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Decent card upgrade

X

xhalex

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Apr 24, 2007
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Hello all, I have a 1gb GTX460, what would be a nice upgrade for around $150 + or - a few dollars? I would eventually like to play BF3 or similar games with decent settings. Don't want to do dual cards for now. Here's what I got:

i3 2120
Asrock Pro 3
8 GB Ripjaws
GTX 460
Samsung 24" monitor

Nothing too fancy, just would like to play anything up to BF3 kind of games, Skyrim, etc. Quad core will be in soon, but would like to get a card first.

Thanks!
 
just get another 460 for 150$. unless you want to sell that 460 and buy something worth around 300$
 
Thanks, not sure I want to go dual cards, I just can't help that I want to upgrade after reading this forum :D
 
If you want to stick to a single card the gtx 570 would probably be the next noticeable step up but that will probably cost you more then $150. Maybe a unlocked 6950?
 
I'm not married to Nvidia or anything, that maybe is a possibility, seems that 3/4 of everyone on here is on an AMD HD card...
 
In most cases, amd has a good grip on the midrange market. There is a big selection of cards that have a lot of bang for the buck. It's probably why you see such a big fan base here. I'm in the same boat as you. I think our best option is sli.
 
Do you have SLI on your motherboard? I Googled what you listed and it seems its a single PCI-E x 16 slot. Have you overclocked your GTX 460 1GB yet? Just recently I decided to see what my GTX 460 could do and I was able to overclock it with Afterburner software to 875 Mhz. A 200 Mhz jump over its stock clocks made quite a bit of difference in performance. With such a low budget I doubt you could do significantly better than an OC'd GTX 460.

I have a PNY reference model - others can OC quite a bit more. I did put an Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo II on it and it runs very cooling and quiet and OC'd a lot better (was able to increase it from 815 to 875 Mhz. Cost me $37 at Mwave.com.
 
give this review a look, it shows the gtx 460, radeon 6870, 6950, gtx 470, 570 and gtx 560ti on 3 diff resolutions both with aa and no aa. Should give you an idea of how much you need to pay to get a certain amount of improvement.
 
Two 460s would be great, you won't see much difference in 560, but 6950/6970 would be nice jump.
 
6950 or gtx 560 ti , not really much you can do with $150 to play BF3 at a good framerate.

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I think the 6870 is an excellent video card but its not a huge step up from what he already has. Id vote to sell the 460 and get at least a 6950. they start around $199 after rebate
 
ATM single card i would wait it out to 1-2 months to see what comes on 28nm, or with luck even some lower prices on the current 40nm.
 
buttons said:
I think the 6870 is an excellent video card but its not a huge step up from what he already has. Id vote to sell the 460 and get at least a 6950. they start around $199 after rebate
Click to expand...

I would oc the card to see how much it can handle. If it still isnt enough then sell it and get a 6950.
 
Friend of mine just went from a 460 768mb to a 6870 and was very, very happy with his improvement in BF3.

Sell the 460 on the forums, buy a 6870/6950. Profit.
 
Tbh if you must buy a card right now then you would be much better off with a GTX 570 and overclock it to 580 speeds.... That will be much better then a 6870 in BF3
 
Uhhh big price difference between 570 and 6870 price wise tho...

And all in all, quite a bit more than the 150$ +/- a few bucks... honestly i think that he can play with his 460 for the time being, and wait for the new mid ranges.
 
What are you doing with the existing card? If you're selling it, are you including the sale price in your $150 number, or are you willing to spend $150 on top of whatever you would get for the 460? There's a big difference in what you can get right now for $150 vs $230-250.


Revdarian said:
ATM single card i would wait it out to 1-2 months to see what comes on 28nm, or with luck even some lower prices on the current 40nm.
Click to expand...

This is what I'm doing. I picked up a GTX 460 1GB for $115 a couple months ago to hold me over til 28nm stuff came out. The 460 is sitting at 822/2100 and is quite playable @ 1080p in BF3, but I really want to be able to turn MSAA on. I would probably have jumped to an unlockable 2GB 6950 by now if I wasn't limited to a 9.5" card in my case. Due to length, my ONLY upgrade right now (reference cards at least) would be a GTX 560Ti, and that isn't a big enough leap forward. Plus most of those are only 1GB, and BF3 is maxing out 1GB w/o AA. A 2GB 7850/7870 is in my future if they can keep them under 10" (and ideally give me a rear-facing power connection.. those side-facing ones won't work for my case :(
 
If you don't want to wait for the new cards to get released then, as everyone else said look into a used GTX 570, 6970, 6950, or 5870 and oc them a little..
 
you can get 6950's for $229-ish and the gtx 570 is $100+ or more. Pretty significant price difference.
 
If you want to run AA at 1080p on BF3 then you will be dissapointed with a 6950 or any current ATI card other than the 7970 tbh....

I have a 5870 and I cant run any AA at all (online)... Can just about run it at high details with no AA.... If you want to use AA in BF3 at high details you will need a gtx 570 or better otherwise you will be dissapointed... Nvidia cards are much better with AA in BF3
 
Thanks for all the suggestions...Seems at this time I have to spend at least $200 to get an appreciable upgrade to what I have now. I think I may hang on to this card for a bit, at least until the new cards come out...then I'll look at my options again. :)
 
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