Video card for demanding games

[Ginmardo]

Which video card would you recommend [single, not SLI or CrossfireX]?

I've read up on different video card specs and honestly... it confuses me even more and leaves really undecided about which type and graphics series to get.

 

[yowanvista]

GTX480/570/580 or Radeon HD6970 for max performance

 

[SlackerITGuy]

Given that you have an AMD CPU, going Radeon here would be the wise choice.

AMD CPUs have trouble maxing out Fermi based cards in most games.

Go for the HD 6950 and then unlock it to a HD 6970.

 

[Ginmardo]

Given that you have an AMD CPU, going Radeon here would be the wise choice.

AMD CPUs have trouble maxing out Fermi based cards in most games.

Go for the HD 6950 and then unlock it to a HD 6970.

Is it safe to state that newest or latest series cards are always the best way to go?
I am asking about this because there are still some HD5850's that are in the same price range with newer cards.

 

[Fumz]

AMD CPUs have trouble maxing out Fermi based cards in most games.

Could you link to your source?

 

[SlackerITGuy]

AMD CPUs have trouble maxing out Fermi based cards in most games.

Could you link to your source?

Sure.

Just google 'Fermi low GPU usage'. You'll have a field day with epic threads.

Non i5/i7 CPUs (LGA 775 and AM2+/AM3 CPUs) have trouble maxing out Fermi based cards in most games.

Trust me, my previous CPU was a AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE, and it had trouble maxing out both a GTX 460 and GTX 470 in most games.

 

[SlackerITGuy]

Given that you have an AMD CPU, going Radeon here would be the wise choice.

AMD CPUs have trouble maxing out Fermi based cards in most games.

Go for the HD 6950 and then unlock it to a HD 6970.

Is it safe to state that newest or latest series cards are always the best way to go?
I am asking about this because there are still some HD5850's that are in the same price range with newer cards.

Hmm depends on the model # really.

For example a HD 5450 is not better than a HD 4870.

In this case, a HD 5850 is just in-between a HD 6850 and HD 6870 performance-wise. Still has some juice left that's for sure.

 

[Qmass55]

Just to throw a spanner in the works, what about the 5870? It works well for me at a reasonable price and you can double up in the future if need be.

 

[Ginmardo]

Given that you have an AMD CPU, going Radeon here would be the wise choice.

AMD CPUs have trouble maxing out Fermi based cards in most games.

Go for the HD 6950 and then unlock it to a HD 6970.

Is it safe to state that newest or latest series cards are always the best way to go?
I am asking about this because there are still some HD5850's that are in the same price range with newer cards.

Hmm depends on the model # really.

For example a HD 5450 is not better than a HD 4870.

In this case, a HD 5850 is just in-between a HD 6850 and HD 6870 performance-wise. Still has some juice left that's for sure.

I thought so too. Comparing the card specs, each card newer than its predecessor seems very pleasing on paper. But the benchmarks and reviews and replies on forum speak otherwise.

The price don't lie either LOL.
It kinda struck me as weird that the price tag of an older card could mount up to or even surpass the price tag of recently released card. To be honest I was psyched to see newer cards with very low price tags. I knew there was a catch!

LOL

 

[Fumz]

AMD CPUs have trouble maxing out Fermi based cards in most games.

Could you link to your source?

Sure.

Just google 'Fermi low GPU usage'. You'll have a field day with epic threads.

Non i5/i7 CPUs (LGA 775 and AM2+/AM3 CPUs) have trouble maxing out Fermi based cards in most games.

Trust me, my previous CPU was a AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE, and it had trouble maxing out both a GTX 460 and GTX 470 in most games.

Ahh, the Dick Cheney method...

Linking to other forum threads where you repeat the same claim is not exactly what I had in mind when I asked if you had a source.

First, when doing what you ask, all sorts of people report low gpu problems. It's not specific to AMD cpu's; it's all cpu's.

Secondly, the games mentioned, like Bad Company, have had issues with low gpu usage across the board; it too is not specific to AMD, Intel, ATI or nVidia.

I'm just wondering where you got this idea? Do you have anything other than anecdotal evidence, either from you or other guys in forums?

Every six months someone comes up with the claim, or a variation of it, that one gpu "works" better with a certain cpu. To date, nobody has ever backed these claims up with links to tests which prove these outlandish assertions.

