Dem GFX cards

[TdC]

Hello!

I are considering upgrading my venerable 5* series GForce card to a more current model, for example a 750TI. The fact that it doesn't need extra 6 pin powah, has nice performance and a lowly 200W draw at full load according to Mr Anandtech stimulates me.

I was wondering if, since I have plenty of 6 pin power, it would be worth bumping to a slightly higher card, or perhaps even one of the sexy AMD R9 series cards, and if so...which? Note: price may not exceed 200 euros / 7000 pounds.

Any experience with the above-midrange GFX gizmos? Let us know chums

 

[TdC]

actually, given this image I may just go for the 750TI

 

[Litmus]

What games do you hope to be playing with it? And is performance per watt actually such an important thing? In the grand scheme of things a 750ti is still an entry level card.

 

[TdC]

well I expect it to perfom somewhat better than the 5* I currently have (even though my current card runs just fine imo, I notice some stuttering when things get busy on the screen).

atm I am playing a lot of Hawken, which is based on an older engine and runs nicely, but I also got all the Far Cry's recently in a Steam sale and am working my way through them. I play a fairly eclectic mix of games tbh, ranging from FTL to Far Cry 3.

I guess my main point is that some time this year I look to be replacing my (extremely) venerable Dell 2405WFP with something that rezzes at 2560x1440, and imagine that upgrading the GFX card first is a good idea.

 

[TdC]

hmm, that said, it seems if I do want to play shooters at my desired rez, I will need a much beefier card to make things playable. something along the lines of at least a 770, which is about twice as expensive as the 750TI

 

[TdC]

omg my finger slipped and I bought a 770 0_o

 

[BloodOmen]

omg my finger slipped and I bought a 770 0_o

good choice will last you ages. hope you at least got the one with a 3 fan cooler on it.

 

[TdC]

yeah I got a Gainward Phantom with the three replacable fan design. I read it's fairly quiet too, which is nice

Also, if it lasts me anything like the current card, I will be a happy bunny indeed

 

[BloodOmen]

yeah I got a Gainward Phantom with the three replacable fan design. I read it's fairly quiet too, which is nice

Also, if it lasts me anything like the current card, I will be a happy bunny indeed

It'll last ages, games have slowed right down now as far as graphical demands go

 

[TdC]

tbh if it's really the case that 4K monitors don't need AA due to mega amounts of pixels and super fine dot pitch then we will be seeing a whole new generation of cards be born.

 

[BloodOmen]

tbh if it's really the case that 4K monitors don't need AA due to mega amounts of pixels and super fine dot pitch then we will be seeing a whole new generation of cards be born.

4k monitors still cost loads though don't they? be a good few years before people start buying them like regular monitors.

 

[TdC]

atm yes...ish. you can get ultra high rez ones at like...3840x2160 (Dell does two, a 24 and a 32 inch), but you need beastly cards to drive them and I very much doubt they're any good for twitch games. Strategy games and such will be dead sexy on them imo

 

[BloodOmen]

I'll give it 5-6 years then and think about getting one then should be enough time for games to evolve around them.

 

[TdC]

Yeah my thoughts exactly. tbh if it IS true that AA and such will no longer be a 'thing', then the cards may not have to be as beastly as all that. it's basically bandwidth, and what the panel itself will do, e.g. if it will completely refresh, or tile refresh, what the backlight -if any- does, if it's full LED, what the refresh rate is, etc. That aside, you will need dual link DVI, or Display Port to have the bandwidth. HDMI, even the fast varient, won't cut it.

 

[TdC]

whellp, the card came this morning and man is it a huge beast! I'd say it's about twice as burly as my old 570 0_o

installation was, ofc, easy and I'd had the presence of mind to run a benchmark. Note I unthinkly did (unfortunately) faff about with driver settings re transparency AA and some other things before I ran the new bench though, so meh to that

Anyway, results!



The only games I know how to get an FPS counter going are unreal engine and DX9 (?) based HAWKEN, which shows me around 100fps, and the venerable Far Cry (1!) which shows me about 900fps lol! Anyway, no idea if this is any good or anything, but screen looks crisp enough.

 

[old.Osy]

Looking at your list, my R9 290x is at the top of the list. Cool.

 

[TdC]

set it to 'uber' right away then and you'll jump a notch

 

[ileks]

4k monitors still cost loads though don't they? be a good few years before people start buying them like regular monitors.

Samsung recently released a 28" 4K monitor with 1ms response times. It can be had for ~£460 which is still expensive but not too bad. You need at least a 280 or 770 to power, although the benchmarks (with no AA) show it's not nearly as bad as you might think.

 

[TdC]

Linus says:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5YXWqhL9ik&list=UUXuqSBlHAE6Xw-yeJA0Tunw

 

[Gwadien]

How is £600 'affordable'?

 

[leggy]

That's the price of one of those ridiculous apple cinema screens.

 

[Raven]

How is £600 'affordable'?

Get a job you low down dirty student!

 

[Raven]

The 290 is retarded big but outstanding, stonking performance on BF4

 

[Bigmac]

I just bought a Asus GTX 770 Nvidia GeForce DirectCU II OC 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card (PCI Express 3.0, HDMI, DVI-I, DVI-D, Display Port, 256 Bit, 3D Vision Ready, GPU Boost 2.0 graphics card but my PSU doesn't have the right connectors. Can anyone recommend me a PSU unit? It has to be modular or semi modular.

 

[Raven]

I just bought a Asus GTX 770 Nvidia GeForce DirectCU II OC 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card (PCI Express 3.0, HDMI, DVI-I, DVI-D, Display Port, 256 Bit, 3D Vision Ready, GPU Boost 2.0 graphics card but my PSU doesn't have the right connectors. Can anyone recommend me a PSU unit? It has to be modular or semi modular.

I went for this one http://www.ebuyer.com/584216-corsair-cs650m-modular-650w-atx-psu-cp-9020077-uk Had it a week, nice and simple to set up and comes with loads of different cables for various set ups. Very quiet too.

Actually, slight grumble was the SATA power cables aren't the longest but I have a stupid Cosmos S case and the drive bays are about 30 metres from the PSU so the cable management went a bit wonky.

 

[TdC]

I have that same PSU iirc. Works perfectly and I like the rated power. there are some threads discussing it floating about here.

 

[babs]

I just bought a Asus GTX 770 Nvidia GeForce DirectCU II OC 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card (PCI Express 3.0, HDMI, DVI-I, DVI-D, Display Port, 256 Bit, 3D Vision Ready, GPU Boost 2.0 graphics card but my PSU doesn't have the right connectors. Can anyone recommend me a PSU unit? It has to be modular or semi modular.

Can you not just get some molex > 6/8 pin pci adapters?

 

[Raven]

@TdC what do you use to check fps in Games. Going to put mine through its paces this weekend.

 

[throdgrain]

I got a 4 gig 760GTX atm, it seems pretty good

 

[Bigmac]

Can you not just get some molex > 6/8 pin pci adapters?

I only have 1 molex spare in my rig so its not possible. Probably better off with a new PSU anyway as its 4-5 years old.