Upgrade for $200; AMD or NVidia

[TechAZ]

Currently I have a MSI Cyclone 460gtx 768mb card. Is there anything in the $200 price range that would be a decent upgrade? I've looked at the AMD 6870 HD and nvidia 560ti and can't see much of a diff. Is it just a coin flip between the 2? More importantly, does anyone think it is worth $200 for an upgrade to those?

I'm not a hardcore gamer, but do play. Just wanted to get some techie opinions before I pull the trigger.


Other sys specs if important:
cpu-amd athlon ii x4 640
ram - 4 gig

 

[kluu]

dont got much advice here but im pretty much in the same situation as u except im upgrading a broken video card.

would love to see what ppl have to say

 

[fralexandr]

the 460 768 is about 30% slower than the 6870/560 ti
the 560 ti consistently beats the 6870 right?
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4135/nvidias-geforce-gtx-560-ti-upsetting-the-250-market/5
nvidia tends to have an advantage min fps wise and there's the added bonus of physx, but amd cards tend to be better price/performance-wise as the 6870 is usually significantly cheaper than the 560 ti ($140 vs $200)

 

[VulgarDisplay]

What games are you playing and at what resolution?

 

[RussianSensation]

Before you decide to upgrade, you should overclock that card. It probably has a 25-30% overclocking headroom. Just use MSI Afterburner.

Raise the GPU voltage to 1.087V. You should be able to achieve 880-900mhz GPU speed, perhaps even 925mhz.

If that still leaves you unsatisfied with the performance increase given your game settings, you can look into getting an HD6950 and unlocking it into an HD6970. You can also wait until February when HD7850/7870 cards launch and seeing how well they perform (or possibly force price drops on HD6970/GTX570, etc.)

 

[lkkgg72200812]

560Ti or 6950 is much faster than 460. you can go for it, But if you want a big difference on you computer, you have to spend more money or wait the price going down

 

[monkeydelmagico]

anything under $200.- isn't going to be much of an upgrade. FWIW I just bought a 5870 for $140.- shipped. It's only a few FPS faster than the card you have.

 

[Arkadrel]

TechAZ

6870 ~135% of your current card (35% upg) ~140$
560ti ~140% of your current card (40% upg) ~199$

If you feel like the 35-40% performance is worth 200$ ish price tag, and you need the performance, grab one of them.

 

[TechAZ]

Thanks for the advice and information everyone, I appreciate it. I will definitly try to overclock it with Afterburner....totally forgot I could do that.

 

[AtenRa]

First OC, then wait for 28nm $200 GPUs

 

[Dark Shroud]

First OC, then wait for 28nm $200 GPUs

This right here, in a few months time AMD will have their new line up out in force on 28nm. The VLIW4 architecture should trickle down to the lower end so it's a win all the way around.

 

[Skott]

I would agree with some others here and say OC your current card and wait and see what the new AMD cards do in performance and pricing since their release is not far off.