 

[SlackerITGuy]

Is it safe to state that newest or latest series cards are always the best way to go?
I am asking about this because there are still some HD5850's that are in the same price range with newer cards.

Hmm depends on the model # really.

For example a HD 5450 is not better than a HD 4870.

In this case, a HD 5850 is just in-between a HD 6850 and HD 6870 performance-wise. Still has some juice left that's for sure.

I thought so too. Comparing the card specs, each card newer than its predecessor seems very pleasing on paper. But the benchmarks and reviews and replies on forum speak otherwise.

The price don't lie either LOL.
It kinda struck me as weird that the price tag of an older card could mount up to or even surpass the price tag of recently released card. To be honest I was psyched to see newer cards with very low price tags. I knew there was a catch!

LOL

Yup.

The HD 5850 is still a very solid gaming card, but the HD 6800 series cards have a couple of advantages over it:

- Improved tessellation performance (but just a bit).
- Improved CrossFireX scalability.
- New AA mode (MLAA).

If I was in the market for a ~$200 card, the HD 6850 would be my choice.

 

[Ginmardo]

Could you link to your source?

Sure.

Just google 'Fermi low GPU usage'. You'll have a field day with epic threads.

Non i5/i7 CPUs (LGA 775 and AM2+/AM3 CPUs) have trouble maxing out Fermi based cards in most games.

Trust me, my previous CPU was a AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE, and it had trouble maxing out both a GTX 460 and GTX 470 in most games.

Ahh, the Dick Cheney method...

Linking to other forum threads where you repeat the same claim is not exactly what I had in mind when I asked if you had a source.

First, when doing what you ask, all sorts of people report low gpu problems. It's not specific to AMD cpu's; it's all cpu's.

Secondly, the games mentioned, like Bad Company, have had issues with low gpu usage across the board; it too is not specific to AMD, Intel, ATI or nVidia.

I'm just wondering where you got this idea? Do you have anything other than anecdotal evidence, either from you or other guys in forums?

Every six months someone comes up with the claim, or a variation of it, that one gpu "works" better with a certain cpu. To date, nobody has ever backed these claims up with links to tests which prove these outlandish assertions.

I'm afraid I might have to side with you on this one.
I am currently running an AMD rig but sporting an NVIDIA Geforce card on it. It works, my PC simply works.
I can then say that they can work together but what I cannot attest to is that they cannot work together or that AMD CPU's & Radeon GPU's work better than AMD CPU's & NVIDIA GPU's.
Although it is stated on the AMD/ATI home site, I haven't come across any such stats to prove thus either.

I have no experience with AMD/ATI cards but have heard other whine and others praise them. If I were to buy one, its to experience its technology first hand.

I am curious.

 

[Ginmardo]

Hmm depends on the model # really.

For example a HD 5450 is not better than a HD 4870.

In this case, a HD 5850 is just in-between a HD 6850 and HD 6870 performance-wise. Still has some juice left that's for sure.

I thought so too. Comparing the card specs, each card newer than its predecessor seems very pleasing on paper. But the benchmarks and reviews and replies on forum speak otherwise.

The price don't lie either LOL.
It kinda struck me as weird that the price tag of an older card could mount up to or even surpass the price tag of recently released card. To be honest I was psyched to see newer cards with very low price tags. I knew there was a catch!

LOL

Yup.

The HD 5850 is still a very solid gaming card, but the HD 6800 series cards have a couple of advantages over it:

- Improved tessellation performance (but just a bit).
- Improved CrossFireX scalability.
- New AA mode (MLAA).

If I was in the market for a ~$200 card, the HD 6850 would be my choice.

Okay, this answers part of my question: given the option to choose between HD 5850 and HD 6800 for ~$200, I should just go for the HD 6800.

 

[SlackerITGuy]

Could you link to your source?

Sure.

Just google 'Fermi low GPU usage'. You'll have a field day with epic threads.

Non i5/i7 CPUs (LGA 775 and AM2+/AM3 CPUs) have trouble maxing out Fermi based cards in most games.

Trust me, my previous CPU was a AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE, and it had trouble maxing out both a GTX 460 and GTX 470 in most games.

Ahh, the Dick Cheney method...

Linking to other forum threads where you repeat the same claim is not exactly what I had in mind when I asked if you had a source.

First, when doing what you ask, all sorts of people report low gpu problems. It's not specific to AMD cpu's; it's all cpu's.

