Upgrade from GTX 660 to 900 series or wait for Pascal?

[Logman]

Im sure that this subject is being beat to death these days but with the holiday season quickly approaching and sales likely to come with it, I'm very much at a loss as to what I should do. Currently, I'm using an intel 4790k @ 4.6GHz in an ASUS Hero VII motherboard, a corsair H100i, 16GB of 2133 RAM, a samsung SSD boot drive, a 1TB 7200rpm HHD, an EVGA P2 850 power supply, a corsair 750D case, and an OEM version GTX 660 that came with the Dell XPS 8500 that initially got me into computers a few years ago.

I'd like to upgrade my GPU becuase it has been showing its age recently as the software around it continues to advance. I know that any one of the 900 series GPU's would be a massive upgrade to my 660 (with it's 1.5Gb of VRAM, low CUDA core count, and slow core clock) but it's now been over a year since the 980 and 970 have launched so I expect Pascal to launch within the next 3-9 months. What do I do? Get a 900 series card now or try and milk out as much as I can from the 660 waiting for pascal - however long that may be?

Thanks!

[Swndlr]

Wait with me!

[vanished]

I'm in that same situation and I'm waiting for Pascal for a number of reasons

[themctipers]

Please wait, I didn't wait for the 960 and the 960 REKTS my 760

[shazaam]

Do you really need to game at higher settings? If that's the case, than buy a 900 (BF is in a few days), than sell it if Pascal is an improvement. With those specs of yours, you don't seem to lack the budget.

[Cheddle]

Im sure that this subject is being beat to death these days but with the holiday season quickly approaching and sales likely to come with it, I'm very much at a loss as to what I should do. Currently, I'm using an intel 4790k @ 4.6GHz in an ASUS Hero VII motherboard, a corsair H100i, 16GB of 2133 RAM, a samsung SSD boot drive, a 1TB 7200rpm HHD, an EVGA P2 850 power supply, a corsair 750D case, and an OEM version GTX 660 that came with the Dell XPS 8500 that initially got me into computers a few years ago.

I'd like to upgrade my GPU becuase it has been showing its age recently as the software around it continues to advance. I know that any one of the 900 series GPU's would be a massive upgrade to my 660 (with it's 1.5Gb of VRAM, low CUDA core count, and slow core clock) but it's now been over a year since the 980 and 970 have launched so I expect Pascal to launch within the next 3-9 months. What do I do? Get a 900 series card now or try and milk out as much as I can from the 660 waiting for pascal - however long that may be?

Thanks!

 

the 660 was never a very fast card...  if its starting to impact your experience I would suggest going for something like a 770 or r9 280x/r9 290 at least to tide you over untill Pascal comes along.

[i_build_nanosuits]

i would get a 390 or a 970 and call it day. if mid-range pascal proves to be better than those IMHO it will cost more money.

Your situation is very sad you have a very powerful machine with a super weak ass GPU in it...i would have upgraded long ago mate

There is ALWAYS gonna be something better around the corner anyways...and those GPU's i have mentionned will have good framerates at 1080p for another 2 years minimum if you're willing to tweak some settings.

Anyways you can always re-sell the GPU later to buy a new pascal if it turn out to be THAT good but IMHO yes it will be better but not that much and it will cost more money that's a given Nvidia make no gift...they never did, and they never will :huh:

 

Throw a powerful graphics card in there and start enjoying the greatest games out there before the rest of your system slowly turn obsolete is my advise.

[intelCore]

Im sure that this subject is being beat to death these days but with the holiday season quickly approaching and sales likely to come with it, I'm very much at a loss as to what I should do. Currently, I'm using an intel 4790k @ 4.6GHz in an ASUS Hero VII motherboard, a corsair H100i, 16GB of 2133 RAM, a samsung SSD boot drive, a 1TB 7200rpm HHD, an EVGA P2 850 power supply, a corsair 750D case, and an OEM version GTX 660 that came with the Dell XPS 8500 that initially got me into computers a few years ago.

I'd like to upgrade my GPU becuase it has been showing its age recently as the software around it continues to advance. I know that any one of the 900 series GPU's would be a massive upgrade to my 660 (with it's 1.5Gb of VRAM, low CUDA core count, and slow core clock) but it's now been over a year since the 980 and 970 have launched so I expect Pascal to launch within the next 3-9 months. What do I do? Get a 900 series card now or try and milk out as much as I can from the 660 waiting for pascal - however long that may be?

Thanks!

I'm coming from GTX 460 and I will wait for Pascal. But I'm going to upgrade the rest of my rig with it so I don't know if it's worth waiting for just the Graphics Card.

