Possible time for a cheap upgrade..or wait for overhaul?

[redwood36]

Hello All, I'm considering making a possible upgrade but im unsure whether its worth it to simply wait and go all out...or get a middling upgrade.
I built my current build three years ago with the intention of smaller upgrades in the future, however for me when i make an upgrade i tend to get greedy and say for instance that since my mobo only has 2.0 pci express well i may as well get a new mobo, then of course a cpu etc etc...
SO, here is my build.
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V v2.2
mobo: ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366 Intel X58
CPU: Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366
GPU: XFX GX285XZWBF GeForce GTX 285 1GB Black Edition 512-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
RAM: OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage
SSD: Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III

Now the main problem I'm having is with the gpu. This factor overclocked edition is kicking my ass with more and more frequency. It will randomly glitch out after smooth or not so smooth gameplay and a flat colored screen. Then I'll have to hard reset. Its tied somehow to the clocks, and I have found that If i lower the clock by 4 on each parameter in nvidiainspector I can be fine. However I frequently forget and to be honest its a hassle, especially when in the middle of a game with the fellas.

I was looking at the 550ti as a possible cheap upgrade. Is it worth the 150? I could spend the 250 for the 560ti, but really...I just am not sure its worth it when I may turn around and want to upgrade the whole lot in a few months anywho. Let me know what you guys think! Thanks!

editL other factors: looking to purchase a 27/30in ips monitor in the future/saving and also running MacOSX 10.6.8 on another HDD but with same components.

[riviera74]

Given that Kepler has just been released, getting a 550 Ti or a 560 now is a good idea given your current 285. If you are willing to look at the red team, check these out.

[redwood36]

Given that Kepler has just been released, getting a 550 Ti or a 560 now is a good idea given your current 285. If you are willing to look at the red team, check these out.

Do you think the price will go down dramatically over maybe the next month?
So far in my latest experience ( i used to be an ATI fan) nvidia has been more solid. of course-- this gpu is screwing me over. But I really like nvidia inspector, its easy to set fan speeds and override program settings. If there was something that well done for ATI i would consider. What is your argument FOR the 6850 over the 550ti? It seemed to me the 550tis came out more recently, whilst i havnt really heard of any new offerings from ATI besides of course its 7970.

[JustAnEngineer]

A GeForce 550Ti for $120 isn't a worthwhile graphics upgrade for gaming. I would suggest getting a Radeon HD6870 ($160 -10MIR). NVidia's offering in the mid-range is the GeForce GTX560Ti ($217½). AMD has several newer mid-range GPUs available that are fabricated at 28nm instead of the 40nm process used for both of the above GPUs, but the previous-generation Radeon HD6870 still offers a good value.

TR's value charts summarize the current situation. You should read both of these reviews.
http://techreport.com/articles.x/22573/12
http://techreport.com/articles.x/22473/9

[redwood36]

A GeForce 550Ti for $120 isn't a worthwhile graphics upgrade for gaming. I would suggest getting a Radeon HD6870 ($160 -10MIR). NVidia's offering at that performance point is the GeForce GTX560Ti ($217½). AMD has newer mid-range GPUs available that are fabricated with 28nm features instead of the 40nm process used for both of the above GPUs, but the previous-generation Radeon HD6870 still offers a good value.

TR's value charts summarize the current situation. You should read both of these reviews.
http://techreport.com/articles.x/22573/12
http://techreport.com/articles.x/22473/9

HRM i was looking at this review
which argues for pretty good performance but of course at a higher price point. of course its a shame there is no scatterplot on the one i linked. However i looked at your price listings and I noticed that while it may be 160 for the 6870 its actually a bad brand. Meanwhile the 560 that you link is 217 for EVGA. i might consider the XFX offering or the asus on the lower end of the red team, but thats 180/190. If you take the review linked above at face value-- at 70 more dollars one is getting 570 performance. which is close in value to a 400 dollar 6970.

[JustAnEngineer]

A GeForce 550Ti for $120 isn't a worthwhile graphics upgrade for gaming. I would suggest getting a Radeon HD6870 ($160 -10MIR).

I looked at your price listings and I noticed that while it may be 160 for the 6870 its actually a bad brand.

I've never had a problem with any of my Sapphire branded graphics cards. Stay away from PowerColor.

I was looking at this GeForce GTX560Ti-448 review. If you take the review linked above at face value-- at $260 one is getting almost $290 GeForce GTX570 performance, which is close in value to a $358 Radeon HD6970.

... or a $267 Radeon HD7850 or $255 Radeon HD6950.

