Worth updating graphics card?

[AVFC2012]

Will updating my graphics card give me extra FPS within Dolphin or is it a waste of time if I have got a Nvidia Geforce 9800GT 512MB?
I am thinking of upgrading to the following graphics card :-
Gigabyte GTX 460 OC2 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI Mini HDMI Out PCI-E Graphics Card. I am not just upgrading for Dolphin but for other games as well.


My Specs -

Intel Quad Core Q9650 3Ghz
4GB RAM
Nvidia Geforce 9800GT 512MB
Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate

[Starscream]

It will help if you want to really up all the graphic settings at high resolution, but for the most part you can just use what you have.

[NaturalViolence]

What resolution are you running at?
Which graphics plugin do you use?
Do you use pixel lighting?
Do you use pixel depth?
What efb scale do you use?
Do you use AA? If so what level?

[AVFC2012]

What resolution are you running at?
Which graphics plugin do you use?
Do you use pixel lighting?
Do you use pixel depth?
What efb scale do you use?
Do you use AA? If so what level?

Well I want to run the game in at least 720p - Though I really want 1080p
I use DirectX 9
I don't use pixel lighting or depth
I use Fractional or Integral efb scale
I never use AA

[NaturalViolence]

Your 9800gt is fine then. If you wanted to do 1080p AND SSAA then you might benefit from something stronger in some games.

[Cyris]

you will get major performence increases in all games with a upgrade like that. proof being my card has trouble in certain games and my GF has that exact card your thinking of getting and her performence in every game even emulators blows mine out the water. not sure why people say you wont. if a new GPU doesn't speed up performence then i need to go back to my radeon 9550 lmao

[Starscream]

Cyris, I think you missed the point about what graphic settings he wanted to use. That makes or breaks your video card with Dolphin. You should know this.

[AVFC2012]

Your 9800gt is fine then. If you wanted to do 1080p AND SSAA then you might benefit from something stronger in some games.

What I was hoping was that games like Donkey Kong Country returns would have a increase in fps from a graphics card upgrade.
I notice for instance with Donkey Kong on the 2nd level that the fps drops to about 40 using one of the latest builds. However it seems the CPU is what needs to be better or the Dolphin Emulator of course - though I have just upgraded my processor to this Intel Q9650 and wouldn't want to obviously get a iCore 7 as they are too expensive for me!

[NaturalViolence]

you will get major performence increases in all games with a upgrade like that. proof being my card has trouble in certain games and my GF has that exact card your thinking of getting and her performence in every game even emulators blows mine out the water. not sure why people say you wont. if a new GPU doesn't speed up performence then i need to go back to my radeon 9550 lmao

His gpu is already far more powerful than yours. To the point where no matter what settings he uses the cpu will bottleneck it.

[Cyris]

he says he wants it for more then dolphin my ati radeon HD 2600XT goes blow for blow with the 8600 and 8800 series of nvidia when overclocked if you seem to think bottlenecking will happen in PC games with a quad core and a Geforce 460 then you should really really really really do some more research. most NEW PC games dont have those bottleneck problem because they are designed to run on multi core systems. take if from someone who has seen the performance changes from gefore 4 mmx to a geforce 480 gtx. trust me you want this graphics card if you can afford it. your performence increase will be dramatic in PC games. i believe most emulator are heavy CPU dependent which may cause bottlenecking but PC games no way.