GTX 470/480 worth buying, or wait?

[Sieg]

Yea, that was my point. You'll be constantly waiting for the next thing. You're looking at least 6 months before anything shows up on the CPU front. GPU wise, only thing remotely on the radar would be 5000-series refresh.

[Boyiee]

And I don't want to go with ati anyway so might as well grab either the 480 or the i7 setup i posted.

[Celeras]

Here's how I feel about it. There's always going to be a later and greater, always. I'm not an enthusiast who buys every generation to always have the fastest, I tend to go 3-4-5 generations between upgrades until my hardware becomes an issue. My Q6600/8800GT played everything I through at it, even up until I bought my 470. Sure, I needed low/medium settings for BFBC2 (and get better frames now with my 470 on high everything).. but it still played.

So when I buy, I buy brand new and I buy near top-shelf at whatever pricepoint I'm comfortable with. i7 is topshelf, but its nearing the end of its sockets cycle. I need the 'shiny new' feeling when I buy, so I'm waiting.

Not to mention, CPU doesn't really matter a whole lot in single GPU systems at high resolutions. You're not really doing yourself much of a disservice by waiting. i7 vs E8400 in Multi GPU setups shows this well, and is a particularly good bench for you as some trials are very close to your current specs(e8400+ dual 4870s, and e8400+ dual 4870x2s). Those lines will be even closer together for you when we're talkin about a single card.

[Boyiee]

It's cheaper to just grab a 480 now anyway, then to grab i7+mobo+ram lol. 200-250$ difference I believe. Which will I get more performance out of? Probably the i7, which would I be happier with? Probably the gpu since I hate my current.

It's really a toss up, could buy the whole thing and replace my whole system but the idea was just to upgrade, and I typically make the mistake of upgrading everything at once rather than separately.

[Drako]

^

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.

- load any game on steam almost automatically, most games dont take longer than a second or two to load, you will also be the first one to enter any multiplayer maps in any game.
- start windows in less than 20 seconds (40 seconds from power)
- open ANY program instantly


you never used a ssd in your life, just stfu.

and of course single card solutions are better, they just cost more

and yes, current nvidie gen DOES SUCK, its more expansive for less performance, thats AT LEAST FOR ME a condition to suck ass.

[sruon]

Troll more, he isn't saying SSD sucks, just that the performance/price ratio fails, which isn't far from the truth.

[Cjskater]

Not to mention, CPU doesn't really matter a whole lot in single GPU systems at high resolutions.

As somebody who plays BC2 you should know better than that. Also are we reading the same bench? At 1920x1200, even in those old games with last gen GPUs, they saw about a 1.5x increase. Linking Crysis Warhead shows ignorance, the game only uses 2 threads, what you see there is the architecture difference.

another note: Whether or not the system is single GPU doesn't matter. If the GPU/GPUs can put out more frames than the CPU can handle then it's going to be bottlenecked to what the CPU can handle (ex: flat lines in the graphs). The GTX470 and GTX480 are more powerful than a lot of multi-gpu systems and they will most definitely show the age of a processor.

[Boyiee]

Still torn between upgrading to i7 or upgrading my gpu lol.

[Celeras]

As somebody who plays BC2 you should know better than that. Also are we reading the same bench? At 1920x1200, even in those old games with last gen GPUs, they saw about a 1.5x increase. Linking Crysis Warhead shows ignorance, the game only uses 2 threads, what you see there is the architecture difference.

another note: Whether or not the system is single GPU doesn't matter. If the GPU/GPUs can put out more frames than the CPU can handle then it's going to be bottlenecked to what the CPU can handle (ex: flat lines in the graphs). The GTX470 and GTX480 are more powerful than a lot of multi-gpu systems and they will most definitely show the age of a processor.

That's because those are multi-GPU benches, they were linked because the mans using a 4870x2 and e8500.. which is nearly identical to the rig that was tested. Wasn't intending to showcase warhead, just linked to a game, feel free to navigate through yourself.

