GTX 260 Lacking A Bit

[Shootist]

Even tho I just spent a crapload to build myself a new system, one thing I kept was my two yr old Vid card. I have noticed a bit of jerks and laggs in the game and watching HDTV downloads on the big screen so I started prowling for a new one. Down to two choices (money IS an issue). 1. Radeon XFX HD 6870 900mhz 1gb for $220. 2. GeForce GTX 560 880mhz 1gb dx11 for $220. I've just boosted my pagefile to 'recommended' and will see how that changes anything but I think I'll upgrade the card anyways. Oh ya, those prices are Canadian.

[beers]

I'm wondering the same... I've got a Core2 e8500 @ 3.6 GHz, 8 gig of DDR2 memory @ 758 MHz, conventional hard drive. The CPU seems to hover around 80-90%. The hard drive seems to cook along just fine (a few spikes but not maxing out), memory never gets above 40%. I am starting to think my GTX 260 is the bottleneck.

 

My monitor has a refresh rate of 60. When looking out at an empty ocean with the hud-only view I get 60, but when I turn the cockpit on, it drops to low 40's. In areas with cities but no military units, with cockpit on, I get between 40 and 20. In heavily populated areas, with cockpit on, when lots of shots are fired, missiles in the air and whatnot it drops to mid-teens.

 

I'm considering a whole new rig; i7, GTX 560, SSD's, but if the GTX 260 is the bottleneck, that would be a much cheaper upgrade!

[EtherealN]

Beers, I upgraded from an e8500 at 4GHz, 4 gigs of ram and a 9800GTX+ (which is fairly similar in performance to a 260) to what you see in my signature. Night and day difference. But since I did the whole upgrade in one go I can't be 100% sure which components did what - I'm suspecting the CPU.

 

Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because the CPU isn't fully maxed it isn't the bottleneck - that's a dual core CPU, and only sound and DX are outside the main thread.

[G00dnight]

I have the 6890 HD and it is a good card not sure about the 6850 but it will be less power and mine is maxing at some points if you can stretch go up on it.

[beers]

Thanks for the advice EtherealN. Guess it's time to save up for a new rig.

[MTFDarkEagle]

Hiya mate, you will notice the difference :) A mate of mine has gone from a gtx260 to a gtx560ti, and he is very pleased!

[EtherealN]

Oh yeah, the 560Ti's are amazing pieces of kit, especially for their price tag. Last challenge I gave mine was Total War: Shogun 2 with almost everything maxed on one screen, while the other screen was streaming Aljazeera. No problem at all. I've done similar things with DCS and FC2 on one screen and HD video on the other. Amazing kit. :)

[Slammin]

I'm running on a fairly old CPU but my upgrade from a 280GTX to 580GTX made an amazing performance increase across the board for me.

 

Upgrade your vid card for sure, you will not be dissapointed.

[MTFDarkEagle]

Nice :) The gtx580 is quite a nice card. Though Nvidia will be releasing their new flagship: the GTX590 in the coming days :)