Do I bother upgrading?

[Windrunner]

Okay, so the 'my system' is accurate to what I have right now. I have a C2Q 9450 @ 3.0 GHZ, 8 gigs of RAM, and a 9800GTX+. The GPU was weak when I bought it because I intended to quickly replace this build with a Ci7. Medical emergency happened and that $$$ went down the drain...soooo...

I've been considering a 5850 or GTX 470. Both of these cards seem to be 75 dollars too expensive for the performance increase I'd get. ( That's a qualitative, not quantitative estimate ).

I have a feeling the 470 would require me to get a new PSU and the 5850 would be slightly underwhelming in GPGPU performance - which is what my next graphics card will be doing primarily unless gaming companies drop steam and other rentware schemes.

Do I bother upgrading this season or should I wait another year when I'll build a CGI workstation?

[jedihobbit]

Wait or go for GTX295 single PSB if price is right and you don't mind used!

[Windrunner]

Power usage is why I'm not considering a 480.

[jedihobbit]

Just picked up a GTX 285 (with a another "possible") and so far it has been a nice "upgrade" from my XFX GTX 260 - 216 BE. Also it "seems" to do a wee bit better on power usage also.

[Windrunner]

I think I'm sold on holding off. Luxrender doesn't have GPU accelerated ray tracing yet, and as soon as they do Blender will have it, and by then the cards will be cheaper, cooler, and faster...

I'll keep telling myself that.

[JoshMST]

Well... now that NV finally has a lot of product out there, I would imagine that we are going to see a bit of a price erosion going on, especially as Q2 tightens and manufacturers aren't moving parts.

Also NV will be releasing GTX 460 and GTX 465 parts. Those might fit better into your price range, and should offer some good performance. In the case of the 460, it doesn't look to be the power/heat hog that the current parts are.