Video Card Upgrade Recommendations (from GTX 260)

Hello DC'ers!

I've been thinking about upgrading my video card but I'm not sure the juice is worth the squeeze... here is my current config:

Vid: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 (216 shaders)
Mobo: ASUS M3N-HD/HDMI (supports up to PCIe 2.0 and AMD2+ procs)
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 (black edition)
Mem: 4GB (2X 2GB)

I know I could get faster disks and improve I/O a bit (or maybe add a SSD for the OS)

The question is: would upgrading the video card make sense? I've looked at the GTX 460 (for the price range) but not sure it is much of an upgrade... thoughts?

Spike wrote:

Hello DC'ers!

I've been thinking about upgrading my video card but I'm not sure the juice is worth the squeeze... here is my current config:

Vid: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 (216 shaders)
Mobo: ASUS M3N-HD/HDMI (supports up to PCIe 2.0 and AMD2+ procs)
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 (black edition)
Mem: 4GB (2X 2GB)

I know I could get faster disks and improve I/O a bit (or maybe add a SSD for the OS)

The question is: would upgrading the video card make sense? I've looked at the GTX 460 (for the price range) but not sure it is much of an upgrade... thoughts?

I'd add another matching GTX 260 for 2 way SLI and up the memory to 8gb. I would not go with a newer card cause the 260 is a DDR3 and the 460 is a DDR5, so you would be wasting any gain as the 460 would be throttled down.

that is if he has a 64 bit OS if its a 32 bit OS then more memory will not be seen by the OS infact he is just probably seeing just over 3GB of it if he has a 32 bit OS

dom60 wrote:

that is if he has a 64 bit OS if its a 32 bit OS then more memory will not be seen by the OS infact he is just probably seeing just over 3GB of it if he has a 32 bit OS

True.

Spike, what OS are you running?

Good catch Dom - sorry, I forgot to mention the 64-bit OS (yes, Windows 7 64-bit)

Thanks - I will have to up my power supply since the minimum for this card is something like 480W (the new ones don't pull as much)

Thank you DEMONSLAYER!

Spike wrote:

Good catch Dom - sorry, I forgot to mention the 64-bit OS (yes, Windows 7 64-bit)

Thanks - I will have to up my power supply since the minimum for this card is something like 480W (the new ones don't pull as much)

Thank you DEMONSLAYER!

Spike, upgrade your power supply to at least a 1000 watt if you want to use SLI. They can be had for the price of the 460...........

One problem: the GTX 260 (216 shaders) seems to be hard to find and it is actually more expensive than a GTX 295? For that price, would it be better to just go with the GTX 460?

Found a brand new one on E-Bay for $100.00
(http://cgi.ebay.com/EVGA-NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-260-896P31255AR-GDDR3-SDRA-/180659934878?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item2a102bd69e)

A good GTX 295 (I had to replace mine) will run between $250.00 and $400.00.

Thank you DEM!

Well Spike...............or are you saving up for the parts?

Life got in the way of gaming so I'm just now catching up with some expenses - next month