Upgrade to gtx260 from 8800gt?

[johnno]

Hi, I was just wondering if it would be worth upgrading from a 8800gt to a BFG NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 OC MAXCORE 55 896MB? I would like to get another year or two from my AMD Athlon 64 X2,6000+. I'm gaming on a 19" @ 1440 x 900.

Games I've got to play are GTA4 and Crysis and lots of TF2. And also new ones.

Thanks

[Johnny C]

What's your budget? How much is the GTX260?

[johnno]

It's £145, which doesn't seem to bad. I just happened to see one left in store earlier today. The added bonus also from getting it from a shop is that the missus won't see it arrive in the post :)

[ATOJAR]

I went from a 8800GT to my current 260, Its a great card and sitll going strong.

At that res its should do you fine for a long time imo, Im gaming every game i own at 1920x1200 with my 260 and all runs fine.

[johnno]

Do you think at 1440 x 900 the 260 is overkill for my cpu?

[Drolfrawd]

Get the 260
/thread

[bob saget]

Do you think at 1440 x 900 the 260 is overkill for my cpu?

maybe a bit, but not a big deal at all. The 260 is an amazing card.

[johnno]

Thanks for your comments, I appreciate your input, but what about what this geezer says:

"Heya,

In short, no.

In length:

Your resolution is what is keeping you from gaining any real advantage by getting something faster than the 8800GT. Your CPU will be the bottleneck on a newer GPU at the resolution of 1440x900. You basically won't see a significant difference for the expense of this upgrade. If you were playing at 1920x1080 with AA enabled, then yes, the GTX260 would show an improvement in newer games. At this point you would be better off upgrading your display to something much larger with a larger capable resolution. Then worry about CPU/GPU. As it is, the 8800GT is powerful for that resolution; even for Crysis (and I've played Crysis & Warhead on an AMD5000+ with an 8800GT at 1650x1080, so 1440x900 is definitely playable at mainstream settings). Every other game will still bow down to the 8800GT at that resolution. Even today's new games. The 8800GT plays a lot of new games at 1920x1080 perfectly fine (Batman ArkAsylum, Prototype, DragonAgeOrigin, GTAIV, etc). You'll probably see more of an improvement from a new CPU (higher clock) and a mild overclock on your 8800GT. Then, get yourself a higher resolution display.

I'd spend the upgrade money on a nicer display first."

I don't plan on upgrading anything else on this old rig.
AMD 6000+ X2
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro
Asus M2N-E
BFG GEFORCE 8800 GT 512MB
X-Fi Xtreme Music
2 x 512 MB Corsair XMS2 6400
2 x 1024 MB Corsair XMS2 6400

[XDanger]

Get a CRT for cheap :)

[nV`andrew]

Why not wait for the next gen nvidia cards? My 8800GT plays pretty much every game on high at 1680x1050, so there's no point in it for me. I'm waiting a couple months, especially since i just ordered a 1920x1200 monitor.

[Johnny C]

It's £145, which doesn't seem to bad. I just happened to see one left in store earlier today. The added bonus also from getting it from a shop is that the missus won't see it arrive in the post :)

ATI 5770 1gb costs less, has similar performance and is DX11 Compatible while using less power than the 260..

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?sq=5770&store=2&cat=48&sort=popularity&limit=10&page=1&subsearch=Go

[Intel17]

I don't know why you want to upgrade from the 8800gt. I had a similar choice and instead chose to just buy lots of games to enjoy on my current rig.

At that res, the 8800gt is great. For me, it runs everything maxed out ('cept Crysis, but it's still amazing at high).

[johnno]

Thanks, I see there are mixed views. However, I get the feeling that my cpu is holding me back and wont do the 260 justice, especially at 1440 x 900.

[MUFC4EVER]

I'd stick with the 8800 for the time being to be honest.

ATI have released their DX11 cards and GF100 and derivatives of this will soon follow.

The GTX260 is an "old" card so you'd be buying basically obsolete hardware.

Plus your cpu is holding you back with better cards. Just replaced my 18 mth old GTX260 with a Radeon HD5850 (boo!) and had to flash the bios. This reset my Q6600 to 1.7ghtz and the cpu became a real bottleneck.

All my benchies and scores dropped by 50%. Found the problem was the cpu multiplier was set to 6x and reset the multiplier to 9x 300 fsb and hey presto all scores back to where they should be. It made me realise how much the cpu can hold back the gfx card.

I'd recommend keeping your card for at least another 6 months and then decide.

Also 1440x900 will not tax the card at all. With my new Radeon and the old GTX260 at 1680x1050 I am able to crank all the settings up to max and the cards cope admirably (except for Crysis of course!).

As one of the posters said you're better off buying a bigger monitor first.

My 2p's worth

[Revs]

The 260 is a great card and at current prices it's a bargain. If you don't get the gains you hope for, send it back.

BTW, CCLonline have the XFX GTX260 for £138 ;)