Games on 1080p

[wrenaudrey]

What is it to look out for in a graphics card to be able to run games in 1080p, smoothly and with reasonable fps?
Games: BF3, Metro, Skyrim
Recommended card?

 

[Chainzsaw]

Hello,

Its not just about GPUs. If you have a slow processor - it won't be able to feed your GPU.

What is your budget for a card, and please tell us your exact system specifications (RAM, PSU, CPU, MOBO).

 

[jaguarskx]

Depends on how high you set the graphics eye candy to. Metro 2033 can be humbling for even the most expensive gaming video card. See following for high-end video card benchmarks.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_680/7.html

Naturally if you lower the graphic settings from Ultra down to high or medium you will get better performance.

The following are benchmarks for more affordable video cards.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/HD_7770_OC/6.html

Personally, I'm not a big gamer and I don't want to drop an excessive amount of money for a video card. If had to buy a card right now it would likely be the Radeon HD 7850 for around $260. A Radeon HD 7870 is currently price a bit too much for me to consider it. If it were to come down to around $325, then maybe...

I would like to see more nVidia GT/GTX 600 cards though, but so far only the GTX 680 has been released.

 

[wrenaudrey]

Does fps and resolution rely on cpu or graphics card or both?
And what i meant is that in a graphics card, is it the memory of that card that gets you to those resolution and stable fps?

Specs:
Core 2 Quad Q8300 2.5Ghz
4GB 2x2 Corsair Xms3 1333Mhz
CIT 550W psu
Asus P5G41C-M LX

Is my processor capable of the new games, like bf3?
My memory, is it lacking? Do i need to change to 1600Mhz?

 

[wrenaudrey]

Budget: $300/£250-not really looking to upgrade now but just really a query.

 

[Chainzsaw]

Does fps and resolution rely on cpu or graphics card or both?
And what i meant is that in a graphics card, is it the memory of that card that gets you to those resolution and stable fps?

Specs:
Core 2 Quad Q8300 2.5Ghz
4GB 2x2 Corsair Xms3 1333Mhz
CIT 550W psu
Asus P5G41C-M LX

Is my processor capable of the new games, like bf3?
My memory, is it lacking? Do i need to change to 1600Mhz?

You should have listed your current GPU as well. I'm guessing BF3 will work on your system - albeit at a lower to medium graphics level at 1080P. Multiplayer also has an effect on your system. Normally multi-player games require a bit more power (if I was to throw out a random number I would guess anywhere from 10-20% FPS depending on the game and type).

Basically how a PC game runs will depend on mainly 2 things, really. You need a fast CPU to drive all the information, and fast GPU to push the graphics. Games don't really rely too much on HDD besides the fact that they have to load off them, having a faster or slower HDD will not increase FPS. However having an SSD over an HDD can greatly decrease loading times of games.

A decent card to run BF3 smoothly at 1080P would be something like a GTX 560 TI 1GB minimum, check out this link:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7770-7750-benchmark,3135-6.html

IMO "smooth frame rates" in a game is anywhere above 60FPS. Please note they used a i7 3960x for this test though and 16GB of ram.

One more thing I wanted to add, BF3 is quite a demanding game. It has the most advanced engine to date.

I think for you - if you add an extra 4 GB of ram for a total of 8GB (if you have a 64bit OS) and possibly upgraded your video card - you should be able to run bf3 with decent frame rates (might have to turn off AA/AF or turn them down).

Edit: Ram is also important. Having too little ram will make windows create a large page file on your HDD and slow things down to a crawl. So 3 things are the most important.

 

[wrenaudrey]

Oh, my current card is absolutely..just bad, GT240 512mb gddr3.
You mentioned there, a gtx560 ti, will that card be able to run ultra settings with around 4-8aa in 1080p with the current cpu that i have?
If not, what card will? Will putting 560s in sli help?
Do i really need to upgrade my cpu to get stable fps? Which one?
And lastly, what is it in that graphics card that shows the game smoothly in my 23" 1920x1080 monitor, is it the memory? ATIS make cards with big memory, would it be better option than lower memory nvidias?

 

[Chainzsaw]

Oh, my current card is absolutely..just bad, GT240 512mb gddr3.
You mentioned there, a gtx560 ti, will that card be able to run ultra settings with around 4-8aa in 1080p with the current cpu that i have?
If not, what card will? Will putting 560s in sli help?
Do i really need to upgrade my cpu to get stable fps? Which one?
And lastly, what is it in that graphics card that shows the game smoothly in my 23" 1920x1080 monitor, is it the memory? ATIS make cards with big memory, would it be better option than lower memory nvidias?

No. Trying to run BF3 Ultra at 1080p with a 560TI would make it struggle. Here is a another link I want you to see:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-7.html

There are tons of benchmarks in there as well as the system configurations and resolutions. You would need a minimum of a GTX 580 to run 1080P ultra, as well as a CPU upgrade.

The memory on GPU's doesn't necessary make one graphics card better than the other. Take the Radeon 7970 (3GB VRAM) vs the GTX 680 (2GB VRAM) and the GTX beats it in almost everything:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-680-review-benchmark,3161-8.html

You really should do some reading up on graphics card reviews and CPU reviews if your not purchasing a video card yet. Tomshardware has some good articles you could start with - as well there are many others if you look.

 

[bobochez]

if you have a $300 budget then I would get a 6950 and new ram.
Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345
6950: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125385

I don't know about max settings mainly because of that processor but this should get you to highish settings.

 

[jaguarskx]

Does fps and resolution rely on cpu or graphics card or both?
And what i meant is that in a graphics card, is it the memory of that card that gets you to those resolution and stable fps?

Most games are dependent more on the video card than on the CPU. Therefore, as long as the CPU is fast enough it should not hinder your graphic card's performance. Metro 2033 doesn't really care how fast your CPU is as long as it is fast enough which in your case it is. So... the more powerful graphics card (GPU) you buy, the better your performance will be. As you can see below, the performance in Metro 2033 doesn't really change much whether the Core i7-980XE is running at 2.0GHz or 3.6GHz.

http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/metro_2033_performance_guide,9.html

BF3 and Skyrim are games who's performance depends on both CPU and GPU. Is the Q8300 fast enough? Yes, it is. But having a faster CPU can provide better performance. That's not to say that the GPU is any less important as the link to the benchmarks I provide demonstrates.

 

[wrenaudrey]

Well as you guys say, a GTX560 Ti will kinda struggle in Ultra setting in 1080p.

What d'you think of the GTX660 Ti?
Will it have a massive improvement from 560 and smoothly run ultra settings in 1080p?

 

[wrenaudrey]

Well as you guys say, a GTX560 Ti will kinda struggle in Ultra setting in 1080p.

What d'you think of the GTX660 Ti?
Will it have a massive improvement from 560 and smoothly run ultra settings in 1080p?

 

[ilysaml]

No info yet about the GTX 660ti and rumored pics showed it's 670ti.
And as jaguar said, it depends on the settings you'll set while playing the game.
The GTX 560ti will run every game @ ultra settings smooth enough to generate playable FPS but some games such as the Metro 2033 and Crysis 2 are more demanding of GPU power.

Also don't forget that you have an aged Quad Core CPU, it will affect your performance....better Upgrade your CPU too.