I have a 750ti now, which works fine, but am looking for an upgrade to bring FPS in Open Rails back up to where it should be (seems to get slower with each update). Would like to keep power consumption and heat production low but still get decent performance. Is there anything newer and better than the 750ti that can live within the PCIe power budget and produce minimal heat (p/s limitations)? I prefer nVidia because of complete AMD incompatibility (absent a major driver hack that has to be redone with every update) and poor Intel performance with MS Train Simulator in Win10.
Upgrade from GTX 750ti but keep low-power/heat?
- Thread starter mikeebb
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rcald2000
Splendid
- Nov 3, 2009
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I am not sure why your Open Rails installation has gotten slower with each update of the application ( http://openrails.org/learn/faq/#hardware_requirements ). Have you seen others state that they've experienced the same problem?
There are many Nvidia options that are faster than the 750 Ti, but I personally know of none that can be powered with just the PCIe x 16 slot alone. If that's what you're seeking then I think you have no better option. Question: Why are you seeking to keep heat and power consumption low? If I had an understanding of your concerns, it would be easier to help you. Would you mind stating your full specs, including your power supply's manufacturer and model #?
There are many Nvidia options that are faster than the 750 Ti, but I personally know of none that can be powered with just the PCIe x 16 slot alone. If that's what you're seeking then I think you have no better option. Question: Why are you seeking to keep heat and power consumption low? If I had an understanding of your concerns, it would be easier to help you. Would you mind stating your full specs, including your power supply's manufacturer and model #?
Partly it's environmental - ambient temp during the day runs around 80F and I have had overheat problems in the past. Since getting the 750ti and a better ventilated case (so the monster Zalman cooler on the CPU can actually do something) things seem to be OK (used to have to avoid playing OR in the summer) but ...
It's an old system though, in general, adequate otherwise: Gigabyte EP53-DS3R, Core2 Extreme X9650 (stock clock), 8GB DDR2-800, 420GB SSD and 1TB HD, 450W Antec "Green" p/s (model# is buried inside the case) that lacks a free cable to power a graphics card. As far as power consumption is concerned, my APC UPS software reports consumption (tower + 17" CRT monitor + (if in use) external HD) in the 150-250W range, usually below 200 unless running OR with all the tweaks turned on and a detailed route, or really cranking on an AERMOD run (which is more the CPU than the GPU).
OR debug F5 mode normally shows the graphics thread topped out with other threads much less. Have been told that's an indication of the GPU limiting things. WRT speed drop, with a common route and some older (relatively low-poly) equipment in explore mode, V. 1.0 ran about 90 FPS; with recent weeklies it's close to 60. Still smooth and playable, but the direction of the change is clear.
rcald2000
Splendid
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I have no personal issue with older hardware. I have computers and gaming consoles that are older than I am! You wouldn't believe some of the old tech that I keep around my place.
Here is the thing: I've never physically owned a RX 460, but from what I've read, it would be a lateral upgrade from a 750 Ti. The RX 470 would be a worth while upgrade, except the 4 GB version is sold out in most places ($200 USD) and only the 8 GB version is obtainable ($250). And for the price of $250 - $260, the best purchase is a Nvidia GTX 1060.
Three issues with the GTX 1060, but they are easily surmountable: (1) It will bottleneck your Core2 Extreme X9650, but who cares. Bottlenecking is not a horrible condition. It simply means that there is an imbalance of performance between different components; in this case the CPU and GPU. You will not get the full performance out of the GTX 1060 with that CPU, but that is the price we pay when using older hardware. Not a big deal. (2) Your power supply doesn't have a six pin PCIe power connector. The EVGA GTX 1060 SC Gaming, that I just purchased, has a 6 pin PCIe connector. But it also came with a two 4 pin molex-to- one 6 pin adapter. Since this GTX 1060 has an official 400 watt power supply recommendation, you should be fine as long as you have two available 4 pin power connectors. TDP is 120 watts. (3) Fortunately your motherboard's PCIe 2.0 x16 slot is physically and logically compatible with this newer PCIe 3.0 graphics card. What I don't know is if your motherboard's chipset and BIOS are compatible as well. I recommend updating your motherboard's BIOS and chipset to the latest versions. I also suggest that you purchase the EVGA GTX 1060 SC (or whatever brand & model you prefer) from a site that has a no-hassle return policy. Amazon has the simplest return policy, but I've also had very good experiences with NewEgg.
A GTX 1060 is approximately 3.5 - 4.0 times the performance of the 750 Ti. This figure of mine only applies to systems where the CPU will not bottleneck the GPU. But even knowing that, it should still be a noticeable improvement. Add to that, you can migrate the GPU to a newer system, if you ever care to upgrade years in the future.
Here is the thing: I've never physically owned a RX 460, but from what I've read, it would be a lateral upgrade from a 750 Ti. The RX 470 would be a worth while upgrade, except the 4 GB version is sold out in most places ($200 USD) and only the 8 GB version is obtainable ($250). And for the price of $250 - $260, the best purchase is a Nvidia GTX 1060.
Three issues with the GTX 1060, but they are easily surmountable: (1) It will bottleneck your Core2 Extreme X9650, but who cares. Bottlenecking is not a horrible condition. It simply means that there is an imbalance of performance between different components; in this case the CPU and GPU. You will not get the full performance out of the GTX 1060 with that CPU, but that is the price we pay when using older hardware. Not a big deal. (2) Your power supply doesn't have a six pin PCIe power connector. The EVGA GTX 1060 SC Gaming, that I just purchased, has a 6 pin PCIe connector. But it also came with a two 4 pin molex-to- one 6 pin adapter. Since this GTX 1060 has an official 400 watt power supply recommendation, you should be fine as long as you have two available 4 pin power connectors. TDP is 120 watts. (3) Fortunately your motherboard's PCIe 2.0 x16 slot is physically and logically compatible with this newer PCIe 3.0 graphics card. What I don't know is if your motherboard's chipset and BIOS are compatible as well. I recommend updating your motherboard's BIOS and chipset to the latest versions. I also suggest that you purchase the EVGA GTX 1060 SC (or whatever brand & model you prefer) from a site that has a no-hassle return policy. Amazon has the simplest return policy, but I've also had very good experiences with NewEgg.
A GTX 1060 is approximately 3.5 - 4.0 times the performance of the 750 Ti. This figure of mine only applies to systems where the CPU will not bottleneck the GPU. But even knowing that, it should still be a noticeable improvement. Add to that, you can migrate the GPU to a newer system, if you ever care to upgrade years in the future.
FD2Raptor
Admirable
- Mar 5, 2014
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Don't know about performance differences does it make compare to 750Ti for that game, but you can find GTX 950 without the 6pin like this ASUS GeForce GTX 950 for example.
Thanks. Will poke around a couple of sites looking at that board; I've had mixed luck with Frys (store not far away), but not too bad for small items recently (factory-sealed; hard to 'refurbish'). There are a couple of molex floating around inside that aren't already in use; had not seen adapters for molex to 6-pin.
The BIOS is the final update (2009, F4) available from Gigabyte. Chipset drivers are whatever Intel gave MS for Win10. I've also attempted a manual update from Intel's web site, but they don't have anything particularly recent for my CPU and (P35) chipset. Audio driver (which has been a problem, not just under Win10) is the latest version from Realtek's website. Video drivers are the latest version from the Geforce web site. Gigabyte doesn't have drivers newer than about 2010 for most of the motherboard.
n.b.: there is a downside with newer cards - no VGA connector for the olde monitor. Presumably there's a DVI->VGA adapter available...
Again, thanks for the advice.
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