Upgrade gtx 275 to 580?

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Sava

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Hi. The Tom's Hardware community has always been a good resource for me. My last two system builds have been heavily influenced by community recommendations.

I was thinking of upgrading my graphics card. Here are my system specs:

Mobo: ASUS P7P55D PRO LGA 1156
CPU: Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core
Vid Card: GIGABYTE GV-N275UD-896I GeForce GTX 275 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
PSU: CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-750HX 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 PSU;
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) F3-12800CL8D-4GBRM;
HDD: Western Digital 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s;

Would upgrading the card to a GTX 580 give a worthwhile performance boost?

I play all sorts of games... Minecraft, FPS like BF3

The money isn't that much of an issue. I typically spend around $250 for a card. But I don't mind splurging if it's going to be a significant upgrade.

Eventually, I'll build a new system... but probably not for another year or two.

I appreciate any help you could provide.
Thank you.
 
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Gman450

Gman450

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That system as a whole looks really good. At what resolution are you gaming at?
That's a major factor if you're upgrading you GFX card.
GTX 580 should give you better performance. If you're playing at high resolution, then you'll need more VRAM and that's just what the 580 can give you. The 570 is a lot cheaper alternative though, and you may want to consider that as well.
 
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beltzy

beltzy

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There are a lot of factors you should think about. There are a few ways to make the decision, all of which can be researched in the monthly TH "Best Graphics for the Money" articles:

1) Pick a budget and look to get the best performance for your budget (I have $250, what's the best I can do)

2) Find a performance point and spend whatever you need to get there (I want to have fantastic performance on pretty much all games at 1920x1200- to do that I need ______)

3) Get something because it's the best. Nothing wrong with this approach, just understand pcking the 580 because it's the fastest card may be overkill based on your needs. There are lower cost dual GPU solutions from both NVidia and AMD that will provide better performance than a 580 and could be a good fit.

The 580 would be a big upgrade and you'd notice significantly better performance compared to your current card. Just don't look at it as your ONLY option :) Cheers.
 
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Warmacblu

Warmacblu

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I am pretty much in the exact same boat as you except that I am running the GTX 275 on the LGA 1336 platform. I usually tend to spend around 300 on a upgrade every other year or so as well.

The key to your decision is your budget. If you are going to limit yourself to around 300 dollars, then a GTX 570 / HD 6970 is your best bet. Similar to you, however, budget doesn't really matter to me so I am looking at a GTX 580 or other dual card solutions.

Personally, dual card solutions do not interest me as much as a nice single fast solution even if the price to performance ratio is better. The additional power requirements and heat and driver issues (I realize that these are not too common) are a big negative in my book.

All in all, it is your decision to make. If I were you, I would research each and every card / cards that you are interested in and compare their strengths and weaknesses. Then you can make your decision on which card will be the best for you.
 
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Sava

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Thank you for the responses! I tend to get a little OCD when it comes to buying new hardware. There are so many choices!

I usually run 1920x1200, my monitor's native resolution. Sometimes I use a 55 inch plasma as a monitor, which runs 1920x1080.

I have another monitor which runs 1680x1050 and would like to utilize the dual monitor feature.

My current card used to by able to do it but decided to lose the function one day.

I figure on spending between $300 and $500. I'm open to spending a little bit more if it means getting two video cards. I recall reading that some games don't utilize the second card. I'm not sure if two cards is the answer.

I've looked at some benchmarks. The BF3 benchmark applies to my gaming needs.

Basically... I want to run 1920x1200 at the highest settings and be able to get awesome performance no matter what game I'm playing. I might try to buy a monitor that runs 2560x1600. But for now, I'm sticking with 1920x1200.

What alternative might best suit my needs? Dual 6970/6950?

I don't have any experience running dual video cards or with Radeon products. I've pretty much only had nVidia cards except for a stock ATI that was in a Pentium 90 I had back in the early to mid 90s.

Price/performance is important to me. I want to get the most out of my money... $300-$500. $600 is the absolute most I'm willing to spend.




 
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Warmacblu

Warmacblu

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If price / performance is important to you and you wouldn't mind a dual card configuration then 2 HD 6950's/6970's is a good choice. On the nVIDIA side, you can SLi 2 GTX 560 Ti's/570's.

2 HD 6970's or 2 GTX 570's will cost somewhere near 700 dollars so that may not be your best bet but definitely consider 2 GTX 560 Ti's or 2 HD 6950's. Both are great choices, be sure to look up reviews of each to see which one will be better for you.

As a side note, you may want to wait for the GTX 560 Ti "refresh" or the HD 7000 series, which should be here in a few months.
 
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megamanx00

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It's a bit late to add a second GTX 275 in SLI though that's probably what I would do :D. I say you wait for the HD 7000 series or the next nVidia series that will come out next year. Hey you've already waited this long. If you absolutely need something now though I'd say get a 560Ti or a Radeon 6950. You could also consider getting two Radeon 6850s to run in Crossfire or two nvidia GTX 460s to run in SLI.
 
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Sava

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I think I might want to go excessive with my current setup.

Can my motherboard take advantage of 2 gtx 580's in SLI?

I've considered a completely new gaming build. But if I can get away with just getting new vid cards to go along with a couple more monitors (for 5760x1200), that's what I want to do.

I may also consider adding an SSD and some RAM to remove any possible bottlenecks.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

I've got Win 7 64 OEM. IIRC, I would need to get another copy for a fresh install on an SSD.

Thanks again for your help!

Also, I don't mind replacing parts for marginal increases (for the PSU, for instance). I can always use my existing hardware in another build. I need a home entertainment PC. So current parts won't go to waste. :)
 
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Sava

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I've had problems with my GTX 275 supporting two monitors. Could one 580 support a dual monitor set up?

Right now, my second monitor acts as a cat barrier... blocking access to my desk.
 
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Sava

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My GTX 275 worked very well initially. However, I had to experiment with different cord/adapter combos. I was able to get dual monitor support when I did the following: (PC to monitor)

HDMI port -> HDMI to DVI -> DVI port
DVI port -> DVI to HDMI -> HDMI port

And I apologize for asking questions that can be easily answered by looking up product information. I've been browsing over so many video cards and other products that my brain has had difficulty keeping track of features and specs. This process is always a bit of information overload for me.

At this point, I don't even mind throwing money at extreme hardware if it will allow me to plug the parts in and get things working without any problems.

I'd like to play BF3 on max settings and have a reliable dual monitor set up... or 3. :)
 
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Warmacblu

Warmacblu

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Read Tom's and Guru3D's BF3 analyses. Your processor is just fine, as is your RAM and the rest of your computer. Again, I highly recommend a single GTX 580 and add another if you want more performance. I did not look up your motherboard but if you want SLi in the future make sure that it supports it.
 
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gnomio

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Ill go for the 570
 
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Sava

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Thanks! I appreciate all the help!

The mobo does have both Quad-GPU SLI & Quad-GPU CrossFireX Support.

My current build is a little over two years old. It will be nice to pop in a vid card and see some immediate results.
 
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Warmacblu

Warmacblu

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If you are looking at GTX 570's, I would recommend MSI's Twin Frozr III version.

Having said that, if you do go with dual monitors, the GTX 570's 1.25GB of RAM may start to bog you down a tiny bit.
 
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Sava

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Sorry for not mentioning this before. I am using the ASUS presets to OC to around 2.9 GHz.

 
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