Should I buy a high-end graphix card?

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gamingmaniac

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I am going to buy a new graphix card for gaming.Come to think of it i won't buy a very Xpensive graphix card just because of 2 games(watch dogs & crysis 3).
If you know or have the info about 3 more games that won't run on gtx 660 ultra settings with 60+fps please tell me.That would motivate me for buying gtx 780 ti instead of gtx 660.
Thnx!
 
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mr91
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Based on my research uber sampling is 4x ssaa and the resolution would be beyond 2560*1440.
2x ssaa renders the witcher 2 at 2688x1512 on the GPU before resizing the image to 1920x1080, increasing the amount of detail per pixel

I don't use Uber-sampling because @ 1440p because it's too much of a performance hit! lol

For BF4 Ultra includes 4x msaa and gives an option to increase the resolution scaling to 200 percent which is another way to describe 2x ssaa.

Look at the Tomshardware review below the gtx 770 has an average of 50 fps with PhysX disabled because Radeon cards were in the testing.
The 770 is significantly more powerful than the gtx 660. With PhsX enabled the performance hit would be significant and even without PhsyX...
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dominirican3351

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If you want to just max out most games right now the 660 will be fine but as time goes on you won't be able to play them at 60fps. For that reason if you invest more today you won't have to buy for a couple of years. Also the ti might be overkill and a 780 would be more than enough. I personally have a ti because I was able to pick it up for 600 and all my friends with their regular 780s are only about 7-10 fps below me
 
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If you're not sure what you want to buy yet, you may be better off waiting for Nvidia's 8xx cards.

Aside from that... There aren't many games a GTX 660 won't max right now with a good CPU. Speaking of that, what is your CPU? You should be sure it's powerful before going to a GTX 780 (or equivalent) or you'll just be wasting performance and money.
 
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mr91

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There are many games that a gtx 660 can't max out while maintaining smooth gameplay.

Below are some of titles however I've played many more.

Metro LL
AC3
AC4
The witcher 2
ARma 3
Sleeping dogs
Call of duty ghosts
BF4
Max payne 3
Batman arkahm origins and Arkham city

The Gtx 780 will give you a much better experience and is definitely worth the premium especially if you plan on playing games with ultra settings and want to be close to or at 60 fps.
 
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The GTX 660 GC from experience, can max the Witcher 2, Sleeping Dogs, and CoD Ghosts at 55-60 fps.

Mine can also max Metro LL, AC3, and Arkham City at 40+ fps.

Not sure about the others. But bear in mind, my GTX 660 is one of the highest factory overclocked ones. When I bought it, it was second only to the EVGA Classified version, though higher OC'd ones may have released by now.

Obviously the GTX 780 is much better, and will get 60 fps in everything provided you don't force stupidly high amounts of antialiasing. But is an additional 15fps really worth $500?
 
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mr91

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I have done some testing myself and even the gtx 670 can't max out the witcher 2 @ 1080p with a solid 60 fps.
"Without Uber-Sampling" With uber sampling enabled the game will not be playable with the gtx 660.

For call of duty ghosts did you set your textures to extra and enable PhysX?
Did you enable any AA

With PhysX enabled with Metro ll @ arkham city the 660 and 670 will experience regular frame drops if settings are maxed out.
The game play will not be smooth and settings need to be lowered for a optimal experience.



 
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mr91

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I upgraded from the 670 to a 780 and the difference was huge, not only did I get more fps but the game play was a lot smoother.

I'm now using a 780 ti because I upgraded to a 1440p monitor.

The 660 is a great mid range card however you need to comprise on the AA and lower Settings when playing many recent titles.
 
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For The Witcher 2, I meant without uber-sampling. That's akin to a resolution increase, really a downsample. If we're counting ubersampling we should be comparing games at 2560x1440, because that's what ubersampling appears to downsample from. And to be fair, I said 55-60, not 60+.

For CoD Ghosts yes, but I used SMAA.

Okay, what counts as maxed out for you? Normally I count antialiasing separately, as it never ends. Really "maxed out" antialiasing would be 32X driver SGSSAA. So obviously that can't be considered heavily when talking about whether a game is on ultra, or even 2x GTX 780 TIs wouldn't hold 32xSGSSAA in most games.
Metro: LL I ran at otherwise ultra settings with 2xSSAA+AAA.

And no offense, but it sounds like you might've had a bad 670. There's no way it should have ever dropped below 60 fps in The Witcher 2. It's worth mentioning many of the early 670s had pretty bad power and heat management and would oftentimes clock themselves down to below 660 levels if even remotely warm.
 
