Another Help Me pick a Graphics Card for a fear Commitment
September 7, 2009 2:04 PM Subscribe
My roommate is trying to build a computer on the cheap, giving me the perfect opportunity to sell him my BFG NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT and purchase a nicer graphics card. I don’t know squat about buying a graphics card, and I have just spent an hour on newegg.com looking at cards and I can’t bring my self to commit to any one particular card. I was hoping the hive mind and its infinite wisdom can point me in the direction of a particular card that is compatible with my computer.
My Requirements:
*Play Crysis and Crysis Wars on either high, or the setting below high @1680x1050. (I think it’s called something like ‘enthusiast’ and ‘gamer’)
*Play nicely with my current setup
*Either 2 DVI’s or a DVI and an HDMI (If I ever want to do dual monitors)
*Price range: I would like between $100 and $150, but I am willing to go a little higher if I need to.
My Current Computer:
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9400 @ 2.66GHz “Yorkfield”
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB GDDR3
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-UD3L
Memory: OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Power Supply: LOGISYS 550W power supply
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista (6.0) Business Edition Service Pack 1 (Build 6001)
Direct X: DX10
Monitor: Samsung ToC SynchMaster T240HD
Here is a full CPU-Z report on my system and its detail specs, the Graphics card information is at the bottom.
I found a bunch of cards on newegg.com that seemed reasonable, but I don’t want to spend a lot of money on something that wont work or will not give me a performance boost. One card that has been already recommended to me is:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102849
Can the hivemind help me pick a card that will fit my current setup and not break the bank?
My Requirements:
*Play Crysis and Crysis Wars on either high, or the setting below high @1680x1050. (I think it’s called something like ‘enthusiast’ and ‘gamer’)
*Play nicely with my current setup
*Either 2 DVI’s or a DVI and an HDMI (If I ever want to do dual monitors)
*Price range: I would like between $100 and $150, but I am willing to go a little higher if I need to.
My Current Computer:
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9400 @ 2.66GHz “Yorkfield”
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB GDDR3
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-UD3L
Memory: OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Power Supply: LOGISYS 550W power supply
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista (6.0) Business Edition Service Pack 1 (Build 6001)
Direct X: DX10
Monitor: Samsung ToC SynchMaster T240HD
Here is a full CPU-Z report on my system and its detail specs, the Graphics card information is at the bottom.
I found a bunch of cards on newegg.com that seemed reasonable, but I don’t want to spend a lot of money on something that wont work or will not give me a performance boost. One card that has been already recommended to me is:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102849
Can the hivemind help me pick a card that will fit my current setup and not break the bank?
I use a few very graphics-intensive programs on a daily basis, and this is on my wishlist as soon as I can afford to upgrade. I know very little about this stuff, but a friend who knows quite a lot and knew my requirements recommended it highly.
He also suggested this in the less-expensive-but-still-an-upgrade category.
For reference, my current card is the same as yours, and I think the rest of my specs are pretty comparable as well.
posted by Fifi Firefox at 2:23 PM on September 7, 2009
He also suggested this in the less-expensive-but-still-an-upgrade category.
For reference, my current card is the same as yours, and I think the rest of my specs are pretty comparable as well.
posted by Fifi Firefox at 2:23 PM on September 7, 2009
ATI's coming out with the 5xxx series before Christmas but if you can't wait then the 4870 is a nice enough card. I've got a 3870 in my quad 2.666 Mac Pro and the Crysis demo was perfectly playable at 1680x1050.
For better future-proofing I'd go with 1GB of VRAM, so here's the list from newegg of 1GB ATI cards with five-star customer ratings. This list has the Sapphire you were recommended.
posted by Palamedes at 2:27 PM on September 7, 2009
For better future-proofing I'd go with 1GB of VRAM, so here's the list from newegg of 1GB ATI cards with five-star customer ratings. This list has the Sapphire you were recommended.
posted by Palamedes at 2:27 PM on September 7, 2009
I have a 4870 I purchased about a year ago at around $250 probably, so that looks like a nice price. I can play all games on the highest settings without any problems, I haven't run into a game that's given me a problem yet.*
That said there haven't been that many challenging games from a graphics perspective. Batman Anarkham Asylum looks beautiful and doesn't flinch. It seems to me that game designers are virtualizing their development so they can produce for the widest range of platforms possible and not necessarily to squeeze everything out of a particular system. I doubt you'll see any leaps until we start getting close to the next generation of consoles, but I could be wrong. Bottom line is you can't go wrong with a 4770 right now. The only reason I'd upgrade would be to add more than two monitors.
