Best card I can handle?

[darkuncle]

Here's what I've got:

CPU: Q6600 G0 @ 2.4ghz OC'd to 3.6 ghz
Mobo: eVGA nForce 780i SLI
Video: (2) BFG nVidia 8800GTX OC SLI
Sound: SB X-FI Extreme Gamer
Memory: 8GB G.Skill 5-5-15
PS: Thermaltake Toughpower 850w
Cooling: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Case: Antec Nine Hundred
OS: Vista x64
Purpose: Gaming

Looking for an upgrade on the graphics card. Yeah, I know it's an older setup but I would like to squeeze out another year or 2. I'm thinking in order to do that a newer graphics card would be a priority. I won't benefit from DX11 until I upgrade to Windows 7 but I may do that as well. The CPU is a bit ancient by today's standards but I do have a decent stable OC on it so that should help matters a bit.

I can probably go one of two routes. Get a good card that would hopefully give me a noticeable improvement over the 2 8800 GTX's or get a really good card which I may not be able to take full advantage of now but will when I transfer it to a new setup in a year or two. Although that card would probably be outdated by that time anyway. So perhaps the really good card may not be such a good idea.

What do you guys think?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[yesitsmario]

A gtx 560 would be a good upgrade. Anything stronger could be bottlenecked, not too sure.

 

[purple stain]

I think a GTX460 should do nicely.Maybe 2 of them if you can spare the cash.Shouldn't see any bottlenecking from the GTX460.
What resoultion are you at?

 

[jjb8675309]

what is your budget and what is your monitors resolution?

 

[darkuncle]

I play on my monitor's native resolution of 1920x1200. I was debating on whether to get a new card or just say f it and upgrade the whole darn thing from the ground up. Would cost me $1100 for the following:

(1) EVGA 012-P3-1570-AR GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
(1) EVGA X58 FTW3 132-GT-E768-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
(1) Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950
(1) A-DATA Gaming Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model AX3U1600GB2G9-2G
(1) Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Full

Just don't know if it's worth doing it now or squeeking out 1 more year.

 

[TheTrueGamer]

You really don't have to, a Q6600 will be good for maybe another 1-2 years as it was/is a solid CPU to begin with and your OC only adds to that. The 8MB L2 Cache will suit you just fine as well.

8GB of DDR2 will do you just fine performance wise as with 4GB DDR3, it'll just be more power hungry.

The video card upgrade however, I do agree with as there are single slot solutions out there, GTX 570 included, that can pack more of a punch than 2 8800GTX's.

 

[darkuncle]

However, the 570 would probably be bottlenecked, right? Seeing as Windows 7 will last quite awhile (hopefully) I may as well get that so I can at least take advantage of DX11. This brings me to the card.

What's the best card I can take full or almost full advantage of with my current system with the addition of Windows 7 OS. Not looking to SLI just yet but who knows, maybe a few months from now I could add a second. But again, may not be worth it due to bottlenecking.

 

[purple stain]

Shouldn't ugprade your prossesor just yet.Only on the fact that the Sand Bridge prossesors just came out.Waiting a year is perfect because prices will drop for the current Sandy Bridge models and maybe more well come out.Also the AMD prossesors are right around the corner so who knows,you might get one of those instead.

 

[darkuncle]

Do you think it's possible I could SLI the 460's based on my current hardware or am I better off stickig with a single card like the 570? I want to be able to take the card with me into the next build so I want to get something that will still be respectable in a year's time.

 

[jjb8675309]

grab a 570 and then in a year another... the 460s will have better performance in games that scale sli well but overall the gtx 570 will be less headaches and higher minimum fps