Tech and Talk > Gaming > PC gaming Tech > Buying a new video card (advise needed)

reply to Krisnatharok

Re: Buying a new video card (advise needed)

At what resolution?

Damn you're fast... My monitor is 22" I'll have to check. I know the desktop is 1680x1050 I know the game is the highest res I can play it on this monitor.

I built the new puter last weekend and it's rockin. Thanks for your suggestions.

That's 1.76 million pixels. 2560x1440 is 3.69 million pixels.

I also run a secondary monitor at 1680x1050, so there is a bit more load on my GPU (mostly from the mainscreen--running a secondary monitory detracts very little from FPS in a game).
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Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Well that explains it. What size monitors are you running?

A 20" and a 27".

27" man that's a bit of real-estate. I may go with a 24" at some point but the 22" works for now.

Crysis 3 running at 1680x1050 I get between 45 and 60 FPS.

That's fantastic, and sounds about right. Is that with all the DX11 goodies cranked to ultra?

reply to Shivek
Ended up getting the GTX 560 1 GB OC'ed to 560 Ti speeds for $110 with a year of warranty still left. Good deal?

HD 6870 was costing me $140 (warranty was over too) plus I read several benchmarks and comparisons and loads of other stuff. It proved that the HD 6870 and the GTX 560 are fairly similar. HD 6870 is only like slightly better. Plus I was aching for an NVIDIA card due to the PhysX features. Here's a benchmark comparing the GTX 560 (stock speed) and HD 6870... you will see how similar those 2 cards actually are:

»www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/540?vs=543

reply to Shivek
From what I see, it's about a 10% increase, and PhysX does nothing for games nowadays. A gimmick at best.

But if you're happy with it, good call

Actually, I just realized it's the 560 Ti OC. BTW, PhysX might be a gimmick but it does add some nice effects to the games that support it.

Someone is offering me his perfectly new unopened HD 6950 2 GB for a direct swap for my GTX 560 Ti. The guy hates ATI and its driver nonsense but I couldn't care less about the driver issues. Take it or leave it?

The cards are practically identical, with the 6950 edging out on paper (and twice as much VRAM is a big bonus). »www.hwcompare.com/8888/geforce-g···950-2gb/

I like where AMD is sitting right now. Keep in mind I have wavered across the aisle and have gone from a Radeon 4870, to a GTX 460, to a GTX 570, to a GTX 580, to a Radeon 7970.

I have no problem with "driver issues" right now--but YMMV (the auto-downclocking issues during the AMD 5000 series are past). My GTX 580 froze up all the time on DX11 stuff, but the 7970 has been flawless. Again, and I cannot stress this enough--YMMV.

tl;dr the cards are identical, take his 6950 and enjoy twice as much vram.
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Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Thanks for the reply. I'll swap it out since the 6950 is brand new. I'll definitely miss PhysX though! Love the cool effects it adds to certain games.

reply to Shivek
There's another twist in the saga, guys. Another guy with a SPARKLE GTX 570 1.28 GB (newly bought as well) is offering me a swap with 560 Ti, but I need to pay him an extra $20 as part of the deal.

I'm stuck in a dilemma. Help me out guys. Should I go for the HIS HD 6950 2 GB or the SPARKLE GTX 570 1.28 GB. Please help me make this decision within a day, guys. Thanks again!

reply to Shivek