GTX 260 vs GTX 470

[Squid]

OK so I am wanting to upgrade my video card. As you can see from my specs, I currently have an 8800 GTS 512 which has served me well over the years. My question is, would it be worth it to "go for it" and get the 470 or would my cpu just bottlekneck it? I really do not want to get the 470 if I am not going to see much of a difference over the 260 with my current set up. Or should I just keep my 8800 and be satisfied? I really need some help because I have been laboring over this decision. Please help!

 

[thefabe]

I definately don't see any bottlencking with your current cpu and the 470. Maybe with the 750i board though. Same board I have and I 'm wating to upgrade to a better board before I upgrade my graphics but then I'll be going to DDR3 and and i7. Currently I'm satisfied with my GTX260 superclocked. JMO. Fabe

 

[SlackerITGuy]

Neither.

The new 'must buy' card out there right now is without a doubt the GTX 460.

5850-level performance for ~$200 bucks ($199 for the 768MB version and $230 for the 1GB one). Awesome temperatures with very reasonable power consumption.

 

[thefabe]

I was going to mention the GTX460 here's a review on it Nvidia GeForce GTX 460: The Fermi We Were Waiting For : GeForce GTX 460 At 1 GB And 768 MB Newegg no 1 gb though Newegg.com - EVGA 768-P3-1360-TR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 768MB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card Fabe

 

[Squid]

Wow I must have been in tunnel vision mode since I didn't even know the 460 was out there. It has just about everything I have been looking for between the 260 and 470 (336 stream processors, but best of all DX11!!). One thing though, the memory bandwidth is lower than both the 260 and 470. Is that a concern? I mean what is memory bandwidth anyway? Thanks guys!!!!

 

[SlackerITGuy]

Wow I must have been in tunnel vision mode since I didn't even know the 460 was out there. It has just about everything I have been looking for between the 260 and 470 (336 stream processors, but best of all DX11!!). One thing though, the memory bandwidth is lower than both the 260 and 470. Is that a concern? I mean what is memory bandwidth anyway? Thanks guys!!!!

Don't worry about it mate.

The 460 can flat out fly, reaching 5850-level performance.

I would be all over one if I was on the market for a GPU.

 

[seekermeister]

Coincidentally, TD has a similar offer on the GTX460 that I was looking at earlier:

EVGA 768-P3-1360-TR GeForce GTX 460 Video Card - 768MB GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, Dual DVI, Mini HDMI, SLI, DirectX 11, Fermi at TigerDirect.com

However, my hardware is so old that I doubt that it would perform well on it.

 

[Everlong]

The memory bandwidth won't really start to take its toll until you start hitting the higher resolutions. If you're going to be using the 1680x1050 monitor in your specs, then you'll be fine.

It's up to you though really, if you don't mind spending more for the 470 then go for that one too. It's what I'm using now and I love it. Temperatures aren't too bad if you set a custom fan speed up, but then there's the higher power usage if power usage bothers you, but then for the price, the 460 is a great card too.

 

[hawkin90]

I just say, choose a radeon 4x or 5x
More for the money and the cards has a much lower temp/more stability.
But hey if you are a nvidia fan i won't destroy that

 

[seekermeister]

The memory bandwidth won't really start to take its toll until you start hitting the higher resolutions. If you're going to be using the 1680x1050 monitor in your specs, then you'll be fine.

It's up to you though really, if you don't mind spending more for the 470 then go for that one too. It's what I'm using now and I love it. Temperatures aren't too bad if you set a custom fan speed up, but then there's the higher power usage if power usage bothers you, but then for the price, the 460 is a great card too.

Currently, I'm using 1980x1024 on a 23" Acer, so I don't know how much difference that makes? I'm too tight to go with the 470, the 460 is at the top of my budget. However, reading earlier comments regarding other hardware bottlenecking the card, like the MB, gives me pause to consider. I'm still using S939, and probably will be for a while.

 

[seekermeister]

I just say, choose a radeon 4x or 5x
More for the money and the cards has a much lower temp/more stability.
But hey if you are a nvidia fan i won't destroy that

I don't have the experience with ATI, because the first and only one that I ever owned was a lemon which I took back to the store very quickly and never looked back.

 

[Everlong]

The memory bandwidth won't really start to take its toll until you start hitting the higher resolutions. If you're going to be using the 1680x1050 monitor in your specs, then you'll be fine.

