Author Topic: The best graphics card?  (Read 7560 times)

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Offline Dark RevenantX

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Re: The best graphics card?
Yeah.  The biggest issue is it's never going to eat up all 2GB of GDDR5 vram.

  

Offline CP5670

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Re: The best graphics card?
I think that is the least of its issues. 1GB is more than enough for any game right now.

My problems with multi-GPU are the inconsistent performance, both in lesser known games as well as specific parts of games, microstuttering/input lag, and the lack of triple buffering. I can't see either company solving these problems, at least not with the AFR rendering mode they both use.

 

Offline Al Tarket

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Re: The best graphics card?
well thats odd. thanks fury.

i am looking towards this powercolor HD 3870 x2, it looks like it can compete with the bigger cards at a much cheaper price. unusually though powercolor have always produced modded weak cards, i wonder why you have produced a modded strong card..

is it any good before i spend my money?
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Offline Fury

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Re: The best graphics card?
Errr... 3870X2 is just like 9800GX2, with pretty much same problems. Look for Radeon 4850, 4870 and GeForce GTX260, GTX280 if you want to invest your money on something that actually delivers promised performance. And like 9800GX2, 3870X2 is previous generation card. That said, 4870X2 and 4850X2 actually seems to have improved CrossFire performance since 3870X2 and both new generation X2's have been just launched, at least on paper.
« Last Edit: August 14, 2008, 03:10:48 am by Fury »

 

Offline colecampbell666

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Re: The best graphics card?
Yeah, and if you absolutely want a multi GPU, CrossFire is a much better performing system than SLI.

I'd get the 280, or possibly the 4870X2 (keeping in mind what CP said)
Gettin' back to dodgin' lasers.

 

Offline Al Tarket

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Re: The best graphics card?
i live in israel right next to a contested area, the gaza strip and thats a problem itself. i might go on holiday again, i got 1 months holiday leave coming up im gonna take it in the states, i never had a Christmas because Israel is always warm through the year with little rain. i might try my hand on this thing called skiing and in the process find a local computer hardware or gaming store and look for a fast graphics card maybe. maybe meaning, even odds on if i can get one because of the Christmas rush before your thanks giving day and bank holidays. my mind is made up, any one of these 3 cards, 4870 x2, 9800gx2 and 280 or two powercolor 4870's hooked up on a motherboard which means getting a fsb 1333 for QX9680 core and ddr2 at 800mz at least in 4gb memory and two pcie with pcix slots and 4 pci slots. it's going to be far more cheaper because of the currency exchange and the us dollar is far more generous towards it's items then any other place :D.
Cowardice is no selfishness, Friendliness is no enemy and Information is no attack platform.

Judge these words wisely and you might make it through this cruel world.

 

Offline colecampbell666

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Re: The best graphics card?
Few things.
The QX9650 is waaaaay overrated, a 9450 is just fine,and a hell of a lot cheaper.

the GX2 is not an option, it's an old card, and does not perform. Also, it's very expensive.

And do try skiing, it's THE best sport.
Gettin' back to dodgin' lasers.

 

Offline Al Tarket

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Re: The best graphics card?
i hear rumors the quad core blue can not runs games too well. its the reason why i still run duo core. i thought intel have a proper gaming core, you must be sure to warn me of such a thing. the gx2 performs well in tests, well you know the saying, you can't kick it until you tried it, and i hope you have to tell me this (my bad, i have been ignorant of such a warning for that card), so i need to pay more for my electric bill because the 4870 x2 card according the reviewer eats electricity up at a big rate. it might be more expensive but it seems the 280 is a safe bet even so. besides, i need to gap the hole. i need a cheap solution before i go for a more permanent solution a 3ghz duo core with x-fi gaming card, a 3870 from powercolor, a bigger hdd, a change to sata2 for 1tb instead of my 80gb ide hdd and a pci-e board that runs the 3ghz duo core and a faster memory that can carry double my old board of 2gb.

according to friends who went skiing in Italy and Croatia, i need two thin skid devices and 2 metal rods along with some heavy warm clothes and some goggles of some sorts.
Cowardice is no selfishness, Friendliness is no enemy and Information is no attack platform.

Judge these words wisely and you might make it through this cruel world.

 

Offline Jeff Vader

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Re: The best graphics card?
according to friends who went skiing in Italy and Croatia, i need two thin skid devices and 2 metal rods along with some heavy warm clothes and some goggles of some sorts.
Metal rods? Well, I guess that would work.
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Offline CP5670

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Re: The best graphics card?
Quote
i hear rumors the quad core blue can not runs games too well. its the reason why i still run duo core. i thought intel have a proper gaming core, you must be sure to warn me of such a thing. the gx2 performs well in tests, well you know the saying, you can't kick it until you tried it, and i hope you have to tell me this (my bad, i have been ignorant of such a warning for that card), so i need to pay more for my electric bill because the 4870 x2 card according the reviewer eats electricity up at a big rate. it might be more expensive but it seems the 280 is a safe bet even so. besides, i need to gap the hole. i need a cheap solution before i go for a more permanent solution a 3ghz duo core with x-fi gaming card, a 3870 from powercolor, a bigger hdd, a change to sata2 for 1tb instead of my 80gb ide hdd and a pci-e board that runs the 3ghz duo core and a faster memory that can carry double my old board of 2gb.

I've used other SLI setups in the past and know their limitations well. CF is very similar.

