Graphics Card Recommendations

[Dee383]

Time Has Come To Get A New Graphics Card As My 9800GT Has Died And Im Currently Useing A GT610  And Im Tired Of 20-25 FPS ..

So Im Currently Looking For A Few Reccomendations About What Card To Get Next . Ive Been Looking At The  GTX 650 & GTX 660 As I Prefer Nvidia..

But Ive Seen The HD7770 & HD 7850 Seem A good Alternative ? What Do You Have And How Well Does It Perform And Are You Happy With It ....

[FallenWarrior]

Depends on what kind of games you play, but performance wise I would go for either the GTX 650 or the 660.

[Slammer64]

If you can afford it, get a GTX 670, it's about as powerful a card you can get for under $400.00 U.S.

[Guest flingingfeces]

Just bought a 660ti 2g for 279.99 runs like a champ!  I absolutely love PNY cards and still have my old 8800gt that still works perfectly!

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133466

[Ramses]

I thought "tI' cards were to avoided as their 'value' line of cards. I'm an ATM guy so I've only done light reading on nvidia...

[Tepi]

I would recommend buying the new 7870 Joker from Club3D as its probably most performance-cost efficient card atm. It also has good potential for overclocking if you are into that kind of thing. It's also a bit faster than your standard 7870 due to it having a new chipset. With price being almost the same as GTX660 and still offering more performance.

 

A few reviews for you to read:

http://www.techpowerup.com/mobile/reviews/Club_3D/HD_7870_jokerCard_Tahiti_LE/1.html

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/gpu_displays/club_3d_7870_joker_xt_edition_review/1

 

All I can say is thats the card I would buy now if I didnt just buy a new one 6 months ago.

[gregathit]

I thought "tI' cards were to avoided as their 'value' line of cards. I'm an ATM guy so I've only done light reading on nvidia...

 

 

LOL!!!  No, no, no.  The Ti version is the higher end.

The Ti designation stands for Titanium edition.

Mx is generally the sign for the value or lower end versions.

 

I myself am running a 560ti: https://www.google.com/shopping/product/15363656190403826783?q=evga%20560%20ti&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=Mhq&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.43148975,d.b2I&biw=1292&bih=938&sa=X&ei=jfIwUdquGuqQ2AXFvYDIBQ&ved=0CMEBEPMCMAU

[trex]

I'm with Tepi, a refreshed 7870 would be a good choice.

 

I've got a sapphire 7870 OC I bought around release. No complaints, I do have a crippling xp 32 bit OS which does bottleneck my system so I can't say I've ever really taxed it. It hasn't borked in my highly corrosive coastal area (my old 4870 was a nightmare for that) so there's +1 for that (unless sea salt isn't relevant, also could just be better luck on my end).

 

I just decided on the 7870 because that's the highest price point I could justify and the 2gb vram was quite attractive (at the time). So really, pick a price-to-performance limit, throw away brand conceptions, and hit up the comparison websites. Some research and finding a decent cheap store/online and you'll reap the pay off (hopefully!). 

 

 

 

 

[GreyDeath]

an often overlooked ? in favor of just asking about the cards or add in's

keep in mind they had 5 flavors of the 9800 series with a few alternatives for low psu consumption uses ranging from 300watt to 600 watt recommended for standard systems , some of these recommendations don't even fall into that category especially if its a lower end system

 

I think a better ? would be what do you have for a pc , meaning can you afford just the video card or are you able to go with a higher card?

meaning do you have a Power supply that is good enough to go with a higher card, and even better ? would be is it a good PSU, recommendations are great but if the equipment isnt upto par its more then likely a short term solution till one of the components fail then its more money to spend.

