Any point me upgrading my card?

[dan76]

Hi all, thought it was time for a first post

I'm just curious about what people's thoughts are on whether I'd gain any benefits from upgrading my GPU.

I've been running a 19" Samsung Syncmaster 930BF for years now, and its max res is obviously 1280x1024.

My card is a GTX260 216 which came factory overclocked a few years back, and I have it running at ~700/1250 (I move it up and down depending on how warm my flat is).

Do people think that I'd experience any perceptible quality increase if I were to dish out for a new card, or would I have to get a larger monitor with higher res to complement that?

As things stand, running Skyrim, for example, I'm getting well over 60FPS indoors and not dissimilar outdoors, but with occasional shuddering because of bottlenecking (CPU is E2160 oc'd to 3.2+ GHz). I'm paranoid that I'm missing out on eye candy, but in reality suspect that it would just be a vanity purchase if I don't have the monitor to complement it.

 

[arc@css]

Welcome.

I wouldn't bother upgrading for that res, your card will manage all games just fine. A new card would need a faster cpu, and as you mention, preferably a new monitor with a higher resolution.

 

[dan76]

Thanks for confirming - I've been ogling various GPU and CPU upgrades, but with this monitor there's no real point in terms of gaming. Although I reckon that finally making the jump from XP to W7 wouldn't hurt

Decisions decisions...

 

[Purgatory]

As arc@css said mate, don't bother unless you update to a better CPU and better monitor with a resolution of a min of 1920 x 1080. Find out what the best CPU your motherboard will take mate, it maybe a matter of sticking a Q6600 in it or even better a Q9550 or Q9650 and have 8Gb of RAM and install windows 7. It will be a pretty decent system then and then look at upgrading your graphcis card of course. You maye find it is better to sell what you have and then start on a I5 2500k build. Depends on your budget really, but like I said updating that system to a Quad core cpu and overclock it and it will be a very decent setup.

 

[dan76]

As arc@css said mate, don't bother unless you update to a better CPU and better monitor with a resolution of a min of 1920 x 1080. Find out what the best CPU your motherboard will take mate, it maybe a matter of sticking a Q6600 in it or even better a Q9550 or Q9650 and have 8Gb of RAM and install windows 7. It will be a pretty decent system then and then look at upgrading your graphcis card of course. You maye find it is better to sell what you have and then start on a I5 2500k build. Depends on your budget really, but like I said updating that system to a Quad core cpu and overclock it and it will be a very decent setup.

Thanks - I have been looking at changing wholesale to an i5-2500K setup that'll last me for a few years, but with the price of SSDs unnaturally high because of Thailand etc. I'm holding off until the New Year.

I've got a budget of ~£1500, but obviously would prefer to spend a lot lower and reap the benefits of OCing on a budget as opposed to buying premium!!

What I might do is wait until the New Year and keep an eye on monitor deals that'd make the upgrade worthwhile. I'm not one for constant upgrading, but instead make a big leap every 3-4 years. If those swanky 2560 x X monitors come down in price a little bit, I'll be in like Flynn

 

[Havana_UK]

FYI, I run the same GPU (1.8Gb memory version) but with an i5-750 @ 3.6GHz and I have a 1920x1200 monitor. I'm able to run the latest games (e.g. BF3) at full res, but to get decent FPS I have to turn all the eye candy right down.

I'm getting a pretty stable 60FPS with all settings on low.

I'm hoping to upgrade the GPU soon (was looking at 580GTX 3GB) but I'm waiting until the expected nVidia price drop. I might even go for a 560Ti as this seems to be the real sweet spot for price/performance right now.