[Logman]

Thanks for the quick responses everyone! It's a tough decision for sure. Normally, I'm not one to dwell on "the next big thing" and especially not in the computer inudstry since every other week, something new and wonderful is coming out. I would have upgraded the GPU long ago but since this computer has slowly morphed from the original Dell XPS 8500 that it started as over the years, this is just the order that things have been upgraded in. Since the 660 has lasted so long, I hesitate to just go out and buy a Maxwell based card with Pascal having the potential to be a pretty large upgrade whenever it comes out. However, there are a lot of "ifs" riding on pascal currently that many of you have pointed out and I'm largely in agreeance with you. So we'll see what happens. I think I may play it by year this coming week (with black friday and all) to see if I can't find some good deals floating around.

Thanks again everyone!

[i_build_nanosuits]

Thanks for the quick responses everyone! It's a tough decision for sure. Normally, I'm not one to dwell on "the next big thing" and especially not in the computer inudstry since every other week, something new and wonderful is coming out. I would have upgraded the GPU long ago but since this computer has slowly morphed from the original Dell XPS 8500 that it started as over the years, this is just the order that things have been upgraded in. Since the 660 has lasted so long, I hesitate to just go out and buy a Maxwell based card with Pascal having the potential to be a pretty large upgrade whenever it comes out. However, there are a lot of "ifs" riding on pascal currently that many of you have pointed out and I'm largely in agreeance with you. So we'll see what happens. I think I may play it by year this coming week (with black friday and all) to see if I can't find some good deals floating around.

Thanks again everyone!

the Radeon R9 390 is also worth hunting for...it has great performance and defeat the GTX970 slightly so if you don't use gamestream or Gsync or shadowplay or other nvidia features you judge you MUST have...then you could give AMD a try they are pretty good too...you can find R9 390 with 8GB of memory for the same price as GTX970.

[PlayStation 2]

the Radeon R9 390 is also worth hunting for...it has great performance and defeat the GTX970 slightly so if you don't use gamestream or Gsync or shadowplay or other nvidia features you judge you MUST have...then you could give AMD a try they are pretty good too...you can find R9 390 with 8GB of memory for the same price as GTX970.

This exactly.

For the most part, AMD has alternatives to Nvidia's things too. It can do GPU rendering on Adobe products. It can use the GPU for streaming and recording via Raptr or OBS. Freesync. Etc. 

[Logman]

This exactly.

For the most part, AMD has alternatives to Nvidia's things too. It can do GPU rendering on Adobe products. It can use the GPU for streaming and recording via Raptr or OBS. Freesync. Etc.

Yeah, I'm definitely not opposed to using an AMD card if it's price, performance, power consumption, and heat output can be about what I'd like them to be. I pride myself on not being a fanboy of team green or team red.

[CapricaBuccaneers]

I would recommend you hunt around on EVGA's site for a BStock 980 or look for some mega bonzer deal in the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales.

Your gpu is a little low end compared to the rest of your setup, and I doubt Pascal will be out much sooner than Summer '16. I couldn't be arsed to wait 7-9 months playing games at rubbish settings, that part is really up to you. Having a job makes the decision easy, 9 months is plenty of time to save up for a new graphics card, and you can likely sell your upgrade to cut into that also.

Bear in mind also, at launch the 980/980Tis were mega inflated, as supply was far exceeded by demand. As little as two months later they were back down to more reasonable levels. I don't expect that trend to change anytime soon, so basically upgrade now to something cost effective, and look, for deals on the next gen in around a years time.

[intelCore]

Thanks for the quick responses everyone! It's a tough decision for sure. Normally, I'm not one to dwell on "the next big thing" and especially not in the computer inudstry since every other week, something new and wonderful is coming out. I would have upgraded the GPU long ago but since this computer has slowly morphed from the original Dell XPS 8500 that it started as over the years, this is just the order that things have been upgraded in. Since the 660 has lasted so long, I hesitate to just go out and buy a Maxwell based card with Pascal having the potential to be a pretty large upgrade whenever it comes out. However, there are a lot of "ifs" riding on pascal currently that many of you have pointed out and I'm largely in agreeance with you. So we'll see what happens. I think I may play it by year this coming week (with black friday and all) to see if I can't find some good deals floating around.

Thanks again everyone!

I don't know how long you have been having your 660 but I've had my 460 for 5 years now so I'm just telling myself that those 9 or so months won't make alot of a difference anymore.

If you get a really good deal on black friday I would still say go for it but I hope Pascal will bring what they've promised and be that much better.

 

Whatever you're going for I don't think you can go wrong... either one will be owning the 660

[PlayStation 2]

Yeah, I'm definitely not opposed to using an AMD card if it's price, performance, power consumption, and heat output can be about what I'd like them to be. I pride myself on not being a fanboy of team green or team red.

80 watts compared to the 970 isn't really too bad, especially if you have a decent PSU.