Not just another "Which video card?" thread....ok, dang...it is....

[trauschu]

So, it's official. I guess I suck because I am not longer l33t hax0r computer guy. I'm a father and a husband, and my computer time is limited to 11pm-1am when I can.

I login and most of the threads I read are people whining about "Wahhh Waah!!! My quad core, uber, uber, awesome video card that I already spent loads of cash on is 3fps too slow in the Crysis 5 pre-pre-beta benchmarks. I must upgrade now or face the wrath of some invisible demon living under my mother's mattress. Help!"

Ugh...

I still run a dual core XP 4200 on my DFI Lanparty4, 2 Gigs of RAM, and a 9600GT video card. Yes I know....pathetic. But, this system has been rock stable for 5 years 24/7, with only the swap out of my video card from a 7800 to a 9600GT two years ago.

I run a 24" monitor and try to run all my games at the native 1900x resolution.

It's time to upgrade. Games are running a little too slow.

So I, decided to try to get a new video card first, and then in a month or two when the CPU market settles, I'll get a new MB, DDR3, and a CPU. Been a nvidia guy for years, so I'm going to stick with them.

My budget I would like to stick with is sub $250'ish. My requirement is a STABLE card. I do not plan to overclock. The computer stays on 24/7, and I prefer quieter cards that are not heat mongers (Yeah that might be a tall order nowadays).

Suggestions?

 

[mhouck]

newegg has 6870's for $249 and that would definitely handle that resolution

 

[mhouck]

have fun w/ the new build

 

[bryanW1995]

there's not really a good nvidia choice at $250. best bet is a gtx 460 1gb factory stock card. evga is best but anything that will work with afterburner is ok. once you get the card, use afterburner to oc it to ~ 850 core or so. this is not a "maybe", but more of a "99% probability". you might have to add a bit of voltage to get there but it's unlikely.

if you don't like oc'ing gpus for some strange reason, just look for the cheapest gtx 460 with an oc over 800 that you can get.

 

[bryanW1995]

btw, you should pay ~ $175 or so for a stock gtx 460, possibly less with xmas deals going on.

 

[Martimus]

The 460 is the only card from nVidia in that price range. It should be quite a bit faster than your current 9600GT.

I have heard a lot of people are having major problems with their drivers on the 460 though, so it may be prudent to get the slightly better 6850/6870 due to the better drivers from AMD. Although I am sure nVidia will fix their drivers within a year or two.

 

[trauschu]

Wow, 5 years removed the the active PC shopping market seems like a world of a difference. Back then nvidia alway had the more mature stable drivers, and ATI was always playing catchup. Has it flip-flopped since then? Does AMD have the better driver support now?

 

[Cuular]

Both camps are about even on drivers. Every now and then one of them develops a small problem. Either camp makes good parts, just choose the part that sits at your price point.

 

[shangshang]

I have heard a lot of people are having major problems with their drivers on the 460 though, so it may be prudent to get the slightly better 6850/6870 due to the better drivers from AMD. Although I am sure nVidia will fix their drivers within a year or two.

lol c'mon dude what's your real intentions with this kinda blanketed statement? Nvidia will fix within a year or TWO? goddamm

 

[AllWhacked]

At 1920 resolution, I would go with a GTX 460 1GB or 470 if you want Nvidia or for AMD/ATI, go with a 5850/6850/5870/6870. The 6850/6870 are the newer GPUs to replace the price/performance of the 5850/5870s, however they perform slower than their replacement. So to rank them it would go as follows:

GTX 460 1GB = 6850 < 5850 < 6870 < GTX 470 < 5870.

A few caveats to note:

1) The AMD cards have eyefinity which allows you to run 3 monitors off one card, so that might be something of interest to you.

2) The AMD cards mentioned all run cooler/quieter than the GTX 470. Note, the GTX 460 1GB is an exception.

