7 replies to this topic

[Half Fast]

I am coming to you, my friends, for some thoughts and advice.

It seems that my video card no longer passes muster. It works fine for anything except gaming (MWO and LOTRO both crash and lock the system). I have pretty much determined it is a card failure (although there is the slight possibility the power supply is dying instead - corsair 750).

Now, if you could help. I am looking at buying a new card, and, of course, I have not budgeted any money for a new purchase. The options I am looking at now are an NVidia GTX 650 Ti ($100-$150 range), an NVidia 560 Ti ($175-$200), or a refurbished NVidia GTX 280 ($90), The GTX 280 is what the dying card is, and I was running fine with it (30-50FPS) before it let me down.

Is there anything I need to know about these choices? Is there something else out there that I should know about?

All thoughts appreciated...

P.S. - Or would a GTX 650 be worth it ($160 for 2Gb, $130 for 1Gb)? I could pick those up tomorrow today at B--- B--.

[TheFlayedman]

Maybe look at 2nd hand cards, what resolution are you playing at? what cpu do you use? If you could find a second hand 570 or amd 6th gen card maybe

[Az0r]

NB - Advice varies greatly depending on what games/settings you run so to get the most accurate advice please include your games/resolution/graphic settings next time
All of the below assumes you play on 1920x1080 with high settings.

A gtx 560ti (2gb) is pretty much right on the lower end of what this game needs to run 1080p @ 60fps with all settings on max. Any fps loss is usually a CPU bottleneck at that point, although the latest patch may have changed things, I haven't had time to test.

Anyway back to the question. the 560ti is about 10-15% faster than the 650ti but costs 25-30% more, consumes more power and is larger (shouldn't be an issue considering your gtx280 is massive in comparison. So my chocie? Honestly, neither. If you are ok with going with an AMD card then I'd recommend a 7850 for your price range. They quite often show up on special around $180 for a 2GB model (http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814161406) and their performance at stock beats a 560ti by ~10-15%. Also they overclock nicely for even more performance. If you want to stick with Nvidia I'd really recommend saving for a 660 unless you can find a cheap gtx560ti 2GB, avoid the gtx280, it's old, noisy and power hungry when compared with its more modern cousins.

Edited by Az0r, 09 February 2013 - 09:33 AM.

[BillyM]

I just punched some figures into Excel to help balance out price/performance based off that Russian review FPS chart. I'll copy it in here below, as it may help you make a decision...



I hope this helps someone, or atleast makes for a curious read...
The findings helped me pull the trigger on the $180 GTX 660 to replace my GTX 550 ti!

Cheers,
--billyM

Edited by BillyM, 09 February 2013 - 09:46 AM.

[Flapdrol]

Best price/performance deals with a current generation card are probably the:

HD7850 2GB (AMD)
gtx660 (NVIDIA)

[Catamount]

I agree with Flapdrol, given your price range.

The best 660 I can find is this one: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814500270
(Newegg's search page said promo code EMCYTZT2918 would knock $15 off that card)

If you're willing to do the MiR, that's $180 if the promo code works (don't know why it's not listed on the card page), which is a much better deal than getting one of the rather disappointing and underwhelming 650TIs.


If you're not willing to do the MiR, get this

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814161426


Even if you are willing to do the MiR, the free games probably still make the 7850 a far better value. If you intended to get even one of those games, that's like a $60 price reduction, and even if you don't, you can sell that game code with less effort than an MiR for like $40 anyways on Ebay (that's the pricepoint I seem to see bids at), so now it's a $130 7850.

Edited by Catamount, 09 February 2013 - 10:36 AM.

[Bad Karma 308]

On thing to consider: If you suspect that the power supply may be the culprit, have it tested. Otherwise if it is bad and you throw a new GPU in then the bad supply could easily destroy your new GPU, which would then triple your expenditures.



______________________________________________________________
Copied From Thread: http://mwomercs.com/...-hd-8000-delay/


"""If I may, before you chuck the card there is one piece of equipment that I always recommend people have for times likes this.

http://www.newegg.co...h=1&srchInDesc=

It is a power supply tester, and they are the most inexpensive piece of insurance you can own. I'm not saying that your PS is bad, you actually have a pretty good one. While yours is a single Rail design individual components and connectors can become problems just as easy. Even a little bit of corrosion on a connection can drive your Ohms (resistance) way out of tolerances. A bad solder or crimp joint can as well. Both can seriously damage your components.

I've chased enough "ghosts" in the PC over the years that now I always start with the PS whenever an issue creeps up, then RAM. Most PC components usually fail due to out of tolerance voltages being supplied or heat issues. So let's say you replace that GPU, If the PS supply were a bit quirky then the new one could run well for awhile, but also fail once the power handling circuits eat themselves up.

Either way, the tester can save you big bucks now or in the future.""""""
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Edited by Bad Karma 308, 10 February 2013 - 04:38 PM.

[v4skunk]

Flapdrol, on 09 February 2013 - 09:44 AM, said:

Best price/performance deals with a current generation card are probably the:

HD7850 2GB (AMD)
gtx660 (NVIDIA)

No the best price/performance are the new AMD 7870 Tahiti LE cards and any 7950 using 7970 pcb like MSI TF3 v2 cards.

Edited by v4skunk, 16 February 2013 - 10:20 AM.