I have been here about a month now looking at graphics cards. I don't play too many different top end games but I played DiRT2; COD and Mafia 2 on an 880GT 512MB with literally no trouble or bad things to say about it. The quality was good and I enjoyed the games. As some frequent posters have seen I've been looking at GFX cards for about a month because my 8800GT died and I need something to replace it. I waited for the release of the 560 to see how much it would be and see how well it would do. In reality though is it worth me spending an extra £60 for a 560 over a 460? I'd see drastic improvements from what I had with my 8800 with either card and with me mainly playing World of Warcraft at the moment it's not really a super whore of a game to power graphically. Budget is quite tight as I want to upgrade the rest of my PC as well. So I'm looking to save as much money as possible when it comes to buying parts. tl;dr - Is it worth spending an extra £60 for a 560 instead of a 460 to replace an old and dead 8800GT?
carebear, either of those two upgrades will be almost like night & day difference performance wise. It's easier to see with hindsight than at the time of upgrade though, wether or not I was a little disappointed with my move from 8800GT to GTX 260, or so I thought, when playing what I was playing at the time - mostly BF2. But when I got GTA4 installed & the 260 occasionally overheated on me (general cooling issue at the time) I switched back to the 8800GT temporarily and it felt awful in comparison. I know futuremark scores are not truly representative of gaming experience but they do form a guide, I'm sure I've got some scores from my 8800GT up there as well as my 260, and all going well my new shiny 560 will be there this evening too. I'll post links to them all, it may help you decide. Unfortunately I don't also have a 460 card for further reference.
The 560 is a lot more powerful, but really it depends on the rest of your system. It isn't worth blowing all your money on one part and not having enough for the others. Post your general budget and we'll prob be able to help more.
I'm currently running at 1680x1050 and that's the plan for the next 6 months. Potentially upgrading to 1920x1080 at a later date. As said I don't play too many different games and I don't attempt to try play them all on ultra and get an all new high in FPS. I just like to play my games at a good setting. My current systems is: 3.0GHz Dual Core 4GB DDR2 RAM 700W PSU 1680x1050 I will be buying: Quad Core i5 2500k SB 4GB DDR3 RAM I'm still not sure which to graphics to get. To me it'd be lovely to go splash out on a 560 but I think a 460 will do the job I want and it's nearly £100 cheaper.
If your not bothered about max settings then a 460 would do fine I guess, you would be able to run everything out this year on decent settings, though the 560 is worth the extra if your budget could stretch that far
the 460 is still a great card and will run everything you intend to, even at 1920x1080. There will be the odd game where you might have to compromise, but I can run metro 2033 on my modestly overclocked 460 with slightly lowered settings. It plays well and still looks fantastic. I think you can happily live with the 460 and save yourself a considerable amount of cash which can go to better use elsewhere
Yea that's what I thinking myself. I just wanted to get a few second opinions on the matter. Thanks a lot folks I'm going to purchase a 460 instead of a 560. Save myself a bundle and still get a lovely improvement over what I was running beforehand.
I agree. The 560 would be a bit unbalanced with the rest of the system, and by the time you really started feeling you need it they'll be much cheaper anyway.
