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New nVidia GFX card, replacing my GTX260 768MB, £100 budget

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  • Gtx
  • Nvidia
  • Graphics Cards
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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July 3, 2013 3:10:15 PM

I'm looking to purchase a new graphics card in the next month or so, with a budget of up to £100. I can push up to maybe £115 if there's a massive performance difference at that level.

I primarily use it for gaming, but decent GPGPU (CUDA) performance would be nice too.

I mainly play Starcraft 2 at 1920x1200, and have recently dialled my settings back a little to reduce stuttering, but right now it's running almost on max. My primary concern is that with the new expansion (HotS) the graphics requirements have gone up a little, and I'm getting more stuttering. I also play various modern FPSes, and so far have managed to keep up at medium-high settings, but am facing the reality that my card is going out of date.

Right now I have the following spec:

  • BFG GTX 260 OC 768MB
  • Intel Core i3 530 @ 2.93GHz
  • 8GB DDR3 PC12800 (4x2GB)
  • Gigabyte H55M-UD2H Intel H55 (Socket 1156) motherboard
  • 650W PSU


  • As far as overclocking goes, I don't really mind whether or not I can OC it, but it'd be a nice option to have. I'm not interested in SLI at all, because my board doesn't have space for two cards.

    The one thing that is a must is that it has to have two DVI-D outputs for multi-monitor, as I'm running two monitors (1920x1200 and 1920x1080) in parallel for development work.

    I'm looking to buy direct from the UK, since USA / EU imports are really expensive after VAT. I don't really mind what site it's from, but I'd like to avoid eBay and other 2nd hand / auction sites. If I had any preferred sites, I'd say they're Amazon, Overclockers UK, and Play.com
  • More about : nvidia gfx card replacing gtx260 768mb 100 budget

    July 3, 2013 3:16:53 PM

    The PALiT one looks pretty good... I've had bad experiences with MSI before (I didn't know they still existed!) and generally tend to avoid them.
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    July 3, 2013 3:25:50 PM

    Exception to the rule there - MSI are one of the four most highly-regarded (along with ASUS, Gigabyte and EVGA). Of those four, ASUS cards seem to have the higher failure rate. Understandable you'd want to avoid them though if you've had problems. To be honest, for £27 it would be nuts to not get the GTX650 Ti Boost. It's slightly more powerful than the GTX295 or GTX480 so incredible level of performance for the money.
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    July 3, 2013 3:28:46 PM

    What do you think of Heart of the Swarm by the way? And how does your GTX260 manage with the Dark Templars? They used to absolutely annihilate the framerates on my 4870 - even just a group of four on screen would drop framerates by 6-8fps (which is a big deal when you're averaging around 27fps!).
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    July 4, 2013 12:34:10 AM

    I really enjoyed the campaign on HotS, and the balance is pretty good for multiplayer. The new units are awesome and it's nice to see some new angles to gameplay. I especially like that Terran now has the Widow Mines, as they were the race with the poorest ground defence. The mothership core for Protoss makes for some interesting games too. I play all three races so I guess I get the most out of the game.

    I also know what you mean with the DTs - I used to have issues with that. Not quite as bad as 6-8FPS, but more like random stutters (especially when they were being warped in) and a slight FPS drop (by maybe 30%) when I had a lot of them. Oddly enough it just stopped being a problem one day - way before HotS came out. I dunno if it was an update to SC2 or a driver update that did it, but I don't have that problem now. I usually get about 38FPS on average, with peaks of 60FPS when I'm looking at more empty sections of map.

    The two units that do hit my framerate a little are Ravens and Carriers. If I mass Raven, then spam seeker missiles, the explosions tend to drop me to ~8FPS for a second. Carriers tend to drop me down to ~17FPS when I've built loads of them and they're all sending out their drones.
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    July 4, 2013 2:38:59 AM

    Haha if you think Terrans lack defence then you're not making use of Siege Tanks ;-) I'll admit for anti-air defence they're a little lacking (I use Vikings for highly mobile AA defence I can quickly move to incoming attacks, but they get chewed up too easily). Agreed about the new campaign - I'd never skirmish as Zerg but absolutely loved the campaign!

    Interesting about your performance. Sounds like GTX260 does a much better job for Starcraft 2 than the 4870 (two models that of course went head-to-head at the time). Carriers gave my framerates a bit of a kicking too, though not as bad as the Dark Templars. Annoying that the two best units have the biggest framerate hit!
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    July 4, 2013 4:30:27 AM

    Definitely agree on the seige tanks, but sometimes you want to bring them into your main force as part of an assault, and you leave yourself open to counter-attacks. The widow mines bring an extra facet of static defence which is much needed to stave off a counter-attack until you can build up a counter-force or bring back your main force. They're also awesome vs. zerg, since the splash damage tends to blow dense crowds of tier 1 units out of the water.
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    July 4, 2013 5:39:42 AM

    Yeah I did always use them for both defence and offence - usually left about a few to defend the base while I sent out a larger attack force supported by Marines for anti-air and anti-infantry support and a couple of Medivacs and Ravens. I did love the mines in one of those C&C games, I think it was Generals.

    Best mines ever have to be Red Faction Guerilla though - mining a road just before an EDF convoy arrives and then watching them get sent flying up into the sky as they explode :-D
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