Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by Stereo »

My friend plays Garry's Mod on my R61i Thinkpad with a X3100 and it runs on lowest, average 30 fps. Not that bad. Call of Duty WaW on the other hand, failed. We tried to play nazi zombies over LAN and he had like 10FPS, and that caused MASSIVE internet lag, probably because Treyarch wanted to keep the FPS and the lag synchronized, which is a BAD idea IMO. Also, some trees in the distance showed up through the walls as green and white polys. Was the worst experience eva.

So X3100 is OK for source games, and screw everything else. (And I ran WAW in windowed 640x480, lowest settings)
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by Bojan »

Ok so I got a new old PC which only has an intel integrated gfx card that's not able to perform sufficiently. I'm looking for a mid range GFX card, something in the range of a 4650 or possibly a 4830 (that tbh is a bit too expensive).
What's best in a price range of below 80EUR?
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by vellu »

Bojan wrote:What's best in a price range of below 80EUR?
This might be:

ASUS EN9500GT TOP/DI/512M, factory overclocked to 700MHz/2GHz (stock is 550MHz/1.4GHz). Should be available for about 80e. Quote: "Crazily overclocking GPU to 700MHz! - 2 times faster than generic GF9500GT!"

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=2& ... odelmenu=1

ATI 4670 isn't a bad option either, if you can get it at that price range.
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by Pabl0z »

I'd go for the 4670.
lol wut
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by Bojan »

I ordered the 4670. Got it for 78 EUR which is 1EUR more than the cheapest 700MHz 9500GT I could find.
Thanks for the tips.
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by vellu »

Be sure to let us know how it pushes pixels around...
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by donaldgladden »

Stereo wrote:My friend plays Garry's Mod on my R61i Thinkpad with a X3100 and it runs on lowest, average 30 fps. Not that bad. Call of Duty WaW on the other hand, failed. We tried to play nazi zombies over LAN and he had like 10FPS, and that caused MASSIVE internet lag, probably because Treyarch wanted to keep the FPS and the lag synchronized, which is a BAD idea IMO. Also, some trees in the distance showed up through the walls as green and white polys. Was the worst experience eva.

So X3100 is OK for source games, and screw everything else. (And I ran WAW in windowed 640x480, lowest settings)
i just noticed this but Garry's mod was updated to Ep2's engine. Your friend can try to find a standalone Gmod 10 for better performance.
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by Stereo »

Aren't standalone versions the ones you can't play online (using steam)

We don't really play over LAN. I have a server that I host but I guess it could be considered LAN because the laptop and server are on the same network.
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by donaldgladden »

Yup, unless you have a heavily modified steam :wink: . Even then you can only go to servers that aren't Vac secured.
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by steelsnake00 »

£150 graphics cards- ATI HD4890 series or Gainward GTX 275?
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by Stereo »

I'd go nVidia as ATI has terrible drivers. >_>
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by Koenigsegg_Rox »

On 90% of games, GTX275 comes through as the top contender out of those two. Here's my source:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-g ... view-test/
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by baumaxx1 »

I never really go top end with GFX... I spent more cash on an i7 and just ran a GTX 260 Gold. The only thing it doesn't max is Crysis... and considering it's the part that is most likely to be replaced (and easy to replace with PCI-E)... makes sense to go with the latest tech.

SO just go with a good, competitively priced card and upgrade whenever needed. Much cheaper, as GFX cards aren't good forever.
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by Kaerar »

Stereo wrote:I'd go nVidia as ATI has terrible drivers. >_>
That's a myth my friend. I have used ATi for years now (as well as nVidia) and of the two the ATi drivers have been more stable and more user friendly than nVidia since the x8xx days. I used a lot of official and modified nVidia drivers and being a computer tech have tested loads. The ATi's are generally better from my experience, been running a 9600GT for about 9 months and just grabbed an HD4890. The drivers are much more stable (no more nvdisp.dll bluescreens) and the Filtering is on a totally different level. There would often be filtering glitches with the 9600GT (easily seen in Carbon cutscenes and CoD 4/5) whereas the ATi has almost none of them (the only one I have noticed was in CoD5 in relation to a specific light source, but I think that's a CoD5 coding error). Not only that value wise the ATi's whoop the nVidia's at the moment. Though personally I would be going for the 5850's as they are $95 cheaper and the performance difference is about 5% less than a 5870. Guru3D has a couple of good reviews on the 5870 at the moment.
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by peterfaj »

I have a Radeon HD4850 and the drivers and very good.
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by baumaxx1 »

I've never had the Nvidia cards BSOD since the 7600GT >_> I'm now on a GTX 260. ATI was definitely the way to go 6 months ago, but then the GTX 260s came way down in price... tuned versions came out and now I paid $50 less vs a HD 4870 for something that runs cooler, quieter, saps less power, has PhysX support and matches its performance (has more VRAM too). That being said... ATI will probably pull ahead again with the 5 series.
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by Koenigsegg_Rox »

The GTX275's RRP is cheaper than the 4890 and it produces better framerates in almost all the top-end games, even nearing its very similar sibling the GTX285.
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by steelsnake00 »

I think my 8800GTX is borked.

Keep getting red and black lines across my display, with intermittent crashes in games and also on desktop. The typical graphical errors, anomilies and various other things. Think they heat sink on it is buggered, and I'm borrowing my mates GTX250 to see if that's the cause of the problem.

