have $150, what to get?

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unLucky17

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ive been out of the loop for a while and realized my 8800gts 512 is old. ive got about 150 bucks to upgrade to something not embarrassing. nothing is coming out soon i dont believe, correct if im wrong. im a shooter, rpg kinda guy. like the eye candy up for the rpgs and single player fpses(sp) but turn it down when playing shooters online for obvious reasons.

i have mass effect 2, bioshock 2, aracnia, da, and fo:nv to play right now and possibly picking up blops if i get some moneys soon. id like to see all the prettiness if possible on my 1680x1050 monitor. but as of now my machine crawls except for bio2 which ive played for a bit now that the semester is winding down for me.

is there anything out for that cheap or anything worth just waiting for? hopefully ill get a for real job soon so i can get a decent card, i dropped 4 bills on my card now when it was first released so i dont mind spending it if it will last.

id like something with an dual hdmi or dual avi plug thing too as i have the comp set up to my tv. if there is anything else im forgetting please let me know. thanks
 
GTX460 768MB.

With your resolution you're not typically hindered by the lesser amount of RAM, this is the card to get.
 
At that price range and resolution you're looking at a GTX 460 768MB video card which can be had for $150 or even less with MIR. You can get one for $129 AR at Fry's.
You might need to purchase a mini hdmi to hdmi cable from monoprice to connect the TV. Check the connection specifications.
 
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You could still sell that 8800 GTS 512 for at least 50$. Then get a GTX 470 on Black Friday or something.
 
I'd wait till black friday and see if you can get a 460 1gb for around 150. I've seen some deals as low as $169 before, so it's possible.

Otherwise the 768mb version is a nice deal.

AFAIK there are no 460 cards with dual HDMI out.
 
I've got a Asus GTX 465 for sale on the anandtech for sale forum for $150 shipped. It hasn't been registered yet so I believe its still eligible for full warranty.
 
I am waiting for the reviews to come out out of curiosity, but the GTX 460 SE might be worth looking into since they were released yesterday supposedly.
 
The GTX 460 would do you good, either 768MB or 1GB. The lesser one will handle your needs perfectly well for a while, but if you want slightly more performance try to find a deal on the 1GB and pick that up instead. Then you can enable HQ textures and tessellation and whatnot and safely avoid the VRAM wall.
 
I'm surprised no body has suggested the 460 768mb yet :confused:

I would recommend it, and looking at benchmarks of 768mb vs 1gbmb in SLI, there seems to not be a difference greater than 5fps across the board...
 
YamahaAlex37 said:
I'm surprised no body has suggested the 460 768mb yet :confused:

I would recommend it, and looking at benchmarks of 768mb vs 1gbmb in SLI, there seems to not be a difference greater than 5fps across the board...
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I guess that is sarcasm since several people suggested the gtx460 768mb.
 
cannondale06 said:
I guess that is sarcasm since several people suggested the gtx460 768mb.
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lol ya sorry it was, because it was like 10 460 768mb posts in a row...

but also was wanting some feedback on why they 768 and 1024mb performance seems so close even above 1920x1080
 
cannondale06 said:
well since nobody has even asked...what are the rest of your pc specs?
Click to expand...

good point (it should be asked) but in this case the answer is pretty obvious for the price range. though I would like to know how old that PSU is and what kind along with the cpu.
 
YamahaAlex37 said:
lol ya sorry it was, because it was like 10 460 768mb posts in a row...

but also was wanting some feedback on why they 768 and 1024mb performance seems so close even above 1920x1080
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well the difference is pretty much right inline. the 1gb model has more memory bandwidth and rops so that does help it out a bit in most cases. and of course 768mb is not enough for some games at 1920x1080 so you will get some hitching even if it isn't directly apparent in benchmarks.
 
Valset said:
good point (it should be asked) but in this case the answer is pretty obvious for the price range. though I would like to know how old that PSU is and what kind along with the cpu.
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well sometimes these threads go on for pages only to find out the OP has an outdated pc that isn't sufficient for a gpu upgrade.
 
cannondale06 said:
well sometimes these threads go on for pages only to find out the OP has an outdated pc that isn't sufficient for a gpu upgrade.
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very true, I wasn't saying at all that it wasn't needed but that everyone just popped off the answer. it would be hell of thing for the op to get a new card and OC the hell out of it only to find that his PSU doesn't cut it anymore
 
I bought the EVGA GTX460 768MB standard clock from Newegg yesterday. It came with a 10% off Newegg promo, free HAWX2, free 3-day shipping, and $30 MIR. Final price was like $122.

