GForce Card Suggestions

[Talisatu]

I need some help from the forums. Right now I have a pretty nice rig, an Alienware computer, I-7 core, 16 gigs of memory, Windows 7, all the bells and whistles. The one thing that I am behind on is my graphics card. Right now I am running an old GTX 260 card with 1280mgs. I want to upgrade to something that is much better. I tried buying a Geforce GT 520 with 2 gigs of memory, but it was actually much slower than my current card. Can somebody give me some suggestions? I'm looking to spend about $200 on something that is better. Any advise you can give me would be helpful!!!

 

[Vettedude]

The 520 sucks..... memory has barely any effect on performance unless you purchase an HD 6950 or so--a card powerful enough to actually push our more than 1GB on textures.

For around $200, get this is you want to go Nvidia: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125401

 

[Talisatu]

Thanks!! Is this a card that I can double up on?? Meaning that i could get 2 of them and tie them together...

 

[Rockdpm]

Hey good sir, Yes the GTX 560 ti is SLI ready. But i don't recommend Gigabyte even tho thats the cheapest 560 ti. I would get ASUS or EVGA. i and running the ASUS one in SLI and havnt had any issue at all. Get the Cheapest EVGA one, they have lifetime warranty. Hope your mobo supports SLI!

 

[Talisatu]

I don't know if it supports SLI, but that will be in way in the future anyway. I have used ASUS mobo's for a long time and have never had any trouble out of them so they would be my first choice, I haven't had any experience with EVGA, but the comments that I've read about them all seem to be good. Can I ask you a question? Why would you run a GForce card when you have an AMD FX 6100 core? I would think you would run an AMD chipset video card....

 

[Vettedude]

Gigabyte is pretty decent IMO, and that cooler is good. EVGA is better, but also pricier. I wasn't sure how far past $200 you were willing to go.

And AMD GPU's don't just automatically work better with AMD CPU's. Best combo you can get right now is an AMD GPU with an Intel CPU.

 

[Talisatu]

I would pay slightly more for something more dependable.... Quality is often worth the price. Also a lifetime warrenty is worth its weight in gold. IMHO

 

[Vettedude]

I thought that too, but now 3 years into my 4xxx XFX Lifetime warranty card I'm about to go buy a 6850 so the Lifetime Warranty never really did anything for me.

Oh, and most warranties won't cover you if you OC. I'm not sure about EVGA tho. They are pretty enthusiast oriented. I have an EVGA Geforce 6200 in a super old computer since the integrated graphics back then was terrible, but that's my only experience with them.

 

[Talisatu]

Well I usually take my spare parts and upgrade my son's system. I just built him a new system so the card that I'm using will go to his old computer. I don't know what I'm going to do with that yet. Might give it to a friend of mine that is out of work.

I'm not much on overclocking myself. I've done it in the past and usually the error's are worth it IMHO.

 

[Vettedude]

Yeah if you have 2 builds like you do, lifetime warranties can be very handy. I definitely see their purpose, but personally I only really need a 3 year Manufacturer Warranty for myself.

 

[Talisatu]

Understand that, besides, if nothing goes wrong in 3 years, most likely it will last as long as you like.

 

[Vettedude]

If you have the cash to buy the EVGA though, do it. They are far and away the best card maker out there IMO

 

[Talisatu]

Cool, I'll look at them first. I was kind of turned off when I got the EVGA GT 520, I thought it would be much better than the one I had, guess I was wrong there... Funny that a GTX 260 would outperform it.

 

[Vettedude]

Just because the first number is bigger and newer, doesn't mean better. The one to look at is the 2nd number in Nvidia cards. x2x cards = crap

 

[Talisatu]

Ah, I didn't know that!!

 

[Vettedude]

A 260 has 192 stream processing cores. A 520 has 48. Even worse though, is the 520 only has 4 ROP's while the 260 has 28. Basically, the 520 can't push near the amount of pixels the 260 can. Not to mention the bandwidth differences, but I'm tired and don't want to get into detail.

That was a simplified way of comparing them, in reality you can't really compare cards from different generations just by looking at the stream cores but you can get a general idea from it.

 

[Talisatu]

Thank you for your suggestions!! It really has helped!!

 

[tlmck]

Here is a tool that mat help also. http://www.geforce.com/Optimize

You can use this chart to see what the equivalent AMD card would be. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

 

[Talisatu]

Would it be worth it to spend the extra money on the 2gb version or the TI version??

 

[tlmck]

Would it be worth it to spend the extra money on the 2gb version or the TI version??

Ti version is always better. With a few rare exceptions, 2gb cards have proved a waste of money. That is until we get more games that properly take advantage.

 

[AidanJC]

Would it be worth it to spend the extra money on the 2gb version or the TI version??

Only if you're planning on a multi monitor setup or have a monitor that has a 2560 x 1440/1600 resolution.

But if its only a few extra dollars, why not?

Also take into account if you're going to have more than one card. If you have a 2GB card and a 1GB card, the first card will always match the slower card, meaning that you will only have 1GB total addressable memory between the GPUs. However if you have the same cards with the same amount of memory, you will have the full 2GB to play around with.

 

[Talisatu]

Well, I do run dual displays, but not at those resolutions, they are only 23". Guess I will go with the GTX 560 TI.

 

[Gothams Finest]

Hey good sir, Yes the GTX 560 ti is SLI ready. But i don't recommend Gigabyte even tho thats the cheapest 560 ti. I would get ASUS or EVGA. i and running the ASUS one in SLI and havnt had any issue at all. Get the Cheapest EVGA one, they have lifetime warranty. Hope your mobo supports SLI!

Whats wrong with Gigabyte? They're reputable are there cooler design is very good.

 

[Gothams Finest]

Oh, and most warranties won't cover you if you OC. I'm not sure about EVGA tho.

EVGA covers overclocking you're also still under warranty if you fit an aftermarket cooler on if you so wish.

EVGA would be my first choice if I was going for a reference design.