Buy now or wait?

[Vertigo]

I'm looking to get a new card for the gf's machine. Need something mid-range, which can play most games at decent settings at 1680x1050, not necessarily at bonkers framerates.

The GTX460/560 performance-level seems to be what I'm after but there doesn't seem to be anything in the latest generation of cards in this area just yet. NVidia don't seem to have a 6xx series replacement for these cards yet and ATI don't seem to have come up with anything as good as the old 6850 in their 7xxx series.

I don't know whether to wait for these gaps to be plugged in the latest generations or just buy now. When I can get a seriously overclocked 460 for just over £100, should I go for that, despite it being two generations old now?

 

[opethdisciple]

I can see your issue here. I dont think waiting will provide you with anything, becuase the only card on the horizon in your range is the 660, put that will be around £200+

I dont think AMD/Nvidia have bothered with the lower ranges as the 560/6800 series are still good enough.

How much money do you have to spend? And what kind of games does she like to play?

Whats the rest of the spec in this computer?

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According to Anadtech benchmarks over all the 560 seems better than a 6870.

The cards I was looking at where this and this.

I would personally go 560.

 

[Vertigo]

She doesn't play anything too taxing and doesn't need that much power, just semi-decent 3D for a few games like Torchlight and assorted daft things I don't even know the name of. Rest of machine is an i3-520 with 4GB of memory.

The 560 looks like around the right ballpark, both price-wise and performance but, as I said, I can currently get a 460 clocked higher than the 560 you linked for £108 - would I be mad not to just grab that?

 

[opethdisciple]

She doesn't play anything too taxing and doesn't need that much power, just semi-decent 3D for a few games like Torchlight and assorted daft things I don't even know the name of. Rest of machine is an i3-520 with 4GB of memory.

The 560 looks like around the right ballpark, both price-wise and performance but, as I said, I can currently get a 460 clocked higher than the 560 you linked for £108 - would I be mad not to just grab that?

Is this 460 second hand?

 

[Vertigo]

Is this 460 second hand?

Nope brand new EVGA GTX460 Superclocked 1GB (867Mhz/4050Mhz core/mem)

 

[opethdisciple]

Go for it then, and save the money. Like you said she doesnt really need a hard core card.

 

[Vertigo]

It's a bargain for sure, the problem is she has my old GTX260 in there right now and even that does the job fine really. It gets a bit stressed and thus noisy at times but I'm not really sure a 460 is that much of a leap in performance and whether I'd be spending £100 pointlessly.

 

[opethdisciple]

It's a bargain for sure, the problem is she has my old GTX260 in there right now and even that does the job fine really. It gets a bit stressed and thus noisy at times but I'm not really sure a 460 is that much of a leap in performance and whether I'd be spending £100 pointlessly.

Well according to Anandtech, the 460 is faster than a 285, so should be a big enough step up.

But if quiet operation is important to you, the 560 has a quiet cooler.

If the 460 your looking at, is this one, then I would rather get the 560, for its quieter operation.

 

[Vertigo]

Ta for the advice, I'll have a think.

One thing that's annoying me greatly with the more recent cards, the 560 included, is how everyone seems to be using their own cooler designs and very few of them vent out of the backplate like the reference designs usually do. Instead they just circulate hot air back into the case, meaning you need more case airflow and thus fans. If you have a small case with less than ideal airflow, you really need a graphics card which vents air out of the case rather than back into it.

 

[Mario]

hm..just when i thought i will drop my Asus GTX DCII in MM..but it will probably be to much for you Vertigo?

 

[Jony27]

have you considered a hd6850?