GTX 260 still viable for decent gaming rig?

[Jeffery_Paul]

Hey, I'm soon putting together a beastly gaming rig (Just waiting on a few things to come into stock on the websites) but since finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow on jupiter is more likely than getting my hands on a HD5870, I am opting to buy a placeholder card to fill the gap until well after fermi is released and partners are moving off that reference design.

I was thinking about getting one or two Gainward GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB Golden Sample (http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=11016) but not sure if its the best option.

Here in aus, they are going for 225 each, so a couple in SLI would be AUD$450

A rundown of the rig im getting:
core I7 (920, OC to around 3.6-3.8)
P6T deluxe mobo
corsair dominator 1600MHz ram
SSD
WC on CPU
plus all the other stuff carefully selected.

This rig is going to cost me more than AUD$4000, so you can see this isn't a budget gaming rig. (so far, the price is around 4300, but that could change depending on which graphics card I go for and which SSD I get)

Will the 2 gtx 260's in SLI be a disappointment, meaning that 450 would be better spent elsewhere?

I quite like the look of the one linked, but lack of experience with this stuff has me a lil hesitant. I don't want to spend the money on a 295 since they go for over $600 here and this only has to last me about a year or 2 before I upgrade. (I hate to spend that much and not at least get my moneys worth)

All oppinions welcome. Help a GPU-N00b out! :)

Thanks for input in advance

[mas5acre]

How bout crossfiring 2 hd 5770s?

[GatorChamp]

How bout crossfiring 2 hd 5770s?

You are buying at a tricky time. I dont believe two gtx 260 is the way to go.
The 4890 is faster than the 5770 and so is the gtx 260 but the 5770 is DX11 and newer technology. You would be getting a slightly slower card but supposedly is overclocks really well. I personally would go for 1 card right now if you had to get one, sell it when the GTX3xx comes out and either get a 3xx or a 58xx/59xx series card. And those would be better than running SLI 260s.

[ratbuddy]

OP, what size monitor are you going to be using?

[beingblueeyes]

newegg has some great prices now on the 5770 (i just nabed one for around 160 with free ship)

[MadMan007]

I would buy a used card right now that is sufficient for the games you currently play then do an upgrade when NV's stuff is out and the supply of 40nm ATi GPUs is better. What level of card is 'sufficient' for you will vary based on the games you play. The GTX 260-216 is still a fine card but I wouldn't buy two.

The most important thing if you want specific card recommendations wasn't mentioned though - what resolution is your monitor or at what resolution do you play?

[Jeffery_Paul]

I use a full HD BenQ E2420 24" moniter, and resolutions I play at used to be 1680x1050 but thats with my old computer, now I got the monitor I mentioned I plan to run at the highest resolution I can get without sacrificiing performance, probably 1920x1200.

Games I play are MW2, farcry 2, fallout 3 and a few less intensive games like UT3. I would like to give crysis a go, never had a PC that could really handle it smoothly so never bought it.

The main reason I chose the 260s over the 5770 was because I read many reviews that say the performance of the 5770 is pretty low, and since games haven't yet adopted DX11 fully yet, I can wait a while for DX11 to be embraced by the developers and buy a card when I have the choice between GTX3xx or HD5xxx battling out on even ground.


Ok, so if single card is the way to go for just a placeholder until upgrade, then the saphire 4890 vaporx (http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_800&products_id=12418)would probs be good. I'l get onto some reviews of it after work. any opinions on that would be ace.

[GatorChamp]

4890 is a good choice. 4890>260>5770

[ratbuddy]

Ok, so if single card is the way to go for just a placeholder until upgrade, then the saphire 4890 vaporx (http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_800&products_id=12418)would probs be good. I'l get onto some reviews of it after work. any opinions on that would be ace.

4890 is a bit faster than the GTX 260, but no way is it worth an extra $90.

[Automiketic]

I'd say just get one GTX 260. I have one in my rig with a just a quad core and I have played all games that you listed on max to near max settings(some times I have to kicke the AA down a notch or two) without a hitch. Then when the GTX 3xx series comes out you can worry about DX11 cards.

[Shadowmonk]

The Gainward Golden samples are damn nice cards, if you so choose to go SLI with 2 of them you wont be dissapointed. It will more than handle what u need. And they OC very nice almost on par with the GTX 285. If your debating between SLI and a single card...depends how well your aquanted with SLI and its profile system. I'll vote 2x Gainward GTX 260 cores 216's, youll love them and you can stroke your SLI-epeen a bit. They fold like maniacs too :P

[EarthDog]

Looks in sig at GTX260 216, reads thread title again......

Yep its fine for most anything out now!

I wouldnt go with anything factory overclocked. Most reference clocked cards will easily hit factory overclocked speeds. Its not worth the price premium.

[fosk]

if you go with the 260 make sure its a EVGA. i been looking at the EVGA precision tool

and it looks like the cards come running at 50 percent of there protenial, can overclock the 260 to 75 percent, without a care or risk of damging card, also this is ok for warrenty

plus itll be close to a 295 power

[EarthDog]

and it looks like the cards come running at 50 percent of there protenial, can overclock the 260 to 75 percent, without a care or risk of damging card, also this is ok for warrenty

plus itll be close to a 295 powerThis is not true at all. Its not remotely as fast as the dual GPU card GTX295.

Look at the clocks in my signature. Those are VOLT MODDED clock speeds and are without a doubt towards the higher end of overclocks for this card.

My Core overclock is ~23%
My shader overclock is ~17%
And memory is ~20%

They come as they are. All cards have at least some overclocking potential. A better way to say what you wanted would be to say it overclocks well. But I got an average of 20% with volt mods. Most people get significantly less.


:shrug:

[ViperJohn]

Hey, I'm soon putting together a beastly gaming rig (Just waiting on a few things to come into stock on the websites) but since finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow on jupiter is more likely than getting my hands on a HD5870, I am opting to buy a placeholder card to fill the gap until well after fermi is released and partners are moving off that reference design.

I was thinking about getting one or two Gainward GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB Golden Sample (http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=11016) but not sure if its the best option.

Here in aus, they are going for 225 each, so a couple in SLI would be AUD$450

A rundown of the rig im getting:
core I7 (920, OC to around 3.6-3.8)
P6T deluxe mobo
corsair dominator 1600MHz ram
SSD
WC on CPU
plus all the other stuff carefully selected.

This rig is going to cost me more than AUD$4000, so you can see this isn't a budget gaming rig. (so far, the price is around 4300, but that could change depending on which graphics card I go for and which SSD I get)

Will the 2 gtx 260's in SLI be a disappointment, meaning that 450 would be better spent elsewhere?

I quite like the look of the one linked, but lack of experience with this stuff has me a lil hesitant. I don't want to spend the money on a 295 since they go for over $600 here and this only has to last me about a year or 2 before I upgrade. (I hate to spend that much and not at least get my moneys worth)

All oppinions welcome. Help a GPU-N00b out! :)

Thanks for input in advance

Easily yes. I use a single 192 shader GTX260 for FC2 and COD-MW2 at 1920x1200 w/ 4x AA in MW2, 2x AA in FC2 and
all detail settings on high or Ultra. Used to run an SLI pair but sold one of the cards cause it just wasn't needed.

Viper