Recommend me a new video card

[Luke Stofan]

There is a lot of misinformation in this thread.

The FPS you achieve in a game not only depends on your GPU but also the engine of the game and how it utilizes your hardware.

For instance, The Source Engine as well as UE3 relies more on your CPU to do the work rather than your GPU. My rig has a fairly new processor (i5 3570k) overclocked to 4.2 GHz, 8 GB of RAM and a 4 year old GTX 560 2GB.

I run CS:GO (Source Engine) at around 300 FPS consistently and my GPU sits between 50-60% usage. The engine is utilizing about half of my GPU's power while working with my CPU to do most of the rendering.

I run Injustice and MK9 (UE3) at the frame caps of 60 FPS with no dips whatsoever and my GPU sits at about 25% usage.. That's 1/4 of what my GPU is capable of. The GPU isn't everything when it comes to achieving max FPS in games because it depends on the engine and how well the developers optimize their engine.

With all this said (and I hope everyone in this thread reads it) I would suggest getting yourself a EVGA GTX 750TI. The little thing is a beast and it only costs $150!!! That's a fucking steal for this card. Not only that, you more than likely wouldn't need to upgrade your power supply because it barely uses any and Nvidia only suggests a 300w power supply for it.

However, if you are looking for more longevity in your build, then I would recommend stepping into the 760TI or 770 range.

750TI: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487025&cm_re=gtx_750ti_evga-_-14-487-025-_-Product

760: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130949&cm_re=gtx_760-_-14-130-949-_-Product

770: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130948&cm_re=770_4_gb-_-14-130-948-_-Product

Hope this was helpful!

EDIT: tl;dr: You guys should research.

 

[FrothyOmen]

its not true nvidia is better
atm amd offers better prize for performance but runs way hotter
maybe 780ti is king but at its prize
get something in the middle like gtx760 or r9 280

how can AMD be better if they overall run hotter? 1. That's really not true, Nvidia and AMD cards trade blows in temperature benchmarks. 2. Yes AMD does offer slightly better price to performance if we're looking at nothing but video game fps, but what about other features? Shadowplay, G-Sync, Mantle? Power Consumption over time? 3. 760 and 280x are not in the same league. 770 = 280x BASICALLY and 760 = 270x BASICALLY, lots of margin for error there.

The only viable cards on the market right now are 770, 280x, 780, and the 290. Everything below does not perform well enough in modern AAA titles, and everything above is enthusiast grade.

 

[FrothyOmen]

There is a lot of misinformation in this thread.

The FPS you achieve in a game not only depends on your GPU but also the engine of the game and how it utilizes your hardware.

For instance, The Source Engine as well as UE3 relies more on your CPU to do the work rather than your GPU. My rig has a fairly new processor (i5 3570k) overclocked to 4.2 GHz, 8 GB of RAM and a 4 year old GTX 560 2GB.

I run CS:GO (Source Engine) at around 300 FPS consistently and my GPU sits between 50-60% usage. The engine is utilizing about half of my GPU's power while working with my CPU to do most of the rendering.

I run Injustice and MK9 (UE3) at the frame caps of 60 FPS with no dips whatsoever and my GPU sits at about 25% usage.. That's 1/4 of what my GPU is capable of. The GPU isn't everything when it comes to achieving max FPS in games because it depends on the engine and how well the developers optimize their engine.

With all this said (and I hope everyone in this thread reads it) I would suggest getting yourself a EVGA GTX 750TI. The little thing is a beast and it only costs $150!!! That's a fucking steal for this card. Not only that, you more than likely wouldn't need to upgrade your power supply because it barely uses any and Nvidia only suggests a 300w power supply for it.

However, if you are looking for more longevity in your build, then I would recommend stepping into the 760TI or 770 range.

750TI: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487025&cm_re=gtx_750ti_evga-_-14-487-025-_-Product

760: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130949&cm_re=gtx_760-_-14-130-949-_-Product

770: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130948&cm_re=770_4_gb-_-14-130-948-_-Product

Hope this was helpful!

EDIT: tl;dr: You guys should research.

