New Graphics Card
- Exar Kun
- Sensible Mick
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New Graphics Card
So, with pCARS coming soon, new DiRT Rally and AC out and about, it's probably time to ditch my two old AMD 5870s and get a new card or cards. What's the best option? I'm gaming on triple monitors, 5760x1200. Budget is less than $1000. Is it better to go with a single good card or two cheaper ones? I know I'm not going to be able to max out graphics with that res and the rest of my system (old i7 930 @ 4ghz) but looking for best bang for back. Lots of games have actually performed worse when crossfire has been enabled so a single card with lots of RAM on it may be the better solution? I can't run pCARS at all anymore - it glitches and looks horrible and AC doesn't work with anything but low settings (once again, not even counting frame rate it just glitches with post processing, reflections etc turned on).
So, tl;dr -
- Single card or dual?
- Budget under $1000
- Needs to run 5760x1200 res
So, tl;dr -
- Single card or dual?
- Budget under $1000
- Needs to run 5760x1200 res
"If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate!"
- DexterPunk
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Re: New Graphics Card
You may know more than myself, but I was under the impression that if you're running triple screens, SLI/Crossfire is pretty much a no brainer.
I've got a Gigabyte R9 280x and it's running fantastic. Will run GTA5 and DiRT Rally maxed out. But i'm only running 1920x1080. I didn't go the R9 290 because I read about cooling issues. Then CPL didn't even have a listing for them. I assume they stopped selling them while there were issues. That may be resolved now.
I've got a Gigabyte R9 280x and it's running fantastic. Will run GTA5 and DiRT Rally maxed out. But i'm only running 1920x1080. I didn't go the R9 290 because I read about cooling issues. Then CPL didn't even have a listing for them. I assume they stopped selling them while there were issues. That may be resolved now.
- Exar Kun
- Sensible Mick
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Re: New Graphics Card
Things may have moved on a bit since I built my system (it's 5 years old now!!) but for a lot games things just weren't optimised to have two cards. That's probably all changed now though.
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- Duke
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Re: New Graphics Card
EK just be careful buying a new gen gfx card as you might find your old system doesn't support it... Norbs found out the hard way from memory.
Dukester
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- Exar Kun
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Re: New Graphics Card
Ah ok. It's a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 motherboard. PSU is a Enermax Revolution85+ SLI 1250W which was pretty over the top at the time and hopefully still is today! Just needs to have the right connections I guess.
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- Righteous
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Re: New Graphics Card
Looks like the board is only PCI express 2.0 whereas the new cards are 3.0. I chucked my titan on my old board before I shipped it off to Norbs and saw a big performance increas.
That may be a bottleneck, but it won't stop you from seeing an improvement.
Currently SLI is pretty shit in AC, but I think it's pretty well implemented in pCars and DiRT.
A pair of 970's should whoop a 980 is most games. Not sure about triples though, I think YSU is running that setup?
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?mai ... 56a6089fe8
That may be a bottleneck, but it won't stop you from seeing an improvement.
Currently SLI is pretty shit in AC, but I think it's pretty well implemented in pCars and DiRT.
A pair of 970's should whoop a 980 is most games. Not sure about triples though, I think YSU is running that setup?
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?mai ... 56a6089fe8
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- Exar Kun
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Re: New Graphics Card
Thanks Righty. I'm happy to accept anything new would be bottlenecked. The CPU is five years old so there would be plenty of things limiting performance but I'd still assume that a pair of new cards would see a decent improvement.
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- AstrO
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Re: New Graphics Card
I have a Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X OC 4GB running 3 x 1080p with Assetto Corsa and it's fine. My CPU is from 2010 (a AMD Phenom II X6 1090T @ 3.8GHz) and it is the limiting factor in my system at the moment. Luckily, Assetto Corsa had some big CPU optimisations in one of the previous patches, so even my old system can pull above 60 fps with a single card at crazy resolutions.
Basically if you are going with 3 screens (e.g. 3 x 1080p) then you'll need to buy a card (or cards) with at least 3GB of RAM. That is the real limiting factor at that resolution.
Basically if you are going with 3 screens (e.g. 3 x 1080p) then you'll need to buy a card (or cards) with at least 3GB of RAM. That is the real limiting factor at that resolution.
