Video Card - What To Buy?

[Pol]

This new one: MSI GeForce GT 610 2GB PhysX CUDA PCI-Express 2.0, DDR3 and others like it ... the price is only around $65 for those. The cooling is different; no fans.

What do we think?

Just too weak. My integrated in AMD APU (which is CPU+VGA on one chip) A10-7850 is way stronger. Your current card is also much stronger. GT610-640 are all low lines, OEM sets and so on, I can only recommend to ignore them.
Real cards starts from x50, so in case of Nvidia this means GT450 and higher, GT550 and higher, GT 650 and so on. Nowaday people usually get GT970 or 980 (or cheaper and older GT 760/750 models).

As well you may end with AMD, which if you like it, can save you some bucks. (For example current R9 260 is a deal.)

But my advice is to wait to 3rd quarter. There will be new cards.

[GreatEmerald]

But my advice is to wait to 3rd quarter. There will be new cards.

Indeed, maybe even earlier than that. Everyone's gearing for the Windows 10 release at the end of summer. That's when the AMD Rx 300 (Volcanic Islands) series will launch too. New APUs, too.

[Pol]

Wait even a little more but now one solution is starting to be outlined on the horizont. It that case it could be "Fury Nano" from AMD.

It comes to my mind that you have card of similar power like me, only from different brand. As I still have (but don't use) ATI HD 5750.

Still to early..

[mr.hackcrag]

Aren't those going to be like several hundred dollars?

$550 according to this chart: http://wccftech.com/amd-fury-series-lin ... no-xt-pro/

[Kalah]

So it looks like I might need a new GPU if I'm going to be able to play XCOM 2...
The minimum reqs for that game is "1GB ATI Radeon HD 5770, 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 or better".
My current graphics card is still the "XFX GeForce GTS 250, 512mb PhysX CUDA, PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI, 738/2200MHz".
Can you confirm that my card is below the minimum?

It may be time to get a new one anyway, since this one is from 2009. How about this one? Or maybe this one?

[Pol]

Yes, I can. You are underpowered to play XCOM 2, not about much but under minimal specifications.

My advice is to ignore GTX960, as for GTX970 is plausible choice depends on the money and your future requirements. Because this card is cheating its specifications and will run slow with any game which really needs to use 4GB of RAM - however untitl 3,5GB it runs super. So, it's a choice, sort, of it.

Originally after that fact burst up, many customers got some sort of discount. Biggest if from USA.

Do you wish to know more? Click

As for current Nvidia cards there are one or two possible other problems, when looking to the future. They comply badly with Directx12, it's more of a paper support as there are hw restrictions. Mostly due to fact that they don't support asynchronous shaders, or to say it better, they do but are slower with them than without them, so it's kinda useless.

1 - 2 - 3

My best advice would be to wait, this is, if you can afford to wait. New generation of cards will be coming this year, although not sure for Nvidia, AMD announced. Nvidia is rumoured to have an internal samples.

Otherwise get always OC edition, Nvidia 970 or 980 or AMD R9 380(x) or R9 385, see my post here.

Of course, it's still mostly matter of drivers. So for some games (more) it's Nvidia for others AMD. This is very dependant on fact if the game is using any of the proprietary Nvidia technologies, then runs faster on Nvidia, mostly.

Future will bring HM2 memory, which is faster but that is realistically to be expected from the end of this year till the end of 2017.


Quick eye catching tips:
https://www.komplett.no/product/864978/ ... ddr5-nitro
https://www.komplett.no/product/826142/ ... roductinfo

Be careful abou PSU wattage.

Orientation table.

So in the end, it's still the same. Obvious question about money and games which you will be playing. And power of corporations, because normally AMD would technically overrule Nvidia in strategy gaming for this year. But that will not happen against Nvidia, as this is not matter of technical engineering skills but just PR 'talks'.

Aren't those going to be like several hundred dollars?
$550 according to this chart: http://wccftech.com/amd-fury-series-lin ... no-xt-pro/

Around 500$, however competition is in the same range. And also yep, it's nothing for us, mortals.

[Kalah]

My best advice would be to wait, this is, if you can afford to wait.

No no, I want to play Xcoooom ...

[Pol]

In that (impatient :p ) case, it would be:

AMD R9 380X OC .. 2649

Nvidia GTX 970 OC .. 3695
I recommend to avoid non OC single cooler solutions as that would create additional small heating system within you PC, with shortened lifespan. Hence why not that Gainward.

Nvidia GTX 980OC .. 5690

But your shop is missing some cards, better to compare prices among your country, to find a deal!

[Kalah]

First, just let me confirm one thing: these new cards, they can simply replace my current one, right? No need to switch cables or make adaptions for the new card to fit in the cabinet? Also, I remember talk about the power supply a while back; I don't want to be forced to replace that.