What you're saying is 'right' in some cases... but still generally wrong. Take this more recent bench for example, showing CPU scaling with the 5870: http://translate.google.com/translat...fikkarte/Test/

Look at the blue line for 1920x1200. Most trials, it's just a straight line for all modern CPUs.. with Anno and WoW being the two exceptions, both of which are extremely CPU based games(which you can see with FPS being nearly identical among all resolutions, which is absurd to begin with). Exceptions are always there, but the majority of games will perform the way I said with next to no performance increases between older/new CPUs.

@Boyiee, it's hard to say for you. CPU won't be that significant of an upgrade because of what is said above... but GPU won't be that big an upgrade either because you have a reasonably modern dual GPU card. Neither will be leaps and bounds better for you.

[Sieg]

Check for yourself to see whether you are CPU or GPU bound on the games you want more performance on and decide based off that.
I was CPU bound myself on Crysis until I OCed my 955. Only thing that put the load back on my GPU was 4x+ AA.

[Boyiee]

Mostly playing WoW and BFBC2 lately, although I might pick up metro2033 and just cause this week.

Good news! My 4870's fan is starting to make a noise when it's OC'd and running hot.

WoW is also getting some tearing, guess this fucking card shouldnt be running at 90c with just wow open and a low oc.

I think I'm going to order a 480 in a few minutes. I doub't I'm gpu bound I've just had alot of trouble with this card and am generally unhappy with it. Nothing is a major boost in performance but I'm not trying to boost performance as much as I just want to sidegrade and/or modernize my machine to latest things. GPU is easiest thing in case to replace as well, so that also weighs in. When I do change the cpu it's going to cost more anyway to do, plus I want to try a different heatsink fan other than my zalman when i do so, maybe something a little less hulklike and easier to operate around. So there is another few dollars spent right there. Trying to future proof and build credit at the same time is fun. Thanks for input so far. Any more is always appreciated.

A note about the SSD's mentioned, Currently got a 150gb raptor and a 640storage drive... when I find a 100-150gb ssd for a reasonable price then maybe I'll pick it up. I only have 36gb free on this raptor now, and I know that more shit will be installed on it soon. OS + Programs + Games... pretty much everything but music and movies I put on this, so I'd need at least a 128gb SSD and those just arent worth it atm.

[Sieg]

If it makes you feel better about your 480 purchase, Metro2033 is a GPU whore and BFBC2 as well just to a lesser degree.
Go for it. Report some numbers, etc. when you get it (esp if you try to OC).

[Boyiee]

Yeah currently only thing I play thats cpu intensive would be wow and the E8500 runs it fine, not to mention I haven't redone my OC on it (and it OC's like a beast especially with a zalman). Think I want to redo my thermal paste and shit on it tho, sich a bitch to install that thing.

[Celeras]

First thing you should do when you get it is make a custom auto-fan profile. I don't know what it is with the default auto-fan speeds for these cards, but its perfectly content letting the GPU hit 90-95 before it starts to ramp up to hold it there. That was way to hot for me(perfectly safe.. just preference), and with a few simple tweaks I have mine holding at 75-80C and silent under 70% fan.

Also, 256 drivers come out monday

[Boyiee]

ahhh just remembered why I got this rampage board. Changed one setting in bios, took me about 15seconds, and I went from 3.16 to 3.51ghz.

I don't really feel like seriously overclocking it right now, but man that was too easy lol.

I pulled the trigger on the 480, Getting kinda worried about the sound coming from my 4870x2 now. Really wish my card would stay overclocked when I'm running games windowed. I hate not being able to access desktop on my 2nd monitor.

edit: something definitely wrong with my gpu, its hitting 85-90c at stock speeds with no load.

[Celeras]

You bitched so much the hardware gods decided to make the decision easy for you ;p

[Olo401]

Use Catalyst to manually control the fan speed and see what happens if you rev the fan a little.. That does sound like something screwy is up with the fan.

[Boyiee]

I've been messing with fan speeds, anything below 50% i hear the noise, and now I'm getting tearing when OC'd in games that I never got tearing in before (wow lol?) even with fan @ 100%. REPLACED

[Deadgye]

Troll more, he isn't saying SSD sucks, just that the performance/price ratio fails, which isn't far from the truth.

If you catch a ssd on a deal, which is the only way you should be buying electronics, it's worth it imo. Lowest I've seen was a little bit less than 120 for a 60gb.

[Boyiee]

Shit, suddenly I have the urge to go watercooled lol.