Upgrade or wait?

J

Justinimcool2001

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 18, 2008
Messages
284
My spec is in my sig. I have been running my 9800gx2 since the day it was released. Contrary to popular opinion mine has actually been a fantastic card and continues to be to this day. I have not been able to run MW2 at it's highest settings although pretty close and am considering an upgrade.

With AVP coming out soon and my desire to run most of the newer games at max for a while what does everybody think I should do?

I considered upgrading my processor to an i, but most everything I have read says that I will get more out of upgrading my video card (don't really want to do a full system rebuild just yet).

The new cards are coming out soon I believe so would I be best to wait and get a step below them at a reduced price or get the new cards or what? Opinions and thoughts welcome.

Thanks guys, long live [H]ard Forums, favorite PC spot.

Justin
 
if you're interested in getting a new card to play AvP then you should go with one of the ATI 5000 series cards as the game comes out before the new Nvidia Fermi cards...if you can wait till March for Fermi then that might be the best option as you can evaluate both DX11 offerings from ATI and Nvidia and make a decision then
 
You can always wait for the next bunch of hardware instead of upgrading. The time where you upgrade is the time where you decide you aren't getting the performance you want, and the cost of an upgrade is worth the performance increase you'll see. For some, this is when they can't max a game, for others its when they can no longer play games on the lowest setting. For others its when they want to fold more even though they can max all the games. :p
 
Polony, I have kind of been looking at the ATI 5000 cards and they seem expensive compared to how much of an upgrade I will be getting. As far as I can tell they say that the 9800GX2 is pretty equal to a GTX260.

March is when they will be dropping the Fermi cards eh? Also i'm a bit skeptical of whether or not DX11 will take hold soon so i'm definitely not demanding that I have a DX11 card.

Thanks for the help too, appreciate it.
 
Tudz said:
You can always wait for the next bunch of hardware instead of upgrading. The time where you upgrade is the time where you decide you aren't getting the performance you want, and the cost of an upgrade is worth the performance increase you'll see. For some, this is when they can't max a game, for others its when they can no longer play games on the lowest setting. For others its when they want to fold more even though they can max all the games. :p
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I think i'm at a point though where I can get another 2 years or so out of all of my current hardware except my video card. I think if I can upgrade my card and continue with the rest of my hardware I will be good for a while.
 
I just bit on a 5870 coming from a 4890. I've been meaning to get a 5800 series card because I've had 3 monitors ready to go for a few months now (got a good deal on a gpu + adapter).

60-90 days is a lot in the tech world, but if you can hold off that much, it most likely will be better value than you have now. You may save anywhere between $50-$100 on the 5000 cards waiting for fermi, but is that money worth the 2 months you'll go without a new card? Another thing to keep in mind is if you sell your current card, it will probably also go lower in value making the price drop on the 5000 cards not as valueable. For example, your card may drop $20 in value, while the 5000 cards drop $50, making only a $30 savings for waiting 2 months.

Also consider the availbility and the premium for the best of the best (Fermi) once it releases. I have no doubt Fermi will be powerful, but you're going to have to spam refresh to try and get it day 1, if you dont get it day 1, expect hiked prices on FS forums and ebay until supply can keep up with demand.

My recommendation is to go for it if you have 3 monitors (one DP capable) ready to take advantage of the 5800 cards, Otherwise, I'd say keep the 9800gx2 for another month or two until fermi fleshes out and competition once again lowers card prices.
 
Breath_of_the_Dying said:
I just bit on a 5870 coming from a 4890. I've been meaning to get a 5800 series card because I've had 3 monitors ready to go for a few months now (got a good deal on a gpu + adapter).

60-90 days is a lot in the tech world, but if you can hold off that much, it most likely will be better value than you have now. You may save anywhere between $50-$100 on the 5000 cards waiting for fermi, but is that money worth the 2 months you'll go without a new card? Another thing to keep in mind is if you sell your current card, it will probably also go lower in value making the price drop on the 5000 cards not as valueable. For example, your card may drop $20 in value, while the 5000 cards drop $50, making only a $30 savings for waiting 2 months.

Also consider the availbility and the premium for the best of the best (Fermi) once it releases. I have no doubt Fermi will be powerful, but you're going to have to spam refresh to try and get it day 1, if you dont get it day 1, expect hiked prices on FS forums and ebay until supply can keep up with demand.

