What will your next GPU upgrade probably be, and why?

[preyingrazor]

I have a x2 ATI 4850 512MB crossfire setup and the next card I'm going to get is either a GTX300 series one or ATI 4900 series card. I will be more inclined to ATI cos then I can crossfire it on my board (SLI not supported on non-nVidia chipsets).

I will not invest in the present top-tier flagship cards (GTX 295 and ATI 4870X2) because I believe they give diminishing returns for extremely high prices.

Additionally, I'm waiting for OpenCL to be implemented so that a viable alternative to nVidia's facist PhysX technology is available. This will run on all manufacturer's graphics cards: ATI, nVidia and the soon to come Intel's Larabee.

Lastly, a DirectX 11 implementation won't hurt either. It's a good way of future-proofing. And it makes the last preference on my list for good reason: it's really not very important, considering the only title out there that makes use of DirectX 11 is Windows 7 Even that only utilizes DirectX 10 with WDDM 1.1, although a future update will probably enable DirectX 11 rendering.

[lmimmfn]

just got a 260, wont be upgrading for at least 18months which is what my gpu upgrade path settled on when i got my 8800GT.

I dont see the need, devs are all interested in multiplatform, meaning PC ports experience the console limitations, most likely there will be even less DX11 games than DX10( although DICE have already updated their frostbite engine to support DX11 API )

[preyingrazor]

Thanks for the info on DICE and frostbite. Didn't know that. Very interesting stuff. Yeah, I think 18-24 months is a reasonable GPU upgrade lifecycle.

[Matt26LFC]

Im hoping for either a 4890 or GTX275 as i've had my 8800GTS for around 16months. Either of those should see me good for about the same time again. Then i'll go for a GT300 Seris Refresh

[Jae-So]

5890x2 in about 9 months, I like to keep fairly current, and I add a lot of graphical mods to my games, so they will be getting used pretty hard even at a res of 1680x1050 (right now I barely get 40 FPS with GRID Ultra high mod on my rig, and barely 30FPS on Crysis with real-lifesis mod)

EDIT: my mistake I get 70FPS on GRID with the mod, maybe I need a larger monitor before getting a new GFX card lol

[Phroster]

Waiting for the next range of GPU's, the DirectX 11 ones.
Would be best to wait for them, because any card you buy now, will be old as soon as DX11 is out.

It's even best to wait for the later DX11 cards, then first ones that will come out.
Just as with DX9 and DX10 the cards that were compatible in the beginning were not really the best performing cards.

[GalantVR41062]

SLi 285's when the price goes down. I play GRID and my rig does slow down a little at 1900x1200 4xsmaa during the night races or night+rain. Other then that COD4 is at way to many FPS for its own good. I do use a 9600gt as a physx card and this helped stabilize my rig in GRID during the night and night+rain races.

~John

[Lindy8469]

Originally Posted by jaeso

5890x2 in about 9 months, I like to keep fairly current, and I add a lot of graphical mods to my games, so they will be getting used pretty hard even at a res of 1680x1050 (right now I barely get 40 FPS with GRID Ultra high mod on my rig, and barely 30FPS on Crysis with real-lifesis mod)

EDIT: my mistake I get 70FPS on GRID with the mod, maybe I need a larger monitor before getting a new GFX card lol

Where do you get all these mods from? Are they free? What does the real-lifesis mod do? Sounds really exciting.

I'm waiting for the GTX 300 series as well. But if ATI trumps the performance of the 295 with a 4890X2, I'm jumping ship. I'm not using nVidia cards for the PhysX. I'm actually angry with nVidia for tying down PhsyX to their cards. It stops innovation and slows down the adoption of advanced physics in games.

I can't wait for OpenCL to come out too.

[Jae-So]

Originally Posted by Lindy8469

Where do you get all these mods from? Are they free? What does the real-lifesis mod do? Sounds really exciting.

I'm waiting for the GTX 300 series as well. But if ATI trumps the performance of the 295 with a 4890X2, I'm jumping ship. I'm not using nVidia cards for the PhysX. I'm actually angry with nVidia for tying down PhsyX to their cards. It stops innovation and slows down the adoption of advanced physics in games.

I can't wait for OpenCL to come out too.

