When will I bottleneck?

[schoff]

Hello everyone,

I currently have a Radeon 4870 HD 1gb DDR5 card. I've been look into upgrading, more specifically to a nvidia card. I was considering a GTX 2xx series.

2 questions:

Will my OC'ed AMD Phenom x3 720BE @ 3.2 Ghz cause a bottleneck with a new GPU?

Should I consider upgrading more; will I see a increase in performance with the card I am considering? Recommendations?

Kind regards,

Schoff

 

[jyjjy]

Your processor is alright at that speed. Is there a reason you want a GTX 200 card?

 

[schoff]

no particular reason I want that card, but I have been looking to upgrade. I really don't like the catalyst drivers that support the ati cards. I hear a lot better things about nvidia cards and believe they are higher quality.

Can you recommend something that would be worthwhile upgrading to or your preferences?

 

[jyjjy]

Well for an Nvidia card what you want is a GTX 460 1gb($230) or GTX 470($300.)
The GTX 460 at stock speeds will be approximately 25% faster than your HD4870 but it can OC a very large amount(30%+) and then it should be a nice upgrade. It also uses much less power, especially at idle. The GTX 470 at stock would about 50% faster but can OC even better than the 460. It uses a bit more power under load but still much less at idle. Both of these cards will give you DX11 compatibility.

 

[schoff]

Well for an Nvidia card what you want is a GTX 460 1gb($230) or GTX 470($300.)
The GTX 460 at stock speeds will be approximately 25% faster than your HD4870 but it can OC a very large amount(30%+) and then it should be a nice upgrade. It also uses much less power, especially at idle. The GTX 470 at stock would about 50% faster but can OC even better than the 460. It uses a bit more power under load but still much less at idle. Both of these cards will give you DX11 compatibility.

those are the type of performance increases i'm looking for. I have an 850W PSU, that should handle the above two cards you've mentioned, right? I guess i'll wait for the prices to drop, hopefully sometime around the holiday season.

 

[jyjjy]

If it is a decent brand then it could even handle two GTX 470s.
If you aren't buying until the end of the year these recommendations will likely be obsolete. Nvidia should have a bunch of new cards based on the same processor as the GTX 460 and other chips and ATI will supposedly launch their HD6000 series by then as well.