Graphics card

[alanfinal]

Hi all

Over the years I stopped gaming that much and now spend more time with forums meets etc,my system has fallen who fully behind

I am running an old Asus cammando motherboard,with DDR 2 ram x 4gb with a GTX 260 graphics card,as you can imagine today's games are on a low setting.

It will be another year and a bit before I build a new system,but in the meantime I am being given a more up to date Asus motherboard,4gb DDR 3 ram and a better cpu....excuse all details will get them all up as i either remember or look them up.

That aside I will build my old pc into another case for work and put the new in my trusty Akasa case.

This leaves me short of a graphics card,I dont want to go to mad as I will do that at another time but am mulling over 3 cards each a step up from the other,these are radeon HD 7850,Nividia GTX 660,Radeon 7870....allow for the fact this is a year or so stop gap till I free up some cash to get right up to date

[kibbster]

I bought a 7950 recently to replace my slightly broken 5870 and it seems to be a bit of an improvement.
Well not being slightly broken is a huge improvement but I think I am CPU bottle necked.
I still can't run all games maxed out with DX11 at 1080.
Direct X 9 runs storming speeds, DX11 seems to kill performance.

Replacing my i5 with a decent i7 and a new PCI-e 3.0 motherboard would probably help.

If it wasn't for my old card being knackered I'd have been a bit disappointed with the £220 I spent.
Doesn't help much but just so you know, the new cards may be capable but they are only as capable as the other parts of the system.

I know there is a faster single GPU card in the 7970 but I couldn't justify the extra £100 on top of what I already paid.

[genguskhan]

There are some good reviews on the Radeon HD7870 but as we all know with graphic cards, once you buy one the next time you look you'll find a better cheaper one

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Club-3d-2GB-DDR5-Radeon-HD-7870-Graphics-Card-RoyalKing-RRP-229-/400390210847?pt=UK_Computing_Other_Computing_Networking&hash=item5d391dc51f

or

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Geforce-Gtx-660-nvidia-evga-SC-2gb-pci-e-3-0-grahics-card-new-in-sealed-box-/111004908256?pt=UK_Computing_LaptopMotherboards_CPUs_CA&hash=item19d8687ae0

Happy shopping

[alanfinal]

Cheers guys,I know exactly what you mean kibster,when I built this one DDR3 came out a month later the 9800 GTX became old hat in no time , whatever goes on this board now will stay on it and I will just start afresh mid 2014,at least I pushed a good few years out of it.

[kibbster]

Yup, I've got a good 3 years out of my last upgrade that was £1300 so for PC gaming that's a good innings.
Got things like a child that needs feeding that takes priority now over my hardware habit

[Mev]

Jan 25, 2013 6:47:51 GMT kibbster said:

I bought a 7950 recently to replace my slightly broken 5870 and it seems to be a bit of an improvement.
Well not being slightly broken is a huge improvement but I think I am CPU bottle necked.
I still can't run all games maxed out with DX11 at 1080.
Direct X 9 runs storming speeds, DX11 seems to kill performance.

Replacing my i5 with a decent i7 and a new PCI-e 3.0 motherboard would probably help.

If it wasn't for my old card being knackered I'd have been a bit disappointed with the £220 I spent.
Doesn't help much but just so you know, the new cards may be capable but they are only as capable as the other parts of the system.

I know there is a faster single GPU card in the 7970 but I couldn't justify the extra £100 on top of what I already paid.

I think that's just a reflection of how the tech is changing for gaming, lots of newer games can be very cpu intensive compared to a few years ago but an i5 2500 sandybridge or better ivybridge should handle almost any game with ease with a 7950 @ 1080 , so maybe there were other factors such a drivers causing your performance issues. Also obviously some cards are better than others depending on brand.

[kibbster]

Jan 25, 2013 11:07:49 GMT Mev said:

Jan 25, 2013 6:47:51 GMT kibbster said:

I bought a 7950 recently to replace my slightly broken 5870 and it seems to be a bit of an improvement.
Well not being slightly broken is a huge improvement but I think I am CPU bottle necked.
I still can't run all games maxed out with DX11 at 1080.
Direct X 9 runs storming speeds, DX11 seems to kill performance.

