gtx 460 upgrade

[oliharan92]

Hi all, its been a while since using the forum but im looking at getting back to pc gaming. I have been using my xbox1 for the last couple of years.

Current spec is:
Cpu - i7 950
Gpu - gtx 460 1gb
8gb ram
240gb ssd

I currently only use a 1080p monitor but hopefully this will change in the future.
Looking at playing the latest titles aswell as some oldies. Mainly fps/driving.

What cards would you recommend? How much would i need to spend to get my rig playing games at high/very high again?

Thanks for the help

 

[crisium]

What power supply do you have?

The Radeon 390 and GTX 970 are the best performance per buck cards and reasonably satisfy "high/very high" at 1080p. I wouldn't recommend going to a lower tier than this, as the next closest in pricing the Radeon 380X is actually quite a bit slower. The 390 will likely age a bit better than the 970, but it also used more wattage to run.

There are newer cards coming out later this year that will offer much more performance-per-watt, if you are open to waiting.

 

[Leyawiin]

GTX 970. Nvidia's lower driver overhead would play nicer with your six year old CPU. You'll probably have some bottlenecking of the GPU regardless but as crisium said I wouldn't go lower.

 

[Ketchup]

Might as well wait a month or two and see if the cards that AMD and Nvidia are about to release are any good.

 

[wilds]

You waited this long, might as well wait a couple more months!

 

[Denithor]

What specific motherboard do you have? You could consider upgrading your i7 to an x5650 (6-core Westmere Xeon chip, available on eBay for around $70).

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2335636

Concerning the GPU, for 1080p today I'd lean toward 390/390X but as others have said, next generation of cards due out from both manufacturers within the next 2-3 months. New generation going to be a node change, first in three generations, so very likely the mid-range cards will be close to matching today's top end.

 

[Headfoot]

Don't buy something now. New cards come out in just a few months and will obsolete the cards you are looking at now. I'd just hold on until June, read the reviews then and decide.

 

[Arachnotronic]

GTX 970 for good "bang for the buck," GTX 980 Ti for the best single GPU performance you can get today. If you are looking to go beyond 1080p at high/very high, recommend shelling out for the 980 Ti.

Might also be worthwhile to upgrade to more RAM (12GB or 24GB).

What power supply do you have?

 

[AtenRa]

Wait for new 14/16nm GPUs coming in summer.

If you cannot wait and you have a nice PSU, get the R9 390X (MSI currently at $359 AR on Newegg).

Enable VSR and play your games at 2560x1440 on your 1080p monitor.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Wait for new 14/16nm GPUs coming in summer.

If you cannot wait and you have a nice PSU, get the R9 390X (MSI currently at $359 AR on Newegg).

Enable VSR and play your games at 2560x1440 on your 1080p monitor.

PSU is apparently an OCZ 600W (in this user's "About Me" section). Should be OK for an R9 390X.

 

[b-mac]

GTX 970 for good "bang for the buck," GTX 980 Ti for the best single GPU performance you can get today. If you are looking to go beyond 1080p at high/very high, recommend shelling out for the 980 Ti.

Might also be worthwhile to upgrade to more RAM (12GB or 24GB).

What power supply do you have?

What would 24GB of RAM do for them if its for gaming?

 

[daveybrat]

What would 24GB of RAM do for them if its for gaming?

Pretty much nothing. Unless he has a TON of background programs running, 8GB is still just fine for gaming.

 

[Termie]

Note: 8GB of RAM isn't fine on a socket 1366 system. Perhaps he was mistaken, but this would mean he's running just two of his three channels. He should be at 6GB or 12GB.