About £200.00 for new Graphics card help please

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 8:23 am

Reading this thread made me think

http://ca.isohunt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=653645&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Ok so i was going to get a whole new computer but decided that am going to wait as a new sandy bridge should be launched end of the year and seems it will blow away current specs.

So I am going to get a new graphics card instead.

I want to go Nvidia as I heard that they have no issues when running Mac osx on a pc

so whats my options I dont know anything about Nvidia

I see the gtx560ti mentioned is this my best option for the money?

My use is going to be FPS, rendering film and photoshop

I currently get about 50fps when playing BFBC2 on medium hoping for an improvement

or should i spend it on something else

my set up is

Gigabyte Technologhy P35-DS3
chipset P35/G33/G31
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (775 LGA) stepping B Revision G0
4GB x ddr2 Giel Memory
ATI 4870

I have a 500W power supply will a new card effect my overclock? (currently set at 3.0ghz)

thanks in advance

Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 10:01 pm

if you are looking at getting something right now, then whichever of the 6950 or gtx 560 ti you can get cheaper is the best bet in my opinion. bear in mind that's only if you really need it right now though, if you are looking to upgrade and then migrate it into a 2011 socket motherboard at the end of the year and can handle the lower specs on BFBC2 in the meantime then i'd recommend sitting on what you've got.

sticking something like a 560 ti or 6950 in a SB-E rig, given the sort of power you can expect they'll have, is sort of like sticking a V6 in a monaro, (that's an australian car if you didn't know) they are meant to have V8's in. if anyone has brought one with a V6 you are suppose to remove it and stick a 350 chev in there Very Happy

Personally that is what i'm doing (waiting to upgrade i mean), i'd really like a new machine right now so I can go back to playing starcraft and I wan't to try out crysis 2 as well, but more than that I'm looking at Skyrim in November and want to be able to play using 3DVS. this means I have to have SLI and 5760x1080 or even 5760x1200 if i can get it just won't work on a 560 ti in SLI so I need 2 580's. At the moment the one's I'm looking at are $500+ in america (more in aus) and since our dollar is better than the yanks at the moment I'm sorely tempted to order a couple as it's cheaper even with the shipping. still in 6 months the price should have dropped so by waiting hopefully i'll save a couple of hundred dollars to and can get a more exotic cooling solution (^_^) not to mention a butt load more power than what i'd get for the same price now

I guess the point I'm trying to make is, make sure you have a clearly defined goal in mind for your upgrade, either of those cards will help you get better frame rates right now but it's really about what you wan't in six months to a year. also make sure you have enough room in your case Wink

Quote:

I have a 500W power supply will a new card effect my overclock? (currently set at 3.0ghz)

My gut feeling is no but if you get a 560ti i'd run the card at stock to be safe, i think its always a good idea to have a bit of headroom in your system power draw as power supplies are rather inefficient at full load though honestly i couldn't say how close you'd be pushing it, never did understand power consumption calculations all that well.

Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 11:34 pm

The 6950 felt like a more solid card to me than the 560ti (got a chance to mess around with both recently)
The 560 was made with the specific goal of creating a cheap card that would run the new crysis game. It's like the sole reason it exist.
I would honestly suggest a 6950 given a choice between the two.

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 2:23 am

The 560 is the Nvidia answer to the 6870, both are made to be value performance cards..
the 6950, one level bellow the 6970 ( and actually the same hardware so the bios unlock makes it like hybrid between the 2 or even better)

So going for a 6950 will give you better performance no question there.
Really depends on your display and the resolution you plan on playing/games/settings.

Soo many things to consider, like I went with a 6870 with my latest build, seeing as I play mainly source games/AoE so I dont need a lot, but I like getting a good card.

