GTS 250 from 8800 GTS Upgrade - Worth It ?

[technoid]

I've been out of the upgrade business for a while and now since I'm retired I don't have that much money for it. But I'm wondering what kind of performance increase I would get if I upgrade to a GTS 250 from an 8800 GTS? My current system is in the sig below. I'd only be upgrading the graphics card, nothing else.

The games I play.

FEAR2
Crysis
Crysis Warhead
STALKER
STALKER Clear Sky
Need for Speed Carbon
Need for Speed Most Wanted

Is the 512MB board okay for me or should I get the 1GB? I play at 1280x1024.

[Maverick123w]

What GTS do you have? If you have the 320/640 series like I did I say why not. I went from an 8800 GTS 320MB to a Radeon 4770 (trades blows with the GTS 250) and the increase was unbelievable. Of course I game at a much higher res so the difference would probably be more noticeable to me than to you.

Edit: Also that at res even with moderate AA/AF I don't think you would benefit much from the 1GB version.

[JasonPC]

I would say it's not worth it. It would be more worth it to go to a GTX 260. You'd get nearly twice the performance from a 260 while you'd get minimal gains from a 250. The price difference between the two is also not very much compared to the performance you'd get. Of course your PSU could be a problem though.

[CaptNKILL]

As Maverick said, if you have a 320\640Mb GTS it'd be well worth it.

If you have a 512Mb it would give you a small but noticeable performance boost but you'd be better off just saving up a little more for a GTX 260.

Also, if you absolutely have to get a GTS 250, get a 1Gb model. They're much better.

[Koko56]

I would say it's not worth it. It would be more worth it to go to a GTX 260. You'd get nearly twice the performance from a 260 while you'd get minimal gains from a 250. The price difference between the two is also not very much compared to the performance you'd get. Of course your PSU could be a problem though.

It's a seasonic. Should be completely fine.

[technoid]

What GTS do you have? If you have the 320/640 series like I did I say why not. I went from an 8800 GTS 320MB to a Radeon 4770 (trades blows with the GTS 250) and the increase was unbelievable. Of course I game at a much higher res so the difference would probably be more noticeable to me than to you.

Edit: Also that at res even with moderate AA/AF I don't think you would benefit much from the 1GB version.

I have an EVGA 8800 GTS 640MB at stock clocks. I was thinking the upgrade to the GTS 250 would allow me to always play with 4xAA or better where the 8800 GTS sometimes doesn't allow that and get the smoothness I like in gameplay. I'm really sensitive to frame rate so I always keep my settings at a place to maximize frame rate with good visuals too. Of course most everything I play right now is old enough I can keep 4xAA on, but of course a few of them I can't.

Thanks for your input I appreciate it.

[technoid]

I would say it's not worth it. It would be more worth it to go to a GTX 260. You'd get nearly twice the performance from a 260 while you'd get minimal gains from a 250. The price difference between the two is also not very much compared to the performance you'd get. Of course your PSU could be a problem though.

I think my power supply would be okay for a 260 but the problem is my case, the 260 would hit the hard drive cage and not fit unless I cut something. I hate that but I don't want to buy a new case too. At least the 8800 GTX was too long for my case and I think the 260 is the same length.

Thanks... I appreciate your input.

[john19055]

If you have the 8800GTS 640mb ,you will see a performance increase,but not that much,you would be much better off getting a GTX260 and newegg has some for $155.

[JasonPC]

Could you move the HDD cage or is that the only spot for it? Might have to take some dimensions down and measure if it could fit or not. With a 250 you're going to be very limited with AA considering you'd be going down in memory capacity, although you are at a lower resolution... So it's hard to say. But in my thinking a 250 is basically a 9800 GTX, which is basically an 8800 at heart. You won't be seeing much of a difference compared to the 640 mb version of the 8800 GTS, 320 mb version yes. You'd actually probably see a bigger increase in performance if you had 8800 GTS 640s in SLI. But it wouldn't really be worth it, you'd get a little better performance out of 1 GTX 260 without the problems of SLI and more VRAM.

[technoid]

Could you move the HDD cage or is that the only spot for it? Might have to take some dimensions down and measure if it could fit or not. With a 250 you're going to be very limited with AA considering you'd be going down in memory capacity, although you are at a lower resolution... So it's hard to say. But in my thinking a 250 is basically a 9800 GTX, which is basically an 8800 at heart. You won't be seeing much of a difference compared to the 640 mb version of the 8800 GTS, 320 mb version yes. You'd actually probably see a bigger increase in performance if you had 8800 GTS 640s in SLI. But it wouldn't really be worth it, you'd get a little better performance out of 1 GTX 260 without the problems of SLI and more VRAM.

Thanks. Everything here is about what I expected to hear, some performance increase but not a lot. I'll probably wait till the next generation ships and then buy something. I haven't looked at the hard drive cage recently but from what I remember it's fixed and you can't move it.

Thanks again to everyone for sharing your thoughts with me.

[john19055]

If you need something shorter then the ATI HD 4870 might be a better choice ,since they have some that are just 9.8 inches long.

[technoid]

If you need something shorter then the ATI HD 4870 might be a better choice ,since they have some that are just 9.8 inches long.

Thanks, I'll look at it.

[Tho Jo Smale]

What GTS do you have? If you have the 320/640 series like I did I say why not. I went from an 8800 GTS 320MB to a Radeon 4770 (trades blows with the GTS 250) and the increase was unbelievable. Of course I game at a much higher res so the difference would probably be more noticeable to me than to you.

Edit: Also that at res even with moderate AA/AF I don't think you would benefit much from the 1GB version.

4770 ftw...

[Burnt_Ram]

i would suggest you overclock your card. they OC well for the most part and you will see a nice boost. your card should do 600/1500/900 easily.