Is the GTX285 worth the £50-60 over the 275? Looking at Gainward cards as mines' been faultless until today.
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by Koenigsegg_Rox »

Go for the 285 if you can afford it. The 275 is very similar to the 285, it just has the same processor speed as the 260. You'd probably see about a 10-20fps increase with the 285 on most games.
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by Carcrazy »

Can anyone help me a bit? Mobile GPU's aren't exactly my strong-point... or anywhere near.

The Dell XPS M1530 that I got for $200 a little under a year ago has a notorious overheating issue that's been repaired by Dell multiple times to no avail. Finally, I was able to convince them to replace the system instead of just sending out another heat-sink. They're sending me out a Studio XPS 1640 in place, which is admittedly a decent step up from my current specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo P8800 (2.66GHz/1066MHz FSB/3M L2 Cache)
3GB DDR3-1066 RAM
250GB 7200RPM HDD
15.6 Full-HD Edge-to-Edge WLED LCD
512MB ATi Mobility Radeon 3670

...I tried to push for a 4670, even offering to pay the difference, but got no success. By the time the rep could actually tell me what was going to be in the system it'd already been booked for production. (It almost sounds like they're building me a new system instead of sending me one from outlet.)

Anyways, I'm moving up from a 1200x800 15.4" Monitor, powered by a 1.66GHz Core 2 Duo T5450, 4GB DDR2-667 and an nVidia 8600M GT.

The current system can hardly play games, and chokes like hell when trying to run GTA IV, (the main game that I play,) but I can't really find any comparisons online between my two cards. I'm not expecting to start running games on high at full HD, but I'd at least like to be able to play things smoothly.

Still, seeing the computer has a pretty hefty price tag, I'm not going to complain for free.. despite a few sour graphics reviews. Thoughts?
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by ElvenAvenger »

okay, kinda simple question. Zotac 285GTX or Zotac 295GTX? please consider both performance and heat it would generate, which card is more power hungry and prices, cause most likely its going to be either of those 2 in my next PC.
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by Kaerar »

Neither, go get yourself an ATi Radeon 5850 and it'll kick both cards mentioned (well not entirely the 295) for much less outlay and FAR FAR FAR less power and heat.

The new nVidia range is around the corner and is reportedly having issues matching the Radeon's power at the moment. Technically they should trounce them being released 6mths+ later but they aren't. They are barely beating them in closed testing (i.e. nVidia based and therefore biased). Looking forward the Radeon 6xxx series is only 9 months away and the 5xxx is going to be powerful for at least next year too. Personally I have a 4890, and my mate just upgraded from his GTX260 C216 to a 5850 and was astonished at the difference. BTW he uses Dual 1080p monitors and has had no gfx issues since installation. He was a team green fan to the core before it...

If you can get the 5870 then do, as it's a very capable card too. The current GTX series are out of date by about 8 mths.
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by ElvenAvenger »

Kaerar wrote:Neither, go get yourself an ATi Radeon 5850 and it'll kick both cards mentioned (well not entirely the 295) for much less outlay and FAR FAR FAR less power and heat.

The new nVidia range is around the corner and is reportedly having issues matching the Radeon's power at the moment. Technically they should trounce them being released 6mths+ later but they aren't. They are barely beating them in closed testing (i.e. nVidia based and therefore biased). Looking forward the Radeon 6xxx series is only 9 months away and the 5xxx is going to be powerful for at least next year too. Personally I have a 4890, and my mate just upgraded from his GTX260 C216 to a 5850 and was astonished at the difference. BTW he uses Dual 1080p monitors and has had no gfx issues since installation. He was a team green fan to the core before it...

If you can get the 5870 then do, as it's a very capable card too. The current GTX series are out of date by about 8 mths.
im afraid of "certain" idiots not optimizing games for ATI cards (hint hint, Shift). this is the only reason why i did not get any ATI cards yet. ill check the prices and get one or even a 5870 if that what you say is true. i wonder if i can get a card that will last longer than 2 years before being unable to run games at max details +1280x1024. so far none did it.
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by baumaxx1 »

Look, my advice is not to spend a lot on a GFX card for now. New series are just around the corner, and the next big breakthrough will be 3D which requires double the power current gen cards can dish out. We're sort of in limbo waiting for the next series, which will definitely be overpriced when it comes out, I'm guessing Nvidia will bring out a completely new card (the 9 series and GTXs all just evolved from the 8 series) too. For now, a GTX 260 or 275 or equivalent ATI (I've only dealt with Nvidia) will run games at 1080p on high smoothly, and it's not a costly card anymore, and I'd spend a bit more on other tech to have your PC ready for the next gen of insane cards.
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Re: Videocards.. which to buy and whatnot.. simply videocards!

Post by ElvenAvenger »

baumaxx1 wrote:Look, my advice is not to spend a lot on a GFX card for now. New series are just around the corner, and the next big breakthrough will be 3D which requires double the power current gen cards can dish out. We're sort of in limbo waiting for the next series, which will definitely be overpriced when it comes out, I'm guessing Nvidia will bring out a completely new card (the 9 series and GTXs all just evolved from the 8 series) too. For now, a GTX 260 or 275 or equivalent ATI (I've only dealt with Nvidia) will run games at 1080p on high smoothly, and it's not a costly card anymore, and I'd spend a bit more on other tech to have your PC ready for the next gen of insane cards.
yeah, i was planning to get an Core I7 and "a really good Nvidia card" but since GTX 480/470 failed, and 280GTX are outdated, i was thinking of getting a Radeon, just that im completely new to Radeons as i've never had any ATI card.
and getting an I7 equals new motherboard and DDR3 ram so in short i'm better off getting a completely new PC, 160 GB Hard Drive needs replacement too...with some games taking 20 GB. If i only won at a lottery :lol:
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