GTX 260 or 275?

[borkus]

Hello to all. I am new to these forums. I have some questions about a PC that I will be building in about a month. I have researched the two cards in the title and am at a bit of a loss as to which offers the best "bang for buck". The GTX 275 has a few more clock cycles over the 260, but they are very similar in price. On most websites, the 275 is only $20-40 more. That being said, my instincts tell me to go with the 275. But, after reading a lot of the threads on this forum and others, I am left with the impression that there are many times that the videocard doesn't get fully utilized anyway. While one could say that you could be investing in the longevity of the card in getting specs that won't be used currently, I also look at this that this could be money spent on better hardware for the computer itself. The PC that I'm putting together will have:

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor

GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

Crucial 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model CT25664BA1067

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

Scythe SCKTN-3000 92mm Sleeve "KATANA3" 3Heat Pipes CPU Cooler

I will be getting 6 more gigs of ram after building. I am currently on an ancient machine and am getting impatient with it. I will also be running windows 7 pro 64 bit as well. The things that I use my PC for range from average office work to some graphical use as well. I use Photoshop daily and that program will eat whatever you can throw at it. I also use Lightwave and Zbrush, but these tend to not even scrape the videocard, though that is slated to change shortly. Many developers are realizing the performance increase they could see if they capitalized on the gpu. So, I am hoping that this card will be used more than it will be currently in the near future. But, the final thing I would like to get back into would be playing games on my PC. The computer that I'm running now would laugh at me if I was to buy any current game. It quivers just trying to run Doom2... So, I would like to also know what you think about the 260/275 cards and how they will handle games such as Battlefield2, Crysis, and such games. It is a habit of mine to like to play games at their highest settings to be able to see and play them how they were meant to be played... I know that a lot of people claim that ATI is the best card for gaming, and I would be one of them having been an ATI user for years, but their drivers just don't agree with some of the software that I have to use. I appreciate any and all input.

[saintjimmy]

My suggestion is that you wait a couple of months for nVidia to release their new "Fermi" cards, which are their first DirectX 11 (ie: Windows 7 based) cards. Even if you don't plan on buying one, you can wait for prices to go down on other products. But if you want to get a card now, then go for the GTX 275, because you'll have the advantage of being semi-futureproofed (but the 200 series altogether doesn't fully support DX 11).

I understand that you're not a fan of ATI drivers, since they don't work that well with your programs. If I recall, there is a ATI plugin/driver extension that works with Photoshop to make use of ATI's massive stream processor counts on their cards. I might be wrong on that though, so don't count it as solid truth. If you really want a DX 11 graphics card right now, ATI's 5000 series is the only way to go. I've heard news that nVidia will launch their cards in the weeks following the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, so hopefully they will and force lower prices to the rest of the graphics cards out there (I plan on buying an ATI 5850 when the price lowers, too).

Depending on the resolution of the monitor(s) you play at, the GTX 275 will play games very well. If you play at 1680 x 1050, the card is almost overkill, but I've seen benchmarks where 1920 x 1080 to 1920 x 1200 is the sweet spot. But when playing games at 1920 x 1200, the card seems to show that it's only got 896 MB of memory. I would recommend that if you play (or plan on playing) at 1920 x 1200, then get the EVGA model with twice as much memory.

Just my tips/opinion on your situation. Hope it helps!

[-RK]

You're using lightwave and Zbrush on a computer that has troubles with Doom2???

And here I thought I was patient with renders...


Anyway, like Saintjimmy said, nv will be starting the release of a new series quite soon and they're (supposedly) geared heavily towards developers utilizing them for computation tasks - for example rendering in CGI programs like Lightwave or Zbrush. I'd suggest you wait and see where the pricing settles after that card release and possibly pick up a DX11 card.

The GTX275 will beat the GTX260 by a good amount, it's basically a trimmed down GTX285. I'd also take a look at the HD5770, it performs on par with the GTX260 at mid resolutions and it's currently cheaper.

[borkus]

Thank you both for the heads up. I will wait until the end of February to mid March. I have project deadlines that will be very close if I wait much longer. Looking back at my post, I forgot to mention that the computer that I'm using at the moment is just the PC that I had made for office use. My graphical computer died on me a few weeks ago. I had an ATI x800gt in that and it handled most of my 3d applications fine for the most part. That is why I am going to go with Nvidia because I just got sick of all the issues that came from the ATI drivers in Lightwave and Zbrush. Photoshop does have a few work arounds, like Saintjimmy said. And cheers to RK for being a fellow poly-pusher. Was excited to hear of the news of the 2.5 version. I'll be keeping a close eye on that. I had tried for years to come to grips with that damn interface and just couldn't stomach it. Now that it can be rearranged to one's liking, I will be more than happy to add that to my toolkit... I will also go with the EVGA model. Looking at the reviews at Newegg had shown too many people getting junk cards from some of the other makers. One other one that seemed better than some of the others was PNY. I doubt that I will be able to spring for one of the new DX11 cards at this moment. Will have to wait and see what the pricing will be. Anyway, thanks for the input.