It's up to you though really, if you don't mind spending more for the 470 then go for that one too. It's what I'm using now and I love it. Temperatures aren't too bad if you set a custom fan speed up, but then there's the higher power usage if power usage bothers you, but then for the price, the 460 is a great card too.

Currently, I'm using 1980x1024 on a 23" Acer, so I don't know how much difference that makes? I'm too tight to go with the 470, the 460 is at the top of my budget. However, reading earlier comments regarding other hardware bottlenecking the card, like the MB, gives me pause to consider. I'm still using S939, and probably will be for a while.

Well it comes down to what level of detail you play the game graphically at really. The higher the resolution with higher detail textures require the larger memory bandwidth, but unfortunatley you're right about the rest of your specs. I imagine that Athlon would hold it back a bit.

 

[seekermeister]

I understand that games are where this card would shine best, but how about movies, would it effect them?

 

[Everlong]

I understand that games are where this card would shine best, but how about movies, would it effect them?

I doubt it'd affect movies playing. Everything should be fine with playing them.

 

[Squid]

So I opted for the GTX 460 and couldn't be happier. My FPS for BFBC2 increased by 20% and that is AFTER I raised everything to MAX in video options. Stays cool by increasing fan speed manually (65%) while gaming (59C max). The only thing is, it did nothing for my framerates for GTA4. I am assuming that is because the game is dependent more on the CPU than GPU? I don't know, but every other game is blazing with this thing so I am happy! Thanks again!

 

[Solarstarshines]

I just say, choose a radeon 4x or 5x
More for the money and the cards has a much lower temp/more stability.
But hey if you are a nvidia fan i won't destroy that

I feel the same way i would go with the 5XXX series model by radeon it is a excellent performer im using a hd 5770 has 800 stream processors 1gb ram 128bit but if you want 256 then go with the 5870 or the 5850 i wouldn't go with the 5830 that would basicly like using my card the 5770 just the only difference is the 5830 has 256 bit other then that i would hunt around because nvidia used to be my choice long years ago till i started thinking more money wise and certain enhancments to a particular board

and with all that being said right board right card and cpu will mesh and make it run like a champ you can get the highest vid card but if you dont have good memory or good cpu you are just downing the perfomance

As far as the movie thing go the movies will only look as good as the resolution of the monitor quality and what specs it features but if your using a none flat screen you will just get the basic performance as a regular monitor no matter how good the card is

 

[Everlong]

So I opted for the GTX 460 and couldn't be happier. My FPS for BFBC2 increased by 20% and that is AFTER I raised everything to MAX in video options. Stays cool by increasing fan speed manually (65%) while gaming (59C max). The only thing is, it did nothing for my framerates for GTA4. I am assuming that is because the game is dependent more on the CPU than GPU? I don't know, but every other game is blazing with this thing so I am happy! Thanks again!

Good to hear you're happy with it. As for GTA4 you're right. I didn't notice anything when I upgraded to my 470 either, apart from I was able to increase the graphics to full with the amount of VRAM the card has. 65% is a good speed to have the fan at too. Not too noisy, but fast enough to keep the card with in reasonable temps. Enjoy

 

[F1FAN]

i have the gtx 460 (details below) and i am more then happy with it, sadly, i dont have many games at the momment to proper test it but i know on call of duty modern warfare 2 it maxes out and plays fine at 60fps (vertical sync on). deals well with smoke and alot of action.
As for temps, it does not go past 65c and idles at around 35.
Really quiet, the stock nvidia fan has been praised for how quiet and how cool it stays, low power, only needs a 450w psu, allthough i have a 600w.
And i only knew about this card a week and a half ago, before that i was going to get a gtx 260 but thought it was a bit outdated now and i was a bit fed up with ati so i came across this, glad i did.

 

[Davidxtux]

i have the gtx 460 (details below) and i am more then happy with it, sadly, i dont have many games at the momment to proper test it but i know on call of duty modern warfare 2 it maxes out and plays fine at 60fps (vertical sync on). deals well with smoke and alot of action.
As for temps, it does not go past 65c and idles at around 35.
Really quiet, the stock nvidia fan has been praised for how quiet and how cool it stays, low power, only needs a 450w psu, allthough i have a 600w.
And i only knew about this card a week and a half ago, before that i was going to get a gtx 260 but thought it was a bit outdated now and i was a bit fed up with ati so i came across this, glad i did.

Welcome to the dark side.