All the new cards / refreshes coming out I was wondering if it was actually worth upgrading my 280GTX
Do any cards have significant performance gains that are under £300? I game on 24" monitor at either 1680×1050 or 1920×1200.
Thanks
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All the new cards / refreshes coming out I was wondering if it was actually worth upgrading my 280GTX
Do any cards have significant performance gains that are under £300? I game on 24" monitor at either 1680×1050 or 1920×1200.
Thanks
Unless you are having performance issues, I'd suggest not bothering.
I'm in the same boat, albeit at 2048x1152, and personally i'm sticking it out till the new ATI high end cards arrive early next month. My 280 is overclocked on water and atm there isn't really anything pushing it to the point where i'm annoyed. I'm toying with the following options:
- Single 580
- Single 6970
- Crossfire 68xx
- SLI 460 (1gb)
The latter option is a problem tho as nvidia block SLI on my motherboard so i'd have to hack it to get it to work and i'm not sure if I can be bothered. In addition CF/SLI solutions means two waterblocks instead of one for me so i'd prefer a single card solution (but i'd accept a dual GPU on one PCB solution).
In any case new ATI GPUs will force pricing down so sit tight.
SecondedQuote:
Originally Posted by GheeTsar
The sub 300 market is a little sparse atm and AFAIK currently only contains the 5870. The 6950 and 6980 will come in at that price point next month if you really need to get something new.
Was looking at this the other day and it looked okay. I suppose you have to do it everytime yo chnage drivers but its not a huge biggie. I think getting the second card and finding out you can't hack your drivers would be a bit of a bummer though! As its just convincing your driver you have an x58 mobo you should be able to do this with a single card.Quote:
Originally Posted by dangel
That's my worry - having a redundant second card! Gotta hate these stupid decisions that nVidia make really :( I was planning on trying a couple of 8800\'s from work to see if it basically worked first but i still don\'t like the lack of certainty.Quote:
Originally Posted by Domestic_Ginger
Are any P45 motherboards SLI certified? Surely it's a mistake Intel made not paying up for the license!?Quote:
Originally Posted by dangel
As with everyone else, I'd recommend not upgrading a GTX280 yet. Firstly there's the imminent ATI 69x0 cards which should (hopefully!) shake things up a bit (although prices may be high to start with if they're having yield problems), and secondly there's more GF11x cards coming from nvidia (theoretically a GTX570 and GTX560) which will probably be worth looking at given the improvements of the GTX580 over the GTX480.
It's never a good time to buy new tech, as there's always something new "just around the corner", but currently I think it's a worse time than usual... ;)
The problem I have with it is that there's no electrical reason for the restraint, and commercially it seems far smarter to me that nVidia sell two cards instead of one to a wider range of customers. It just seems.. dumb. Period.Quote:
Originally Posted by scaryjim
Well, yeah. It's nvidia :mrgreen:Quote:
Originally Posted by dangel
Not worth bothering but you can get higher performance for way less than £300 if you need it.
At the time nvidia where still producing their own chipsets for sli and didn't sell licences.Quote:
Originally Posted by dangel
When Intel changed the socket and underlying communication structure, they put the new licence fees so high that it's impossible for anyone else to make a competing chipset, so nvidia was forced to sell licences for sli instead or see sli drop off the face of the planet.
It's always a fine balance in these situations between whether you 'need' to upgrade and the relative cost.
I recently got rid of my GTX 280 once the cost of the 470 fell to ~£200, figuring I'd still be able to recoup a fair bit for the old card if I sold it before the next gen cards came out. In the end I got nearly £140 for the 280 (don't think you'll get that now, unfortunately, more like £80-100) which helped justify the decision.
Did I need to upgrade? No, everything I play was running ok if I'm being honest. Am I glad I did? Yeah, the current card has got a bit more in reserve which should see me through the next 12-18 months and I haven't paid a fortune on balance.
In your situation I'd say no harm in waiting to see what happens when the ATI 69xx series comes out. You often find some of the places like OcUK or Scan have a short window where they dump a lot of stock and you might be able to snap up something like a heavily discounted GTX480/ATI 5870.
Well, the time has come to review this again...
I have a GTX 280 and it is working fine in all games at 1920 * 1200, but it obviously is not DX11 and now the GTX 570/580 series and the ATI 6900 series are out, I am wondering again, if it is the right time to get a new high end card....
I really like the GTX 570 .. but I think it is probably £50 overpriced so was thinking of waiting a couple of months for the release prices to drop.. but that may also cause a drop in my resale value of my current GTX 280...... I also would rather stick with high end now that I have made that jump from midrange cards I had in the past which only lasted me 12 months...
If it makes you feel better i'm still ummmming and ahhhing myself. I think i'd now go for a 580 if pressed, but i'm actually thinking i may even end up waiting for the NEXT series of cards or perhaps to see what the dual GPU cards are like early next year. If I see a good price for a 580 I might well go for it. Still.. having trouble feeling rushed at all!Quote:
Originally Posted by TheodanUK
A pair of HD6950 cards in Crossfire is faster in many games than a single GTX580.
TBH I don't like multi GPU setups because they're never perfect on scaling/compatibility and secondly because it's two waterblocks to buy instead of two. I'd rather have a single PCB - but like I said i'd be interested in dual gpu cards and both ATI and nVidia are about to launch those.. All IMHO and i've no objection whatsoever to everybody making their own choices :)Quote:
Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH