GTX 470/480 worth buying, or wait?

[Boyiee]

Don't want to shit up other peoples threads so I'll make my own with exactly the subject as the title lol.

I am sick of my 4870X2, Looking for a new card. I was planning to upgrade GPU, and then later CPU/Ram/Mobo even though computer is only around a year old... but having won a settlement recently for an injury and needing to build some credit I figured why not buy some parts.

I want to go back to a nvidia card even though the amd cards are really god ight now, the 5970 is just way too much as well.

For 379.99 I can grab a 470superclocked, for 499 I can get the 480. Is it worth buying either of these now? Or should I wait till they release the next set of cards (not sure when that will be I haven't been monitoring cards lately as I originally had no intent to upgrade my pc).

I want as close to a sidestep in performance, if not an upgrade in performance as possible. Basically I don't want to go downwards in quality, I think the 470 is pretty damn close to the 4870X2 though, and 480 should be even higher, at least according to most benchmarks i've seen.

[Sieg]

Might be a while till a refresh happens. Only thing that may come out relatively soon would be NVs sandwich card to compete with the 5970. Dunno how crippled it will be, plus it'll probably cost just as much if not more than the 5970 anyway. ATIs refresh would be something to possibly wait for as it would likely cause a price drop on everything else.

Get the 480 if you want a definite upgrade.
Get a reference 470 if you want your 4870 without the micro-stutter.
Get a non-reference 470 for something in between.

[Boyiee]

My choices are pretty much GTX470 or GTX480, all depends on if I want to spend 400 or 500.

Meh, I might just do an impulse buy tonight since I'm sick of my 4870X2... Any idea on how loud the 470 and 480's are? The 4870X2 is like a hairdryer at times.

[Sieg]

470's are ~$350, but yea.

As for noise etc.

http://hardocp.com/article/2010/03/2...0_sli_review/7

Somewhat exaggerated obviously due to the card being like 6" away and in the open but should give a general idea. For what it's worth, I don't hear my 5870 like that and its at 1000/1300. So yea... take those vids(both camps) with a grain of salt, etc.

I'd say jump for the 480 if you can stretch it to be honest. That way you'll get solid upgrade no matter what.

[Boyiee]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-551-_-Product

"SuperClocked core & memory + free game at Mfg site" this some kind of code or download that comes with the card?

Best to save the 304 and go with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-552-_-Product

I can stretch it, so I guess I should. Just trying not to go overboard but yeah I'm bad at not going overboard.

My 4870X2 is loud as FUCK lol, gotta get the fan up when I run games with the OC.

[Stza]

stick to ATI until nvidia gives fermi another go around its a huge power hag and gets much to hot which means any feature plans to sli is going to be a bad idea, 5870 are still on top until 5970 drops in price.

[Boyiee]

I've just had such bad experiences with this 4870x2 along with driver troubles, it just seems like ati is just pushing out as many cards as they can for current games and then giving up on them just so they are ahead of nvidia. Kinda hard to want to get another ati card.

[Arkanna]

I'd hold off then and satisfy your impulse to buy with an upgrade to another subsystem (storage maybe, SSD's are hot and the 600GB raptors are lethal in RAID 0). The Fermi's are fast but run very hot and consume power like none other.

[Boyiee]

I have no need for storage upgrades.

The idea was to slowly change my computer from its e8500, rampage formula ddr2 computer to a i7 with dd3, but the most expensive piece and the part I hate in my computer the most right now is my gpu so I was going to just grab that. If waiting is the better option, when are the new parts supposed to come out? If it's a while from now I'll just do the cpu/mobo/ram first (same price anyway lol).

[Cjskater]

You probably should go with cpu/mobo/ram first. CPU is the biggest bottleneck at the moment.

Edit: Also to get rid of some of the noise, maybe try reapplying the thermal paste (and cleaning the heatsink/fan of dust and such). Putting MX-2 on my GTS250 lowered temps like 15c at load, also less noisy thanks to lower fan speed,. Easy and cheap.

[Boyiee]

Bah, fine no dx11 for a few more months lol. Is my wishlist on newegg still viable? Minus the gfx card of course.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Pu...umber=12824285

Corsair ram has a MIB for 20$ more making it 200 which isn't too bad of a price. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145224

Christ now I'm up to $750, coulda just got a 5970 for that lmao. Went from a 350$ card, to a 500, to a 750$ setup. inc credit.

[Boyiee]

lol tax return came in, plus settlement this week... Fuck could just buy a new computer straight out right now lol, i7 950 anyone haha

[dejet]

lol tax return came in, plus settlement this week... Fuck could just buy a new computer straight out right now lol, i7 950 anyone haha

>.> just what the hell are you planing to do with this PC lol?

[Boyiee]

I wouldn't really have gotten that but it would be sick lol. I like the build I linked above. i7 930, the evga 141-bl x58 mobo, and 6gb of probably corsair since apparently it has happy timings.

[Celeras]

I got my 470 last month, and am waiting for the new Intel sockets before upgrading my CPU/mobo/etc. 1156/1366 are going to be old hat/obsolete within a year.

My system was C2Q+8800GT, similar age to yours. Just throwing my decision out there.

[Boyiee]

So wait for both upgrades lol. The GPU was my first choice cause I am just unhappy with mine, even though I knew it wasnt much of an upgrade. You guys talk about heat/noise, my 4870X2 is sitting at 85-90c while just playing WoW 40% fan, @ 790gpu 950memory clocks. I can turn the fan up manually but like I said, it's loud.. and my sytem is pretty f'ing cool elsewhere. Zalman 120 etc. antec900 case.

[Drako]

buy SSDs, nothing speeds up a pc more than 2 or 3 SSDs in raid0.


best thing i ever bought in my life, 3x OCZ VERTEX 30gb

althought i would recomend you buying 2x OCZ VERTEX 60gb, since going from 1 to 2 SSDs is almost 150% increase in speed and getting a 3rd increases 10-15% more only.


about vga cards the best for less money is 2x5770, its better than 5870 in some cases and cheaper.

if you really wanna burn you money just buy a 5970, dont get nvidia cards right now, wait for next gen or get ATI, this new nvidia gen sucks.

[Celeras]

^

Dude is retarded, ignore. Actually, don't ignore it. Just pretty much do the opposite of everything he said, because that would be sound advice.

-Do not waste money on multiple SSDs, one at most and even that is a questionable purchase until they become bigger/cheaper.
-Do not waste money buying a crossfire/SLI setup when there are single GPUs available that are the same/near same speed, single card solutions are always better.
-Current nVidia gen does not suck.

[Sieg]

So wait for both upgrades lol. The GPU was my first choice cause I am just unhappy with mine, even though I knew it wasnt much of an upgrade. You guys talk about heat/noise, my 4870X2 is sitting at 85-90c while just playing WoW 40% fan, @ 790gpu 950memory clocks. I can turn the fan up manually but like I said, it's loud.. and my sytem is pretty f'ing cool elsewhere. Zalman 120 etc. antec900 case.

Yea, and when Sandy Bridge hits you'll be waiting for Southern/Nothern Islands, then G400, etc.. If you feel you need to upgrade something, then upgrade it. If not then save your money for when you will.

+ What Celeras said.

[Boyiee]

I don't mind waiting it's just even if I wait and get the next gen, 3-4months later the next gen will have released and it'll be "shoulda waited for those".

Shit gets outdated so fast now, you guys feel the new sockets and gpu's will be out not too long from now?