Nvidia GTX 460 potential upgrade for my HD 4870?

[RatboyX]

Having had a 4870 card for a while I’ve been looking with some interest at the newer cards as they have been coming out. ATI’s 5000 series cards are indeed nice cards but I’d need to spend a lot to get better performance than I have now.

The 5770 is by all accounts a very nice card and hits a good price point but I don’t see it giving me any better performance than my 4870 and in fact I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be as good.

The 5830 is marginally faster than the 5770 in some games and about the same in others. Most reviews don’t really see the 5830 as a better choice than the 5770 and I don’t see it as a better option than my 4870 either.

The 5850 is where things start to get interesting, but at a low end price on New Egg of $284.00 to a High end of $339.00 for a 1GB card I would need to have significant improvement in the games I play to justify that amount of cash. For me the potential performance increase just doesn’t justify the cost of the upgrade at this time.

The 5870 and 5890 would of course be much faster cards but at a much higher price point than I’m willing to spend.

Likewise on the Nvidia side of the fence, the 470 and 480 simply do not offer the performance increase that would justify the purchase price in terms of an upgrade for my 4870.

I was disappointed with the performance of the 465 relative to the cost of upgrading from my 4870 as well.

Now I’m eagerly awaiting the GTX 460, wondering if the new GPU might be the one that brings me back to Nvidia after all these years. Could this GPU have a performance to cost level that would make it a worthy upgrade for my 4870?

It’s really a tough question because everything I’m running now is running GREAT with my current system. The only reason I am even considering an upgrade, beyond the fact that I enjoy new technology, is to hedge against future GPU needs.

The 4870 is one of those cards that ATI really did well. They hit a great performance to price point that I haven’t seen in newer GPU’s. It’s going to take a really good card to make me switch and so far I just haven’t seen it.

[mr_raider]

The answer is simple. Don't upgrade. There is nothing in your price range (sub 250$) that is a worthwhile upgrade. Wait for the next cycle. ATI's next mid grade from the 6xxx series may be what you need.

[Nebulis01]

Do what I did, buy a 2nd 4870. I got my 2nd card used for $80 and couldn't be happier.

[JoshMST]

GTX 460 does look interesting, and the performance boost could be considerable, depending on the price. Consider how much faster a GTX 285 was over the HD 4870 (and 4890), now think that this part will again be faster than the GTX 285 by about 15 to 20%.

Plus you get DX11 support to boot.

It would certainly interest me if I were getting antsy to upgrade.

[RatboyX]

@Nebulis01. I have thought about getting a second 4870 to Crossfire. The issue would be I would likely need to pull out my Creative Labs sound card and run the onboard Audio, in order to fit in the second 4870. Also my motherboard only supports PCIe 16x for single cards reverting to 8x if crossfire is used.

Of the two issues loosing the soundcard is the one that bothers me more.

@JoshMST. I am looking forward to the release of the 460. If it indeed tests out as fast as 15 to 20 % above the old 285 and it’s not priced outrageously I might have found a card to take me back to the green.

I can tell you for sure that if the HD 5850 was available for a decent price, under 250 being what I consider decent for it, I would own one right now and wouldn’t even be looking at the 460.

Those are the two cards I will be comparing when the 460 comes out.

Then again a lot of it is just the “Upgrade Itch” as the Ole 4870 is still running strong.

[Pixels303]

I am no longer using my onboard of add-on audio card. I got a Soundblaster USB device and it rocks. I place the thing right in front of my monitor for easy hookup and it has all the outputs on it for 6 speakers, headset, mic with dials for easy volume and mic levels. I will never use a onboard audio system ever again. Plus, no more hissing or poping with this device as it is outside of the computer, thus receives no more dirty power or transient RF noise from other PC components.

Honestly, I'd loose the soundcard and crossfire it. I had the 4870, and I liked that card. My 5750 doesn't work much faster.
Only drawback you mentioned is the PCI-E 8X timing aspect. Unfortunately, not many boards support dual 16X or triple 16X.

[JoshMST]

You aren't going to see any appreciable difference by using 2 x 8X PCI-E vs. 2 x 16X PCI-E. Your board is PCI-E 2.0, so it has plenty of bandwidth to go around.

[mr_raider]

I can tell you for sure that if the HD 5850 was available for a decent price, under 250 being what I consider decent for it, I would own one right now and wouldn’t even be looking at the 460.

Those are the two cards I will be comparing when the 460 comes out.

Then again a lot of it is just the “Upgrade Itch” as the Ole 4870 is still running strong.

The 465 is right now slightly below the 5850. So the 460 may be closer to 5830 levels.

[RatboyX]

The more you guys talk about it the more I’m considering using the external Sound card and going for a Crossfire on the 4870. I may need to wander over to the audio forum and see what they say about external USB sound cards. What I was led to believe is that the USB sound cards used more CPU resources than a PCIe solution. No idea if that’s true or not.

[jethro]

Do what I did, buy a 2nd 4870. I got my 2nd card used for $80 and couldn't be happier.

This is your best answer in terms of bang for buck.

[Pixels303]

What I was led to believe is that the USB sound cards used more CPU resources than a PCIe solution. No idea if that’s true or not.

this is true. They do use more CPU time. However, if you don't use your USB for anything else and you have a computer which is greater than 200Mhz in speed, you shouldn't notice any significant drawback over using the onboard card.

With computing, quantity of CPU usage is becoming less important as processors can do more.

[AParsh335i]

This is your best answer in terms of bang for buck.

I agree. Do the crossfire.

Also consider this - look at the price of the External USB sound and compare this to how much it would cost to buy a new, nicer motherboard that would allow you to use your old sound card.

[Pixels303]

Price of a new Mobo? I looked at several external USB sound cards and some good ones too, and the prices are 50 bucks and less. Motherboards are considerably more complicated to change out and definitely more expensive. Unless you plan on a complete platform upgrade, I wouldn't suggest wasting the $$$

[RatboyX]

Price of a new Mobo? I looked at several external USB sound cards and some good ones too, and the prices are 50 bucks and less. Motherboards are considerably more complicated to change out and definitely more expensive. Unless you plan on a complete platform upgrade, I wouldn't suggest wasting the $$$

Would also need to consider the cost of moving to DDR3 from my current DDR2. If I went that far I might as well just build a new system. That’s something I would love to do but just can’t justify as my current system is running fine. I’ll put it all down to the upgrade bug and try and resist the temptation.

[guru626]

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