Time to upgrade?

[Monkeypillow]

I'm currently playing on a 1080p television, but I have a 1920x1200 monitor as well. I've been rocking a G92 8800GTS 512 for about a year now, and it's been serving me well. However, I've noticed that newer games seem to be limited when it comes to higher resolution textures, AA, etc.. A lot of what I play are games based on the Source engine, like TF2 and L4D, but I enjoy newer games like Crysis Warhead that aren't as forgiving when it comes to GPU power.

As far as platforms are concerned, I'm sticking with my P35/Q6600 until at least this summer when Core i5 (Lynnfield) comes out. At that time, I'll see what prices and performance are like with i7 and i5, and consider upgrading. If I upgrade at that point, multiple GPU setups are possible for me. Until then, I'm limited to single-card solutions.

Is it worth upgrading now or in the near future, or should I wait until summer for a new graphics card?

Suggestions?

 

[Silus]

Never play the waiting game or you'll be waiting forever, since there's always something better around the corner. If you have the money and really need the extra power, go for it. There are plenty of options in the market, for almost every price segment. Read reviews, see what suits your needs in terms of performance and price and get it. The only single cards that will provide a significant upgrade over your card are:

Any GTX 200 card (GTX 260, GTX 260 Core 216, GTX 280, GTX 285)
HD 4870 512 and HD 4870 1 GB

 

[kioras]

If you want to upgrade your graphics card, getting an hd 4870 1gb or gtx 260 would be best, for your resolution, i would not get a 512mb card, simply because more and more games will happily use near 1gb of ram.

I think Lynfield might be delayed, as Intel and OEM's want to work down some of the extra stock they have.