Your thoughts on an August GPU upgrade

[Semtax]

Hi all.

Have a bit of a conundrum on my hands at the moment with my GPU setup.

Just got a secondhand Palit gtx 570 1280 MB to tide me over for a while and its running nicely. However i cant help feel that its at the edge of its capability for my resolution.
I have already had an Eyefinity setup and definitely wont be going back so ill be gaming at 2560 x 1440 for the foreseeable future.

The games i play at the moment are BC2, Total War, Just Cause 2, The Witcher.

The options I can see myself doing are:
1. Sell my 570 for maybe £200 and get a pair of second hand 6950's for £330 (Friend selling his)
2. Buy a second Palit gtx 570 for £260 (best i could find delivered new)
3. Wait patiently for the new cards to arrive and make do with what i have.
4.

Hopefully i can get some feedback on what you fine folks would do if you were in my position. Dont want to spend a major amount of money on this so im trying to get the best bang for my buck

*Rig in sig

 

[harmony]

vram usage under 2560x1600

Thus personally I'd go for either option 1 or option 3.

vram shortage would lead to lag spikes especially when quickly rotating camera or switching scenes. (This is quite similar as if you run out of system memory but quickly switch between windows.) If you can live with it then go for option 2, which would also give you decent average fps (might even better than option 1 in certain games).

If you go for option 2, then I expect the following:

BC2: risk of lag spikes during multiple player sessions when you quickly rotate your camera. Be prepared to get shot by other players before you fire.
Total War: expect low fps in Napoleon and Shogun 2. Not sure about Empire and previous versions.
JC2: no idea.
The Witcher: if you mean the original edition then there shouldn't be any GPU-related problems. If you mean The Witcher 2 then to enable Ubersampling I recommend nVidia cards now because patch 1.3 optimized Ubersampling for nVidia cards, and it is now possible to achieve 40 fps with GTX580 SLI, while the vram usage is well below 1.25GB.

 

[ReAPeR101]

Option 2. My personal view is to add a 2nd GTX570. 2nd hand cards have no warranty, plus you dont really know what condition they are in.
At least with a brand new GPU you can if needed RMA.

The new GPU card scenario : For me there is not enough information forth coming, no doubt they will be powerfull, however with new GPUs like GTX590 there may be issues.

 

[bhavv]

I'd keep the 570 and wait for the next gen, it should manage until then.

Option 3

 

[Lunawolfy]

Option 2. My personal view is to add a 2nd GTX570. 2nd hand cards have no warranty, plus you dont really know what condition they are in.
At least with a brand new GPU you can if needed RMA.

The new GPU card scenario : For me there is not enough information forth coming, no doubt they will be powerfull, however with new GPUs like GTX590 there may be issues.

Like them exploding!!!


(fire)

 

[Semtax]

Thanks for your thoughts guys. My revised view on the situation is now as follows:

Option 1: Its the 2GB of vram + the cheap price thats making me seriously consider it. I dont really mind them being second hand from a warranty point of view but i would prefer if i didnt set the place on fire

Option 2: On the pricey side for one extra card that could potentially see me problems with its 1.2GB of vram (Its hard to put money into something that feels like its already crippled, maybe someone with this card setup could voice their thoughts).
Has the benefit of having a warranty. Maybe these could drop in price in a month or 2?

Option 3: Playing the age old waiting game for new GPU's on the horizon seems like it might pay off. However im sure ill have to shell out at least as much as option 2 for better performance so thats off putting.