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Upgrade from GTX 470

Capt Caveman

Capt Caveman

Lifer
With BF3 coming, I'm looking upgrade my GTX 470. After upgrading my cpu/mobo, I got a 20% off coupon from Microcenter that I need to use by 9/2.

I can get a GTX 570 for around $240, 6970 for $270 or 6950 for $240.

I'd like to be able to go 3 monitors, so I'm thinking AMD but I do have a i5 2500k and Z68 mobo, so I can use the integrated graphics to run a monitor.

But I'm guessing if I wanted to game, I would need to disable the integrated graphics and only be able to game with dual monitors?

Any thoughts or opinions would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
How much of an upgrade feeling down you want to get? None of those cards are significant upgrades over what you have. I would be looking at two cards if you must buy now and want a real upgrade. Two 6870s would do the trick.
 
Why not buy another 470 for SLI? They are cheap cards now and you will see a decent bump in performance. Any single GPU solution is not going to justify expenditure at this stage. 28nm cards will be released before you've had your money's worth out of another 40nm card.
 
Interesting thoughts. I have always gone with a single card. I was thinking one of the above would give me a 20% boost. I was planning on donating the card to a friend so that he could play BF3 when it comes out and with the 20% coupon, thought I would entertain the idea of a new card.
 
NumericalMethods said:
Why not buy another 470 for SLI? They are cheap cards now and you will see a decent bump in performance. Any single GPU solution is not going to justify expenditure at this stage. 28nm cards will be released before you've had your money's worth out of another 40nm card.
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This is even better. So long as you can find a 470 somewhere. Likely have to buy it used. But if it's important to you to donate the card to the friend, I would go 6970 or 570 if you want the single card. Depending on which games you are going to play to choose between them.

I believe BF3 is an AMD gaming evolved title.
 
The performance increase with 470 SLI looks appealing. Dumb question, can I mix and match brands? I have a EVGA and I can pick-up a Zotac 470 for $165 at MC. Neither are overclocked.
 
Capt Caveman said:
The performance increase with 470 SLI looks appealing. Dumb question, can I mix and match brands? I have a EVGA and I can pick-up a Zotac 470 for $165 at MC. Neither are overclocked.
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Yes you can. I have one evga and two zotacs. They are all the same. Just make sure your power supply is up to snuff. A decent 750watt unit is good.
 
Do it. Brand matching is not required, just the chip model (and ideally the RAM quantity). Now one final hurdle... Do you have a quality PSU rated somewhere around the 750 Watt mark or better?

To make it up to your friend, who might lose out, why not let him watch you play some BF3 on your totally awesome 3 screen SLI setup? 😀
 
That int much of an upgrade, I would hold off. 470 is a beast. SLI...now that is a different story. Make sure your PSU can take it.....then go for it.
 
Best bang for the buck would be a used GTX470 SLI.

Otherwise, the GTX570 seems most appealing at $240 among your 3 choices for this game based on preliminary testing: about 33% faster than a single GTX470.

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I recently went with another 470, and I am not looking back. Seriously the best upgrade there was. Just as long as you have good airflow and can cool the card. The main card gets mighty toasty...
 
T101 said:
I recently went with another 470, and I am not looking back. Seriously the best upgrade there was. Just as long as you have good airflow and can cool the card. The main card gets mighty toasty...
Click to expand...

My concern with going 470 SLI would be the power and heat. I'm wondering with my 2500k and Z68 mobo, if I can drive dual monitors with the integrated graphics and only run the 470 SLI for gaming?

I leave my pc on during the day and don't want to be powering 470 SLI if I can help it.
 
As far as I know there is no way to switch of the cards to run with the internal graphics. Or rather, you can switch with some third party software, but the 470s will still be powered on. And using both internal and discrete GPU will actually increase your power usage rather than reduce it.
 
Why not just keep the card you have? Just use the discount for a SSD or something else.

The card you have is more than enough for BF3. All the demos you see online from EA are on a 460GTX and it looks fantastic and playable.

It was a bad choice to upgrade now before game is even out, esp since october is when tons of new hardware is coming out in form of CPU/GPU.
 
Capt Caveman said:
My concern with going 470 SLI would be the power and heat.
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It will be. You're much better off getting a single GTX580. It might not be as cost effective but it'll be much better from a usability and TDP perspective. Also there'll be no multi-GPU issues to deal with.
 
Just because you have a discount doesn't mean you have to use it. You'll be saving 20% on something you don't need or you could save 100% by not buying it at all.

And personally I'd keep the 470 till mid 2012 when you could get a next gen mid range card for $250ish
 
personally i think a single 470 will be enough for BF3. as russian said, best bang for your buck will be picking up a used 470 if you decide to go SLI.
 
OILFIELDTRASH said:
Just because you have a discount doesn't mean you have to use it. You'll be saving 20% on something you don't need or you could save 100% by not buying it at all.

And personally I'd keep the 470 till mid 2012 when you could get a next gen mid range card for $250ish
Click to expand...

The issue is I was planning on donating my 470 to a friend so he could play BF3 and I would get a new card at a discounted price.

Playing BF3 Alpha, I was in the low 40s fps. Ideally, I would like to be 60 fps.
 
Capt Caveman said:
The issue is I was planning on donating my 470 to a friend so he could play BF3 and I would get a new card at a discounted price.

Playing BF3 Alpha, I was in the low 40s fps. Ideally, I would like to be 60 fps.
Click to expand...

I know it's not a value move but a 580 would get you where you need to be performance wise without the hiccups of a sli system. I get 80+ fps on BC2 in multi player with everything maxed. I have a 120hz monitor so I see every fps and it is glorious. If you got a little spare change a direct 2 CU 580 overclocked to 902mhz ain't no joke. :biggrin:
 
Capt Caveman said:
The issue is I was planning on donating my 470 to a friend so he could play BF3 and I would get a new card at a discounted price.

Playing BF3 Alpha, I was in the low 40s fps. Ideally, I would like to be 60 fps.
Click to expand...

BF3 Alpha had poorly optimized drivers, your fps will increase significantly with the actual game. I'd hold off on anything for now if I were you, then look at potentially getting a 2nd (used) 470 if you need more oomph after buying the game. Give your friend the 20% off coupon instead, let him save 20% on a 6850 or gtx 460.
 
bryanW1995 said:
BF3 Alpha had poorly optimized drivers, your fps will increase significantly with the actual game. I'd hold off on anything for now if I were you, then look at potentially getting a 2nd (used) 470 if you need more oomph after buying the game. Give your friend the 20% off coupon instead, let him save 20% on a 6850 or gtx 460.
Click to expand...

Hope it is optimized cause my gtx 560 non ti performs just about the same as a gtx 470 , only 280mb less vram.

Op if your reading what cpu did you use in alpha and what settings at what resolution?

I usually like average 60fps myself like you i assume and 40 def wont cut it as i bet it dropped down into the 20s didn't it?
 
skipsneeky2 said:
Hope it is optimized cause my gtx 560 non ti performs just about the same as a gtx 470 , only 280mb less vram.

Op if your reading what cpu did you use in alpha and what settings at what resolution?

I usually like average 60fps myself like you i assume and 40 def wont cut it as i bet it dropped down into the 20s didn't it?
Click to expand...

I had a Q9550 oc'd to 3.4 playing at 1920x1200 at high settings(I believe). I have since upgraded to a i5 2500k so don't know how much the cpu upgrade would make.

I don't believe I dropped into the 20s but pretty sure I did drop into the 30s for some stuff.
 
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