My recommendation is to go for it if you have 3 monitors (one DP capable) ready to take advantage of the 5800 cards, Otherwise, I'd say keep the 9800gx2 for another month or two until fermi fleshes out and competition once again lowers card prices.
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Think i'll take your advice and wait until March then avoid the brand new cards and get a nice higher end card. Should I aim for a 5000 ATI card or the GTX295?
 
Justinimcool2001 said:
Think i'll take your advice and wait until March then avoid the brand new cards and get a nice higher end card. Should I aim for a 5000 ATI card or the GTX295?
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If you're doing this for AvP, it would make sense to get a DX11 card for tesselation.
 
I'd lean towards 5870 for "future proofing" but since you decided to wait, just get which has better value when the time comes, its hard to say how much either will drop.
 
Wait for AMD refresh to come out at least. There's a very high chance of it having alot of improvements including goodies like improved tessellation + hardware improvements+2gb version. 6month lead on Nvidia means more mature process so you can bet there's a good chance of what I'm saying is going to happen.
 
When exactly does AVP come out? I know you mentioned its soon but everyone has a different definition of that word it seems. If AVP will be our before March and you want to use some of the newer features available in AVP like Tessolation, your only option available would be to go with the ATI 58xx series as nVidia cards won't be out that support DX11 and tessolation until March.

Alternatively, you could wait and play the game a few months after it's release if its due out in say Februrary and wait for nVidia cards to be released. You might end up saving yourself a bit of money IF nvidia GF100 is well/competitively priced and forces ATI to drive down their prices. In addition, you might stand to get a better card IF the GF100 turns out to be a rockstar of a card(maybe unlikely but you never know). In addition, you might stand to get a better card IF the GF100 release forces ATI to release their refresh cards around the same time. IE, you might get like a "5870" version 2, over a 5870 version 1.
 
Justinimcool2001 said:
Think i'll take your advice and wait until March then avoid the brand new cards and get a nice higher end card. Should I aim for a 5000 ATI card or the GTX295?
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Don't buy another SLI-on-a-card. Your Core 2 Duo is barely enough to keep your current card fed. If you upgrade to a card with roughly double the capacity, that's even more CPU overhead to keep them synced and fed.

On the other hand, if you buy a SINGLE GPU card, you'll actually reduce your current CPU needs, and breath a little longer life into your system (before you have to upgrade the CPU).

You're probably looking at a 5870/Fermi, or perhaps a 5890 (if ATI releases it to compete).
 
Justinimcool2001 said:
Think i'll take your advice and wait until March then avoid the brand new cards and get a nice higher end card. Should I aim for a 5000 ATI card or the GTX295?
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The two cards you'd want to be considering are the ATI 58xx series and the GT100 series aka the 'Fermi'. The reason your waiting till March would be for nVidia's DX11 + tessolation supported cards to come out. I would advice >against< choosing the GTX295 only because there's a better feature set on the ATI 58xx series. Eyefinity, DX11, Tessolation. GTX295 has none of those features at this time unfortunately. However, Fermi will have those features allowing you more options. You could choose form either nVidia's offerings or ATI's offerings depending on your price point.

When it comes to choosing a ATI Radeon HD 58xx card though, there are several different ones to choose from. They basically range from cheapest, cheaper, low-medium priced, medium priced, expensive, rather expensive. Each one goes a bit faster than the earlier one, has more 'components' on it like additional shaders, etc. The model numbers kind of explain which one is best.

5750 - Cheapest
5770 - Cheaper
5830 - Low-medium priced
5850 - Medium priced
5870 - A bit expensive
5970 - RAther expensive(basically its 2 5870s put together)
 
Personally would wait tell after march to see Fermi... just because the market could change major from that...

If you are looking into the 5800 series card, Fermi could drop the price. so you might pay $400 now for a 5870 and then in a month pay $300 or maybe less even.

.02c

(I am waiting tell after the release of Fermi to pick up another 5850 :D )
 
1. Your card is still more than fine.
2. The answer is always to wait as long as possible (or very nearly always). The cost of the card you want to upgrade to is nearly certain to come down, and it is nearly certain that your super awesome upgrade target will itself be one-upped.
 
only upgrade if your card cant run the games you want at the eye candy you want. I really wanted to get a card to replace my 4870, but honestly it still runs everything at 1920x1200 at max on the games I play. so why bother? I wanted a new shiney toy for my pc but it would be in vain
 
Thanks for all the replies guys. Supposedly AVP comes out in 3 weeks so I will pick it up and see how my current system can handle it. If it's not up to my demands I will upgrade then. Otherwise I will wait until Fermi drops and then consider my options.
 
