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What's a sensible upgrade? No budget.

Ken

Ken

Ken

Associate
Joined
28 Apr 2004
Posts
1,067
Hi,

Don't know if the thread title makes sense but I'm going to be upgrading to a 2600K with 8GB RAM and will be using my existing 8800GTS for about 2 months, maybe 3.

I game on a 19inch 1280x1024 resolution. What would be a decent upgrade? The Nvidia GTX 580, I feel is overkill. I have never used SLI before and besides the performance aspect of it, I am pretty excited in the material value of 2 cards in my case :D as well as the installation and overclocking of them both. So the GTX 460 SLI at just over £300 seems decent to me.

I will be playing games I've missed out on such as Bioshock 2, Metro 2033, Crysis, ME2 at the default resolution but with all the settings wacked up to the highest. Will settle on low settings with the 8800GTS for now.

What would you guys suggest?

:)
 
At that resolution, any decent card would be overkill, never mind SLI!!!

In a few months, the GTX 560 will probably be out. ;) If you are running 460 or 560 SLI, then you really need a bigger resolution monitor or it's a waste.

If not, just get a single 570/80. Even then it's still overkill at 1280x1024. You could max everything at that res with a single GTX 460.
 
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I game on a 19inch 1280x1024
Click to expand...

Upgrade your monitor first; you look at the picture not the processing power!

Anything above a 460 will be drastic overkill on that. V good reccommendation above.

A 6950 would be a good comprimise between power and value for the cpu you are getting.
 
Darn :(, really keen on 460 SLI but also don't doubt you guys when you say it's overkill. I mean it does match a single 580 on some tests.

Thing is though, I have two Viewsonic 19 inch TFTs. And because I must have two monitors and have OCD, if I was to upgrade the monitors, I would have to buy them both at the same time and will probably go for two 24 inch ones. Buying at the same time will also mean the backlight intensity will be the same on both. However an upgrade on both monitors is not on the upgrade list until end of the year, if that.
 
Ken go shopping for a new monitor mate something with atleast 1920 x 1080 resolution and then look for a card with atleast 1Gb of video memory.. Forget SLI these new cards will run everything very well with current games. SLI maybe in 2 years time when the 2nd card will cost next to nothing or by then buy again the best buy high end card..

This is what I would buy if I was in your position now.

MSI GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £269.99

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-112-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010

BenQ G2420HDBL 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £155.99

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-033-BQ&groupid=17&catid=510&subcat=


Reason I said GTX-570 not ATI/AMD 6950 is because you want to play Metro, Metro and some other games play better on Nvidia graphics cards.
 
Purgatory said:
Ken go shopping for a new monitor mate something with atleast 1920 x 1080 resolution and then look for a card with atleast 1Gb of video memory.. Forget SLI these new cards will run everything very well with current games. SLI maybe in 2 years time when the 2nd card will cost next to nothing or by then buy again the best buy high end card..

This is what I would buy if I was in your position now.

MSI GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £269.99

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-112-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010

BenQ G2420HDBL 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £155.99

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-033-BQ&groupid=17&catid=510&subcat=


Reason I said GTX-570 not ATI/AMD 6950 is because you want to play Metro, Metro and some other games play better on Nvidia graphics cards.
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Think I'll go single card then. The monitor will have to wait as I must have dual identical monitors so will upgrade both when I have the money. Heh, I am a bit of an Nvidia fan...the last ATI card I had was some ATI Rage with a Voodoo 2 booster effort thing lol!
 
Dude anything above a 9800gt is a bit of a waste at that res, you just are not asking any latest gpu to colour enough pixels to make it worthwhile. My 9800gt coped fine at 1600x1240 and yours is much less.

Monitors can be a bit of an ingrained thing but seriously, monitor first- you dont spent all the time looking at the card- you look at the screen!
 
I agree, first thing to upgrade would be the monitor. You can get a pair of decent widescreen 22" for not much and then game on one at 1680x1050 without needing to go nuts on graphics cards.
 
Second hand 9800 for £40.

Save up some money and buy 2x 22 or 24 inch monitors. As others have said anything more is wasted and you'd be silly wasting £200 on. A gfx card that wont be utilised. Come next year when you have got a couple of decent monitors you could buy more gfx card for you money.

Why do you need the i7 2600k over the i5 2500k? There's a saving already to put towards a monitor?

OCD or not, you need a better monitor.
 
If you are really set on keeping those monitors in the short term, get a GTX 570 (or 560 when released very soon) first...

...then buy new monitors...

...then add another GTX 560/570 when they will probably be even cheaper and go SLI in the future!!!

You can of course do this with GTX 460's, but really the GTX 560 is so close I would get that.
 
spirits247 said:
If you are really set on keeping those monitors in the short term, get a GTX 570 (or 560 when released very soon) first...

...then buy new monitors...

...then add another GTX 560/570 when they will probably be even cheaper and go SLI in the future!!!

You can of course do this with GTX 460's, but really the GTX 560 is so close I would get that.
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Yeah, sounds like the best option but just stumbled across this...

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=187401

Bit concerning to be honest and even more reason to just buy one card for now rather than two and suffer this problem. Though not seen much talk about the problem on this forum though. Although I've only been browsing this section for the last week only.
 
I would upgrade your screen to a 24" at least, your missing out in terms of gaming experience, I went from 19" to 24" and never looked back.

I would then look at the HD 6950 (flashed to 6970) or a GTX 570. Read up in the various threads theirs lots of info.
 
a proper dell 24" s-ips should be your first port of call if you have money.silly even looking at new parts when you are gaming at that res, and more than likely on a TN screen.

OCUK had a dell for £450 odd and i guarantee u will not look back or regret it.
 
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