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Another GPU recomendation thread...

Rawns

By Rawns
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Rawns

Rawns

Posted
Posted (edited)

So, my faithful, and rather old Nvidia GTX280 GPU looks like it's finally on the way out after years of service. After 30 mins to an an hour of game time, my rig locks up and this happens:

 

IMG_20140129_204509.jpg

 

Due to a number of things suddenly breaking, funds are now tight at the moment so I can't afford to splash out on some top end GPU. Therefore any recommendations on a low/mid range GPU are most welcome. :)

 

Edit:

 

Budget: £100-£150 (May try and stretch to £200 if it's a good deal, and if I can convince the Mrs!)

Games: Currently playing: BF4, DayZ SA, DayZ, ARMA3, Skyrim etc

Brand: Always had Nvidia cards from Asus, but willing to consider all options... including AMD.

 

Rig specs in my sig so something that will complement it.

Edited by Rawns
LosOjos

LosOjos

Posted
Posted
Due to a number of things suddenly breaking, funds are now tight at the moment so I can't afford to splash out on some top end GPU. Therefore any recommendations on a low/mid range GPU are most welcome. :)

 

What's your budget?

Rawns

Rawns

Posted
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What's your budget?

 

Depends on budget and what games you plan on playing.

 

Also if you have a brand preference.

 

Post updated! :p

featured_spectre

featured_spectre

Posted
Posted

http://www.amazon.co.uk/GeForce-DirectCU-Graphics-DisplayPort-Surround/dp/B0098VKIRC/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1391083567&sr=1-1&keywords=graphics+card < best nVidia within the £150 budget

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Radeon-DirectCU-Graphics-Express-Display/dp/B00GI2XJM0/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1391083682&sr=1-4&keywords=graphics+card < best AMD within the £150 budget

 

 

based on amazon links

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LosOjos

LosOjos

Posted
Posted (edited)

OK, I'm just going to throw in to the mix that I had the same budget for my recent build and all sources said R9 270X, and on paper you can't argue. However, I had a lot of trouble with the card (plain 270 in the end) that turned out to be down to a driver problem. It appears to be sorted now, but I'm not alone in having AMD driver problems and it appears to be a long standing issue. Take from that what you will.

 

In terms of performance, I do think you'd be hard pushed to beat the R9 270X for sub-£150. However, based on my driver nightmare, I'll be sticking to NVidia in future.

 

On the NVidia front, the main things to know are that first digit is the generation, with the latest being 7. This mainly affects DirectX version compatiability but also often means slightly more efficient power use and if there is a couple of generations gap, faster core memory clocks. The main thing to look for is the last two digits, as they are the range; higher is better. x80 is top of the range, £300+. You'll pay considerably fore for a 7th gen GPU than a 6th with not a lot of noticeable gain, so I'd go with a 6 myself. eBuyer have a range of 660's under £150 at the moment: Graphics Cards Nvidia - NVIDIA GTX 660 Series | Ebuyer.com

 

And just for comparison, here's how the R9 270X stacks up against the GTX 660 (both on stock clocks, some manufacturers apply a factory overclock): http://www.hwcompare.com/15671/geforce-gtx-660-vs-radeon-r9-270x/

 

As you can see, for similar priced cards you are getting a significant performance boost from AMD, just be wary that you might have some driver troubleshooting to do if you go that route :)

 

EDIT: that ASUS 660 posted by @nephilim is a very good deal

Edited by LosOjos
Rawns

Rawns

Posted
  • Author
Posted
OK, I'm just going to throw in to the mix that I had the same budget for my recent build and all sources said R9 270X, and on paper you can't argue. However, I had a lot of trouble with the card (plain 270 in the end) that turned out to be down to a driver problem. It appears to be sorted now, but I'm not alone in having AMD driver problems and it appears to be a long standing issue. Take from that what you will.

 

In terms of performance, I do think you'd be hard pushed to beat the R9 270X for sub-£150. However, based on my driver nightmare, I'll be sticking to NVidia in future.

 

On the NVidia front, the main things to know are that first digit is the generation, with the latest being 7. This mainly affects DirectX version compatiability but also often means slightly more efficient power use and if there is a couple of generations gap, faster core memory clocks. The main thing to look for is the last two digits, as they are the range; higher is better. x80 is top of the range, £300+. You'll pay considerably fore for a 7th gen GPU than a 6th with not a lot of noticeable gain, so I'd go with a 6 myself. eBuyer have a range of 660's under £150 at the moment: Graphics Cards Nvidia - NVIDIA GTX 660 Series | Ebuyer.com

 

And just for comparison, here's how the R9 270X stacks up against the GTX 660 (both on stock clocks, some manufacturers apply a factory overclock): http://www.hwcompare.com/15671/geforce-gtx-660-vs-radeon-r9-270x/

 

As you can see, for similar priced cards you are getting a significant performance boost from AMD, just be wary that you might have some driver troubleshooting to do if you go that route :)

 

Thats why I've always gone Nvidia. The amount of issues people seem to have with AMD driver updates scares me. Friends have had driver update after update and they've never really helped them, and in some cases just caused more issues. Nvidia driver releases are far less frequent and seem to be more stable too. With a history of 4+ Nvidia cards, I can honestly say I've never had a single issue with them in regards to driver updates.

