New Graphics Card

Computer and electronic gizmo support.
User avatar
Exar Kun
Sensible Mick
Posts: 11324
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 4:46 pm
Location: Canberra

New Graphics Card

Post by Exar Kun »

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
"If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate!"
User avatar
DexterPunk
Busted ARSE
Posts: 15218
Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2005 11:18 pm
Location: SE Suburbs, Melbourne
Contact:

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by DexterPunk »

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.
User avatar
Exar Kun
Sensible Mick
Posts: 11324
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 4:46 pm
Location: Canberra

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by Exar Kun »

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.
"If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate!"
User avatar
Duke
Dukester Maldonado
Dukester Maldonado
Posts: 11436
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 9:33 pm
Location: Melbourne

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by Duke »

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

norbs diplomacy lesson 101: "If I was putting words in your mouth, you'd know."
User avatar
Exar Kun
Sensible Mick
Posts: 11324
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 4:46 pm
Location: Canberra

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by Exar Kun »

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.
"If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate!"
User avatar
Righteous
Master artist
Master artist
Posts: 5235
Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 10:52 am
Location: Los Angeles

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by Righteous »

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
User avatar
Exar Kun
Sensible Mick
Posts: 11324
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 4:46 pm
Location: Canberra

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by Exar Kun »

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.
"If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate!"
User avatar
AstrO
Help Desk Expert
Posts: 4839
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 9:28 pm
Location: Adelaide
Contact:

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by AstrO »

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.
User avatar
Enforcer-J
Posts: 6512
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2005 11:16 pm
Location: right on your A.R.S.E.

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by Enforcer-J »

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.
User avatar
Exar Kun
Sensible Mick
Posts: 11324
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 4:46 pm
Location: Canberra

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by Exar Kun »

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.
"If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate!"
User avatar
norbs
fucking right wing vegan lesbian
Posts: 24178
Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2004 6:01 pm
Contact:

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by norbs »

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 :)
Sarc ; my second favourite type of gasm.
User avatar
wobblysauce
Seen it, Done it, Invented it!
Posts: 10489
Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2005 9:53 am
Location: On an Island in the south

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by wobblysauce »

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
Some play it safe on the merry-go-round, others go for the thrills of the roller-coaster.

ᕙ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ᕗ vs ლ(ಠ益ಠ)ლ

I have a joke for you. I have a prediction that you are going to walk into a bar, my prediction was wrong and your wallet is gone.
User avatar
TIMMY30
Posts: 1262
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2004 10:23 pm
Location: Brisbane,QLD

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by TIMMY30 »

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.
User avatar
Enforcer-J
Posts: 6512
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2005 11:16 pm
Location: right on your A.R.S.E.

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by Enforcer-J »

Something to consider...

http://m.pclab.pl/art63572-7.html
User avatar
AstrO
Help Desk Expert
Posts: 4839
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 9:28 pm
Location: Adelaide
Contact:

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by AstrO »

Enforcer-J wrote:Something to consider...

http://m.pclab.pl/art63572-7.html
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*****.
User avatar
Exar Kun
Sensible Mick
Posts: 11324
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 4:46 pm
Location: Canberra

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by Exar Kun »

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!"
User avatar
norbs
fucking right wing vegan lesbian
Posts: 24178
Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2004 6:01 pm
Contact:

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by norbs »

Wow, the $190 nVidia card beats the top end Radeon? Is that right?
Sarc ; my second favourite type of gasm.
User avatar
Duke
Dukester Maldonado
Dukester Maldonado
Posts: 11436
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 9:33 pm
Location: Melbourne

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by Duke »

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
Dukester

norbs diplomacy lesson 101: "If I was putting words in your mouth, you'd know."
User avatar
DexterPunk
Busted ARSE
Posts: 15218
Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2005 11:18 pm
Location: SE Suburbs, Melbourne
Contact:

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by DexterPunk »

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??
User avatar
r8response
Cry baby
Cry baby
Posts: 8565
Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2004 6:51 pm
Location: Sunshine Coast, QLD

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by r8response »

It could also be shitty drivers from AMD (and it's not as if thats unheard of).
User avatar
DexterPunk
Busted ARSE
Posts: 15218
Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2005 11:18 pm
Location: SE Suburbs, Melbourne
Contact:

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by DexterPunk »

Seems a bit odd... It looks like I get more fps than that in GTA5 when it's maxed out.
User avatar
SE1Z
Posts: 4713
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 10:38 am
Location: SW Sydney

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by SE1Z »

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
---
Image
User avatar
Enforcer-J
Posts: 6512
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2005 11:16 pm
Location: right on your A.R.S.E.

Re: New Graphics Card

Post by Enforcer-J »

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....
User avatar
Enforcer-J
Posts: 6512
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2005 11:16 pm
Location: right on your A.R.S.E.

Re: RE: Re: New Graphics Card

Post by Enforcer-J »

AstrO wrote:
Enforcer-J wrote:Something to consider...

http://m.pclab.pl/art63572-7.html
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*****.
Yup, those were my thoughts. But surely thats a silly move from SMS even if nvidia threw money at them
User avatar
Duke
Dukester Maldonado
Dukester Maldonado
Posts: 11436
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 9:33 pm
Location: Melbourne

Re: RE: Re: New Graphics Card

Post by Duke »

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.
Dukester

norbs diplomacy lesson 101: "If I was putting words in your mouth, you'd know."
Post Reply