Justinimcool2001 said:
Thanks for all the replies guys. Supposedly AVP comes out in 3 weeks so I will pick it up and see how my current system can handle it. If it's not up to my demands I will upgrade then. Otherwise I will wait until Fermi drops and then consider my options.
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It looks like it will be DX 11 so that might be a good enough reason right there to get a 5800 card.

or again wait for Fermi and get DX 11, who knows what the price of Fermi will be and are you willing to spend it.

DX11 is :D


http://www.aliensvspredator.net/forum/topic/167-aliens-vs-predator-directx-11-video-and-screen/
 
Nickbaldwin86 said:
It looks like it will be DX 11 so that might be a good enough reason right there to get a 5800 card.

or again wait for Fermi and get DX 11, who knows what the price of Fermi will be and are you willing to spend it.

DX11 is :D


http://www.aliensvspredator.net/forum/topic/167-aliens-vs-predator-directx-11-video-and-screen/
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Wow, that made me even more excited. Quick question then, say I do wait until Fermi and end up picking one up will my CPU bottleneck the shit out of everything and hold me back. Would I have to do a full rebuild?
 
Justinimcool2001 said:
Wow, that made me even more excited. Quick question then, say I do wait until Fermi and end up picking one up will my CPU bottleneck the shit out of everything and hold me back. Would I have to do a full rebuild?
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I do not recommend that... I have a i7 920 and think it is WAY over kill as far as gaming is considered.

I think you would be fine on that CPU, it might be a bottleneck but don't think by much.

You could look into getting a Quad core with a faster clock speed that would work with your current system (or OC which is my favorite (even with a OC you might not see a difference))

Again play the waiting game... the "i9s" (what ever the rumored name is going to be) are coming out and they are supposed to smoke the i7s
 
Justinimcool2001 said:
Wow, that made me even more excited. Quick question then, say I do wait until Fermi and end up picking one up will my CPU bottleneck the shit out of everything and hold me back. Would I have to do a full rebuild?
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I don't understand why people think upgrading to a new card will suddenly be a CPU bottleneck. The only thing that can bottleneck a system is a new game, and that all depends on how CPU-hungry the new game is.

We can "guesstimate" the typical CPU processing power you will need to drive a game at a given framerate, but because every game is different, and every new game can push boundaries, your CPU needs can change abruptly.

If your current processor can drive your video at 60fps (even at low resolution), then if you buy a new card, it will also be driven at 60fps. The higher-end card means you can run higher resolutions, and higher eyecandy levels. It does not require a significant increase in CPU cycles to drive it at the same 60fps rate.

If you buy a new game, and suddenly you can't top 45fps in any resolution, that's a CPU-limited situation. In that case, upgrading to a high-end card still won't get you above 45fps.

After you buy AvP, if you can't run it at max on your current system, perform the following tests: run the game at a much lower resolution, and see if the framerate is playable. If it is, you are simply GPU-limited, and need a new GPU. However, if the game is still unplayable, you've reached the limits of your CPU, and need to prioritize upgrading to an i5/i7.
 
Yeah, I'm sure my Q6600 will last me a while before I need to upgrade. This game looks amazing though, but I'll hold out till I see reviews. It is afterall being published by SEGA (Crappy track record as of late).
 
OP, I believe we are in the same boat (I even have the same motherboard). I'm not so much waiting due to a specific game, but due to potential price drops, or performance increases. Soon my three new monitors will arrive for Eyefinity or 'Surround' which will make the wait even more unbearable. :(

I have decided to wait because it seems to open up better options overall. One additional benefit is that I will have more funds available when the time comes so I will have the option of swinging for HD5970 or the SLI equivalent from Nvidia. ;)

I'd recommend waiting.
 
I am going to wait until Fermi shows up. Also curious to see reviews on AVP but I friggin loved the old ones soooo much, not sure if I will be able to hold out on just going out and buying it day 1.
 
9800GX2 is still a pretty nice card and the Q6600 is still a pretty nice CPU, I'd wait.
 
I also recommend you wait to upgrade. Hold on to your Q6600 and upgrade your gfx card at a later time. Games nowadays hardly use any CPU at all.
 
I'd wait 'til March. Either you buy a Fermi or snap up an ATI after the almost-guaranteed price drop comes into effect. At least then you can make an educated decision, compare some benchies, power consumption, noise levels, etc.
 
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