What is the best video card for the money?

[Hamm66]

Looks like I'll be getting some back pay soon and I want to get my computer up to able to play this game finally.

I am running W7 64 bit in a Quad drive AMD A8-5500 APU 3.20 GHz and I have 8 GB RAM gaming computer presently using a Radeon 1 GB Video Card which is capable with all my other games but fails to perform in CoD.

I am in the UK so talking Pounds Sterling I have no more than £200 to spend and I have seen a few, for instance the Asus GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II OC Nvidia Graphics Card (2GB GDDR5, PCI Express 3.0, HDMI, DVI-I, DVI-D, DisplayPort, Nvidia 3D Vision Surround Ready, SLI Support) for about £150.

Does anyone have experience with this card or any knowledge of a better card for the money I am able to throw at this?

Thanks in advance and sorry if this has been raised before, I thought that with the rate of change in electronics it was worthy of a new thread.

Edit:

I forgot to say I am posting this here as I am an exclusively offline player so I thought this would be the best place to gather opinions.

Cheers

[III./ZG76_Saipan]

you will be fine with that card if you get it. here's a list of cards that might help you in your decision.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

[Ohms]

I run a gigabyte gtx 760 2 gb unit. A quick look at prices in the uk are around £200. I run cliffs maxed out with very good frame rates. A 660 will run this game well also, but get as much memory as possible.

Cheers Ohms

[Incog]

First off, prices in PC parts fluctuate so much this thread is pertinent.

You can use this site to help pick your graphics card and find good deals (from different vendors) as well: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#sort=a6&c=114,142,154,147

I set it up to compare prices between the GTX 660, the GTX 760 and the R9 270(X). A little bit about each cards.

The GTX 660 is a fine card but it's also a generation old. Generally speaking, if you're upgrading hardware, you might as well go with the most recent stuff your money can buy. That said, I've seen a few GTX 660s that seem to be nicely priced, they're something to look into. You can get a nice one (with a good cooler) at £135: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0099AOAUI/?tag=pcp0f-21

The AMD equivalent is also worth looking at. This is the R9 270(X). I put (X) because there are two versions of this card, however both versions are almost exactly identical. The 270 is cheaper than the 270X however it comes with less power pins, which basically means it won't clock as high since you can't raise the voltage as much. The 270X is a bit more expensive but has a bit more headroom for overclocking. You'll notice that the 270 is clocked slower at stock settings than the 270X. You can raise the clock rate yourself if needed (which is easily done), to get pretty much the same performance as a stock 270X. It's also at £135: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00GNE0CHI/?tag=pcp0f-21

Which do you choose between the two? It's an interesting choice for sure. Depending on which game you play, the R9 270(X) will perform as well or better than the GTX 660 (these benchmarks were done at stock clocks, I THINK). It also has slightly lower frame times, due to it being more recent. The R9 270 is a pertinent choice.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7503/the-amd-radeon-r9-270x-270-review-feat-asus-his/5

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-280x-r9-270x-r7-260x,3635-8.html


Anyway, there is one problem that AMD cards have with Clod however, so if you're buying this GPU to play this game, you may want to go with Nvidia. Basically AMD cards will show up ugly lines in rivers and oceans. I myself have a 7970 and can confirm that the issue is there. I don't know how much you would care for such an issue but it's good to know. Here: http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4211&highlight=7970

Read more: http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6785&highlight=7970


If you're willing to step the amount of money you're going to spend, you can get a pretty decent* GTX 760 at £192, which beats the other two cards handily and falls into your budget: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nvidia-GeForce-DirectCU-GDDR5-Graphics/dp/B00DM9B6FO/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1388611577&sr=1-1&keywords=GTX+760#productDetails

*By decent I mean it's got a custom printed circuit board and a great cooler as well. Good stuff to have on a GPU.





Last possible choice is spending a tiny extra to get this card: http://www.dabs.com/products/xfx-amd-radeon-7970-925mhz-3gb-pci-express-3-0-hdmi-double-dissipation-8DG7.html?utm_source=awin&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_content=AW00&awc=3044_1388611684_b47ee32442cd1ef3e4bcea9a9d6e1b 60

£210 for a 7970 is theft really, this is a pretty good buy. This card blows every other card mentioned in this post out of the water. At this price this is a bargain.