I wanted 1GB originally and had a 6850 on back order. After I saw the deal above, I looked at half a dozen benchmarks over again and canceled my 6850 back order. For the games I play right now, there is only about a 3FPS difference from the 768MB GTX460 and the 1GB. If/when I upgrade my monitor beyond 1680x1050, it will be time for a new video card anyway.
 
YamahaAlex37 said:
lol ya sorry it was, because it was like 10 460 768mb posts in a row...

but also was wanting some feedback on why they 768 and 1024mb performance seems so close even above 1920x1080
Click to expand...

Because the two cards have identical raw performance, it's just that one has a slightly slower memory subsystem. The RAM difference comes into play when an application or game tries to use more than 768MB of VRAM. Then the 1GB will carry on as normal, while the 768MB be totally unplayable.
 
bore_u2_death said:
Because the two cards have identical raw performance, it's just that one has a slightly slower memory subsystem. The RAM difference comes into play when an application or game tries to use more than 768MB of VRAM. Then the 1GB will carry on as normal, while the 768MB be totally unplayable.
Click to expand...

Which memory hungry games will max out the performance like this? According to this benchmark, none:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-460-gf104-fermi,2684-11.html

I don't see more difference than 5 fps in any game, and the margin only gets smaller (like 1-3 fps) as the res goes up to 2560x1600... :confused:

Not trying to argue, just trying to clear this up, because I'm eligible to upgrade to 1gb with evga step up, but im wondering if I would just be better off getting another 768 for sli if it's about the same at all resolutions.
 
YamahaAlex37 said:
Which memory hungry games will max out the performance like this? According to this benchmark, none:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-460-gf104-fermi,2684-11.html

I don't see more difference than 5 fps in any game, and the margin only gets smaller (like 1-3 fps) as the res goes up to 2560x1600... :confused:

Not trying to argue, just trying to clear this up, because I'm eligible to upgrade to 1gb with evga step up, but im wondering if I would just be better off getting another 768 for sli if it's about the same at all resolutions.
Click to expand...

Correct. The only time that you actually hit the memory wall with 768MB is Crysis at 25x16 with 4xAA, so outside of the marginal increase in FPS from the memory bandwidth, there is no difference.

Your very right, in your situation the 768MB version is plenty. Enjoy your purchase and sorry if I confused you :p
 
bore_u2_death said:
Correct. The only time that you actually hit the memory wall with 768MB is Crysis at 25x16 with 4xAA, so outside of the marginal increase in FPS from the memory bandwidth, there is no difference.

Your very right, in your situation the 768MB version is plenty. Enjoy your purchase and sorry if I confused you :p
Click to expand...

No I appreciate the information... it's just that my situation is 1920x1080, and I keep hearing any res over 1680x1050 should really get 1gb version, so since I'm eligibly for EVGA step up to 1gb for $20 it seems like I should take advantage... those benchmarks just made it seem pointless and make me wanna find a cheap deal on a 768mb instead... i'd appreciate more advice/recommendation however.

Sorry if im thread hijacking but any advice should also help OP
 
bore_u2_death said:
Correct. The only time that you actually hit the memory wall with 768MB is Crysis at 25x16 with 4xAA, so outside of the marginal increase in FPS from the memory bandwidth, there is no difference.

Your very right, in your situation the 768MB version is plenty. Enjoy your purchase and sorry if I confused you :p
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that is absolutely not true. I can hit 768mb at playable settings in several games at 1920x1080. at 1920x1080 it would be very short sided to go with a 768mb card if you want to to actually play at the full settings that a gtx460 is capable of.
 
cannondale06 said:
that is absolutely not true. I can hit 768mb at playable settings in several games at 1920x1080. at 1920x1080 it would be very short sided to go with a 768mb card if you want to to actually play at the full settings that a gtx460 is capable of.
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I don't disbelieve you at all, it's just those benches showed the fps difference around 5, and then dropping around 3 at 2560x1600...

the only explanation I can think of is there is a huge increase in low fps spikes that doesn't really affect the average fps in these benchmarks, but results in resolutions above 1680x1050 being unplayable? If this is the case, are there better benchmarks with graphics that would help me decide?
 
YamahaAlex37 said:
I don't disbelieve you at all, it's just those benches showed the fps difference around 5, and then dropping around 3 at 2560x1600...

the only explanation I can think of is there is a huge increase in low fps spikes that doesn't really affect the average fps in these benchmarks, but results in resolutions above 1680x1050 being unplayable? If this is the case, are there better benchmarks with graphics that would help me decide?
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okay maybe I am confused here but don't you already have a gtx460 768mb? also what res are you talking about playing at? and sometimes running out of vram may not show up in a benchmark but still result in hitching and stuttering at times. I had that happen to me with Fallout 3 with high res textures mods and Clear Sky. I confirmed that was the issue by monitoring vram usage and seeing that I was right around my 896mb capacity when the hitches happened.
 
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Think of the 460 768MB like the 260 and the 460 1GB as the 275...the 260 was/is still awesome!!
 
YamahaAlex37 said:
Which memory hungry games will max out the performance like this? According to this benchmark, none:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-460-gf104-fermi,2684-11.html

I don't see more difference than 5 fps in any game, and the margin only gets smaller (like 1-3 fps) as the res goes up to 2560x1600... :confused:

Not trying to argue, just trying to clear this up, because I'm eligible to upgrade to 1gb with evga step up, but im wondering if I would just be better off getting another 768 for sli if it's about the same at all resolutions.
Click to expand...

this is almost a rehash of the 512mb 4870/4850 debate. I can answer you straight on this, if its a choice between getting a second 460 or getting a 1gb model you will do better with the second card in 98% of all games at your resolution. Where you will likely see a performance hit for the 768mb is when you try and use all that horsepower to run up the AA. and you CAN do that on 768mb. on the other hand we are probalby talking 4x vs 8x in the more demanding games. you will imeadately know when this happens. but mostly it happens when you go over 2.3mp into the 4mp range. this review shows the differences pretty well but they are not maxing the cards out at 2.3mp where you can see it http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-geforce-gtx-460-hawk-review/11 still you can see the points where the 768mb card take a noise dive and that is the vram limit. you would have to crank the AA at 2.3mp to do the same.

I would get the second card myself. it would be a much bigger upgrade then the 1gb card or a 470GTX by miles.
 
he should have never bought a gtx460 768mb for 1920 if he was considering going sli. its one thing to reduce settings with one card but buying a second gpu when even the first card lacks the vram to crank the settings is silly. in other words many games that will require the gpu power of two gtx460 cards will also exceed 768mb at the settings he is trying to run in the first place. for example I already go over 768mb in Metro 2033 so a second card would not allow any more settings to be increased.
 
if you are still a virgin craigslist can hook you up? at least they used to be able to....
 
My GTX465 1GB does WoW at all settings maxed at 1920x1200 and sits at 60FPS all day.

But it is loud and runs at about 70-85*C. It idles at close to 40-50*C.....my GTX250 did that under full load :(
 
cannondale06 said:
he should have never bought a gtx460 768mb for 1920 if he was considering going sli.
Click to expand...

I bought the 768mb model in the EVGA step up program 2 months ago planning to step up to the 470 after the 6 series was released I knew the 470 price would plummet, and it did, so now I only have to pay the difference of the updated price.
 
OK look at the Tom's review that was linked by YamahaAlex.

At all of the resolutions, when you enable AA, the performance drop is around 25% of the cards performance without any AA. The only time this does not hold true is at 25x16 in Dirt 2, where with AA the 768MB gets around 30% of its FPS without any. I interpret that indication to be the VRAM wall, please inform me if my conclusion is incorrect.

If I am right about that then that issue only occurs at 25x16, and 4MP is almost twice as much as 2.3MP. So VRAM will not be an issue until 25x16.

If you want to securely run SLI and crank AA get the 1GB, if not then your good.

edit: YamahaAlex' resolution is 1080P. 4MP 1.9x times as many pixels as 2.07MP.
 
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bore_u2_death said:
OK look at the Tom's review that was linked by YamahaAlex.

At all of the resolutions, when you enable AA, the performance drop is around 25% of the cards performance without any AA. The only time this does not hold true is at 25x16 in Dirt 2, where with AA the 768MB gets around 30% of its FPS without any. I interpret that indication to be the VRAM wall, please inform me if my conclusion is incorrect.

If I am right about that then that issue only occurs at 25x16, and 4MP is almost twice as much as 2.3MP. So VRAM will not be an issue until 25x16.

If you want to securely run SLI and crank AA get the 1GB, if not then your good.
Click to expand...

I don't get it what your saying? 25x16 w/ 4xAA on BFBC2 for example the 768mb is 28fps and the 1gb is 31... even on crysis the difference at 25x16 with 4xAA was 4fps... no AA was 1fps difference.

So thats not 25%... unless you were referring on the 768 itself with AA and without AA, but in that case it's the exact same difference on the 1gb with AA and without.

Sorry guys, I know it seems like I'm trying to prove a point, but I'm not. In then end I'm sure I will step up at LEAST to 1gb 460, because it's a measly $20... but with the difference I'm seeing so far it might be hard to resist jumping on a 768mb for SLI if theres a great sale this black friday and forget about my step up
 
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