Performance vs Detail in Old vs. New Gcards?

[wkizzle]

Ok, so my current rig runs 550Ti x2 SLI. Overclocked each to 1000mhz, it runs smooth as silk, albiet a bit noisy (and not as stable as I would like).

I'm building a PC for my niece, and was thinking of just popping those into her system (non-overclocked) to save her some money since I really want to upgrade my video card(s) anyway. However, I have a question:

is there any difference in graphics QUALITY / DETAIL when upgrading from, say, my current setup to a Radeo 7790? Will I notice improved graphics or just improved framerates? Specifically, will distancing improve. For example, in Skyrim, with ultra settings and everything turned up, the distance still seems some what textureless. Will this improve with the latest and greatest GCard?

Thanks!

JR.

 

[jessterman21]

No, Skyrim will not improve unless you add some mods. In fact, no games will show an improvement besides framerate if you were already running them on Ultra.

As far as detail in the distance, that's more dependent upon your antialiasing/anisotropic filtering settings and draw distance settings in-game. If those are already at max, you're out of luck unless you want to tweak .ini files or install a mod to allow for greater detail in the distance.

A single GPU configuration is always more stable and smooth than a mid-low end SLI/CrossfireX configuration.

An HD 7970 will provide you with 60fps in any game on Ultra @ 1080p - give or take some antialiasing.

 

[luciferano]

Ok, so my current rig runs 550Ti x2 SLI. Overclocked each to 1000mhz, it runs smooth as silk, albiet a bit noisy (and not as stable as I would like).

I'm building a PC for my niece, and was thinking of just popping those into her system (non-overclocked) to save her some money since I really want to upgrade my video card(s) anyway. However, I have a question:

is there any difference in graphics QUALITY / DETAIL when upgrading from, say, my current setup to a Radeo 7790? Will I notice improved graphics or just improved framerates? Specifically, will distancing improve. For example, in Skyrim, with ultra settings and everything turned up, the distance still seems some what textureless. Will this improve with the latest and greatest GCard?

Thanks!

JR.

What is a Radeon 7790? I've never heard of such a card, at least not a modern one.

Texture quality can't be improved without mods once it is already maxed out, but settings such as AA can be improved and that can improve quality. You might also notice smoother gameplay even at the same frame rate with a single GPU setup than with your dual-GPU GTX 550 Ti SLI.

 

[Kamen_BG]

No actually upgrading the graphics card doesn't improve image quality at all by itself.The only measure to how good your game looks are its settings.But you will notice smoother gameplay and an increase in FPS.
The only way to increase the graphics quality of Skyrim beyound Ultra is by modding.I've been doing this for a while and ill just link you a mod you absolutely can't do without.
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/607

 

[17seconds]

Switching from Nvidia to AMD will cause you to lose the option to force Ambient Occlusion, FXAA, High Quality texture filtering, and Transparency Supersampling. In Skyrim in particular, you will no longer be able to enable Ambient Occlusion, which is one of the best driver side graphical enhancements with the biggest impact on image quality.
http://www.geforce.com/optimize/guides/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweak-guide/#19

 

[luciferano]

Switching from Nvidia to AMD will cause you to lose the option to force Ambient Occlusion, FXAA, High Quality texture filtering, and Transparency Supersampling. In Skyrim in particular, you will no longer be able to enable Ambient Occlusion, which is one of the best driver side graphical enhancements with the biggest impact on image quality.
http://www.geforce.com/optimize/guides/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweak-guide/#19

http://www.geforce.com/Active/en_US...v-skyrim-tweak-guide/Skyrim-AO-Comparison.gif

AMD has ambient occlusion, FXAA (which kinda sucks anyway), and such, so I'm not sure about that at all. You'll have to get something more convincing than a link from a Nvidia site.

 

[17seconds]

AMD has ambient occlusion, FXAA (which kinda sucks anyway), and such, so I'm not sure about that at all. You'll have to get something more convincing than a link from a Nvidia site.

AMD is unable to force Ambient Occlusion through the Catalyst Control Panel. The Nvidia Control Panel has the option available with several levels of quality. In the comparison above, the image quality on AMD cards looks like the "Ambient Occlusion OFF" screenshot.

AMD has MLAA2, which is similar to FXAA, but is not FXAA. MLAA is known for blurring text, which FXAA does not. There is a reason why game developers are incorporating FXAA into their games, but not MLAA, FXAA works better.

 

[luciferano]

AMD is unable to force Ambient Occlusion through the Catalyst Control Panel. The Nvidia Control Panel has the option available with several levels of quality. In the comparison above, the image quality on AMD cards looks like the "Ambient Occlusion OFF" screenshot.

AMD has MLAA2, which is similar to FXAA, but is not FXAA. MLAA is known for blurring text, which FXAA does not. There is a reason why game developers are incorporating FXAA into their games, but not MLAA, FXAA works better.

I know that FXAA works better. I'm saying that it still sucks. MSAA and TXAA are where its at for well-performing and high quality AA. FXAA/MLAA/MLAA2 can all have inferior quality when enabled compared to disabled and aren't worth the minor performance loss.

I was not aware of AMD's Ambient Occlusion support being poor, thanks for that info.

 

[17seconds]

I know that FXAA works better. I'm saying that it still sucks. MSAA and TXAA are where its at for well-performing and high quality AA. FXAA/MLAA/MLAA2 can all have inferior quality when enabled compared to disabled and aren't worth the minor performance loss.

I was not aware of AMD's Ambient Occlusion support being poor,. thanks for that info.

Thank you for helping to avoid a long drawn out back and forth meaningless debate.