Also totally worth it: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-225-MS

It's basically the same thing just slightly better. Wow these prices are amazing.

[VMF214_Jupp]

~S~ I have run a EVGA 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 for over a year now and feel that I got my moneys worth, at $200 US.

It has performed well across several Combat and General Aviation Flight Simulators, mostly cranked up, modded, and then dialed in of course.

What I can say is that a 2GB 660 would be a good baseline. Probably the cheapest/oldest model you should consider to run Cliffs & etc. "well".

Better card$ produce better results, but even if money is a concern, you should not upgrade to less than this card series, or it's equivalents.


*And don't forget to research your PS. Power Supply Unit of sufficient Wattage to include the connection hardware necessary to run certain cards.


Good Hunting :hbd:

[ATAG_Nudge]

I run a gigabyte gtx 760 2 gb unit. A quick look at prices in the uk are around £200. I run cliffs maxed out with very good frame rates. A 660 will run this game well also, but get as much memory as possible.

Cheers Ohms

:thumbsup: +1 on this card I have the same

I run 3 x 22" monitors in portrait at 3150x1440 and get a constant 35+frame rate

Great card and right price

Goodluck:D

[dburne]

I ran a GTX 560 Ti 2gb card on my previous system up until a couple of weeks ago, and it did pretty good for Cliffs TF4.
I would say a GTX 660 or even 760 should work pretty good on your current setup.
Just be sure and get one with at least 2gb of ram, Cliffs IIRC uses around 1.2GB.

[Hamm66]

Thanks a lot guys for all your input!

Definitely helps narrow the search down a bit.

Now just to make the decision....

Cheers!

[Incog]

Tell us what you got

[Hamm66]

In the end I went with the Asus GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II OC Nvidia Graphics Card.

Nothing but good things said about Nvidia especially when it comes to flight sims.

I wanted to go with the 760 but when I looked into it my PSU (I have a 450W but the 760 needs a 650W) couldn't handle it and I only got this computer 6 months (or less) ago!

I don't have the budget to spring for a new PSU as well right now especially as the other one is practically new.

I was using an older video card which was top of the line for my old computer (which had a meltdown) a few years ago but it has started giving me grief and is not performing very well.

It is a Radeon and the software has gone berserk, if I run on windows drivers it works on medium settings but now every time I try to use the Radeon drivers I get an instant blue screen crash and there is no support for this card anymore.

I was considering getting the AMD as my PSU could go as far as a 3 GB AMD video card but the number of problems with the flight sims I use that have been reported on many sights about using the AMD cards put me off.

So what I am thinking is get this one and in the next year if I have the money boost my PSU and either get a better card or, if this one is still around, get another one of these and bridge them.


What I have gone with is second best but this should max out all my other games and maybe get me flying in CoD on at least medium settings.

All I can manage now is max on the flight model and everything else on min which sucks for immersion, oh yeah, and I can get the shadows now which I need for landing otherwise the ground could be just about anywhere and I continually crash.

So I am hoping as I play offline that this card should be able to get some of the levels up and avoid some of the slide shows I have been getting now.

Fingers crossed! I will post results after a week or so of testing.

[dburne]

It will definitely help you!

[Dutch]

I've got a ATI Sapphire 3450 (agp) you can have for nothing if you want it. There is no better value available today. It cost me £100. Offer ends in six minutes. :D

[ATAG_Freya]

DAMN!!! missed it....

[ATAG_EvangelusE]

Reading this with interest. I currently have a GTX560Ti 2Gb and pretty pleased with it in general. What I don't have is any recording software and understand that Nvidea 'Shadowplay' is worth having but is only supported by later gen Nvidea cards.

I looked at the prices of the 660ti and 760, both are similarly priced and then there is the cheaper 660 but not sure which is a better buy - according to Toms hardware a replacement card should be three places above my current card to notice any real improvements. Whilst I ponder the 'which one' I notice that some cards specify 'Wattage' and others don't - the 760 is rated at 500W.

Is this figure the power demand of the card alone or is it the minimum recommeneded PSU needed?

My current PSU is a high quality model rated at 600W.

