It's time for me to finally upgrade from my Nvidia GTX 260 and Thermaltake 500w power supply. I'd like to stay with Nvidia and spend less than $300 so which card would give me the most bang for the buck? I've been looking at the 400 series and this one looks good to me,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130616

Would this one be a significant jump in performance over my current 260?


I also figure getting a 650w power supply should be enough?

Thanks!

I just went from a GTX 260 to a 560Ti and saw a nice improvement Biggest being in Arma2). Also, it's generally "on-par" with the 470, and draws less power/heat, and for ~$250 or even less

How much power does the 560Ti require?

edit: Never mind I found my answer. I think I'll get this one. Thanks for the recommendation!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...0-604-_-Product

Look at the reviews for that product, its got close to a 80% DOA rate, and another10% report it failing after minimal use, the 4xx series is out of production, so these are most likely recycled/re-certified chips.

Go with a 560ti.

Tom's also has a nice article testing 5 OC'd GTX 560Ti cards: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gefo...cking,2858.html

FWIW, in case you wanted to narrow it down a little further . Although you can't really go wrong with EVGA either

The 570 can be found for close to $300 now.

http://www.nextwarehouse.com/item/?1020088_g10e

Yeah, my last 3 cards have been EVGA so I've come to like them quite a lot. Looks like I'll be going with the 560Ti. Thanks for all the info!

I would look into a card with 2GB of RAM. I am running ArmA 2 at 1440x900 resolution (or whatever is below 1680x1050) and I have 896MB of RAM. I used 93% of it according to Nvidia Inspector.

I would buy the GTX 560 now, but I want at least 1.5GB of video RAM. Pallit makes such a card, but it costs more and doesn't have a nice warranty like EVGA... so I am hoping EVGA will come out with something similar soon.

EVGA has 1GB, 1.5GB, 2GB, and 3GB Version of the 500 Series Cards

Now that's a Vid card upgrade!

I moved on from a 9800GX2 SSC to a 560 TI SC (both EVGA and i'm very pleased with my new card, it's cold, it's has beef; it's not so power hungry (min. 500 W psc in stead of the 9800GX2 600W), it doesn't make much noise and I heared those cards are good for OC.

I bought mine at 225$ (it's a good price for what you get)

Also I got from EVGA a free 10 year warranty; a mafia 2 code and a 3DMark11 code.

I have the system below in the sig.

GFX-card has great performance and is very quiet even under load.

In FSX runs into the FPS limiter set to 50 when above around 5000 ft. Very smooth even on the runway on Megaairports.

I currently have a 500w Thermaltake power supply so I'll be upgrading that to at least a 650w PS. I don't feel comfortable using the 560Ti with the minimum recommended PS.

What setting do you use for terrain texture detail and also view distance? I would think that setting would have the biggest impact on how much video ram is used. Thanks for your info since ArmA 2 is one of my bread and butter games.

I just tested and with high/very high settings (AA=normal and PP=low)I use all 2GB in only 10-15 minutes in the editor. DCS A-10c doesn't even use 1.5GB after an hour for me lol! I wonder if Arma2 would use everything in a 3GB card too hehe

Terrain texture is set to high, and I think the view distance is set to the max or close to it. I forgot to mention this is on a GTX 260. If you download Nvidia Inspector you can see how much RAM you use. I was just suggesting to go higher than a 1GB card because if ArmA 2 is already using 93% of 896MB at a low resolution, I would not be surprised if it required more than 1GB at a higher res.

And this is why I am waiting for a 2GB 560 from EVGA (or GTX 565, 660, or some revision). At first I didn't want to go to Nvida due to driver issues, but AMD/ATI has their own issues which are just as confusing to me...

I also have a GTX 260 and there's no way I can run ArmA 2 with terrain texture on high and view distance maxed out and still have a decent frame rate. What CPU do you have and how much RAM do you have? I have 4 GB of RAM and an Intel Duo Core E6850.

Just built a new system 2 weeks ago and this card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121425 is part of it. It comes highly recommended from Toms Hardware.Its running from an i5-2500k CPU, and you wouldn't even know its running.Its running ROF Iron cross at 1680 x 1050 at an average of 80-90 fps with landscape on high. Its a great card.

PM, this is not hard.
You plug the video card into the monitor.
You plug the Power Supply into the wall or UPS.

LMAO!

Well, it turns out that I'll be buying a used ATI 5850 for $125 from a friend so that will free up money for me to save for my big upgrade. I'll also be getting a new mobo, cpu and memory. It's time to ditch the Duo Core and to go an i7.