Replacing my i5 with a decent i7 and a new PCI-e 3.0 motherboard would probably help.

If it wasn't for my old card being knackered I'd have been a bit disappointed with the £220 I spent.
Doesn't help much but just so you know, the new cards may be capable but they are only as capable as the other parts of the system.

I know there is a faster single GPU card in the 7970 but I couldn't justify the extra £100 on top of what I already paid.

I think that's just a reflection of how the tech is changing for gaming, lots of newer games can be very cpu intensive compared to a few years ago but an i5 2500 sandybridge or better ivybridge should handle almost any game with ease with a 7950 @ 1080 , so maybe there were other factors such a drivers causing your performance issues. Also obviously some cards are better than others depending on brand.

With AMD dodgy drivers are certainly a possibility
The system is generally pretty quick it's just DX11 that seems to drag it down, especially with high AA and VSync enabled.
Batman Arkham City, Far Cry3 and Hitman Absolution are all liek this, DX9, everything maxxed out with horse power to spare, DX11... bad idea.

[andy01424]

have got a asus gtx560 DCUII O/C,runs all the latest games really well,did look at the Ti range,but didnt seem much point as cost of mine was lower yet specs near the same, will say have used a radeon hd, they do have lovely bright colours compared to the Nvidia ..but the biggest down side i have with them is fan noise and they tend to get hot pdq

[mzal]

If your going for a all new rig in 2014 just stick in a second hand card of ebay. Thats what i did. Ive got a GTX285 2gb. An intel Q6600 processor overclocked to 3.4ghz and 4gb of ddr2 running slightly overclocked. All running on a P5K-E motherboard. This allows me to play skyrim at ultra settings on a 1680x1050 res monitor.

[alanfinal]

Jan 25, 2013 13:30:02 GMT mzal said:

If your going for a all new rig in 2014 just stick in a second hand card of ebay. Thats what i did. Ive got a GTX285 2gb. An intel Q6600 processor overclocked to 3.4ghz and 4gb of ddr2 running slightly overclocked. All running on a P5K-E motherboard. This allows me to play skyrim at ultra settings on a 1680x1050 res monitor.

Its possible I would get more from the GTX 260,I think it bottle necked with the cpu I have in the old rig,its a 2.2 dual core,but then I'm leaving the new and old systems intact when I finally rebuild,so have to buy something and the bidders on e bay often take prices to where they shouldn't be for second hand stuff,that why at around 130-160 I thought it may be worth paying out a bit for something new

[alanfinal]

Well I bought the GTX 660 as per genguskhans link as it was he only card I liked with free postage,so was only 19 quid dearer than a 2 GB 7850 all in

[izan]

A,

You have not mentioned the games you play and expect to be playing, However as noted above, recent games are VERY CPU intensive. What are your CPU options for the machines? How powerful and how old are your power supplies? Are you considering HD upgrades for more speed?

Budget?
Have fun
I

[ciar]

I play my games on a Dell built PC, but i always replace the power and the vidcard, last time I switched into a Nvidia huge thing it was it's done well so far happily play FPS and Borderlands 2 on it without issue, if i am playing DAoC i can run two accounts on the same PC even when there are huge fights occuring on screen, rarely flatline... will check which card i have tonight as it's been residing in the case for a year or so now.

[alanfinal]

Jan 25, 2013 16:07:17 GMT izan said:

A,

You have not mentioned the games you play and expect to be playing, However as noted above, recent games are VERY CPU intensive. What are your CPU options for the machines? How powerful and how old are your power supplies? Are you considering HD upgrades for more speed?

Budget?
Have fun
I

Games are mainly RPG/action adventure types like Skyrim,fallout 3,witcher 2,some racing games,not really into the war type games.

900 watt power supply that's not too old will cope with this system which I can now tell you now has a Asus maximus motherboard and 3 ghz dual core cpu,should get me by for that 18 month odd period,then will look whats out there.

[Mev]

Maximus is a great board I've had one myself for a build.