Upgrade now or wait for DX11?

[Bryson777]

I have been doing a lot of research lately comparing both cards from ATI and Nvidia even going down to the features list (ie. physx) and the intricacies of yield processing and die shrinks. It's been fun but the time has come to make a decision.

I own a Dell s2309w(1900x1080), a HD4850, a q6600 which I wll be O/C (if I get 3ghz I will be happy), and 4gigs ram that I will be putting in a P150. My current thinking is to re-sell the HD4850 while it's resale value is still high and buy a 4870 1g Vapor-X. Now...Noise, Heat and Power Consumption are JUST as important as performance to me and after exhaustive research the sapphire card seems like the best of the lot.

The problem is that I don't see the 4870 being the final solution for me. Reference coolers are too loud and aftermarket coolers like the accelero work very well at cooling the GPU but dump ALL of that heat into the case. However this option will leave me in a "comfortable" position for the time being. With all signs pointing to an october/november release of HD5xxx, it could be months still before we even see an affordable 3rd party aftermarket solution. That's not even taking into account the pains of being a first gen adopter and who knows what the yield will be on these next gen chips.

The other option would be to stick with the 4850 until something really worthy comes along. I'd be happy with a 4770 equivalent of the 4870 right now but I'm expecting something more from next gen. Would underclocking a 4870s 2d be enough to tame it's power consumption which is where 80% of my time is spent? With my goals of playing SC2, Diablo 3, TF2, COD, Bioshock etc...the question is, aside from crysis are there any games that necessitate an upgrade?

 

[damage424]

One good way to find out if you need to wait for DX11 with the games you listed is to find out if those games are going to use DX11. I can tell you that Diablo 3 is not going to be using DX11 and is going to be made on DX9. One of the reasons for that is so everyone can play the game and people wouldn't need to necessarily upgrade their whole rig for it. You can search the Diablo 3 forums if you want too.

 

[Bryson777]

This is true. Blizzard is great at optimizing their games and making them playable on low spec systems as to reach a broader target audience. Any game they release is an automatic purchase as far as I'm concerned.

I am starting to think that without the need to upgrade, that taking the wait and see approach is only logical. On the other hand, not only would upgrading to a 4870 give me peace of mind, the thought that GPUs have become more powerful than CPUs and the thought of moving towards .28nm chips for more power and effiency makes me want to upgrade now. I know it's not rational but it's something that makes the inner geek in me want to grunt. argh argh argh lol!

 

[DaveSimmons]

That all points to a 4890 instead since it's faster but uses less power.

 

[Fox5]

You could buy a second 4850 and crossfire them.

But honestly, I'd say wait until the next gen of cards comes out. It's only a month or two away, and the 4850 isn't that out of date.

 

[nemesismk2]

I would wait until DX11 video cards start appearing and then the price of current video cards should fall.

 

[Kakkoii]

Originally posted by: damage424
One good way to find out if you need to wait for DX11 with the games you listed is to find out if those games are going to use DX11. I can tell you that Diablo 3 is not going to be using DX11 and is going to be made on DX9. One of the reasons for that is so everyone can play the game and people wouldn't need to necessarily upgrade their whole rig for it. You can search the Diablo 3 forums if you want too.

That's kind of a moot point, since DX11 is backwards compatible with DX9/10 hardware. There's only a few features of DX11 that the DX9/10 cards won't be able to utilize. Like the tessellation, and new SM 5.0 features. But all in all, not much.


On topic, YES WAIT. ATI's DX11 card isn't very far away. Wait and see what specs it truly turns out to have, then make your decision. Plus with it's release, any cards you planning to buy now would have a major price drop to make room.

 

[Bryson777]

Originally posted by: nemesismk2
I would wait until DX11 video cards start appearing and then the price of current video cards should fall.

See that's part of the conundrum. Sure video cards will fall in price but so will the resale value of my 4850. I guess where waiting for DX11 is beneficial is seeing what specs the new cards will be and possibly picking up a DX11 card for better future proofing.

It's really not about the money either, it's about buying a card that I'm happy with. For example I want the card to be ultra quiet and it's been almost 4 months since the release of the 4770 and still no vapor-x version. However, with the 40nm chips running so cool, the reference 4770 is actually pretty quiet so hmmm....