U sed it brother, OpenCL is the future, I was thinkin bout the 4890x2 but haven't heard any news about it for a while, and I think a 5870 will likely give similar performance on a single GPU so will probs opt for that. I prefer single GPU after seeing rather rubbish scalling on Xfire 4890+4870 (wouldn't be a problem for your i7 I guess) so I'll eventully get a 5870 maybe even a 5870x2 if the Xfire improves

as far as the mods go I usually just google "name of game" with the word "mod" after and find stuff, there are good ones for oblivion, Fallout 3, GRID and Crysis, they make all the games look better with high def textures and so on, but the two I felt made a big difference where real life-sis and the GRID one

Crysis

use this link http://www.mediafire.com/?j5dzzzyrmem Download it, open up winrar and place it inside (don't just double click it) then extract to ur Crysis root folder, in there, in the levels folder there will be differernt install files e.g.TOD, TOD2, BLINK2 etc, they are all exe files jus double click one and it will install it for you

[Lindy8469]

Originally Posted by jaeso

U sed it brother, OpenCL is the future, I was thinkin bout the 4890x2 but haven't heard any news about it for a while, and I think a 5870 will likely give similar performance on a single GPU so will probs opt for that. I prefer single GPU after seeing rather rubbish scalling on Xfire 4890+4870 (wouldn't be a problem for your i7 I guess) so I'll eventully get a 5870 maybe even a 5870x2 if the Xfire improves

as far as the mods go I usually just google "name of game" with the word "mod" after and find stuff, there are good ones for oblivion, Fallout 3, GRID and Crysis, they make all the games look better with high def textures and so on, but the two I felt made a big difference where real life-sis and the GRID one

Crysis

use this link http://www.mediafire.com/?j5dzzzyrmem Download it, open up winrar and place it inside (don't just double click it) then extract to ur Crysis root folder, in there, in the levels folder there will be differernt install files e.g.TOD, TOD2, BLINK2 etc, they are all exe files jus double click one and it will install it for you

Thanks for that. It's only a 14 MB file. Does it have all the real-sis textures?

[Grim_2o0o]

Looking to get a GTX260 in the next week or two, which will hopefully tide me over untill the Dx11 cards are mature and cheaper.

Still, it all depends on how much money I spend on my new bike - although a new gfx card would be nice! lol

[Lindy8469]

Originally Posted by Grim_2o0o

Looking to get a GTX260 in the next week or two, which will hopefully tide me over untill the Dx11 cards are mature and cheaper.

Still, it all depends on how much money I spend on my new bike - although a new gfx card would be nice! lol

Holy crap dude! Your GPU upgrade is long overdue!!

[Jae-So]

Originally Posted by Lindy8469

Thanks for that. It's only a 14 MB file. Does it have all the real-sis textures?

this one isn't a texture pack, not sure exactly how it works but it changes levels slightly and uses a configuration file to make it look better

p.s. if that blur that real lifesis adds is too much just go into the autoexec.cfg and change r_DepthOfField = 2 to r_DepthOfField = 1

[Lindy8469]

Originally Posted by jaeso

this one isn't a texture pack, not sure exactly how it works but it changes levels slightly and uses a configuration file to make it look better

p.s. if that blur that real lifesis adds is too much just go into the autoexec.cfg and change r_DepthOfField = 2 to r_DepthOfField = 1

aright. thanks. i'll give it a spin.

[RKOver]

I installed my dual 4890's yesterday so I'm good for a while.

[Lindy8469]

Originally Posted by RKOver

I installed my dual 4890's yesterday so I'm good for a while.

nice! have u posted ur benches somewhere yet?

[Jae-So]

Originally Posted by RKOver

I installed my dual 4890's yesterday so I'm good for a while.

nice my cpu isn't able to properly push two off these so settled for 1 OCed, really happy with it, have u tried OCing them at all, I will likely upgrade to i7 before doing another GPU upgrade

[Grim_2o0o]

Originally Posted by Lindy8469

Holy crap dude! Your GPU upgrade is long overdue!!

This is my backup system for browsing/Media Center etc, I've just sold my C2Q with the 8800GTS in it, so I could fund another bike.

[Psytek]

Just bought a second 260, so I reckon I won't need new graphics cards for at least 18 months, probably 2 years. Gunna make the switch to quad core/possibly i7 this time next year.

[Dual Core]

Just got 2 Sapphire 4890 in Xfire so i wont be upgrading for about 2 years at least. unless a super dooper card comes out which is 8X faster than what ive got. but what are the odds on that in the near future?