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460 768mb or 1gb for gaming at 1360x768?

Either is overkill at that res and your not really going to make use of the extra ROPs or VRAM on the 1gig card.
 
BMW M3 or M5 for dropping the kids off at school everyday?
Both choices are overkill for your res.. Why not look into getting a larger, higher res monitor instead? A 8800gtx/9800gtx/gtx250 would be good enough for your current resolution.
 
'A 8800gtx/9800gtx/gtx250 would be good enough for your current resolution'

But dont give the added advantages of the newer tech, ie, lower power, heat, noise, not to mention higher fps and DX11.;)
 
VFM Addict said:
Really cannot see that a 1GB 460 is worth the extra cost versus a 768MB 460.

I defy anyone to discern the difference without using benchmarking progs.

See - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/156?vs=180

Cheers,
vfm
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I'm interested in this, where do you get reliable information on VRAM usage? For example, I know it's hard to break 1GB VRAM even with Crysis but it can been done at 2560 x 1600.

I game at 1920 x 1200 so will that res ever exceed 1GB VRAM, in any game over the next year or two even? If so do I need a card with 2GB VRAM?
 
Rezident said:
I'm interested in this, where do you get reliable information on VRAM usage? For example, I know it's hard to break 1GB VRAM even with Crysis but it can been done at 2560 x 1600.

I game at 1920 x 1200 so will that res ever exceed 1GB VRAM, in any game over the next year or two even? If so do I need a card with 2GB VRAM?
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I know from my own testing that Crysis at very high settings (in game) with 4xAA/16xAF breaks through 900-950mb usage on my GTX460 @ 1680x1050. I assume 1GB would be easy to breach at 1920x1080 (or above).

Just Cause 2 is another game that can eat GPU memory (although it's quite easy to see why). I have not seen it go above 900mb yet in my own testing but I am trying Surround soon (5760x1080) so I imagine my little 460's will run out of memory quite quickly.
 
At that resolution I wouldn't bother with anything as powerful as 460. I would save a few quid and get a 450 or Radeon 5750 (both support DX11)

If you are not bothered about DX11 save even more and look at a GTS 250 or Radeon 5850.

Put the money you save towards getting a new monitor. Any of these cards should be powerful enough for most games on a 20/22" monitor running 1680x1050

See here for some more info
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/graphics-card-geforce-radeon,review-32014.html
 
rolypolyman said:
'A 8800gtx/9800gtx/gtx250 would be good enough for your current resolution'

But dont give the added advantages of the newer tech, ie, lower power, heat, noise, not to mention higher fps and DX11.;)
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..but can be had for £40 second hand. DX11 and higher FPS isn't that much of a deal breaker when the price difference is £120 ;)
 
You ought to be planning a monitor upgrade really :). If you are in the near future, get the best GPU you can afford. Games aren't going to get any less damanding on the hardware. If you are going to stick with that monitor for the forseeable future you really dont need much GPU so keep your pennies and pick up something cheap.
 
Liampope said:
You ought to be planning a monitor upgrade really :). If you are in the near future, get the best GPU you can afford. Games aren't going to get any less damanding on the hardware. If you are going to stick with that monitor for the forseeable future you really dont need much GPU so keep your pennies and pick up something cheap.
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Surely an adequate reason for him to get a card more powerful than he needs now so as to save upgrading so soon in the future?

Never understood the whole: " You don't need that much power if you are playing at that resolution".

It is sort of akin to saying: " You don't need that much power if you are only going to be playing games that are currently released."

One could argue that he could get a 480 and as long he keeps playing at that resolution he will not have to worry about upgrading for years!
 
Disagree. Things now move so fast that any excess power you currently have gpu-wise is exponentially falling in value by the day. Future-proofing is practically impossible and is financially nonsense these days.

Tomorrow's budget card will always match today's mid-range card, performance wise.

Think about the current situation with 5xxx cards. Why buy a mid to high range 5xxx when a lower group 6xxx would probably deliver similar performance. In reality that rationale holds true now pretty much all the time.

I guess the real question here is whether the OP is likely to upgrade his monitor very soon, say within in the next six months. If not then chances are that an adequate card today plus a further adequate card after the monitor upg would work out cheaper than buying a significantly over-powered card today and letting that excess power do nothing but fall in value for half a year.

Cheers,
vfm
 
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