If you plan on playing BF3 on ultra high settings, go with the 6950 vs the 560 ti Razz

when it comes down to it, all these cards are almost all ahead of the games that are avilable, the VGA comenies are pressing on game compenies to make games that will actually use all the epicness of the GFXs, but it takes time so meh.. (spell check failed me here sorry )

Cheers Razz

Edit : tbh I would recommend getting a better psu, so when you do eventually get a new mobo and cpu ect, you have a psu already ready, get a 80+ one, they are awesomely efficient Very Happy

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 2:45 am

A 560Ti or 6950 will be able to maximize BF3 graphics?

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 2:48 am

Devilz_108 wrote:

A 560Ti or 6950 will be able to maximize BF3 graphics?

Depends on resolution ect, but the 6950 has the better chance as it has more Memory on it ( 2GB) which means the more details it will be able to handle.

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 3:42 am

Thanks guys.

certainly some food for thought looking at the 6950 it looks massive!!

How much bigger is it than the 4870? it looks like the depth is twice as deep too!!

Also I take it the one I would need is the Asus one?

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 3:58 am

CrazyMcCool wrote:

Devilz_108 wrote:

A 560Ti or 6950 will be able to maximize BF3 graphics?

Depends on resolution ect, but the 6950 has the better chance as it has more Memory on it ( 2GB) which means the more details it will be able to handle.

apparently the frostbite 2.0 engine is better optimized than the 1.5 BC2 one so they claim you should expect similar frame rates from each.

1920x1200 4xAA 16AF at full setting yeilds 50 FPS give take from both cards in BC2, unlock a 6950 and overclock the core and you'd get 60 FPS easily. overclocking a 560ti is unlikely to hit that as at higher resloutions the performancec gains from overclocking your graphics cards are less profound, particularily considering the lower memory on the 560ti something which is needed at higher resolutions. The game hasn't been released yet so no-one can know for sure.

Quote:

Also I take it the one I would need is the Asus one?

what makes you think that?

edit: those framerates were from a i7-920 @ 4GHz rig... also, no fair c_f, how come you get to play with new hardware /me is jealous

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 4:02 am

lndestructible wrote:

Quote:

Also I take it the one I would need is the Asus one?

what makes you think that?

errrrrrrrr??? because its the most expensive one (LOL)

what differences are there?

I'm a bit of a noob when it come to this stuff

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 4:08 am

the only real difference would be the aftermarket coolers manufacturer's install on them and possibly a memory upgrade in some cases, also some of the pre-overclocked ones have gone through a process called "binning" which means they will almost invariably be able to acheive higher overclock's than the reference cards.

obviously the aftermarket coolers are more effiecent than the reference designs as well. i'm liking EVGA at the moment because they are offering a lifetime warranty for their products when you register with them.

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 4:18 am

do Evga do the 6950?

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 6:23 am

No, EVGA do not make AMD GPUs at the moment. Smile

The price does not make the card better m8 Wink

I would recommended getting a 2GB 6950 and make sure it has the bios thingy cause some aftermarket ones dont.

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 6:51 am

how do i know what one has it and doesnt and i can see 3 manufactures

saphire
asus
xfx

what are the differences

(again sorry for the noob question)

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 7:05 am

YIKES
sorry i was out fishing today..
560ti is a no go.... no support for gif 114
best card for the hackintosh is a 400 series or just take the GTX 260 as it works 100% and no drivers fixes or any other tricks needed, it will work straight out of the box and only costs about 60 quid. it will run a 27" ipslcd in full 2560 resolution.......... Wink

On the mac side of things rendering and photoshop is cpu and disk space.
If you set up a dual system take an ATI for gaming and the cheap but very mac friendly 260 from Nvidea. Should still be on budget that way.

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 7:08 am

johnno23 wrote:

YIKES
sorry i was out fishing today..
560ti is a no go.... no support for gif 114
best card for the hackintosh is a 400 series or just take the GTX 260 as it works 100% and no drivers fixes or any other tricks needed, it will work straight out of the box and only costs about 60 quid. it will run a 27" ipslcd in full 2560 resolution.......... Wink

I wondered where you were!!

I need to be able to run FPS like BFBC2 (and BF3 when its out) so i think i need a more powerful card.

does the 6950 work? i see conflicting stuff on Hackintosh forums