I recommend to avoid non OC single cooler solutions as that would create additional small heating system within you PC, with shortened lifespan.

You mean I should only look at cards with more than one fan? OK (although my current one has only one fan and seems fine).
Also, is the amount of memory really important - i.e. is going from 4GB to 8GB worth a price increase of 15%

I have set a price limit of ca. 3000NOK (max. 3500) for myself and looked through both major Norwegian web shops. Keep in mind that I'm not the kind of gamer who manually changes settings to overclocking and that sort of thing; I like to use things as they come out of the box. Which of the ones on this list would you recommend?

• Sapphire Radeon R9 380X 4GB GDDR5
  MSI GeForce GTX 960 Gaming 4GB
  ASUS GeForce STRIX GTX 960 4GB
  MSI GeForce GTX970 GAMING
  Sapphire Radeon R9 390 8GB GDDR5 (it's also in this shop; still above price limit but can buy if it's a lot better than the others)

[Pol]

The best is to get OC edition or Gaming, it's still the same. That means card which is over clocked from factory and have higher performance compared to standard design. Usually 5-15% over.

Somewhat. Two coolers or one big. One smaller is less heat taken away and more noise. Usually just the cheapest cards have one mini cooler. It's a rubbish solution because often such card under load have lowered performance to its counterparts, with the same chip. It also die sooner.

First, just let me confirm one thing: these new cards, they can simply replace my current one, right? No need to switch cables or make adaptions for the new card to fit in the cabinet? Also, I remember talk about the power supply a while back; I don't want to be forced to replace that.

Confirming is always a tricky think, you have Corsair CX430, which probably can offer 400W, combined. So cca 200W per one branch. So it should work but your reserve is insufficient. Thus, after some years, you may find yourself with lowered performance or some other problem.

So, that limits your choice to Nvidia 970 only. Also, in that case, better solution for you would be non OC version, like here.

As for measuring, they will probably fit. Tape measure will help you

See wattage:
Nvidia 970 .. 145W, more for OC probably up to 180W
AMD R9 380 .. up to 240W, more for OC probably up to 270W
AMD R9 380X . . up to 250W, more for OC probably up to 280W

4GB is enough of RAM.

Edit1
Now I'm getting adverts for GPU cards in Norway, pretty funny.

[Kalah]

you have Corsair CX430, which probably can offer 400W, combined. So cca 200W per one branch. So it should work but your reserve is insufficient. Thus, after some years, you may find yourself with lowered performance or some other problem.

So, that limits your choice to Nvidia 970 only. Also, in that case, better solution for you would be non OC version, like here.

The power supply is about 430W and this card says on the page that it requires 500..?

This one is better in that regard; it says the rquired power supply is only 400.

[Pol]

The table, the table. With performance comparison.

GTX970 is almost twice time faster than GT960, the difference is huge and in cost, it's not. It's absolutely worthless speaking in performance/price ratio.

GTX 970 will work with your setup.

As per your PSU I don't see inside but there ought to be two versions, version one with two branches and V2 with just one. Both will work but with V2 you are safer. That's to be said, what's written in the spec for cards it's just estimation. The real power drain is to be calculated and in that case you are in with this PSU. (Still estim, ofcourse.)

The GPU seller estim is usually based on this. Customer have unknown PSU which real performance is roughly 50%, that for 500W means only 250W and there our card likely fit.

But you have better PSU, for V2 it's 336W for that one rail. And you probably cannot drain more than 170(everything else apart from)+150(GPU) in spike, so you are safe. As for this link, you are probably much much safer that you would think, calculating with that card.

[Kalah]

OK then, I'll buy this one. It's slightly above my budget but if it's that much better than the one lower on the ladder, I'll go for quality. It should last many years.

[Pol]

Why not that EVGA? It's cheaper.

[Kalah]

They both cost the same - 3690.

[Pol]

Ah, ok, right now. There was discount before. Around 33xx. Maybe?

[Kalah]

Getting the card today, I think. Should be fun to install and test it. I'm starting my winter holiday today, so the timing is great.

[Kalah]

The new card is in. Installing it inside the casing was very easy.

Getting it to work? No.

First off, when I try to simply connect the screen cable, the screen remains black, so there's obviously something that doesn't work. I take the installation CD and install the programs there, but when I try to run the "LiveUpdate" program, it simply says "The platform does not support this application".

Troubleshooting commences. Why can't these things ever just be easy...?

[Steven Aus]

Well, that would be too easy! With all the war and so many ordinary people wanting peace, the world's system seems to be designed to make anything that could be easy, definitely not. And this applies to nearly everything when you think about it.

[Pol]

You don't need installation CD, just look here for drivers.

What do you have as an output from your monitor?
Sometimes, rarely, you need to go to your motherboard bios and allow the card from here. In bios setup there is choice like gpu: 'use onboard|use PCI|auto detect'