Secondly, the games mentioned, like Bad Company, have had issues with low gpu usage across the board; it too is not specific to AMD, Intel, ATI or nVidia.

I'm just wondering where you got this idea? Do you have anything other than anecdotal evidence, either from you or other guys in forums?

Every six months someone comes up with the claim, or a variation of it, that one gpu "works" better with a certain cpu. To date, nobody has ever backed these claims up with links to tests which prove these outlandish assertions.

Hmm so I guess in ~15 minutes, you were able to pick up on ~11 months of issues.

Dude, It's a known bug, Fermi based cards require more CPU power to run properly than previous generation cards or any of AMD's offerings.

It's not AMD exclusive, LGA 775 suffers from it as well.

It affects games like: F1 2010, Stracraft II, WoW, latest Final Fantasy, BFBC2 of course, GTA IV.... Off the top of my head.

Only in insanely GPU demanding games like Crysis and Metro 2033 that this issue doesn't present itself.

But enough with this, I'd gladly take this to PMs.

End thread hijacking.

 

[SlackerITGuy]

Sure.

Just google 'Fermi low GPU usage'. You'll have a field day with epic threads.

Non i5/i7 CPUs (LGA 775 and AM2+/AM3 CPUs) have trouble maxing out Fermi based cards in most games.

Trust me, my previous CPU was a AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE, and it had trouble maxing out both a GTX 460 and GTX 470 in most games.

Ahh, the Dick Cheney method...

Linking to other forum threads where you repeat the same claim is not exactly what I had in mind when I asked if you had a source.

First, when doing what you ask, all sorts of people report low gpu problems. It's not specific to AMD cpu's; it's all cpu's.

Secondly, the games mentioned, like Bad Company, have had issues with low gpu usage across the board; it too is not specific to AMD, Intel, ATI or nVidia.

I'm just wondering where you got this idea? Do you have anything other than anecdotal evidence, either from you or other guys in forums?

Every six months someone comes up with the claim, or a variation of it, that one gpu "works" better with a certain cpu. To date, nobody has ever backed these claims up with links to tests which prove these outlandish assertions.

I'm afraid I might have to side with you on this one.
I am currently running an AMD rig but sporting an NVIDIA Geforce card on it. It works, my PC simply works.
I can then say that they can work together but what I cannot attest to is that they cannot work together or that AMD CPU's & Radeon GPU's work better than AMD CPU's & NVIDIA GPU's.
Although it is stated on the AMD/ATI home site, I haven't come across any such stats to prove thus either.

I have no experience with AMD/ATI cards but have heard other whine and others praise them. If I were to buy one, its to experience its technology first hand.

I am curious.

Hmmm I didn't know NVIDIA made some 8500GT's based on the GF100 chip.

Interesting.

 

[SlackerITGuy]

I thought so too. Comparing the card specs, each card newer than its predecessor seems very pleasing on paper. But the benchmarks and reviews and replies on forum speak otherwise.

The price don't lie either LOL.
It kinda struck me as weird that the price tag of an older card could mount up to or even surpass the price tag of recently released card. To be honest I was psyched to see newer cards with very low price tags. I knew there was a catch!

LOL

Yup.

The HD 5850 is still a very solid gaming card, but the HD 6800 series cards have a couple of advantages over it:

- Improved tessellation performance (but just a bit).
- Improved CrossFireX scalability.
- New AA mode (MLAA).

If I was in the market for a ~$200 card, the HD 6850 would be my choice.

Okay, this answers part of my question: given the option to choose between HD 5850 and HD 6800 for ~$200, I should just go for the HD 6800.

Definitely.

 

[Fumz]

Hmm so I guess in ~15 minutes, you were able to pick up on ~11 months of issues.

Dude, It's a known bug, Fermi based cards require more CPU power to run properly than previous generation cards or any of AMD's offerings.

It's not AMD exclusive, LGA 775 suffers from it as well.

It affects games like: F1 2010, Stracraft II, WoW, latest Final Fantasy, BFBC2 of course, GTA IV.... Off the top of my head.

Only in insanely GPU demanding games like Crysis and Metro 2033 that this issue doesn't present itself.

But enough with this, I'd gladly take this to PMs.

End thread hijacking.

I'm not hijacking this thread. You made a claim. I asked you to provide a source. You did not.