- Enforcer-J
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Re: New Graphics Card
All depends on whether or not your motherboard supports sli/crossfire. If not, and you want 2 cards, you'll have to upgrade the mboard and then make sure your cpu is compatible for the new mboard. id say you're well over your budget by then.
But a top end gfx card should do the job for now, but you'd probably have to upgrade the cpu once the next gen comes around anyway.
But a top end gfx card should do the job for now, but you'd probably have to upgrade the cpu once the next gen comes around anyway.
- Exar Kun
- Sensible Mick
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Re: New Graphics Card
I've got two cards in there at the moment and it supports both SLI and crossfire so no issues there.
Thanks for the advice guys. Might hunt down the dual card option when the cash becomes available and just get the best that I can within my budget.
Thanks for the advice guys. Might hunt down the dual card option when the cash becomes available and just get the best that I can within my budget.
"If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate!"
- norbs
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Re: New Graphics Card
Duke wrote:EK just be careful buying a new gen gfx card as you might find your old system doesn't support it... Norbs found out the hard way from memory.
I suspect that was just an issue with that card and that board.
Had to drop a 960 into it last week and it runs perfectly. A heap faster than I expected it would be for $139
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- wobblysauce
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Re: New Graphics Card
All depends on what you are replacing.
Have a look here, just replace the Titan with X by clicking the compare up the top.
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-HD-5870- ... TX-TITAN-X
Have a look here, just replace the Titan with X by clicking the compare up the top.
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-HD-5870- ... TX-TITAN-X
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- TIMMY30
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Re: New Graphics Card
Got an email from PCCG this afternoon with the r9 290 for like $350 (same price as a 280 apparantly). I wouldn't know as i'm a nvidia fan boy and haven't looked at radeon at all. Just remembered the email i got an hour ago
This would pretty well enable you to grab the card and a new cpu and mobo for around your $1000 budget and have no bottleneck.
This would pretty well enable you to grab the card and a new cpu and mobo for around your $1000 budget and have no bottleneck.
- Enforcer-J
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- AstrO
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Re: New Graphics Card
If that info is correct, then it almost seems as though the game has been coded only for nVidia cards. If so, they can go and get f*****.
- Exar Kun
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Re: New Graphics Card
Wow, that's a crazy difference.
"If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate!"
- norbs
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Re: New Graphics Card
Wow, the $190 nVidia card beats the top end Radeon? Is that right?
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- Duke
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Re: New Graphics Card
Yep for gaming it doesn't surprise me. Also remember the AMD R series are just rebadged from their previous 7 series cards.
Where as the current nvidia cards is their next gen iirc
Where as the current nvidia cards is their next gen iirc
Dukester
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- DexterPunk
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Re: New Graphics Card
Jesus... that's concerning :S Only just recently (7 months ago) got an R9 280x because it was better than the equiv dollar for dollar Nvidia card. Have things already changed??
- r8response
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Re: New Graphics Card
It could also be shitty drivers from AMD (and it's not as if thats unheard of).
- DexterPunk
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Re: New Graphics Card
Seems a bit odd... It looks like I get more fps than that in GTA5 when it's maxed out.
- SE1Z
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Re: New Graphics Card
Wow... will give this a miss then (based on that graphics card graph) - My trusty 7850 isn't going to run it terribly well!
Steve
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- Enforcer-J
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Re: New Graphics Card
Ive got a 7850, and it really doesn't make pCARS look very good whilst AC looks like candy in comparison.
I did notice all the nvidia logos in pCARS....
I did notice all the nvidia logos in pCARS....
- Enforcer-J
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Re: RE: Re: New Graphics Card
Yup, those were my thoughts. But surely thats a silly move from SMS even if nvidia threw money at themAstrO wrote:If that info is correct, then it almost seems as though the game has been coded only for nVidia cards. If so, they can go and get f*****.
- Duke
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Re: RE: Re: New Graphics Card
It's nothing new, many game developers have a tie-in with one brand or the other, hence why they work better for that brand... it goes back many years, Microsoft Flight Sim X is well known to work much better with nvidia cards for exactly this reason.
Saying that, once a game is released the other brand can & usually do try to optimise their drivers but in most cases they never quite get the same level of performance.
Saying that, once a game is released the other brand can & usually do try to optimise their drivers but in most cases they never quite get the same level of performance.
Dukester
norbs diplomacy lesson 101: "If I was putting words in your mouth, you'd know."
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