Hey chaps, Here's a quick one - have had my eyes on one of the Msi Twin Frozr 560 Ti cards since CPC raved about them a while back. I don't really game at the moment apart from some Dawn of War and Company of Heroes, but am looking forward to CoH 2 and the potential new Elite game (also some older stuff like Myth and Far Cry, but only because I never got around to finishing those). Having read the latest CPC with the graphics card round-up, I saw the recommendation for the newer cards like the CPC Approved Radeon at about £140 and the GTX 660 and wondered how the older cards stack up against these. Now, a guy at work is getting rid of his 560 Ti for £100, so does anyone have any idea how my existing Hawk 460 or his 560 Ti will measure up against the newer cards? I would expect the newer ones to have the edge, but the 460/560 were pretty darn good in their day, which wasn't really that long ago. And as far as I'm aware, the 560 at least was a higher market sector card than the Radeon (sorry I can't remember the number) and possibly the same bracket as the 660. Thanks in advance!
A 560ti wouldn't be a massive upgrade from a 460 - more an incremental one. The 460 GTX is still a great card, and will play all those games listed above just fine at 1080p (with the exception of Elite which is probably two or more years away). Not much point in going for a 7580/7870 right now. The 7870 would be a bigger upgrade, but you wouldn't benefit much in current gen games, and to get next gen games looking their best we will require more horsepower than any of the cards we've listed above. £100 for a 560ti isn't a bad price, but don't expect to be gobsmacked by a massive fps increase. Personally I'd apply a nice little OC to the 460 Hawk, and sit it out.
ModSquid, have a play around in here to get a feel for the performance advantages. It's not the answer to life, the universe and everything, but it's pretty indicative of what to expect.
Considering a 560TI outperforms a 470 in most cases, it is actually quite a bit faster than the 460, although not as fast as a 660TI, still faster than a 650TI.
Can't you just get him to put his card into your rig before buying it off him? A bit unprofessional but at least you'll get first hand experience on how different the performance is.
460s were v.overclockable though. Especially the hawk. Mine would outperform a 470. I'd be looking at 7950 or 660 ti to be happy upgrade wise. Although I'm sure the 560 ti should be fairly up to overclocking too, but you should aim high with these things...
Cool - thanks for the input, guys. Think I'll stick with the 460 for now in that case. Have bookmarked the link from Spreadie though. That looked pretty useful - nice one.