No. No No No NO No. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

You're running some of the easiest to run games of the last few years and citing modern graphics cards as not being viable because of the games. What about actually graphically intensive games? Modern AAA titles? Sure CS:GO is a great game blah blah blah but it's made to be efficient and easy to run, not the most beautiful thing in the world. It depends on what kinds of games OP wants to play. If he wants to play MKX on PC for example, and nothing else, then there's no reason to go any higher than a 270x becuase that's going to be more than he could possibly need for that game. He definitely needs a CPU upgrade though.

 

[Luke Stofan]

I was not pointing any fingers here just in general wherever you look for info there is gonna be this guy "Dont by XXX brand buy YYY instead XXX is garbage". I myself am trying to figure out which card to buy from a GTX 780, R9 290 and R9 290x. Whichever gpu has the best price per performance is the winner for me give 2 fucks if amd or nvidia i have owned both and liked both.

Wait a few months for the 800 series.

 

[FrothyOmen]

Wait a few months for the 800 series.

800 series is delayed until next year.

 

[FrothyOmen]

I was not pointing any fingers here just in general wherever you look for info there is gonna be this guy "Dont by XXX brand buy YYY instead XXX is garbage". I myself am trying to figure out which card to buy from a GTX 780, R9 290 and R9 290x. Whichever gpu has the best price per performance is the winner for me give 2 fucks if amd or nvidia i have owned both and liked both.

The best price/performance is something that YOU have to figure out with your own budget. Nobody on the internet can tell you that in any way that is meaningful to YOU. Look at benchmarks not just for FPS in games, but for temperatures, power requirements, etc. If you get a card that performs 5fps worse but saves you a lot on your power bill in comparison to another card, is that saved money worth it to you? On the flipside, is the extra power consumption OK for a 5fps gain? Nobody can tell you this but you man, you've gotta do your research. I can tell you in confidence, though, that you will be quite happy with any of those cards, and it'll be hard to feel like you made a wrong decision when you actually sit down and load a game up on one of those puppies.

 

[Luke Stofan]

So is it time to replace my 580? Since I don't really play games past 2012, I've been able to play everything on high with no problem. However, there are some games like The Witcher 3 which I'm interested in playing on my PC coming up that might kick my card's ass.

I used to have a 590 but it burned out on me so I'm kind of hesitant to buy a Nvida card.

Don't be hesitant to buy Nvidia cards. The 590 was in the early days of putting 2 GPU's into 1 card so it was a fairly new thing to them and used an ass load of power.

 

[Luke Stofan]

800 series is delayed until next year.

It's already July son. Not that far off really. And they will be worth the wait because they will be what the 700 series was supposed to be with new architecture rather than a re-skinned 600 series

 

[Luke Stofan]

No. No No No NO No. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

You're running some of the easiest to run games of the last few years and citing modern graphics cards as not being viable because of the games. What about actually graphically intensive games? Modern AAA titles? Sure CS:GO is a great game blah blah blah but it's made to be efficient and easy to run, not the most beautiful thing in the world. It depends on what kinds of games OP wants to play. If he wants to play MKX on PC for example, and nothing else, then there's no reason to go any higher than a 270x becuase that's going to be more than he could possibly need for that game. He definitely needs a CPU upgrade though.

He was talking about MKX in the OP so that is part of what I was basing my post on.

Also, you're not reading the rest of what I'm saying. The GPU isn't everything. This whole thread is people talking about GPU's being the only thing that seems to matter for game performance when that's not even remotely true. You need to be aware of what engine your games are running on and how/what resources of your machine they will use.

To me, it sounds like he needs a rebuild since he's running an APU on the FM2+ socket but I was trying to suggest something that would be much cheaper and a quite effective solution.

I don't know if you recall but the GTX 750TI was designed almost specifically to run BF4 (a modern AAA title) at 1080p and 60 FPS as long as you had a decent machine to back it.

 

[FrothyOmen]

It's already July son. Not that far off really. And they will be worth the wait because they will be what the 700 series was supposed to be with new architecture rather than a re-skinned 600 series

I guess you're a lot more optimistic than me about these new 800 series cards man. Like, once they come out I think they are definitely worth recommending over a 700 provided the benchmarks are right... but I don't think they're good enough to justify putting off your gaming experience for 6 months or more, ya know? That's where I'm coming from in that aspect more than anything else.