3) DO not buy the GTX 465 or 460 768MB as they run slower than the 1GB 460.

4) The GTX 460 1GB overclocks very well and some of the factory overclocked GPUs such as the eVGA FTW model perform as fast as a GTX 470 at stock.

5) Nvidia cards scale better in SLI than AMD do in crossfire. Two 460s for example, perform noticeably better than a single 480.

6) The Nvidia cards are newer GPUs and so their drivers have more room to mature. So even though I ranked the 470 below the 5870, recent reviews using the new drivers show the 470 performing equal or better than the 5870 in a lot of test--especially on newer games running testellation. (Review on GTX 580 with 470 & 5870 included: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-580-gf110-geforce-gtx-480,2781.html )

In terms of price, during Black Friday I bought a MSI 470 for $160AR and a Palit 460 1GB for $120AR (bought it with an 8GB DDR3 memory combo for $220AR). That's not the price they are today, but it gives you a figure to aim for if you're trying to look for a deal. Another piece of advice, Intel is releasing the Sandy Bridge processors in the beginning of January. If you can wait till then, the new CPUs are expected to price out the same as the current CPUs in the same performance level. But more importantly, the new CPUs run on a new socket and thus if you want the potential for future upgrades, I would wait till then to upgrade your machine.

 

[popop]

the market is never going to "settle". There will always be something major right around the corner.

 

[tviceman]

If you are sticking with Nvidia and are buying a card within the next few weeks, I'd recommend getting the MSI hawk or talon gtx460. Both cards have great factory overclocks, can overclock significantly further, and have really, really good coolers. If you can wait until January, Nvidia will be releasing the gtx560 which will probably be around $250.

 

[tviceman]

Wow, 5 years removed the the active PC shopping market seems like a world of a difference. Back then nvidia alway had the more mature stable drivers, and ATI was always playing catchup. Has it flip-flopped since then? Does AMD have the better driver support now?

No that's not the case at all. Both are fairly equal on drivers but Nvidia tends to get better initial support release from new games. In other words, a small percentage of new release titles have problems on AMD cards more often than Nvidia cards.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

My suggestion is for you to upgrade everything (GPU, CPU, mobo, RAM) at the same time. Whatever card you get now will be held back by the 4200+. By waiting you get these benefits:

-New cards will be out in a few months. Particularly the GTX 560 will probably be in your $250 price range.

-You'll get maximum performance out of the gate.

I suppose you don't have buy everything at once, but I think you should wait until all Radeon HD 6000 and Geforce 500 cards are out before making a purchase.

 

[VirtualLarry]

5) Nvidia cards scale better in SLI than AMD do in crossfire. Two 460s for example, perform noticeably better than a single 480.

I thought I remember reading that HD6870 CF scaling actually edges out GTX460 1GB SLI scaling.

 

[AnotherGuy]

I thought I remember reading that HD6870 CF scaling actually edges out GTX460 1GB SLI scaling.

thats is very true... the 6xxx series scale even better than nV in crossfire.... only the 6 series though... the 5 series do not.

 

[happy medium]

If you are sticking with Nvidia and are buying a card within the next few weeks, I'd recommend getting the MSI hawk or talon gtx460. Both cards have great factory overclocks, can overclock significantly further, and have really, really good coolers. If you can wait until January, Nvidia will be releasing the gtx560 which will probably be around $250.

This guy knows what he's talking about. :thumbsup:

Dont see why he would want a AMD card, he specifically said ,I want Nvidia.

Why would he care about 6850 x-fire scaling? or sli scaling?

 

[Phynaz]

GTX460. End of thread.

 

[tviceman]

This guy knows what he's talking about. :thumbsup:

Thank you kind sir! Since I bought the twin frozr II gtx465, I have become a big fan of that particular cooler. With how well it's cooling the gf100 chip and allowing for a huge overclock at the same time, I am definitely sticking with twin frozr II based MSI cards in the future.