[DPete27]

Judging by TR's article on the GTX 680 I would wait to see what the "mid range" kepler GPU's will look like. The 680 definetly pushed TR's price/performance curve back a bit. I'm excited to see if other Kepler cards keep that same trend. Note that while gaming performance is generally better than the 7970, not everthing is peas and carrots with the Kepler architecture.

[redwood36]

A GeForce 550Ti for $120 isn't a worthwhile graphics upgrade for gaming. I would suggest getting a Radeon HD6870 ($160 -10MIR).

I looked at your price listings and I noticed that while it may be 160 for the 6870 its actually a bad brand.

I've never had a problem with any of my Sapphire branded graphics cards. Stay away from PowerColor.

are you aware of a tool like nvidia inspector for AMD cards? Also I've read reports of driver support being finnicky. Naturally I dont know if its all hype. I just know that previously I had an ATI card (roughly 2003-2009) and then bought a 285 and that my experience up to now was more solid than ATI. (then again-- the ATI did last 6 years haha).

@DPete27:
Yeah I'm considering waiting, there is no huge rush. I would consider the 680, however I also do graphics work. In the review it speaks of how it has a lot less graphics computing capacity. I need that for 14x17in 600 dpi comics pages. So thats why im holding off on the 680. Thats partially why I was looking at the 150 price point. Otherwise I sort of feel I might as well wait, or buy another GPU that lasts say 3 years and not a 150 that lasts 1 year.

[DPete27]

I would say that AMD and Nvidia are on par with eachother on the driver front now. Based on the assumtion that Nvidias mid-range cards will also be based on the same GK104 core as the 680, I wouldn't expect much improvement on the GPU compute realm. You might be better off shooting for a 7850 if that is very important to you.
Doesn't hurt to wait and see what the green team offers up though. The GTX 680 hasn't caused any price fluxuations on the 7970 yet but it also hasn't been out very long. If Nvidia keeps up their agressive pricing with the rest of their lineup and AMD doesn't cave in, the price difference may offset the GPU compute disparity of Kepler to some degree.

[redwood36]

I would say that AMD and Nvidia are on par with eachother on the driver front now. Based on the assumtion that Nvidias mid-range cards will also be based on the same GK104 core as the 680, I wouldn't expect much improvement on the GPU compute realm. You might be better off shooting for a 7850 if that is very important to you.
Doesn't hurt to wait and see what the green team offers up though. The GTX 680 hasn't caused any price fluxuations on the 7970 yet but it also hasn't been out very long. If Nvidia keeps up their agressive pricing with the rest of their lineup and AMD doesn't cave in, the price difference may offset the GPU compute disparity of Kepler to some degree.

In that regard I'd like to see what the effects of the 680 are on the market prices. However everyone is really sold on AMD eh? I know when Skyrim first came out I read on the forums that many people were having serious driver issues. I would rather avoid that if its all the same really. However I have an open mind, especially seeing everyone voting for AMD.

[BobbinThreadbare]

AMD has had some well publicized failings of their driver with a few brand new games, but I don't think it's systemic of a greater failing (well except in the case of Rage where they're openGL support is just flat out bad).

So in a few cases you have to wait a couple of weeks after a game comes out for AMD to get their ducks in a row.

[Blazex]

you could just twiddle your thumbs to see what new nvidia releases are on the way, and far as your downlocking goes... install rivatuner and tell it to do those clocks everytime it starts with windows, that should solve the forgetting problem for now

[redwood36]

you could just twiddle your thumbs to see what new nvidia releases are on the way, and far as your downlocking goes... install rivatuner and tell it to do those clocks everytime it starts with windows, that should solve the forgetting problem for now

I suppose I could-- I actually found a way to do it with nvidia inspector. I'm tempted by the 6850, but I'm still on the edge really. guess the only solution is to wait really. What do you guys think would be a reasonable timeframe on a system overhaul. At the moment The system basically runs like butter still-- three years later. So im not really sure how soon I'm going to need it...

[riviera74]

you could just twiddle your thumbs to see what new nvidia releases are on the way, and far as your downlocking goes... install rivatuner and tell it to do those clocks everytime it starts with windows, that should solve the forgetting problem for now

I suppose I could-- I actually found a way to do it with nvidia inspector. I'm tempted by the 6850, but I'm still on the edge really. guess the only solution is to wait really. What do you guys think would be a reasonable timeframe on a system overhaul. At the moment The system basically runs like butter still-- three years later. So im not really sure how soon I'm going to need it...

Three years old is not that bad if it runs great. But that next high-end game may force you to do a significant upgrade though.

[DPete27]

A 6850 is going to perform basically the same as your current GTX 285 and would be A HUGE WASTE OF MONEY. If youre talking about the 7850, thats a different story. (maybe it was a typo?)

[redwood36]

A 6850 is going to perform basically the same as your current GTX 285 and would be A HUGE WASTE OF MONEY. If youre talking about the 7850, thats a different story. (maybe it was a typo?)

No-- Riviera74 mentions the 6850 specifically. You're saying the performance is similar? I thought the 6850 was a dx11 card.

[Lazier_Said]

No reason you can't move a new video card to a new build later.

If your OC settings won't stick with nvidia inspector then use MSI Afterburner.

The Nv 550 is worse than what you have now, the 6850 isn't enough better to be worth the trouble.

For a cheap upgrade, get a used 560ti or 570 in the forums.

[redwood36]

No reason you can't move a new video card to a new build later.

If your OC settings won't stick with nvidia inspector then use MSI Afterburner.

The Nv 550 is worse than what you have now, the 6850 isn't enough better to be worth the trouble.

For a cheap upgrade, get a used 560ti or 570 in the forums.

If thats true then I can be pleasantly surprised. I'll consider getting one used on the forums, but if its true the card is still competitive to modern middle range graphics cards then I certainly feel less of a impulse to upgrade.

[DPete27]

No-- Riviera74 mentions the 6850 specifically. You're saying the performance is similar? I thought the 6850 was a dx11 card.

That's correct, the 6850 does support DX11. That aside though, the 6850 and your 285 would perform roughly the same, which is why I personally would set my sights on something in the $200-250 range depending on your budget. That will get you DX11 AND a nice performance increase.

[riviera74]

No-- Riviera74 mentions the 6850 specifically. You're saying the performance is similar? I thought the 6850 was a dx11 card.

That's correct, the 6850 does support DX11. That aside though, the 6850 and your 285 would perform roughly the same, which is why I personally would set my sights on something in the $200-250 range depending on your budget. That will get you DX11 AND a nice performance increase.

Then he should consider one of these.

[redwood36]

No-- Riviera74 mentions the 6850 specifically. You're saying the performance is similar? I thought the 6850 was a dx11 card.

That's correct, the 6850 does support DX11. That aside though, the 6850 and your 285 would perform roughly the same, which is why I personally would set my sights on something in the $200-250 range depending on your budget. That will get you DX11 AND a nice performance increase.

Then he should consider one of these.

HMMMMM---now im rather unsure. When I think about it now, my current GPU can run standard skyrim at 60fps but with all the addons/extensions in goes to 40 with spikes in certain areas. Unless an upgrade is gonna land me in the solid 60fps category Im not sure its worth it, as at the moment nothing else is stressing my system, nor will anything that is coming out that I know of. My plan up til now has been to wait for the 28nm fab process of the gpus, since I figured that would land me safely into the next gen console releases. Seeing as how what I have at the moment is currently workable, I think I can hold off, and perhaps go for a an u2711 instead.

[DPete27]

Probably a good idea. Give it a few months and you should start seeing regular MIRs on 28nm GPUs as well as a price decrease (crosses fingers) once Nvidia rounds out their lineup and TSMC gets their ducks in a row. The reason i suggested the 7850 is from this TR article. They're already a better value ($260) than the 6950 and I would expect that with price adjustments and MIR's you might be able to get one (or an Nvidia equivalent) for closer to $220 later this year.

[redwood36]

Probably a good idea. Give it a few months and you should start seeing regular MIRs on 28nm GPUs as well as a price decrease (crosses fingers) once Nvidia rounds out their lineup and TSMC gets their ducks in a row. The reason i suggested the 7850 is from this TR article. They're already a better value ($260) than the 6950 and I would expect that with price adjustments and MIR's you might be able to get one (or an Nvidia equivalent) for closer to $220 later this year.

Hmm I hadn't caught that article. My memory of the article on the 7850 was that the performance was too close to the what was currently available from AMD at a cheaper price point. Maybe that was totally wrong though.

[DPete27]

Hmm I hadn't caught that article. My memory of the article on the 7850 was that the performance was too close to the what was currently available from AMD at a cheaper price point. Maybe that was totally wrong though.

You might be thinking about the AMD 77xx series. The 78xx cards generally impressed reviewers though. I just noticed that TR predicted the 7850 to drop to $200 eventually, that would be nice.

[redwood36]

Hmm I hadn't caught that article. My memory of the article on the 7850 was that the performance was too close to the what was currently available from AMD at a cheaper price point. Maybe that was totally wrong though.

You might be thinking about the AMD 77xx series. The 78xx cards generally impressed reviewers though. I just noticed that TR predicted the 7850 to drop to $200 eventually, that would be nice.

Ah yes-- the 77xx is what I was thinking of. Thanks for the help!