 

try this tool for factoring your requirements and needs its not exact but its a good start

http://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell/tool/psucalc/index.html

in some cases I'd go over their recommendations by 200-300 watts just to be sure i have adequate coverage.

and another useful tool is this link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#GeForce_9_.289xxx.29_series

 

another thing to consider is whats the motherboard setup for, most pc motherboards of today's market include basic drivers for both AMD and Nvidia but most older boards are specific to One or the other and is generally designed around the principle of what the on-board graphics chip is set for

"the flip side of that coin would be is if the board didn't have an on-board graphics chip then you can run usually either or both depending on your setup

[Nonsense667]

I think you are looking for something a bit higher up the chart, but I have a EVGA 550 Ti and I've been damn happy with it, after upgrading from the Radeon 5450 that my comp came with. And with the incredible ease that this card has given me, with drivers and everything, I'm pretty much sold on Nvidia/EVGA. And for a "starter" card, at just around 130 bucks, I've been so happy with it's performance, even if it's not TOP of the line, I am pretty damn confident I can run all but the most taxing games at max settings, and stuff like Far Cry 3, on high, with no issues.

[GreyDeath]

First Off, look at what your going to be playing, in that any game requiring DirectX 11 (Crysis 3), and many future games will. (Skyrim does not). One thing you don't want to do is put out a bunch of money on a card that won't handle what you want to play. So look at the current games and the ones soon to be released, research what you want to play and what those will require, general rule of thumb, any card that "Fully" supports DirectX 11 you should be good to go, but see what the minimum requirements are for the games you want to play then up it to give yourself some room. Plus what graphics cards your motherboard supports, what version your MB card slots are..PCI-E 2.0, 2.1, 3.0. Those will dictate what you can go with and do you need to upgrade the MB. a lot of things to consider just to upgrade your video card. Both of the cards you listed, The 9800GT and the GT610 are PCI-E v2.0, the GTX650 and 660 are both PCI-E 3.0, I don't know what Motherboard you have so I can only assume it's slots are 2.0 and those 2 cards (GTX650 & 660) won't work with your current MB.      

 

I'm not sure where your getting your info but a 3.0 will work just fine in a 2.0 slot

but you might want to check your facts before posting misleading info

at worst case scenario if he has say a 2.0 X8 slot he would be looking at something like a 4-8% gaming loss from the 650-660 card  efficiency from the card, and by any standards that's still like a 500% increase over what he has as of now

[Tepi]

Indeed, right now the revisions in PCI-E slots (2.0 and 3.0) are almost purely for fooling customers. Any 3.0 card will work on 2.0 slot just aswell. Period. It was a different story with 1.0 and 2.0, but not anymore.

[trex]

Basically,

 

Budget > Overall Performance > VRAM

 

HW-Compare is a good site for facts without reviews, EG:

 

http://www.hwcompare.com/13140/geforce-gtx-660-ti-vs-radeon-hd-7870/

 

The site also shows Wattage, so if you are also on an PSU-limitation, it's good for that info which sometimes without a review can be harder to find.

 

Based on the generic platforms for those cards iirc. You might want to see specific reviews on cards you're considering to complete the product picture.

 

Again, tepi and others are correct that 3.0 will work with 2.0. It isn't AGP vs PCI vs PCI-E anymore.

[Call me Mark]

I think you are looking for something a bit higher up the chart, but I have a EVGA 550 Ti and I've been damn happy with it, after upgrading from the Radeon 5450 that my comp came with. And with the incredible ease that this card has given me, with drivers and everything, I'm pretty much sold on Nvidia/EVGA. And for a "starter" card, at just around 130 bucks, I've been so happy with it's performance, even if it's not TOP of the line, I am pretty damn confident I can run all but the most taxing games at max settings, and stuff like Far Cry 3, on high, with no issues.

 

Same here haha.

I'm really satisfied with its performance.

[polluxval]

get yourself a job as a drugdealer and buy a pair of GTX690.

[Slammer64]

Or the new TITAN cards when they come out polluxval.

[chan]

I use a GTX 660 TI SC with 3GB VRAM. 60 fps 1080P with max settings, all hi-res textures, upped ugrids, etc. Only time it slows down is with SSAO and Reflections from ENB.

[AgentChicken]

I myself run an old HD 5470 ATI radeon mobility Notebook, It was never built for gaming but Boy this notebook has surprised me. I can play almost all games on the Highest graphic settings, and it simply has that "oomph" that i look for in a Notebook. However claire is on her last Legs, so She has an external monitor in one port, Wireless Keyboard in the other, Microphone in another USB port, a Wireless mouse and the W Key does not work anymore. So i think i need to buy Claire (my Notebook and yes i know im insane) a new screen and a whole new repair.