Basically, you will be happy with a multi GPU setup as long as (1) you primarily only play the high profile games that are benchmarked on hardware sites, (2) you aren't very picky about motion irregularities (which includes a variety of things) as long as the game is generally playable and (3) you don't mind spending additional time with many games tweaking profile settings. Of course, for the highest end setups you also want to have a monitor with a sufficiently high resolution so you can take advantage of it.

Many people do in fact meet all these conditions and think multi GPU is great, but there are also many others like me who find the extra baggage unacceptable. It's important to know the pros and cons fully before committing to multi GPU, especially since the reviews rarely point out any of these things.

As for the quad cores, there is certainly nothing bad about them apart from the higher cost. They just don't have much of an effect in most games right now, with two or three exceptions.
« Last Edit: August 14, 2008, 01:22:10 pm by CP5670 »

 

Offline Topgun

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Re: The best graphics card?
can you go into a little more detail in "motion irregularities"?

 

Offline colecampbell666

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Re: The best graphics card?
Get a quad core. They are the way of the future, and games now will start to take advantage of multithreading to a greater degree.

Quad cores run a game just as well as a dual core, but for the same price, a dual core will run most games faster. This is due to the fact that dual cores have less cores, but more power per core. Quad cores have slightly less powerful cores, but more of them. You won't usually max-ou a dual core processor, or a quad, so the best bet is to get a quad. The Q9450 would be perfect for you.
Gettin' back to dodgin' lasers.

 

Offline CP5670

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Re: The best graphics card?
can you go into a little more detail in "motion irregularities"?

They're basically the things I mentioned earlier.

1: Inconsistent performance across a game. Mass Effect is a current example of this, with the performance in certain areas (the Citadel tower and Noveria have been mentioned) inexplicably tanking a lot on SLI and CF even though the framerate everywhere else is perfect. I've seen similar things in the past with Far Cry and Splinter Cell: CT, in situations where a single GPU is fine. Since these glitches only occur in specific parts of a game, the reviewers never notice them and you only find out after you buy the setup yourself. To be fair, such problems aren't common in high profile games, but they are highly irritating when they do occur.

2: Variable input delay between frames, also called microstuttering. The exact effect of this has been heavily debated and it depends on both the game and the framerate. It's more prominent at lower (under 40) framerates, where the game will subjectively feel choppier than you would expect given the framerate.

3: Triple buffering does not work with AFR, so vsync is not a practical option in most recent games and you will experience tearing. Many people play with vsync turned off anyway and won't mind this. However, the result is that very high (80+) framerates will look smoother on a single GPU.

 

Offline Al Tarket

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Re: The best graphics card?
thanks cp, i need to some how sell my duo core with thermal paste, but never used. and try get some money for that quad core then. i know the balance of power, i have researched this many many times. i was very surprised with the quad core when it first came out, just under 10ghz. and now their near 13ghz, which seems very good. however i do have a limited amount of money to use, you know what the routine is, the pc is accessory is second and you and the family are first, food, clothes and so on. i will sriously give it a look after several months of mileage on the core and if all goes well i will try sell it or give it away, and find the quad elsewhere.

i am glad one no as countered my choice with the powercolor card, when i have the money i will jump boat to the next powercolor card in the 4870 range. by that time hopefully the price will be a little lower.

as of about an hour ago i just ordered a sata2 spinpoint f1 1tb internal hdd, so i have started my cheap upgrade.
« Last Edit: August 14, 2008, 02:47:53 pm by Al Tarket »
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Judge these words wisely and you might make it through this cruel world.

 

Offline colecampbell666

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Re: The best graphics card?
Like I've said, 4 cores at 3.2 Ghz is not 12.8 Ghz. If you fill 4 cups with 3.2 litres of water each, it doesn't make them turn into a big cup filled with 12.8 litres,a nd you can't drink out of them all at once.

4*3.2 is 4*3.2. Not 12.8.
Gettin' back to dodgin' lasers.

 

Offline Al Tarket

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Re: The best graphics card?
sorry i do not understand your comment. what you trying to say?
Cowardice is no selfishness, Friendliness is no enemy and Information is no attack platform.

Judge these words wisely and you might make it through this cruel world.

 

Offline colecampbell666

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Re: The best graphics card?
You do not add the speed of the cores. The processor is not 1 processor running at 12.8 Ghz, it is 4 processors running at 3.2 Ghz. When calculating the speed of a CPU, you don't add the speeds of all the cores together.
Gettin' back to dodgin' lasers.

 

Offline Al Tarket

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Re: The best graphics card?
very much the same as the gpu, i do understand that also and the memory clocks are under the same thing. like i said, i research this stuff for everything that is value and all the specifications.. and so on, you know the drill on such things. however will be good for futured reference if someone gets confused by such a thing.
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Offline WeatherOp

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Re: The best graphics card?
I'm still pretty happy with my inexpensive 8800 GT 512 MB

Same here, no complaints at all with the games I want to run.
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Offline Nuke

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Re: The best graphics card?
9800GX2 is two G92 chips on same PCB. It has internal SLI, for good performance it requires that both drivers and game supports SLI properly. SLI doesn't work as well as advertised.

IMHO you'd be better off with single chip solution any day.

not entirely true, sli seems to be really effective at driving alot of pixels. if you have a high res screen and want a descent frame rate at the native resolution, sli is the way to go. for most single screen gamers or people with cheap lcd screens, theres really no point to it.
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