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mr91

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Based on my research uber sampling is 4x ssaa and the resolution would be beyond 2560*1440.
2x ssaa renders the witcher 2 at 2688x1512 on the GPU before resizing the image to 1920x1080, increasing the amount of detail per pixel

I don't use Uber-sampling because @ 1440p because it's too much of a performance hit! lol

For BF4 Ultra includes 4x msaa and gives an option to increase the resolution scaling to 200 percent which is another way to describe 2x ssaa.

Look at the Tomshardware review below the gtx 770 has an average of 50 fps with PhysX disabled because Radeon cards were in the testing.
The 770 is significantly more powerful than the gtx 660. With PhsX enabled the performance hit would be significant and even without PhsyX look at the huge frame variances that will effect the gameplay.

The 670 I owned performed similar to benchmarks from reputable sites online.
I monitor my cards, the 670 was fine!

Below is a article from a website that shows the performance of a gtx 680 the site is not as reputable as Tomshardware however their results are similar to mine.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/05/07/witcher_2_enhanced_edition_performance_iq_review/4#.U4E5sE1OUuU

Perhaps you didn't max out the games you mentioned - Why are your results so different?






http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-780-ti-review-benchmarks,3663-8.html


 
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To be fair, in HardOCP's review of Far Cry 3, the reviewer said SSAO looked better than HBAO. Which, according to Ubisoft and anyone with functioning eyes, is entirely wrong. They also tested Nvidia cards with HDAO in FC3, which was never meant to be compatible with Nvidia drivers and artificially dropped Nvidia framerates. Because of that, I don't credit HardOCP with much accuracy. It's also possible the test was carried out on old drivers, but I mention more about The Witcher 2 below.

The Metro LL review was carried out using the in-game benchmark, which is not the same as in the game itself. Additionally, the very high preset probably enables more SSAA, which I already mentioned.

In TW2 benchmark and video, if you look in the comments of the video you'll see several people saying the performance was much too low in the video. It's worth mentioning that after the heavy DRM was patched out of TW2, performance was said to have increased 40%. I never played it pre-patch; I got it in 2013.
 
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mr91

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That was his opinion and Geforce experience also recommends Screen space ambient occlusion because it's not as heavy as HBAO.

HardOCP is not as reputable as tomshardware however there results are similar to mine in the Witcher 2 enhanced edition.

I play the game with SSAO and Far cry 3 looks terrific on my 1440p monitor...

Very high doesn't include 2x SSAA, The game does use AAA Anti Aliasing by default.
Very high & 2x ssaa would make metro LL unplayable with the gtx 660.


"Probably is not convincing lol"

I suggest you do your research.


I played the witcher 2 enhanced edition recently - Try downloading, I would like to see your video.


 
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gamingmaniac

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My processor is a core i7 4930k 3.9 ghz!
 
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gamingmaniac

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Of all the games you mentioned above, you can play them with turning anti-aliasing 4x and all settings maxed out with a solid 60+fps as the recommended graphics cards for all your games are each slightly weaker than gtx 660
 
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mr91

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Do you mean the Software developers recommendations?

 
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gamingmaniac

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Yes
 
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RCguitarist

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I have a 660 and I play Metro LL, the batman games, and have played COD: ghosts on my system on full max setting with AA all the way up and it played just fine.
 
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RCguitarist

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My setup runs at a near constant 30fps with 4x ssaa. That's my firsthand experience. Turn it down to 2x AA for around 45fps average.

That said, I wouldn't recommend anything less than a 760 since they can be had for $240 when on sale.
 
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RCguitarist

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Why would I need to take the time to do that just for you? Tons of reputable sources have benchmarked that game using all types of reference GPUs including the 660. Google search is your friend.

They all found that a reference 660 (mine is an MSI OC edition with an great cooling system, so that helps a little with consistent performance) was capable of playing the game on full max settings at 1080p without AA at an average of 39fps at 1080p and 32 at 1920 x 1200. Mine averages 30fps with AA on so mine is right in line with the 39fps with no AA benchmarks. 4xAA in the benchmarks takes 10fps off of other 2GB cards, to it's safe to say that the same will apply to a 660.

Just noticed that in my previous post I said mine gets 45fps with 2xAA on, that was a typo, I meant to say 35, not 45.
 
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I don't think your benchmarks are doing anything to convince people who've played it themselves. Particularly since drivers are continuously improving and often add 10-20% performance increases over launch.
 
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mr91

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I know the drivers are getting better and the Metro LL is a more refined game today however sometimes people exaggerate and then OP's and other people listening take their advice.

The result is that the people reading these threads go out and buy the hardware and then they encounter stuttering, hitches and temporary pauses.

The buyers are upset because they expect to play current AAA titles on ultra with a midrange card from 2012.

 
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