Graphics Card Question

Heya, I'm thinking about upgrading my gpu...I'm currently playing around with games like arkum city and shogun 2 total war and noticed that vids about them online look a lil prettier than mine. I'm hoping to have an upgraded card by the time 'Fall of the samurai' is out...

SO, what should I be looking for, what advice can ya give me
P.S Should i go down the sli route with another cheaper 260 or just go for a new card altogether?

I've got a gts 260 (been a great lil trooper for years)
4 gigs of some kind of ram
q6600 cpu
850 antec psu

thanks

 

Boy, that's a low end card by today's standards.

I would just get one new card. Either an AMD 6870 or an Nvidia 560

 

yeah ive been looking at the 560 ti's here
http://www.elara.ie/productdetail.aspx?productcode=ECE2151332

and here, I cant figure out which one is best of the lot, so many variants also...also what about using the 260 as SLI? and will my 4 ram and q6600 processor really do the 560 ti justice?

 

I would buy the least expensive 560 Ti I could find. They are all equivalent. No to SLIing the 260. It's too old and slow. 4GB ram is ok. Q6600 processor might be bottlenecked by the 560Ti. You could look into doing a cpu upgrade at the same time.

 

Thanks for the hasty replies, great help

these seems really reasonable...sorta a lil too cheap so im scared...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/PNY-GeForce...7W/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1328195944&sr=8-17

http://www.amazon.co.uk/01G-P3-1460...LA/ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&qid=1328195944&sr=8-23

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-GT...UY/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1328195714&sr=8-16

also what cpu upgrade would you reccomend over the q6600?

 

What model Motherboard do you have. That'll tell me which cpu's are compatible.

 

its an xfx nvidia 680 lt sli

 

I wouldn't bother with a CPU upgrade on that system because the Q9450 ans Q9550, the top two chips your system supports, are relatively rare nowadays, and prohibitively overpriced. I would just stick to the GPU upgrade, it'll make an enormous difference in your graphics response. My advice is to buy as much card as your budget allows, because you can reuse it if you upgrade the Motherboard and CPU.

 

i did a quick check on those chips and the prices are nearly twice what im gonna put down on the gpu..maddness...

im gonna go with this anywhos

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-GT...UY/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1328195714&sr=8-16

that's a good idear? plus my cpu is running at 2.4, i hear that the q6600 is great for over clocking so i can pump it a lil bit if i think the card is clocking..any other advice?

 

Looks good. My only advice is to enjoy your new purchase.

 

cool, outstanding, I'll get right on it, thanks buddy

 

I was just about to get it when I twigged its a pci-e 2.0 card...can my mobo support that?!

http://www.nvidia.com/object/designed_by_nvidia_680i_lt_sli.html

seems to look like it can't, that wouldve been a pricey mistake if its true!

 

Not to worry. All PCI-E 2.0 cards are backwards compatible with PCI-E 1.0 slots. However, your bandwidth will be somewhat limited.

 

what do you mean?

oh i think i read somewhere that 2.0 arent compatible with 1.0 or 1.0a however they are with 1.1, which my mobo is so no worries...bandwidth?

 

Sounds like you know more than me about the backwards compatibility issue. So I'll leave that you. As to bandwidth, what I am referring to is the fact that PCI 2 slots and cards both transfer data at a faster rate than their 1.0 or 1.1 counterparts. If your graphics card is falling back to 1.0 or 1.1 mode for compatibility, it'll have to reduce it's transfer rate accordingly.

 

cool beans last, question before I throw this purchase down, those 3 links with the cards in the 150 pound range dont seem to say that they are the 'ti'..should that matter?

 

Well, it's kinda up to you whether it matters. The Ti cards are faster than the non Ti cards, but they cost more also. Being that your system is CPU bound to some extent, I don't think it pays to buy the extra speed that the Ti cards offer, when that speed will likely be wasted because the graphics card is waiting for the CPU to catch up. On the other hand, if you're looking at this card as an investment towards a complete upgrade at some point in the future, then getting the TI card makes sense.

 

grand im settling on this so...there's some good comparisons to the gtx260 (which I have) so this is it I guess...

a few euros more pricey but cheaper getting it from the states at any rate than the one from the UK

well that's done and done now, should get it in a few days and in a few months might look into a CPU/ram/mobo upgrade, thanks again, take care!

 

It's been a pleasure. Take care