Upgrade from GTX260

[Lapetos]

Hey. I'm looking for the best upgrade I can get from a GTX 260 graphics card. But I'm wanting 2 price options.

Best card I can get for £100
Best card I can get for £150

Also would like to know how much of a difference there is between the cards.
I'm from the UK so would have to be somewhere that ships there. Also I have a 650w power supply, so shouldn't think power to the card will be an issue. Eventually will be upgrading mobo and processor too, as to prevent any "throttling" that may occur with my old Q6600 (2.4ghz OC'd to 3.2 currently).

Thanks in advance :-)

[vesseblah]

Nothing in £100 category is worth it, those are only 20-30% faster in DX9 mode. 650W PSU will be totally fine, as new cards use actually less power than your current GT260.

For £150-170 you can get Radeon 7850 with 2GB RAM, that is the lowest card which gives good speed boost at reasonable price, being about twice as fast as your current GT260. Radeon 7870 is next best pick for about £210-220 with additional 20% more speed over R7850.


Very important thing to keep in mind is that those numbers are for brainless 3D shooters like BF3 or Crysis for example. If you want more speed for WoW or GW2 you must change motherboard+cpu+ram because your current Q6600 is holding you back in all MMOs.

[Lapetos]

Think I best keep an eye out for a 7850 then in that case. Was thinking possibly not gonna get one worth much priced less than a 7850, but was worth asking thanks!

And yeah if I could get both a motherboard and CPU for £150 would be ideal, but judging by how things look, need to get myself about £250 for something worth considering... At least as far as I know. Suppose I need to be patient, and wait till November when can afford it.

[demonskies]

Gigabyte Windforcex2 7850 $161 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=56&subcat=411

MSI 6870 $149 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...56&subcat=1866
benchmarks against the gtx 260- http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/318?vs=290

Gigabyte 7770 $109 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...56&subcat=1699

here you can go to the site and check for more performance values on cards and do comparisons to your 260. All those parts are on a UK site I just dont know the alts code for the british pound or whatever it is lol.

[vesseblah]

Gigabyte Windforcex2 7850 £161

This is probably best card in OP's price range. Which is also what I mentioned.

MSI 6870 £149

Poor value for price compared to 7850, bad idea.

Gigabyte 7770 £109

Small upgrade from GT260, not worth spending the money on it.

[Deleted]

Wait one year honestly, your GPU is still pretty damn good.

[vesseblah]

Wait one year honestly, your GPU is still pretty damn good.

It's four years old like the rest of OP's computer. Not pretty damn good, but somewhat usable at low enough settings.

[demonskies]

This is probably best card in OP's price range. Which is also what I mentioned.



Poor value for price compared to 7850, bad idea.



Small upgrade from GT260, not worth spending the money on it.

He asked for cards in a 100-150 range those are about the only 3 cards that fit the description. I listed them in order of best to worst. I would have put the 560ti up there but it was hitting the 170 mark. They would all be upgrades but the 7770 wouldnt as be as huge of a performance gain as the others. The 6870 is still a strong card and is still one of the top price to performance cards.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_value.html

[vesseblah]

He asked for cards in a 100-150 range those are about the only 3 cards that fit the description.

OP also asked for best upgrade. Honestly nothing below 7850 is worth upgrading to.

The 6870 is still a strong card and is still one of the top price to performance cards.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_value.html

Linking that site will get you laughed out of this forum pretty fast.

Also even if R6870 is still usable, it's old, noisy, power-hungry and gimped by the low VRAM making it very bad purchase compared to the £10 more expensive and 20% faster R7850.

[demonskies]

Half the shit you say makes me laugh lol. The guy asked for a few cards in a certain range. I gave him what he asked for. Whether you think the 6870 is a bad card or not it was within his budget and a great card and still an upgrade. I put the 7850 first because duh it is pretty close to the 150 mark hoping he could shoot for that. But if he isnt capable a 6870 is at the 150 price.

[Lapetos]

Well 7850 is seeming more like the way to go. But now seeing as you say it's gonna be more important to upgrade mobo + cpu first, I guess graphics will have to wait.

I tend to be playing more WoW + GW2, but on the occasion BF3 (for fun messing around, nothing overly serious or competative). Wanted my set up to mainly upgrade to have a better time with MoP.

On another old forum thread I made (I was gonna get a bday gift of an upgrade, which unfortunately didn't happen), I was suggested to go with a MSI Z77A-G45 mobo (£76) and an Intel i5 3570k 3.4ghz CPU (£175). Would this still be the case for my gaming needs? As it is based around a £250 overall budget, which means I could sell my now unused BMX to get instead of a graphics card this month.

Eventually the whole lot is going to get a revamp, but wanting to do it in stages, with upgrading firstly what will be the most benefit. I'm not looking to spend ages saving up really, so parts between £100 and £200 here and there is just ideal for me to upgrade my PC quite fast.

PS and thanks Demonskies too, I definately think just for a few extra £s for the 7850 would be worth it, was looking at the 6870 before the 7850 was suggested, and was quite suprised at the difference a couple of pounds make to the quality of what you get.

So judging by this, I'm guessing it was a bad idea for me to think of going down the card route first?

[vesseblah]

I was suggested to go with a MSI Z77A-G45 mobo (£76) and an Intel i5 3570k 3.4ghz CPU (£175). Would this still be the case for my gaming needs? As it is based around a £250 overall budget

Yep, those still work.

Half the shit you say makes me laugh lol.

If you're here for amusement, go ahead and keep referring to passmark shit. Will ensure people think you're a clown.

Also giving people what they ask for is not always the right answer when they make wrong questions. Giving useless upgrades for £100 is waste of everybody's time and OP's money, better answer is that there's nothing available.