* Crysis last level completely bogs me down and I think that says more about Crysis' game engine than it does about the card. Also ArmA II ran incredibly slow and glitchy but again this is a poorly done engine.
posted by geoff. at 2:28 PM on September 7, 2009
That said there haven't been that many challenging games from a graphics perspective. Batman Anarkham Asylum looks beautiful and doesn't flinch. It seems to me that game designers are virtualizing their development so they can produce for the widest range of platforms possible and not necessarily to squeeze everything out of a particular system. I doubt you'll see any leaps until we start getting close to the next generation of consoles, but I could be wrong. Bottom line is you can't go wrong with a 4770 right now. The only reason I'd upgrade would be to add more than two monitors.
* Crysis last level completely bogs me down and I think that says more about Crysis' game engine than it does about the card. Also ArmA II ran incredibly slow and glitchy but again this is a poorly done engine.
posted by geoff. at 2:28 PM on September 7, 2009
I just spent a ton of time researching parts for a new computer (my last one was ready to up and quit any day). I went through the same process with the video card and eventually decided to go with a GTX 260. For around $30 or so less I think I could have gotten a GTS 250, which is pretty much a rebadged 9800GTX+ with more ram. They seem to benchmark pretty similar, but the GTX 260 always pulled ahead (once in awhile by a lot).
Only a bit over your threshold and seems to have the most bang for your buck that I found when looking for a card. The things I found that were cheaper seemed to be too much of a performance drop for a small drop in cost, so GTX 260 it was.
posted by Stunt at 2:41 PM on September 7, 2009
Only a bit over your threshold and seems to have the most bang for your buck that I found when looking for a card. The things I found that were cheaper seemed to be too much of a performance drop for a small drop in cost, so GTX 260 it was.
posted by Stunt at 2:41 PM on September 7, 2009
Response by poster: Thanks for your quick replies! Since Tom's Hardware recommends that card, plus the fact that its on the newegg VRAM list, and geoff's experiences with the card I think I am going to take advantage of the labor day sale of that 4870 and get it. Thanks for your helping with my commitment issues (well some of then anyway ;) )
posted by token-ring at 2:46 PM on September 7, 2009
posted by token-ring at 2:46 PM on September 7, 2009
Oh, also: I've been testing out components and haven't installed crysis to test specifically, but World of Warcraft with max settings at 1920x1200 was running waaaaay over 100fps.
I looked around for you and found people with the GTX260 getting around 30FPS in Crysis with settings on Very High, so it seems like the settings you want to run would blaze along.
posted by Stunt at 2:46 PM on September 7, 2009
I looked around for you and found people with the GTX260 getting around 30FPS in Crysis with settings on Very High, so it seems like the settings you want to run would blaze along.
posted by Stunt at 2:46 PM on September 7, 2009
Response by poster: Thanks Stunt for the info on the FPS in Crysis, the GTX260 does look impressive. But I think I might save the money and go with the 3870, and use the savings to add towards a nicer hard drive, which the my last big choke point in my computer.
posted by token-ring at 2:52 PM on September 7, 2009
posted by token-ring at 2:52 PM on September 7, 2009
Definitely not a bad plan. Glad you found a card that will work for you!
posted by Stunt at 2:56 PM on September 7, 2009
posted by Stunt at 2:56 PM on September 7, 2009
You wanna be careful buying an ATI* card - I'd stick to Nvidia. It may look like there's not much in it, but Nvidia cards have some features ATI cards don't, such as CUDA and PhysX support. Whilst it's true that you can enable these on ATI cards, Nvidia has the compatibility out of the box. It's a shame, because I've always been an ATI boy, but it looks like Nvidia has trumped them slightly.
*and by ATI I mean AMD, of course.
posted by hnnrs at 4:02 PM on September 7, 2009
*and by ATI I mean AMD, of course.
posted by hnnrs at 4:02 PM on September 7, 2009
This may not be too useful if you've already bought the card, but Wikipedia has awesome pages comparing all ATi GPUs and nVidia GPUs in terms of pure processing power. There's more to a card than just that, of course, such as memory speed, but it gives you a good starting point. One thing to note, though, is that cross-comparisons are difficult between the two brands. You still get a rough feeling for where each chip sits, at least.
Oh! And most important of all is the cooling system on the powerhouse GPUs. Make damn sure the manufacturer has a decent cooling rig with a few heat pipes -- HIS's Ice-Q Turbo3 systems are incredible, for instance. Sapphire does a decent job on most of their cards, but if it looks too small to keep a powerful chip cool, it probably is.
posted by spiderskull at 7:22 PM on September 7, 2009
Oh! And most important of all is the cooling system on the powerhouse GPUs. Make damn sure the manufacturer has a decent cooling rig with a few heat pipes -- HIS's Ice-Q Turbo3 systems are incredible, for instance. Sapphire does a decent job on most of their cards, but if it looks too small to keep a powerful chip cool, it probably is.
posted by spiderskull at 7:22 PM on September 7, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Orange Pamplemousse at 2:09 PM on September 7, 2009