Been a long time, another GPU upgrade thread

[Twizted_3kgt]

I would like to spend less than $400, what the best bang for buck card out there right now in that range? Running Win 7 64-bit now with 4gb ram, other than that I think my sig is accurate.

 

[Roark]

GTX 570 or HD 6970.

But since you're using a 775 board I'm going to assume whatever CPU you have is going to bottleneck either card.

 

[Twizted_3kgt]

Huh, my CPU isn't in my sig, whats up with that lol

I'm on a Q6600 @ 3.3ghz. It was almost top of the line last time I was around, I'm sure it's junk by now. Will it bottleneck?

 

[kpat99]

In a system like yours i would think a second hand Nvidia gtx 280/285 or an ATI 4870/4890.

Around here on kijiji those cards sell for around 100 dollars and will at least double and probably triple your GPU power. About a year ago i went from a 9800GTX+ to a 285 OCX and couldn't believe the difference.

 

[Twizted_3kgt]

In a system like yours i would think a second hand Nvidia gtx 280/285 or an ATI 4870/4890.

Around here on kijiji those cards sell for around 100 dollars and will at least double and probably triple your GPU power. About a year ago i went from a 9800GTX+ to a 285 OCX and couldn't believe the difference.

I'm not really trying to save cash here, I just want the "latest and greatest" bang for buck card out there, like the 8800GT 512 was when I bought it. Isn't a 280 old school by now?

Or is my motherboard not up to the task of cards newer than a 280?

Side note, holy crap just went through old post's of mine...it's been 4 years since I upgraded the GPU!!! I need another deal like that!

 

[Roark]

The 570 and 6970 are more or less the latest and greatest, GTX 580 for Nvidia but those are around $500.

Your CPU will bottleneck either card, the higher you can OC it the less it will be, but there will still be one.
But, either one should last you a while, until you save enough to replace your cpu/mb/ram.

 

[gurusan]

You can get a 580 for 400ish. You won't regret it. Otherwise just wait for 28nm stuff early 2012.

As Roark said, clock your CPU up a bit....with good cooling you should be able to get 3.5-3.7GHz. Kentsfield is old but still a great performer.

Newegg.com - ECS NGTX580-1536PI-F GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

 

[Roark]

Personally, would rather take a 570 with a good cooler on it and OC to 580 speeds then get a 580 reference.

Plus, considering the OC hes going to have to put on his CPU, he'd probably need a beefier PSU to handle a 580.
Speaking of PSU, think that one only has 2x 6-pin, no 8/6+2-pin for the 580.

 

[gurusan]

Yes but you can overclock the 580 as well and you will want all the power you can get if you want to play BF3. The 580 is in his budget so why not. His processor clock is fine though of course he could benefit from slightly higher....and the PSU is fine as well. The card should come with 6 to 8pin adapters.

 

[Slaymate]

a system that is bottlenecking a GTX 580 will still get better performance than the same system not bottlenecking a lower powered card.