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Is a Nvidia 260 (216) a decent upgrade from a overclocked 4850?

philstanbridge

philstanbridge

philstanbridge

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I'm contemplating my next upgrade - I'm liking the 512mb 4850 I have here, but there is no denying it struggles at 1920x1200. I don't want to spend a huge amount, but I'm wondering if the 260 is a decent upgrade. Take into account I am using a Dell Inspiron here, with an upgraded cpu and psu :D

The 4850 on the stock cooler is too noisy for me to be honest, and the Accelero I have broke yesterday - so I'll sell this when I've decided on the replacement. Any help appreciated.
 
Entirely depends on your defenition of 'decent'. From a noise point of view i think you will like the upgrade but for performance I think you'll be left wanting a little. You may find in some games that just dipped below 30FPS @ 1920x1200 they no longer will on the 260, but it won't be a night and day difference by any stretch (Except in maybe a few severly low FPS games, usual suspects, Crysis, GTAIV, etc)
 
I saw quite a difference going from a 4870 512 to a GTX 260 216 especially once I overclocked the GTX260.

The extra memory on the GTX260 will be a big boost as well.

Don't forget that overclocked GTX260 perform the same as GTX280 and come within 5% of GTX285.

So to see the gain you will make from a 4850 look at the reviews of GTX280's.

Anybody who claims that even an overlocked 4850 runs as quick as a GTX280 at 1920 x 1200 is just plain wrong IMO.
 
So which 260 would you go for? I'm looking at the XFX 55nm because of the 2 year warranty with ocuk, or perhaps the ocuk value with far cry 2 and mirrors edge, providing that is the same spec.
 
Faster?? Thing is, £150 is all I wanted to spend. The 260 fits the budget. Anything faster would be overkill at this point in time - I'd rather wait for the DX11 cards if I was going to spend that sort of money. The 260 is a good stop gap.
 
philstanbridge said:
So which 260 would you go for? I'm looking at the XFX 55nm because of the 2 year warranty with ocuk, or perhaps the ocuk value with far cry 2 and mirrors edge, providing that is the same spec.
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Nothing in it between models except warranty and price so just get the cheapest with best warranty. Make sure the ocuk value one with the free games comes with 2 year warranty and is 55nm version (people say both the 55 and 65 clock the same since the 65 has a better cooler but I have no issues with my 55nm ever going over 60C and that is with the fan only on 30%)


jigger said:
I would say no, get something faster.
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Easy to say if you have the money. We all want a GTX285 or GTX295 if we could afford one. However as said the GTX260 overclocked gives you better than GTX280 performance and within 5% of GTX285 which costs double. No brainer in my book.
 
Here's a good comparison site/review to see the gain you will get.

Let's assume your 4850 overclocked is the 4870 stock performance and the GTX260 216 overclocked is the GTX 280 performance. This will give you some idea of the boost you will gain.

http://www.tweakpc.de/hardware/infos/grafik/nvidia_geforce_gtx_275_preview/s02.php

Fear: 240fps vs 172 no aa, 132 vs 104 4xaa, 16xaf

HAWX: 77 vs 54.3 no aa, 49.7 vs 41.6 4xaa, 16xaf

Crysis Warhead: 23.26 vs 19.97 no aa, 19.68 vs 13.78 4xaa, 16xaf

Far Cry 2 58.45 vs 49.86 no aa, 49.24 vs 36.57 4xaa, 16xaf

There is only Stalker clear sky where the ATI come out on top. The rest an overclocked GTX260 216 outperforms an overclocked 4850 by 20% to 50%.

And I am being generous to the 4850 assuming that overclocked it matches a 4870 at stock.

So overall I think you will notiuce a 20 to 50% minimum framerate boost.
 
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And one more thing. I found that going from a 4870 512Mb overclocked to my GTX260 216 overclocked boosted framerates, everything seemed smoother and more importantly minimum framerates increased a lot.
 
Greebo said:
Here's a good comparison site/review to see the gain you will get.

Let's assume your 4850 overclocked is the 4870 stock performance and the GTX260 216 overclocked is the GTX 280 performance. This will give you some idea of the boost you will gain.

http://www.tweakpc.de/hardware/infos/grafik/nvidia_geforce_gtx_275_preview/s02.php

Fear: 240fps vs 172 no aa, 132 vs 104 4xaa, 16xaf

HAWX: 77 vs 54.3 no aa, 49.7 vs 41.6 4xaa, 16xaf

Crysis Warhead: 23.26 vs 19.97 no aa, 19.68 vs 13.78 4xaa, 16xaf

Far Cry 2 58.45 vs 49.86 no aa, 49.24 vs 36.57 4xaa, 16xaf

There is only Stalker clear sky where the ATI come out on top. The rest an overclocked GTX260 216 outperforms an overclocked 4850 by 20% to 50%.

And I am being generous to the 4850 assuming that overclocked it matches a 4870 at stock.

So overall I think you will notiuce a 20 to 50% minimum framerate boost.
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That's an interesting site - is it just maximum framerates though?

To be honest, most of those numbers wouldn't make me want to bother spending £160 to upgrade. The increase really isn't worth it.
 
A 260 would make everything smoother at 1920x res... but tbh even a 260 isn't enough if you like max graphics and silky smooth framerates... hence why I have 260GTX SLI... tho as that gives me min framerates over 100fps in a lot of games like left 4 dead its a bit overkill unless your an fps junky.
 
Rroff said:
A 260 would make everything smoother at 1920x res... but tbh even a 260 isn't enough if you like max graphics and silky smooth framerates... hence why I have 260GTX SLI... tho as that gives me min framerates over 100fps in a lot of games like left 4 dead its a bit overkill unless your an fps junky.
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Yeah. The 4870 1GB I have is decent for 1920x1200 (and far better than my old 8800GTS640) but I agree, it's not like I can suddenly crank up the AA to crazy-high levels and maintain a playable framerate. It does 4x (or 12x edge detect) okay in non-demanding games but anything ultra-demanding and the AA has to be dropped.
 
Aekeron said:
Yeah. The 4870 1GB I have is decent for 1920x1200 (and far better than my old 8800GTS640) but I agree, it's not like I can suddenly crank up the AA to crazy-high levels and maintain a playable framerate. It does 4x (or 12x edge detect) okay in non-demanding games but anything ultra-demanding and the AA has to be dropped.
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Thats the other beautiful thing with SLI... I can get single card performance with upto 32x SLI AA :D
 
im thinking of upgrading my old GTS8800 320mb to a gtx260. just seen teh 1790mb card which looks tempting. but dont know how it compares to the lower memory ones
 
Performance wise it won't be much different... but if the prices are close I'd go for the 1790Mb card personally.
 
Let's not forget I am using a £300 Dell Inspiron here :D I have changed the cpu to a E8400 and I am now using a 400w modular psu. I have no option to go with SLI, not that I want to. I'm trying to keep things within a tight budget, hence the Dell in the first place. I think the 260 will be the perfect upgrade. I like the fact it is quieter than the 4850 too.
 
Aekeron said:
That's an interesting site - is it just maximum framerates though?

To be honest, most of those numbers wouldn't make me want to bother spending £160 to upgrade. The increase really isn't worth it.
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Don't know as I can't speak German!

Neither would I probably from a 4870 1gb but depends when you do it and how much you get for your old card.

I sold my 4870 512mb for £120 and bought my GTX260 216 for £145 so only a £25 upgrade.

On that basis it was well worth the £25. It might cost you less to upgrade your 4870 1gb? No sure what 2nd 4870 1gb crads are worth?

The op should get £75ish (?) for his 4850 so only £75 to upgrade.
 
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