Time to ditch the 4870x2?

[DiscoDave]

Hi Everyone,

With the host of new games coming soon I've been deciding if I should upgrade my graphics card, Current specs:

i7 920 @ 3.0Ghz (LGA1366)
6GB Ram
4870x2
SSD
etc..

Been put off dual GPU/Crossfire configurations from this card (for some reason the latest deus ex patch has destroyed performance on this card). I'm looking at playing battlefield 3, F1 2011, Elder scrolls, etc..

Been looking at a GeForce GTX 570/580. Would this be a wise, noticable upgrade for this rig, or would the CPU bottleneck it? Or should I wait for the new ATi cards to come out?

Thanks,

 

[DiscoDave]

Ignore

 

[DiscoDave]

Well I'm still on a 4890 and havent had a problem myself. All the new games I've played have still been playable at 1920x1080 max detail without problems.

It might be because I play at 1920x1200 or something then. Space marine has occasional dips to 30/40fps and F1 2010 dips now and again.

 

[DiscoDave]

I'm surprised to hear a 580 is not much of a gain for performance. Perhaps its not worth me investing in this rig for a while then, although I'd like to find out why I have FPS drops in most modern games (F1/space marine/etc). Also the latest Deus Ex patch seems to messed this up majorly, getting 15-40 fps on my system...

 

[DiscoDave]

I'm sure it will be fixed if its a common issue that's been documented with the developers. The problem for you is that the 4870X2 was a top end card of its generation, when the 40nm cards hit you could get a single card like the 5870 which would give the same sort of performance but on a single chip but unless you go with another dual chip card your not going to get a huge increase in performance.

The GTX580 is a faster card no doubt about it but I don't know what you expectations are and I wouldn't want you to splash 400 notes on a single and then for you to come back and say 'oh its not much faster then my old card'. As arc@css says wait for the 7000 series cards and see what they bring.

I totally agree with what you're saying - it would be unwise to reccomend a £350 card for minimal gains. Last time I dealt with upgrading was years ago, and it seemed back then that you'd have to upgrade every two years or so just to play the games, now it seems hardware is lasting longer, or console ports/console driven games are slowing down this requirement.

Based on all the comments below I'm going to invest in an extra fan or two for my case and crank up my i7 to 3.5Ghz - 3.8Ghz (Already have a decent enough CPU fan, but my case could do with some extra cooling.

Good move?