[Hamm66]

I've got a ATI Sapphire 3450 (agp) you can have for nothing if you want it. There is no better value available today. It cost me £100. Offer ends in six minutes. :D

Shame I missed that. I'll bet it went to a good home!

EvangelusE :

So far as I understand it the Wattage refers to what the card actually uses (but that does not seem to be universal and they don't always tell you what they mean). The rest of your PC uses relatively little but the 760 was rated by PC Specialist as needing a 650W PSU with my computer.

Mid-Range Processor 110W
RAM 5W (Per Stick)
Low-End Graphics Card 85W
Mid-Range Graphics Card 150W
High-End Graphics Card 350W
Hard Drives 25W each
Optical Drives 30W Each
PCI Cards (e.g Wireless Card) 7W (per card)
Motherboard 40W
Cooling Fans 10W
Floppy, Keyboard & Mouse 10W

So for my computer with a low end now requires 310 but I bought a 450 as at the time they and I thought that would allow for expansion.

With the mid range card I am up to 375 which is still OK but I don't have a big enough PSU for the high end which would take me up to 525.

This is how PC Specialist rated the 760

GEFORCE GTX 760 1152 CUDA Cores 980/1033 2048MB GDDR5 3505MHz DX11 650W (the Wattage is the recommended PSU)

[vranac]

You don't have to worry EvangelusE, gtx760 or gtx660 Ti are similar in power consumption with gtx560 Ti.

They put those recommendations because many manufacturers are not honest with declared power of a PSU.
They often declare peak power over continuous power that PSU can deliver.
You can hardly find good PSU reviews also because equipment to measure and test PSU is very expensive
and you need knowledge in electronics to evaluate it properly.

Those are sites where you can find proper reviews.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/
http://www.jonnyguru.com/

For most of the Hi-End systems with one GPU 500-600 W good quality PSU is enough.
Why they sell 1000W and 1200W ? Well, marketing is a miracle...)

[9./JG52 Jamz Dackel]

You don't have to worry EvangelusE, gtx760 or gtx660 Ti are similar in power consumption with gtx560 Ti.

They put those recommendations because many manufacturers are not honest with declared power of a PSU.
They often declare peak power over continuous power that PSU can deliver.
You can hardly find good PSU reviews also because equipment to measure and test PSU is very expensive
and you need knowledge in electronics to evaluate it properly.

Those are sites where you can find proper reviews.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/
http://www.jonnyguru.com/

For most of the Hi-End systems with one GPU 500-600 W good quality PSU is enough.
Why they sell 1000W and 1200W ? Well, marketing is a miracle...)

Haha, does make me laugh when people go out and buy 1000w PSU's what the hell do they plan on running?

[dburne]

Haha, does make me laugh when people go out and buy 1000w PSU's what the hell do they plan on running?


Lol, I am one of those - I guess I am of the school of " it is always better to have too much, than not enough".
I have been running a Corsair HX1000 for app 3-4 years now, when I built this new system last month at least did not have to worry about
getting a new PSU. :)

[9./JG52 Jamz Dackel]

Lol, I am one of those - I guess I am of the school of " it is always better to have too much, than not enough".
I have been running a Corsair HX1000 for app 3-4 years now, when I built this new system last month at least did not have to worry about
getting a new PSU. :)

:) Fair one

The standard of decent PSU's now is very good.. 500/600w will run most top end systems

[vranac]

Haha, does make me laugh when people go out and buy 1000w PSU's what the hell do they plan on running?

For someone who wants to break WR in OC with multiple Hi-End GPUs thats ok )

d.burnette you would be ok with 750 W from Corsair also ) and you could put the price difference towards better GPU, monitor ...

If you have noticed power consumption goes down with newer hardware CPU and GPU , uhh I forgot AMD/ATI :whacky4:

[Hamm66]

Well I just installed my new GTX 660 and I can run on all settings High with average FPS at 51 (dropped to 37 over dense objects but very briefly)

I think I made the right choice!

Thanks for all your help

[ATAG_EvangelusE]

Thats good to hear! I ordered a 2Gb 660Ti and, having finally got around to reading some of the bench tests while I wait for it to arrive, this 660Ti uses slightly less power than the currently fitted 2GB 560Ti - you chaps were spot on regards my 600W PSU being ok!

Thanks.....:thumbsup: