recommended cards for my system upgrade from 8800GTS (G92)?

Hi All!

I've been running two of the EVGA 8800GTS G92 in SLI for almost five years now and feel it's about time to upgrade. I could use some input on which video cards would be the best replacement based on my system specs. I don't think I really need to continue the two card SLI route. Would something in the GTX 600 line be good enough (the prices are rather low, so I could easliy get two for SLI), or can I step into something like a single GTX760 2 GB?

So basically it's the usual question: How far can I go in upgrade before I would hit a bottleneck. Thanks for the input. Happy Holidays!

EVGA LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W
4 x 2 GB OCZ SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
2 - EVGA GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB SLI
OCZ ModXStream OCZ900MXS
SAMSUNG 2693HM LCD Monitor 1900x1200

Uhh, umm, how do I say this politely, its time to get a new rig period lol.

Yes, Thanks I usually build a new rig every five years, so it's time. But I'd like to get another year out of this one. I just ran across another thread where the OP runs an E8400 and was essentially asking the same question. Based on the responses he got, it would appear that the most my system would handle would be in the range of a 650Ti, at best.

I think the 600's should suit you just fine. I had 2 460 GTX in SLI on a Quad core as of last year playing at 1920x1080.

trilegdog said:

Yes, Thanks I usually build a new rig every five years, so it's time. But I'd like to get another year out of this one. I just ran across another thread where the OP runs an E8400 and was essentially asking the same question. Based on the responses he got, it would appear that the most my system would handle would be in the range of a 650Ti, at best.

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Your SLI setup is basically on par with a 460, and depending on the game, a 650Ti doesn't offer all that much improvement really.... Save your money.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/542?vs=680

Depends if you're you playing current AAA titles. If so, you'd have keep to IQ settings at the minimum to get consistent frame rate at 1200p. You could probably get a used GTX 670. I might go out on a limb here since I happen own an OC'd 460, a used 7870 xt or 7950 may be another alternative if you just want a temporary upgrade before overhauling your entire build. The 670 will probably have favorable performance/watt of the three cards.

Would you be able to wait until Intel introduces Haswell-E in the next 5-8 months? DDR4 is suppose come out during that time as well, but it's predicted to be pretty expensive initially.

Or since you didn't feel the need to jump platforms in the past 6 years, you could wait until 2016 for Intel's Skylake, Nvidia's Volta, and PCIe 4.0 to come out.

trilegdog said:

Yes, Thanks I usually build a new rig every five years, so it's time. But I'd like to get another year out of this one. I just ran across another thread where the OP runs an E8400 and was essentially asking the same question. Based on the responses he got, it would appear that the most my system would handle would be in the range of a 650Ti, at best.

Click to expand...

Pretty much if you're lucky. At that point I wouldn't recommend the upgrade without knowing the future layout of the next build because otherwise you might throw money into a black hole and look back on that a year later. As great as the 650 Ti/Boost are in generational leap from where you're at, they are nowhere near decent with a modern rig playing modern games with respectable settings.


If you're going to get a GPU first and slowly build out your system, then I'd go for the biggest bang you can get with whatever funds you're limited by. If you can afford a 7970/770/R9 280(X)/R9 290 then by all means I say go for it. Sure you're going to handicap yourself, but you'll also notice how bad when you compare benchmarks from those cards to what you're seeing in-game. Not to mention it'll be a nice surprise a year later to see how the same card makes your gaming experience much better when you do upgrade the other components. Kinda a mental trick I've been doing myself when I do a rolling build out.

no real point in upgrading to any decent gpu until you are ready for a new pc. my E8500 at 3.8 was maxed out in some games even 3 years ago.