And yes, I'm aware CPU is also extremely important, and I stated a few times he probably needs an upgrade. I recognize that, but I'm only really trying to help out with the GPU stuff here.

 

[ImmortalSkillit]

Thanks everyone for the input. Had a good chunk of stuff to read.

That being said, I'm a bit bummed to see that some suggest a completely new rig. Mind you, I know its nothing crazy good, but I'm fairly happy with it, i've had it for under 3 months and payed less than $400, including windows 7. So yes, its certainly a budget build.

Yes, my end game goal is to be able to run MKX at a level that is on par with those playing on XBone and PS4, this way when I head out for weeklies im not stuck having to get used to FPS changes and so forth.

^^^With that in mind, obviously a card is necessary, but is a new CPU as well? And if thats the case, a new MoBo because of the socket? Oh, and upon reboot, the MoBo is the 4.

@Luke Stofan I like that card, if I can get by with what I have currently and just add that, then im sold. But if anyone would rather recommend something else as well, im still open for debate! (oh, and Im fairly sure I need a new power supply, part of the budget build was that it only came with a 500w supply, which I feel I just need at least 700+. Please correct me if im wrong

 

[Luke Stofan]

Thanks everyone for the input. Had a good chunk of stuff to read.

That being said, I'm a bit bummed to see that some suggest a completely new rig. Mind you, I know its nothing crazy good, but I'm fairly happy with it, i've had it for under 3 months and payed less than $400, including windows 7. So yes, its certainly a budget build.

Yes, my end game goal is to be able to run MKX at a level that is on par with those playing on XBone and PS4, this way when I head out for weeklies im not stuck having to get used to FPS changes and so forth.

^^^With that in mind, obviously a card is necessary, but is a new CPU as well? And if thats the case, a new MoBo because of the socket? Oh, and upon reboot, the MoBo is the 4.

@Luke Stofan I like that card, if I can get by with what I have currently and just add that, then im sold. But if anyone would rather recommend something else as well, im still open for debate! (oh, and Im fairly sure I need a new power supply, part of the budget build was that it only came with a 500w supply, which I feel I just need at least 700+. Please correct me if im wrong

If you've got a 500w power supply then you are good to go for a lot of cards provided that it is a decent 500w PSU. As for the 750TI, the minimum recommended PSU wattage is 300w. So 500 is plenty.

You would really only need a 700+ watt power supply if you were trying to run more than 1 card in your system.

 

[pogse]

500w is fine. your not doing any overclocking.

you should be able to get the same FPS with a decent $200 something (gtx 560/660/760). though you might get frame drops depending on how the TEAM for MKX optimizes it for PC.
haven't read your pc specs but make sure your PC has dual memory sticks so that won't bottleneck.

since its a fighting game if you tone down the other effects nothing should be loading constantly on the screen.

edit: or the AMD counterpart for those cards.

 

[roosTakk]

Yeah, dont just go buy a card because someone posted it in this thread...


Make sure your psu has enough juice, whats on the 12v rails is whats important.

Make sure it has enough atx power connectors for said card..some take 2

No point in buying a beastly GPU if its going to get bottlenecked by your cpu/ram

Make sure ur mobo has a free pcie slot

 

[champdee]

Nvidia gtx680 or anything above/better than that.... gtx's are the best than lets say gts' for nvidia

 

[champdee]

oh if its for mkx, wait...

 

[champdee]

I'll sell you my 590 or 580gtx untill mkx comes out.. have an extra 680gtx im willing to part withg

 

[nwo]

Newer games for next gen consoles are gonna run on an amd apu, so hopefully developers optimize for it. MK9 ran better on Nvidia but MKX might run better on AMD. I would wait for time to tell.

I'm not a console gamer, but I've heard the 360 had better perfomance many times than the ps3, the Xbox360 was also AMD. I've always found the price/performance ratio to be better with ATI/AMD.

I'd buy whatever I could get the best deal on though, I've owned 1 or 2 Nvidia cards in the past also.