 

However on the flip side, people say you can get more from an AMD GPU compared to a similar priced Nvidia model. That's why I've always gone with AMD CPU's. A fraction of the price of Intels and I find performance just as good. :)

mac_shinobi

mac_shinobi

Posted
Posted (edited)

Aria : NVIDIA Graphics Cards, GPU, Nvidia GeForce, Nvidia Quadro, Tesla - Aria Technology

 

Failing that I normally use google products to find things like this and normally finds reasonable companies who sell the same item for cheaper. ( Google Shopping )

 

If you can afford a little bit more there is this GTX 760 ( I think Amazon has this card slightly cheaper ) : MSI GeForce GTX 760 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card + 1 FREE GAME! - Aria PC

 

Edited by mac_shinobi
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LosOjos

LosOjos

Posted
Posted
However on the flip side, people say you can get more from an AMD GPU compared to a similar priced Nvidia model. That's why I've always gone with AMD CPU's. A fraction of the price of Intels and I find performance just as good. :)

 

I'm yet to put the R9 270 through it's paces, but initial thoughts are 'OK'. Compared to my GTX 560, I can't honestly say I've noticed the vast improvement that on paper it should deliver, and the 560 only cost me half what the 270 did! (admittedly it was an ex-display model so I made a good saving on it)

 

I'm having a gaming night this saturday so I'll put the 270 under some real pressure then and see how it fares - at the moment, I'd recommend a GTX660 though

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LoyalHeretic

LoyalHeretic

Posted
Posted

I'm a little out of touch with the current generation cards, but the last two i've had were both mid to high end AMD cards and they are both still going strong.

 

I bought a HD5850 reference card when they were ~6 months old, and it was a very reasonable purchase, never struggled with anything I threw at it and is still rocking along in a mate's rig.

 

My current card is a HD7950 which I bought about a month after release and was the last major upgrade my machine has had, aside from being a little noisy if you OC it, it's never caused me any problems, drivers have always been stable for me, but I do feel like an exception in that case.

 

In my opinion, the AMD cards are a very viable budget option and are capable of very good bang for buck. Nvidia are the luxury peace-of-mind option, if you can afford it, it's probably the way to go. On a seperate note, however, Battlefield 4 has just announced the Frostbite engine now supports the new AMD 'Mantle' technology, and makes for quite an interesting read in terms of it's performance boosts. Mantle renderer now available in Battlefield 4 - News - Battlelog / Battlefield 4

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Rawns

Rawns

Posted
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Seems everyone is overlooking the Voodoo2

 

That was the first dedicated GPU I ever got. Made Half-Life look the bomb, and it allowed me to play Kingpin: Life of Crime. :)

Earthling

Earthling

Posted
Posted
If I remember right, getting most games to run on it was something akin to Voodoo!

 

 

Voodoo2 was my first, too. Never had any problems with it, Half-Life, Outlaws, Quake 2, all of them suddenly came to life when I installed it. I had a Savage 4, I believe it was, but the Voodoo made everything look solid, suddenly.

Rawns

Rawns

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Voodoo2 was my first, too. Never had any problems with it, Half-Life, Outlaws, Quake 2, all of them suddenly came to life when I installed it. I had a Savage 4, I believe it was, but the Voodoo made everything look solid, suddenly.

 

Voodoo 2 was a huge step up from 'software rendering'! :)

LosOjos

LosOjos

Posted
Posted
Voodoo2 was my first, too. Never had any problems with it, Half-Life, Outlaws, Quake 2, all of them suddenly came to life when I installed it. I had a Savage 4, I believe it was, but the Voodoo made everything look solid, suddenly.

 

Perhaps it's not the Voodoo I'm thinking of then, I just remember having a GPU around that time that worked flawlessly with games designed for it but the problem at the time was there wasn't a standard as such, so although one game might work brilliantly, the next wouldn't work at all. I remember one game in particular had fantastic graphics* on the box but without the exact right GPU, all the 3D models were pretty much textureless, block coloured eyesores!

 

Thank $deity for standards :)

 

*for the time!

Earthling

Earthling

Posted
Posted
Perhaps it's not the Voodoo I'm thinking of then, I just remember having a GPU around that time that worked flawlessly with games designed for it but the problem at the time was there wasn't a standard as such, so although one game might work brilliantly, the next wouldn't work at all. I remember one game in particular had fantastic graphics* on the box but without the exact right GPU, all the 3D models were pretty much textureless, block coloured eyesores!

 

Thank $deity for standards :)

 

*for the time!

 

 

Sounds like it was 1996-1998 vintage OpenGL ,or whatever it was called at the time. I vaguely remember something like that.

3s-gtech

3s-gtech

Posted
Posted

As a long time ATI/AMD GPU user I haven't experienced driver issues, and we run hundreds of AMD GPUs here at work (mainly due to Intel onboard graphics being parp). We have quite a few Nvidia GPUs too (mostly Quadro) which have been great. Does seem like we're lucky there, but drivers can be such a fiddly issue when you bring in all the other elements of the system.

 

R9 270X is a great card at this price, the GTX 660 is the Nvidia price equivalent but is a much older card.

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