Question RE upgrade from 4870

[freeman2k6]

Greetings! I have determined that I need to upgrade my video card. I also want to switch over to the green team since I am somewhat unhappy with AMD/Radeon/etc. Emberassingly enough I do not know much about nVidia and am beginning my research. I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction.

I am trying to keep the price point around $200 or less. I am upgrading from an XFX 4870 1GB. I currently have an i5-750 and an antec EA 650 PSU(650W.)

This is what I'm looking at right now. EVGA GTX 560 It's $184.99 + $6.98 shipping (After $15.00 MIR)

Am I going in the right direction here? I will be using this exclusively for gaming. Games such as Skyrim, Battlefield 3, Diablo 3 and Eve Online all @ 1920x1200.

Thanks so much for your time and input.

 

[darkeen]

Rumor has it that the 600 series is launching in January. If you don't mind waiting there could be some interesting benefits. Else, the 560 is essentially an overclocked 460. Good card, but unless the $200 is a hard limit I would get a 560 ti. If the 200 is a hard limit, then I'd go for a 460 which can be had for very cheap.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500202

 

[freeman2k6]

Thanks for the reply. I would rather not wait until January since an issue with the 4870 is inhibiting my game play which is annoying since I have a currently unused copy of Skyrim staring me in the face every day. Among other reasons. Unless it was going to be a ridiculous difference in price, I would rather buy now(BF/IM) rather than wait. I'm not too familiar with Zotac but I will admit paying $119 for a 460 does sound nice compared to the $229 for the EVGA 560 Ti.

I would pay the extra $110 though if it would make a significant difference though since I don't upgrade my video card all that often. I just don't want to get stuck with buyer's remorse or something similar.

 

[darkeen]

Honestly saving the money is probably more significant. The 560 ti is better. Is it $110 better? That's really up to you. Zotac has made a name for themselves more in the integrated systems market. They make some damn fine ion boards, but for a high end gpu I would expect them to be a reference design with few frills. They're not an ECS or a biostar if that helps

Side note: 4870 vs the 460
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/304?vs=313

4870 vs the 560 ti
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/304?vs=330

 

[happymedium]

Just grab the gtx460 and overclock it. It will come close to gtx560ti performance anyway.

 

[freeman2k6]

Right on, thanks for the suggestions. I will go ahead and pick up that Zotac 460 unless there is a better deal for a better card on Black Friday/Internet Monday. On the overlocking topic, I am a novice cpu overclocker at best and know absolutely nothing about GPU overclocking. Is it a simple matter of using a utility such as MSI Afterburner and turning up settings until your temps are too high? I doubt it, but that's my initial guess.

 

[darkeen]

Right on, thanks for the suggestions. I will go ahead and pick up that Zotac 460 unless there is a better deal for a better card on Black Friday/Internet Monday. On the overlocking topic, I am a novice cpu overclocker at best and know absolutely nothing about GPU overclocking. Is it a simple matter of using a utility such as MSI Afterburner and turning up settings until your temps are too high? I doubt it, but that's my initial guess.

You'll want to be careful, but yes. It's essentially just turning up the clocks and hoping nothing dies

 

[happymedium]

Right on, thanks for the suggestions. I will go ahead and pick up that Zotac 460 unless there is a better deal for a better card on Black Friday/Internet Monday. On the overlocking topic, I am a novice cpu overclocker at best and know absolutely nothing about GPU overclocking. Is it a simple matter of using a utility such as MSI Afterburner and turning up settings until your temps are too high? I doubt it, but that's my initial guess.

Yes its simple and it will freeze the screen or reboot if you go to far. Its not dangerous.
Just do it in 10mhz increpments.

825 core at 1.05v should be easy. Thats close to 6870 performance, 890 core is close to gtx560ti performance.

I had mine @ 930 core.