Spec me a graphics card, or wait?

[SwedishChef]

Hi all,

GTA V is coming and it might make a good excuse to upgrade my Gainward GTX 570 OC... or is it? I've read the forums but am unsure whether I should wait a while longer.

Budget would be around £200-250 and I'll plan to use it for a long time. Don't mind if it's Nvidia or AMD, but quiet cooling is important (my case has room for a double slot card).

I find that the 570 is able to run Elite: Dangerous, Insurgency, BF3 at 1080p with high quality settings (although I keep AA settings low). So is there a good candidate now that will be a very noticeable difference over my 570, or is there a good value card coming in the next month or two that would be worth waiting for?

Other gear: i5-3570k, 8GB RAM, Benq XL2411T 144hz monitor, Antec Truepower 650 PSU.

Thanks!

 

[Gregster]

Sit tight on that 570 till it is released. Your system is capable of running a top GPU, so no worries there but with only having to wait another 5 weeks ish, you can see what is what after release and might be cheaper cards.

 

[whyscotty]

Waiting would be a wise move

 

[SwedishChef]

Ok, thanks guys. Anything coming down the line that you think might be good to keep an eye on? The Maxwell based Nvidia cards seem to have good reviews - I'm not sure what's coming next for Nvidia.

 

[Devrij]

Whatever happens, you will either have amazing new cards to choose from, or at the very least you'll have cheaper older cards as people sell them off to upgrade/stock clearance prices start to come in.

People are talking a lot of smack about the 970 thanks to the 3.5GB + 0.5GB VRAM thing, but it's still a great card for 1080p gaming and you could probably pick one up cheaply since everyone freaked out about the VRAM thing. I use mine to play Trine 2 in 3d at 4k on my tv, so it can't be that bad.

Either way, the future holds some cool stuff. AMD will have the 390/390X which looks very promising (but will be out later in the year so a long wait), or the 380 which is a refresh card unfortunately. GM200 is in the pipeline as well, so hang tight if you can, or pick up a bargain 290x or 970 to tide you over. 290s are ridiculously cheap for what they offer, so maybe grab one to keep you going.