NVIDIA Geforce GTX285, anything better?

Call Me Jimmy

Hi guys, my dad wants to know if it's worth upgrading his graphics card which is currently the very good Geforce GTX285.

I've looked a small bit around online and I know a bit about computers etc. but I'm finding it hard to bring the information together into value for money.

Price isn't directly an issue but value for money of an upgrade is.

So I'm wondering is the 470 really worth an upgrade to at this time? Is there anything that will be noticeably better that will be strong for a year or two?

Any help would be much appreciated as I'd value the opinions of people here higher than others.

Thanks!

Overheal

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+285

No brainer: the card is 5 years old. Upgrading would give you a very cost beneficial boost in performance.

TerrorFirmer

GTX285 is ancient at this stage, if he's finding it still a good card, then I don't think he'll need an overly powerful upgrade. GTX470 is still a good performer if he's getting it cheap. If you look on Pixmania, they have a 7870 for 149.99 delivered at the moment, pretty much the best value out there at the moment for price to performance ratio and will play most things at high-ultra at 1080p resolution.

Call Me Jimmy

Thanks so much for the advice. Although I'm starting to think I took the card name down wrong because he usually upgrades every couple of years, can't imagine his is a 5 year old card. Unless he got it 2 years ago on the cheap.

Really appreciate the advice!

TerrorFirmer

What sort of monitor does he have? If he was playing at 1280x1024 say, the GTX285 would still get through a lot of modern titles relatively OK...ish. :P

marco_polo

How much on an improvement he wants/needs depends on budget and resolution really even a budget €110 HD 7790 is probably 2.5-3 times more powerful than the GTX285 at this stage.

Call Me Jimmy

Ok, budget is non-existent in the sense that he said he could even go for that new titan card (~ 1000 euro!).

What I need to know though, is a card that is roughly half the price (the nvidia 680 I believe) going to be essentially as good (cost-benefit-wise). He plays at 1980 x 1024, wants to be able to play everything at ULTRA.

Any advice then specifically? Cheers.

BloodBath

A 7950 is probably the best bet for high end performance at a fairly low price especially if he's willing to overclock it a little.(or a lot )

If he wants to stick with Nvidia then a 760 gtx offers similar performance but doesn't have as much overclocking headroom and has 1gb less memory although it won't make a difference for 1080p.

This is a total bargain.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/DirectCU-Graphics-Express-Display-Technology/dp/B008NF3R1I/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1381105922&sr=8-5&keywords=7950

What are the rest of his pc specs like?

Call Me Jimmy

Bloodbath, the rest of the specs are all very good. I don't have them to hand but I remember being impressed by them, so much so that the graphics card was the obvious weak link.

He seems to want to stick with NVidia, rather than go to AMD. Says NVidia has always served him well.

I think he's expecting to pay at least 400-500. He does not ever overclock. So the GTX 680 looks like close the top, the 690 is almost as costly as the Titan. So I'm thinking of telling him to get that.

Note: He wouldn't want a BARGAIN, as in he'd want something as close to the top end as possible t last him a while.

BloodBath

Top end cards have terrible price/performance ratios. You get maybe 30-40% extra performance for 100%+ extra cost.

If he wants to spend that kind of money then a 780 gtx would be the card to get although I'd advise against it. A 760 gtx would be a massive improvement over what he has now and can be got for the same price as the 7950.

He would be better off getting one of these and then in 2-3 years time upgrading again to a high price/performance mid range card rather than spending €500 right now. The depreciation on high end cards is huge. Chances are he would still be able to sell the 760 gtx for €100+ towards the next card in 2 years.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-Nvidia-TF-PCI-E-Graphics/dp/B00DJPPCLK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1381172663&sr=8-4&keywords=760+gtx

Here's a review with benchmarks for that card.

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/msi_gtx760_twin_frozr_gaming_review,1.html

What games does he play? If the card was that old I'm guessing there are other areas he could spend the extra cash on to improve his gaming experience. A 780gtx may well be bottlenecked by his other parts and a 760gtx is still going to allow him to play 95%+ of games on max settings at 60fps.

lmimmfn

if you are thinking of going for a 780GTX then wait until next tuesday when the reviews of the new AMD R9 290 and 290X are out, the 290 is supposed to be ~780 GTX performance but for ~70-100euro less, i.e. its apparently to retail ~519euro.