Recommended a gaming Nvidia GPU...

[Rawns]

As the title suggests, I'm looking at a replacement Nvidia GPU to replace my GTX 280. I'm looking for one that will last a good amount of time and will have no issues running DayZ, ARMA3, Battlefield 3/4 etc. No budget but ideally, I'd say no more the £150?

I quite like the look of this one, but there seems to be so much choice, it's hard to see which ones best for your buck:

Asus GTX 650 DirectCU 1GB GDDR5 VGA Dual DVI HDMI.. | Ebuyer.com


Edit: Or if anyone is in a generous mood and would like to buy me this, it would be appreciated!

http://www.ebuyer.com/480830-asus-gt...edium=products

[HaleStorm]

a little bit more than your budget but for the reduced price this is a great deal

EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Superclocked 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [02G-P4-2662-KR]

[adam_green]

Are you looking to actually upgrade or just replace? The 280 is, i think, faster than the 650. The 650 is a low end card.

For games, imo, you want more than 1Gb vram, so go for something with 2gb+ if you can afford it.

Why just nVidia? From a quick look (its been a while since i looked into GPUs admittedly) you get more bang for buck with ati at the moment.

For reference, check out this:

GTX285 vs 650: AnandTech - Bench - GPU12

GTX650 vs HD7850: AnandTech - Bench - GPU12

And for pricing, HD7850: HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games [H785QN2G2M]

Or, as HaleStorm posted, the 660 would be better, again for comparison:

AnandTech - Bench - GPU12

Hope that helps

[LosOjos]

I've been very pleased with my GTX560Ti, but I must admit that I'm no authority on PC gaming having only recently gotten in to it. I play all my games on ultra (though they are older games now, Fallout 3, GTA4 mainly, Civilization 5). Most recent game I've played was a demo of Sniper Elite V2, again on ultra settings, no problems there. Really ought to get BF3, that seems to be the benchmark game at the moment...

Anyway, as I got mine for £60 [missing promo materials], I can't complain! (RRP is about £129.99)

[HaleStorm]

Benchmark game of the moment is going to be Crysis 3....its possibly the most visually stunning game i have seen since the original crysis.
My machine wont run it on Ultra until I upgrade my GPU and cooling...im saving for a GTX680 but its going to take along time as im currently paying for a wedding

[Rawns]

Are you looking to actually upgrade or just replace? The 280 is, i think, faster than the 650. The 650 is a low end card.

For games, imo, you want more than 1Gb vram, so go for something with 2gb+ if you can afford it.

Why just nVidia? From a quick look (its been a while since i looked into GPUs admittedly) you get more bang for buck with ati at the moment.

For reference, check out this:

GTX285 vs 650: AnandTech - Bench - GPU12

GTX650 vs HD7850: AnandTech - Bench - GPU12

And for pricing, HD7850: HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games [H785QN2G2M]

Or, as HaleStorm posted, the 660 would be better, again for comparison:

AnandTech - Bench - GPU12

Hope that helps

I'm looking to replace it. My new rig will be built on the weekend and I'll be using my GTX 280 until I can afford a upgrade to it, depending on how it performs in my new rig that is. It it's causing a bottleneck, I will replace it within a month or two. If not, I may keep it for longer.

Bad experiences with ATI (I mean AMD) graphics cards in the past. Plus the relentless driver updates when they find a bug are a nightmare. Like some people will settle for nothing less then an Intel CPU for gaming, I will settle for nothing less than an Nvidia GPU.

On a separate note, has anyone bought a cheap low end Nvidia GPU and set it to dedicated Physix processing?

[OB1]

You'll need a GTX 660 at least to get an appreciable performance bump from a 280. that's a legendary card.
660 or even a 660Ti if you can stretch that far.

How big is your screen?

[Rawns]

that's a legendary card.

Nice.

How big is your screen?

24.5" widescreen.

Think I'll pout this thread on hold then and see what kind of performance I get out of it. To be honest, my old rig's CPU was most likely the bottleneck so have never got to fully utilise the card.

[Rawns]

For reference, check out this:

GTX285 vs 650: AnandTech - Bench - GPU12

Awesome site, thanks for the link. Interesting to see that the 285 is superior to the 650. @OB1 is right too, I swapped the comparison from the 650 to the 660 and the performance jump was incredible!

[CAM]

a little bit more than your budget but for the reduced price this is a great deal

EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Superclocked 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [02G-P4-2662-KR]

I like the look of this card, HDMI port and no need to split sound. Does it work with input? And how do you think it would fare alongside 8GB RAM and a 3GHz Phenom II X3.

[CHR1S]

Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 (2048 MB) (111880550G) Graphics Card 4895106259423 | eBay

Keep an eye on that card, its dual bios - which means you flick the switch and its a 6970! I have the exact same one and depending on its finishing price could be a real bargain.

[Duke5A]

I always appreciated nVidia's product naming scheme; it makes a lot more sense than the market speak Intel has been throwing around and even if you've been out of the market for a while it's relatively easy to know how the products compare just by looking at the model number. The first number signifies GPU series and the last two signify the performance in the series. Anything under 50 is usually considered budget card territory. High end cards of older GPU series (anything in the x80 range) out of date are still usually faster than the newer midline cards. Where the differences really come into play though with the newer cards is the versions of Pixel Shader, OpenGL, and DirectX they support vs the old stuff.

[adam_green]

Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 (2048 MB) (111880550G) Graphics Card 4895106259423 | eBay

Keep an eye on that card, its dual bios - which means you flick the switch and its a 6970! I have the exact same one and depending on its finishing price could be a real bargain.

I got two of these in crossfire at the moment, and bios flashed them both... such an excellent card for the money. I wouldnt buy one from a shop now with the intention of flashing as i believe the latter runs of them dont have the switch... but that one on ebay could be a serious bargain if it finishes below £70 or so.

Mine still run the latest games on max at a very playable fps (usually 60+)