it!!!
July 4, 2013 3:46:01 AM

Understandable! I once cracked a motherboard in half simply by trying to jam a cable in the wrong way round (should have actually looked what I was doing). Motherboards were incredible brittle in those days (this was an old 286).
July 4, 2013 3:44:28 PM

I'm going to end up with one of those for sure!!!
I appreciate all of the help!!!!

Now, off to create another Thread about which Motherboard/Cpu Combo to upgrade!!!
!