New video card now or wait?

Z

zeejay

n00b
Joined
Feb 1, 2008
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I've got about $500 saved up for a new card, been running my 280gtx since it came out. I still can't decide if i should go for a new card now or wait and see what
comes down the pipe.

Just about everything have runs great on the 280 still but there are a few games, Just cause 2 and metro in particular, that i would like some more performance for.

I'm leaning towards ATI at this point, mostly cause I don't want to deal with the heat and power consumption on the 480.

So what does [H] think? Should I go red, green, or wait?
 
Right now is probably the longest duration between a new product there will be in a while. I would say it is safe to upgrade.

Are you on air cooling or watercooling? Because of heat is an issue I would stray away from the 4xx as mine put off a ton of heat on air. But for Metra 2033 the 480 would be an amazing card.

If you are on water, my god the 480 is a beast of a card. Even on air my GTX 480 was pulling over 100 FPS compared to my crossfire 5870 which was pulling just under 120 FPS on Dirt 2.
 
Im running on air atm, would like to go water sometime though.

I am tempted by the 480 since it is a beast, part of me just says, get the 480 and who
cares how hot, loud, or power hungry it is, but then the more sensible part of me says
go for the more power efficient card. I still can't decide.
 
I thought the same exact thing where I didn't care about the heat and power consumption but I ran some Crysis benchmarks with just one card for a few loops and I felt my room heat up by 5-8F.
 
For $500, the GTX480 is the best card you can get - and that hurts to say being an ATI fanboy.

The 5870 comes close in a couple games but the 480 flat out smokes it in others. The 5970 is faster but I mean, damn, $700? Not sure if I could drop that much cash just on a video card.
 
There will always be something bigger and better on the horizon. If you can afford it i.e. got your bills paid, do what you want to do. Just remember, tech ALWAYS advances no matter how much cash you spend or when you spend it.
 
Yeah there's always something new coming, but it sucks to buy right before the next thing comes out.

The rest of my system is fine, I7 920 @ 4ghz 12gb ram.

The only other thing that would be nice is an SSD, that's next.
 
Continue saving. If the GTX 490 or whatever they call it is announced in the next few months for little more than $700 and it is well reviewed, buy it.

If you want a card now, the GTX 480 is both very fast and surprisingly overclockable.

Or buy a 5870 and get an SSD for your OS drive!
 
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The GTX480 is a pretty nice sweet spot for $500 atm. And later when prices go down you could SLI
 
If your not running 120Hz monitor, and if your not playing games that really need a gtx 480, I see no reason to upgrade right now.

I will upgrade when I get my 120Hz monitor to take full advantage of it. But I really have no reason to upgrade above my gtx 260 at the moment, I could easily wait.
 
Wasn't the 6xxx series rumored to be out around August to October? I don't remember exactly :eek: but I would just wait until then.

On the contrary: If you wait longer your 280 will lose more value. So if you sell it for a new card, you would have to pay more for the card. That's why I sold my 260 and bought a 5850 about a month and a half ago.
 
I'd run another 280 in SLI worst case if you don't like it you can sell both and get a 480.
 
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