It's not that I've spent the last 15 minutes trying to catch up on the last 11 months; it's that for the last 11 months I've kept current.... which is very different.

Yes, some games aren't properly optimized and gpu performance suffers dependent on a patch(s), sometimes as low as %50 usage. Again though, that's across the board: where that happens you usually see it on both amd and nvidia cards regardless of cpu.

Yes, Intel cpu's are able to push gpu's better than amd gpus, but that's only because Intel cpu's are stronger. When you clock up the amd's, gpu performance evens out.

You keep saying this is "known" and therefor common knowledge... well... again... link me please. To date, I've seen no AMD cpu scaling benchmarks which demonstrate that when paired with Fermi based cards, those cards suffer performance dips.

Given your claims, I don't think that's an unreasonable request.

 

[thehappyman]

Which video card would you recommend [single, not SLI or CrossfireX]?

I've read up on different video card specs and honestly... it confuses me even more and leaves really undecided about which type and graphics series to get.

Hi Ginmardo - Not to get confused about this - If you have a good enough power supply AND two spare PCI-16 slots then you can utilize TWO Video Cards "in tandem" and utilize SLI. In which case you will have a more powerful graphics system.

But many rigs don't have the extra PCI slots (or their users want to use those precious slots for something else) In which case, you will only have a Single Video Card. But There are many good ones available. NVidia and ATI both have powerful single card solutions available.

Currently I am using an ATI HD 5970 which is actually two ATI 5870's put together on one card in SLI. I am more than happy with this right now but I have no doubt that a better "single card" Video Board will soon surface. I think ATI already has a dual GPU 6970 for sale.

But, seriously, its sometimes difficult to actually notice incremental improvements in high end video cards.

You just have to do lots of reading - and Podcasts are a great source of Knowledge
Just Bide your time, do your studies, and everything will "fall into place"

 

[Ginmardo]

Which video card would you recommend [single, not SLI or CrossfireX]?

I've read up on different video card specs and honestly... it confuses me even more and leaves really undecided about which type and graphics series to get.

Hi Ginmardo - Not to get confused about this - If you have a good enough power supply AND two spare PCI-16 slots then you can utilize TWO Video Cards "in tandem" and utilize SLI. In which case you will have a more powerful graphics system.

But many rigs don't have the extra PCI slots (or their users want to use those precious slots for something else) In which case, you will only have a Single Video Card. But There are many good ones available. NVidia and ATI both have powerful single card solutions available.

Currently I am using an ATI HD 5970 which is actually two ATI 5870's put together on one card in SLI. I am more than happy with this right now but I have no doubt that a better "single card" Video Board will soon surface. I think ATI already has a dual GPU 6970 for sale.

But, seriously, its sometimes difficult to actually notice incremental improvements in high end video cards.

You just have to do lots of reading - and Podcasts are a great source of Knowledge
Just Bide your time, do your studies, and everything will "fall into place"

The money isn't all gathered yet so that buys me some time. I am planning on going for a CPU, GPU card upgrade and add some extra RAM to the rig starting with the
GPU which proves a lot more work than it seems
That is if you are aiming to hit the bullseye in a single shot.

The reason I post this question on the forum is to get real experience with gaming GPU's. I am currently inquiring more info about the cards just so that I don't go out and spend on something I might have gotten better for.

Any ideas where I can dig up more info about the cards? A link or website you can refer me to?

The manufacturer homepages will mostly provide you with the ads and info they want you to believe [self proclaiming the throne] so to speak LOL.

But if there are links to which you can direct me to, I'd be more than happy and grateful to check em out. In the mean time I'll check out the HD 5970 series

 

[WDAexodus]

Do you plan on upgrading from a 22" display? If the answer is no then save some money. You really don't need any of the cards previously listed. There are cards around $120-$130 that will give you excellent performance on a 22". I think the HD 5770 is at a great price to performance ratio. It will give you all the bells and whistles you need and and keeps you from wasting money. Now if you plan on gaming on a large display then sure look higher but IMO if you're sticking with your 22" monitor save your money or use the savings to pay for that ram upgrade you discussed. Here's a report from Tom's Hardware you can look at to help you make a decision:

Best PCIe Card: $100 To $175 : Best Graphics Cards For The Money: January 2011

At the bottom of the page you can choose the different price range reports and a heiarchy chart for all the cards currently on the market.