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Old machine, new gpu?

T

Tacitrain

n00b
Joined
Aug 1, 2002
Messages
47
Ok, so I've got an almost 4 year old machine. Here are the specs.

C2D E6700(2.6ghz)
Asus P5N-E
4gigs RAM
gtx 260 (216)
1680x1050

With those specs, is it at all worth it to upgrade to a gtx460 or am I already bottle-necking the 260? I think I know, but I've been reading around, and I've been getting a lot of conflicting info. What do you think?
 
I'm very impressed you got a P5N-E to last 4 years. Most of them didn't even last 6 months. I thought I did rather well squeezing 7 months out of mine.
There's not really much point buying a 460 over a 260. Disregarding the CPU bottleneck, even with no bottleneck at all a 1GB 460 is only 35% faster than a 216-core GTX260 anyway, so it's not really a worthwhile upgrade. You really need to be looking at a GTX560 or HD6870 for a viable upgrade that'll see you with more than 50% performance.

Whether the bottleneck is an issue really depends on the games you'll be playing. If I were you I'd either save up for a CPU upgrade now and then once you've done that, then consider a higher-end card (or wait until after christmas when the new 28nm GPUs will be out, offering far better performance for the price), or simply save up for something bigger than the 460.
 
Thanks for the reply, I think I'll wait until I have enough to do a complete rebuild then.
 
Yeah, I did *almost* the same upgrade:

Core 2 Duo E8200 stock 2.66 GHz.
HD 4850 to GTX 460

I debated upgrading the CPU as well, but the most CPU-intensive game at the time (Battlefield: Bad Company 2) was perfectly playable on my 4850. Also, I wanted to hold-off on upgrading my CPU until Sandy Bridge.

So, I overclocked to 3.2 GHz, and it was enough to power the new GPU. But now I have a 2500k, and my system feels more balanced...so take that for what it's worth.
 
HD4850 to a GTX460 is much more of an upgrade, because the 260-216 is a good 25% more powerful than the 4850, which is about as much of an increase as a 260-216 to a 460 is. Effectively, you've made twice the upgrade he will.
 
Looking at benches, the 460 is at times 75-100% faster than the 4850. Way more than 25% if you have the CPU power to push it.
Posted via Mobile Device

Edit: Read that wrong. My bad.

OP, you should think about getting a high clockedquad before a GPU upgrade IMO.
 
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