Asus GTX460 768MB X 2 a good upgrade?

[Medwynd]

I'm still running an older Core 2 Duo E8400 3ghz with 2 8800GTS 512's. I am running a 30" monitor with most games at 2560x1600. Do you think if I upgraded to these in SLI I would see significant gains or would I be processor limited by switching to these?

 

[toyota]

do NOT buy 768mb cars for that massive res. even at 1920x1080 the 768mbof vram is not enough. not to mention the 1gb card also has better memory bandwidth and more ROPs. at 2560, 1gb of vram is the very minimum you want so go with gtx460 1gb sli.

2560x1600 is very gpu demanding but you will still not get the most out of any very high end gpu setup in general with a dual core cpu. if you have an after market cooler then I would at least do a simple oc to 3.6 to help push those cards in the more cpu intensive games.

 

[Medwynd]

Well I am currently running games at 2560x1600 fairly well. I can run Battlefield Bad Company 2 just fine but Fallout Vegas does slow down a bit but I'm not sure if that's from my video cards or my cpu. I was looking into these because they were so cheap and look like a descent step up from my 8800GTS's. But since I am only running 512's right now, saying the 768mb isn't enough doesnt make sense to me.

 

[bryanW1995]

1. oc cpu to ~ 4 ghz. extremely easy on an e8400, look at oc guides and in the cpus/overclocking forum. make sure you have a decent cpu cooler, if not then it would be worthwhile to get one. post specific problems/issues in the cpus/oc forum for help.

2. do NOT get anything less than gtx 460 1gb. gtx 470 would be even better, and with your e8400 at 4ghz you'll get another year or two of good life out of it.

 

[bryanW1995]

Well I am currently running games at 2560x1600 fairly well. I can run Battlefield Bad Company 2 just fine but Fallout Vegas does slow down a bit but I'm not sure if that's from my video cards or my cpu. I was looking into these because they were so cheap and look like a descent step up from my 8800GTS's. But since I am only running 512's right now, saying the 768mb isn't enough doesnt make sense to me.

you can't crank the settings as high at 25x16 with only 768mb ram in most modern games. they might be fine for fallout vegas but in a few months you'll play something else and have to limit your settings. basically, spending a few more $$ now will get you a lot longer life out of the cards.

for example, you might get great gameplay most of the time with the 768's, but you'll get chugging at specific times on many modern games as you run out of vram. I don't know what exact street prices are today, but it can't be more than $50-$60 more for 2 x 1gb cards, right?

 

[toyota]

Well I am currently running games at 2560x1600 fairly well. I can run Battlefield Bad Company 2 just fine but Fallout Vegas does slow down a bit but I'm not sure if that's from my video cards or my cpu. I was looking into these because they were so cheap and look like a descent step up from my 8800GTS's. But since I am only running 512's right now, saying the 768mb isn't enough doesnt make sense to me.

you just said Fallout Vegas slows down for you and then you say having more than 768mb doesn't make sense? Fallout Vegas is not a super demanding game at all but it does uses a lot vram so at 2560 768mb would probably not be enough. also what you don't seem to understand is that gtx460 sli would allow you to run higher settings and get better performance but if you only get 768mb models then you will run out of vram before you can actually utilize those settings.

I can already use over 768mb is some games at just 1920x1080 on settings playable for a much slower single gtx260. it would be absolutely foolish to go with 768mb cards in sli becuase even 1gb of vram is not going to be enough in a couple of games at that 2560.

 

[Medwynd]

Thanks all for the input, I'll look into it some more. I was considering the 460's because I could get a pair of them for 230$ vs a lot more for something better.

Edit: It looks like a 470 is about 250$ per card, so we are talking about double the cost.

 

[RussianSensation]

DX11 SLI Performance review.

2560x1600
AvP
GTX460 768mb SLI = 26
HD5870 = 23

Dirt 2 DX11
GTX460 768mb SLI = 17
HD5870 = 51

These are just 2 examples of what will happen when you are running out of Vram. Expect more of the same with modern games down the line. Therefore, for 2560x1600, I strongly agree with the posters above - nothing less than 1GBs per card.