video card GTX 460 or Radeon HD 6770

[sweet and sadness]

My nvidia geforce 7600gt 256mo no longer works. I'm thinking about upgrading to a GeForce GTX 460 SE 1GB or maybe a Radeon HD 6770 1GB. I only play the sims2 +all ep's and sp's but would also like to purchase the sims 3 later on.

INFO
OS: Windows xp home edition
Processor: Pentium Dual-core CPU E5800 3.20ghz
Memory: 3062MB RAM
PS: 500W (ac input 115/230v)
PCIex16 slot

I need a little help figuring wich of these card is better and if it will play the games.
Thank you. :)

[Amairani]

I have GTX 460 1 Gb on new PC and Sims2 performance is a bit more problematic than on my old PC with GF 6600, in one way - graphics gets "fragmented", "distorted", it kinda flickers during gameplay (I wish I knew enough English to explain :/), usually when there's water involved (pool, lake on the lot, or sometimes when it rains), but sometimes it happens even if there's no water, but then it's almost always caused if I run game in fastest speed for awhile, but then again, I might play a lot for awhile non-stop, run it in fastest speed and nothing happens. In one neighborhood I played the problem was caused by reflective objects, like windows, or fridge with shiny surface. If I demolish a pool, the problem almost never reappears on the lot. In neighborhood view, if there's a lake or ocean, the water part of the map "winks' every few seconds.
Anyways, I don't remember if the problem ever happened if there wasn't water, reflective objects or fastest speed involved. I play Sims 3 too and haven't noticed graphic issues there, except for when playing swamp lots in Twinbrook, there fog that covers the ground moves in waves over the lot's first floor in shaky way, not smoothly, I don't know if it's meant to be like that or not.

So here's my experience with GTX 460. It's really not bad, as these problems happen rather rarely, but I never had anything like that with weaker GF 6600.

Just for information, this is my PC now:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2100 CPU @ 3.10GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.1GHz
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1
RAM 4Gb
DirectX 11
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460, patched few days ago with whatever latest patch Nvidia released

[Mordant17]

Looking at the system requirements charts, both are good for the sims 3.

I also have a geforce 460 gtx, and I haven't had any graphics problems with either the sims 2 or 3.

Since it looks like both should be fine, you might want to compare prices.

[sweet and sadness]

Thanks for answering!
Amairani I really wish I knew more about computers to help. Unfortunately my knowledge is very limited. It's a shame though your pc seems very powerful. Maybe you have a faulty card or the driver is faulty?

Mordant17 I did look at the prices and it was a little over my budget but doable.

I did ask for help on geekstogo.com and the person who answered me after viewing my power supply specs told me that the GTX 460 and the HD 6770 were possibly overkill considering the rest of my system. He suggested the GT 430. So I bought that one.
I'm thinking he knows more about this stuff than I do :giggler:

[ajaxsirius]

I don't think I'd agree with the guy at geekstogo.com. The E5800 you have is still a solid CPU considering that The Sims 3, and still many other games, don't benefit directly from having multiple cores. 3.2 Ghz is still fast and unlikely to bottleneck you on games like The Sims 3. The GTX 460 is a very nice piece of hardware, better than 6770, and if you could get them at the same price that means either the 6770 was overpriced or the GTX 460 was underpriced and a good deal for you. I don't know what PSU you have but I'm thinking that probably more why he suggested a GT 430.

[ellacharmed]

Sorry this is late in coming, I was occupied elsewhere.
That GT 430 won't play well for Sims 3. But the sales guys is entirely correct about the PSU not supporting the cards you had shortlisted.
Which is why for a PC of that age and the limitations of the components, if I had wanted to upgrade that, I'd have waited until I could upgrade the whole system. With the chance to upgrade to a 64-bit OS.

I've not been playing Sims 2 much anymore, just tinkering with the files to learn what makes them tick, as I'm tinkering with Sims 3 - mainly to see what's similar and what's different. But I haven't had any issues with playing Sims 3 and the little Sims 2 on this card - yes I have the GTX 460 1GB model as well.

It is a shame that you come on to the forum to ask for advise from fellow Simmers but went with the advise of a sales person who may not have played Sims at all.
Since the item has been purchased, I'll go ahead and lock this. If you find that now you want to upgrade the whole system, PM me and we'll revisit the issue.