 

[EndofGameBoss]

At what resolution, 720p? What exactly is most games? Can you play Star Citizeen, Metro:LL, Crysis 3? Like, sure that'll run less graphically-intensive games just fine but like, modern AAA titles? A 770 is barely enough dude. I own one. You need more power. The whole point of even playing on PC is 60fps+

I definitely think a whole-rig upgrade is in order.

More so like 900p lol. Anyway, I don't get caught up on the whole fps thing like most people. As long as games are playable(30 fps) and it can last me years I'm all game. The whole reason I play on PC now is because I can do absolutely everything I need to on one device. I've heard even with a 780 games can still run poorly if their not optimized well...here's looking at you Dayz and AC. I'm currently in the process of building a new rig and I'm keeping MKX in mind because I rarely play anything outside of fighting games. While the game looks good, I don't think it's going to be super demanding.

EDIT; I forgot about The Witcher 3 and Evolve, but I'm content playing those games on high settings. Ultra would require a ridiculous amount of money.

 

[FrothyOmen]

More so like 900p lol. Anyway, I don't get caught up on the whole fps thing like most people. As long as games are playable(30 fps) and it can last me years I'm all game. The whole reason I play on PC now is because I can do absolutely everything I need to on one device. I've heard even with a 780 games can still run poorly if their not optimized well...here's looking at you Dayz and AC. I'm currently in the process of building a new rig and I'm keeping MKX in mind because I rarely play anything outside of fighting games. While the game looks good, I don't think it's going to be super demanding.

EDIT; I forgot about The Witcher 3 and Evolve, but I'm content playing those games on high settings. Ultra would require a ridiculous amount of money.

Hehe, well, I think people throw the word "optimization" around a little too much. There are lots of technical limitations with ARMA2/ARMA3 that make the games pretty impossible to run on any setup. Like, they are 32-bit applications that are frankenesteined to use more than 2GB of RAM, and those games need sooo so so much more than that. This isn't even to mention all of the dedicated server issues they've been having too lol. That's just one example... there are lots more out there. I'm a stickler for 60fps minimum in every game I play, and am really excited to be moving up to a 120 or 144hz panel in the next few months because it'll be even better.

 

[Johnny San]

Without question a 770 would bottle neck his cpu.

Another scary term. I'm looking into buying a 770 myself. Would bottlenecking occur with my setup?

CPU: i7 Extreme 990X 3.47GHz (not overclocked)
GPU: GTX 580 1.5 GB
RAM: 12 GB
PSU: 850

 

[Rabid Justice]

johnny san

you will be good with any card out there with that set up


op

Any thing higher than 660ti or amd equivalent should be good to play on for a few years. Xbone and ps4 are said to be low end gaming gpu. and thats what most game will be aiming at. Just have to lower settings as time comes.



Just remember you can always get a good gpu now and upgrade every thing else later.

 

[Luke Stofan]

Another scary term. I'm looking into buying a 770 myself. Would bottlenecking occur with my setup?

CPU: i7 Extreme 990X 3.47GHz (not overclocked)
GPU: GTX 580 1.5 GB
RAM: 12 GB
PSU: 850

That's a 1st gen i7 but it's a dope one. I don't think you need to upgrade anything RIGHT NOW. If you can hold off for the 800 series, I would.

 

[Derptile]

ITT: People have different opinions on things and get mad when others don't agree.

IMO

Anything at 45+ fps, 1080p, and high settings is good enough.

AMD vs Nvidia is irrelevant.

Graphene chips might be coming in 5 years, so that's something to consider.

 

[Luke Stofan]

Hehe, well, I think people throw the word "optimization" around a little too much. There are lots of technical limitations with ARMA2/ARMA3 that make the games pretty impossible to run on any setup. Like, they are 32-bit applications that are frankenesteined to use more than 2GB of RAM, and those games need sooo so so much more than that. This isn't even to mention all of the dedicated server issues they've been having too lol. That's just one example... there are lots more out there. I'm a stickler for 60fps minimum in every game I play, and am really excited to be moving up to a 120 or 144hz panel in the next few months because it'll be even better.

Definitely get a 144Hz monitor. I highly recommend the Asus VG248QE. You can definitely tell the difference between 120Hz and 144Hz, though it is marginal, especially in high motion games.

Once you go to 120+Hz, you'll never go back. Seriously.