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Which to upgrade first?
Hey guys, tax season and i told myself every year since i bought my awsome rig i would upgrade something.. and well everything else is already as far as it needs to go for years (sitting on a 2k machine includeing my 27' sceptre moniter i bought last year). Anyway just thought i was get somone oppinion on what to upgrade this year.. more ram? or better graphics card.
Right now im sitting with a evga 260 gtx supercloked 1gb LTD card, and 6 gigs of corshair dominator ram.. i have 3 ram slots open an 3 graphics cars slots avalable after i retire the trooper of a card my 260gtx is (absolutely NOTHING wrong with it.. just want a new one)
heres what i was looking at and im looking for suggestions
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145289
Can probably only going to get one and im pretty sure my wife will snap if i buy anything over $300 to 'upgrade' my rig again.. suggestions?
Comments
The only thing you can reasonably argue that you "need" is the GPU upgrade. And needing that would put yourself in the "demanding gamer" category.
More RAM I can't imagine would show you any performance increase whatsoever.
im sure that new monitor would love a new GPU
Unless you do a lot of multiboxing or multitasking, 6G of RAM is plenty. The vast majority of games out there are still only 32-bit and aren't programmed to access more than 2G of RAM in the first place.
I recently upgraded from a GTX260 myself. It is certainly a trooper of a video card, and I didn't really have any reason to upgrade other than I usually upgrade every other generation of video cards. I don't play FPSs really, mostly just older MMOs, and my framerates on those were fine. I could even play FFXIV acceptably with it.
I upgraded to an AMD 6970. There is no question the GPU is faster. All my benchmarks went through the roof. But game-wise, there really isn't any difference. I play on a 24" LCD at 1920x1200. Now, in FFXIV I could turn on quite a bit more options, and I'm assuming that newer games (RIFT, TERA, GW2) that it will play much better from the start, but that is just speculation. Running a 27" monitor with a higher resolution you may see a bit more benefit than I did.
At the bottom of the $300 range is the ATI 6950, which can often be unlocked to perform identically to a 6970. Unlocking a 6850 would be the absolute best performance you could get for $300, since your technically getting a $370 video card. The GTX560 and GTX470s fall in the middle of that price range on the nVidia side, the older (but still very well performing) AMD 5870. The lower $200's finds the 6870's and the GTX460's
The 460 is still one of the better "bang for the buck" deals and can often be found for around $160 with rebates - if you SLI a pair of those (just over $300) that would be a killer solution. The 560 is a solid performer from what all the benchmarks show, and shines at overclocking, but I don't have any first hand experience with them. The 6950, with it's 90+% reliability at unlocking to 6870, is a steal, and can be found for about the same price as a 560, but if your sticking with nVidia, it isn't an option. Another thought is that the 6950 comes with 2G of video memory, which helps with higher resolutions (especially FSAA), although only a few games actually take advantage of the additional video memory.
I do prefer to stick with nvidia cards, had a few ati cards before but iddint like them verry much.. solid cards but jut not my tatste. Nvidia has never once faild me.. even in a 110 degree room with the rig on for 2+ days because i forgot to shut it off and at the time only a generic case.. im loyal.
Anyway, i have been hearing some seriously good impressions twords the 560 gtx, people all over the place are loving them.. and they feature a brand new chip set that they stated using so the 570's dont even have it,which is why i want to get it. Thoe if there is a better nvidia i can get (by the way the 300 bucks isent an exact limit was just hoping not to supass that) ill take it. (also loyal fan of evga)
So would u suggest me still get that 560 or just suck up the extra 80 some bucks and pick up a decent 570 gtx
Well, the 570 will certainly be faster than the 560. Both overclock relatively well, so you can't really use that as a case for either card.
Now there are some numbers other than just speed:
A 560 comes it at a peak of 170W, the 570 at 219W
The 570 has 1280M of ram, the 560 only 1024M - this could make a significant difference at higher resolutions
If you plan on upgrading via SLI at some later option, the initial cost and power requirements could come into play
Aside from that, it would be more or less your call if the extra performance and longevity is worth the additional cost.
In many ways, for me to advice an upgrade, the performance increase should be worthwhile. Which skipping a generation to buy from the next one, usually is. As here, where you bypass the 400 series. Still, also given your screen size, I would go for the GTX570 to distance the performance of the 260 in a meaningful way.
But this is, only if you are going to let the GTX570 work it's time out so to speak. If you are going to buy a new GPU in a year, because there are new ones out, and because you can. Then buy the GTX560, it will surely hold it's weight for that duration.
No question the Graphics Card.
The following statement is false
The previous statement is true
that's right..you need first to upgrade the graphic card because most of the game requirement is high level requirement in video card
bleehhhh....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130595&cm_re=gtx_570-_-14-130-595-_-Product
hey guys, after thinking about it since the post i ended up going with the 560gtx superclocked ed. for the value and 100% review rate on the 560gtx (seems eveyone who bought one and posted LOVED the card) and its $100 cheeper
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130595&cm_re=gtx_570-_-14-130-595-_-Product
is the 570 that was linked above,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130610&cm_re=nvidia_gtx-_-14-130-610-_-Product
is the 560 ill be ording tomorow from tiger direct since newegg is out of stock. thanks for you posts it was a great help
You should be warned that the card you're looking at will use significantly more power than the card it is replacing. If you've got a power supply and case that can handle it, then go ahead. Speaking of which, what power supply and case do you have?
What processor do you have? There's no sense in upgrading a video card if your processor is weak enough that you're already processor-limited in games.
A 570 card is a pretty nice upgrade if your PSU can handle it. The ram is not worth it right now unless you plan to use a ramdrive.
But I think you should consider getting a SSD as main HD instead. It will increase the speed for you, particularly any kind of loading time.
The 260 is still a acceptable card for another year or so, a faster harddrive is never a bad idea since the computer more or less use it for everything. It will also lower the noice from your computer (no HD sound) and generates no heat.
Im usinging a core i7 920, not the best 17 but better than most of the other options. Also im using a coolermaster haf 932 as a case. And the power supply is a 700w powersupply, i forget which type it is., and right now to look would be a pain because of where my case is set up. (its pushed back and almost hidden so my 2 yr old wont destroy it). So yeah i have the power to support even a 580 card so that is not a problem.
Not necessarily. There are some "700 W" power supplies that will explode if you try to pull 400 W from them under real world circumstances. The processor and case sound appropriate, though you might want to make sure that the case has good airflow with nothing covered up if it's positioned somewhere so as to be inaccessible.
the case is in a good spot, plenty of airflow, and its liquid cooled to boot
Well im not good in computers, but I think I can help a little bit of what I know from experience. I always consult my friend with this one because he specialize in this computer stuff. When I ask him what to upgrade first he always say to me to upgrade the ram first and then the graphics card.