gtx 650 ti boost or upgrade?

[JonIkadaj]

hey guys!

 

I was wondering what gpu upgrade should I make. I recently bought a MSI GTX 650 TI BOOST 2GB OC edition. I am a little bit dissapointed in gpu performance since I have to set everything to high instead of ultra with no AA in bf3. I know my budget isn't really that much(being 250$ max) but I thought I'd get a little bit more kick when playing. Should I upgrade or should I stay with my current one and wait for something better with a nice price drop?

 

Current rig:

 

intel h67 mobo

intel i5-2300 cpu

12GB DDR3-1333MHZ Crucial Ballistix

MSI gtx 650 ti boost 2 gb oc

600w PSU

bitfenix Merc Alpha case

 

I am willing to put an extra 100$ for the card if the performance improvement is drastic.

 

thanks alot in advance!

[Morpheus]

7870 tahiti le ... performs almost as a 7950 from what I have heard (and you get 4 free games)

 

it's $249.99 on ncix

[naca1227]

I think you would be happy waiting for the 760(ti) or new AMD gpu's (soon).  I think something might be bottlenecking your GPU. BF3 is a pretty flexible games. I have a 660 (non ti) and I can play BF3 at Ultra 2x MSAA 16x AA and HBAO on and I constantly am 60 frames with minor dips into the high 40s. I am no 650ti expert but I am certain you should be able to play on high/high AA or ultra/low AA and hit 60 frames.

Even though your specs are more than enough to handle BF3 I think your CPU is bottlenecking some performance out of your GPU

[Godlygamer23]

To see if it's a bottleneck, run Afterburner in the background and play BF3. Then after a good session(10 minutes), look at the maximum value. What does it say?

[david cassar]

you could buy another 650 ti boost

[Jeremytroid]

you could buy another 650 ti boost

If you don't mind dual GPU, this is a legitimate route. 650 TI Boost cards scale at almost 100% when you do SLI. You get twice the performance for two, rather than some other GPUs that might yield 150% or 175% performance when Crossfire/SLI.

 

I myself don't like dual GPU, so the 7870 Tahiti LE is a solid choice. If you need something NVidia, right now, then the 660 is your best option. If you don't want something now, then I would wait. This opens up more options and presumably you'd have a slightly larger budget by the time the new cards roll around.

[david cassar]

If you don't mind dual GPU, this is a legitimate route. 650 TI Boost cards scale at almost 100% when you do SLI. You get twice the performance for two, rather than some other GPUs that might yield 150% or 175% performance when Crossfire/SLI.

 

I myself don't like dual GPU, so the 7870 Tahiti LE is a solid choice. If you need something NVidia, right now, then the 660 is your best option. If you don't want something now, then I would wait. This opens up more options and presumably you'd have a slightly larger budget by the time the new cards roll around.

A 660 wouldn't be that worth it :I Its just 10-15% faster than the boost for around 200 dollars. But as you said an hd 7870 xt would be good.

[JonIkadaj]

actually I don't really mind dual GPU's but my mobo doesn't support it so this is why I was opting more for a single more powerful GPU. I don't really think my CPU is bottlenecking my GPU as i've asked this before to the store where I buy my parts. I run bf3 at high settings, no MSAA, no AA whatsoever and get about 75 fps in small maps and about 50-60 on huge maps with 64 players. As soon as i set it on ultra i start to get artifacts(still rocking the 314.22 driver since the newest one is shit). My point is, i'm pretty sure anyone could settle for my graphs but I recently started gaming on my pc(this is why i'm upgrading) over my ps3 and didn't notice THAT much of a difference. Could it be that my 3 year old 60hz monitor is getting a bit old? Should I get 120hz(forget about what the human eye can see)? Should I buy a new i7 CPU while the 1155 socket is still available or just upgrade my GPU for the new 700 series (I prefer Nvidia)?

Thanks Guys for the help!

[Deathmaster1289]

1 question, why hasn't anyone suggested he sold his 650 ti boost 2GB OC edition and buy something nicer, so imagine this, if you sold it for like $100-120, maybe $150 since it's practically new, you could add those $250 you have on the side and get a GTX 770 2GB, which is better than a 680 and ~$100 cheaper

[FluffyNuggets]

Add $50 and get a 7970. You could always sell the free games on eBay to recoup most of the $50 back.

[JonIkadaj]

I think Deathmaster has the best answer, question is: will my CPU bottleneck the 770?