2.0 ate my video card!

[Quillan]

2.0 ate my video card!

Sorry for the troll topic, but I just couldn't resist. My 3.5 year old EVGA 9800 GT decided to die right in the conversation with Aryan LaVallette and not let the computer reboot afterwards. I made a quick run to Best Buy and snagged a little $60 card just to see if that was it (it was, rebooted fine without any artifacts) but now I need a new card.

I'm willing to spend $200-300 on one, but really don't want to shell out a fortune on crazy amounts of power. Native resolution on my widescreen monitor is 1680x1050, so I don't need stupendous resolutions either. It must be an nVidia card, as I really don't want to deal with Ati issues I hear about with some games. Last, I want a good brand; this one has a lifetime warranty on it and I will be shipping it off for repair or replacement in a week or so, and I'll keep it as an emergency spare in the future.

Any suggestions? Do you have personal experience with the card? Good/Bad? Anything I should avoid?

 

[dasloth]

I'm not up on the latest prices but I'm guessing a 560 will do nicely.

 

[rmack91]

I have had a Sapphire Radeon HD6850 1GB for a couple of months. So far it has been very good with no problems.
I am able to run The Witcher 2 on ultra (ubersampling disabled, 1920x1080 resolution) at over 30 fps (35 average).
The card cost about $270 NZD ($205 USD).
If you want to spend a little more you could try a 6870 or higher.

 

[GuyNwah]

In current cards, the minimum for a really good experience is probably the nVidia GTX 460. Lesser cards aren't good value; they're not priced well enough to make up for the difference in performance.

In AMD cards, the HD 6850 will outperform the GTX 460 slightly. You can shop around and make your decision on which is the better deal. I know you dislike AMD, but there's a lot of FUD that should be discounted when considering other people's rants.

You can get by with a GTS 450 or HD 6770, especially since you are not running a full 1920x1080, but again, these are not good value, too expensive for the difference in what you get.

And EVGA still has the best warranty service in the market, no contest.

 

[Quillan]

It's not that I dislike Ati per se; way back when, my 9800 Pro was a STUPENDOUS card for a couple of years. It's just that there are some issues that always seem to crop up with Ati drivers. Back in Thief: Deadly Shadows there were flickering texture issues, for example, and when Deus Ex:Human Revolution came out certain Ati cards couldn't even play the game as it crashed on launch. nVidia has its share of issues too; I know that much. It's just that recently I've had better success and heard better reports about nVidia cards. Plus I've had nothing but good experiences with EVGA, so I'd like to stick with them if possible. I'm leaning towards a 560 Ti, but am reading reviews to see what people have to say.

Thanks for the input everyone, and if anyone has anything more feel free.

 

[GuyNwah]

The 560Ti is awesome. It's probably the best value in the market right now.

Make sure your power supply's OK for it; it wants 170W TDP and has been known to hit 205W, or 260W overclocked. The 9800 GT is a supermodel who eats only salads in comparison, at 105W.

 

[drunknmunkey666]

GTX560ti is a VERY safe bet - go for it I got one, and got no problems with it what so ever, it just works, and does it's job very good for it's value. TW2 is very smooth with this card - I got an Asus GTX560ti DCII 900Mhz OCed edition, works like a charm and is very quiet.. But like Guy said: these kind of cards needs a good PSU!

 

[Quillan]

This is my current PSU. It would not handle one of the $900 cards, but it should be ok for a 560. I try not to skimp on power supplies.

 

[volsung]

This is my current PSU. It would not handle one of the $900 cards, but it should be ok for a 560. I try not to skimp on power supplies.

What are you talking about? That PSU can handle one GTX 590 easily (not two though).

On full load, your system probably barely reaches the 350 watt limit. A 650 is *fine*. Why do people go all crazy on power supplies?

 

[GuyNwah]

This is my current PSU. It would not handle one of the $900 cards, but it should be ok for a 560. I try not to skimp on power supplies.

That's a top-of-the-line PSU (Seasonic X, which is Seasonic's high-end line). It could handle any single GPU and most two-GPU setups. It definitely will not constrain your choice of GPU.

 

[namvet]

I just bought a Sapphire ATI Radeon 5570. It does the job. Have had no problems running Witcher 2 at 1600x900 in the higher graphic modes. Picked it up for $119.00 at Amazon.Com. For a med range card it does as good or better than some of the higher priced video cards. Great reviews.

 

[GuyNwah]

I just bought a Sapphire ATI Radeon 5570. It does the job. Have had no problems running Witcher 2 at 1600x900 in the higher graphic modes. Picked it up for $119.00 at Amazon.Com. For a med range card it does as good or better than some of the higher priced video cards. Great reviews.

I think you mean 5770. A 5570 can't do that, and that price is what Amazon sells Sapphire's 5770 for; the 5570 sells for half that.

That's what I mean about the below-high-end cards. They're not good value. Another $15-$30 would be enough for a GTX 460 ($135-150 after rebates at Newegg: the good 1GB model, not the older 768MB one).

 

[phylumsinter]

re: ATI cards, issues etc.

I don't think either of the big manufacturers are 'more reliable' than the other.

I have two PC's - one a lan rig and one my home system. The home system has a Sapphire Radeon 5850, the lan rig has a (in need of an update, imo) EVGA GTX 460. Neither system has had any crippling issues running any game in the past two years. The ATI runs a few games noticeably faster, the nVidia occasionally wows me with good physX implementation at the cost of a few FPS most of the time. Sometimes it takes a driver update to get things going smoothly, but no game has refused to run for me.

Most of the issues you see are likely due to lack of maintainence or tweaking, letting drivers get outdated and such - in other words, the user's fault, not the cards. Both manufacturers have equal issues getting games to work as well in an SLI/Crossfire system.

I'm not defending ATI or nVidia, i guess my point is this: Go with whoever has a good warranty and a good price point. Historically ATI is a little cheaper because they don't include physX natively. Holding on to brand loyalty will bite you in the *** eventually.

**EDIT** - re-reading, i'd like to add that i believe my good fortune when it comes to gaming has been due to my largely 'hands off' approach to optimization -- i don't go nuts with overclocking, i don't dig in the drivers for another 1-2fps improvement etc. I think if you run a game with updated, official drivers, your chances of ever seeing any glitches in a well-produced game plummet to near zero, regardless of what brand of video card you're using.

 

[Quillan]

What are you talking about? That PSU can handle one GTX 590 easily (not two though).

On full load, your system probably barely reaches the 350 watt limit. A 650 is *fine*. Why do people go all crazy on power supplies?

The Newegg page for the EVGA GTX 590 says minimum 700W power supply. I know people go crazy with them, and I would not need 1000W, but I do have the video card, sound card, Blu-Ray drive, DVD-ROM drive, and two hard drives in my computer. If I were spending obscene amounts of money on the video card, I'd probably go with a stronger power supply just to be safe. But, it's good to get confirmation that I'll be ok. Thanks!

 

[robvdheijden]

The Newegg page for the EVGA GTX 590 says minimum 700W power supply. I know people go crazy with them, and I would not need 1000W, but I do have the video card, sound card, Blu-Ray drive, DVD-ROM drive, and two hard drives in my computer. If I were spending obscene amounts of money on the video card, I'd probably go with a stronger power supply just to be safe. But, it's good to get confirmation that I'll be ok. Thanks!

with a 650 watt power supply u will be fine runnign any graphic card. and keep in mind that the card they mentioned the 590 is a dual gpu card so basicly it uses double the power then any other high end graphic card.

if ur looking to get a good single gpu card just get whatever u feel like amd or nvidia doesnt make that much difference anymore these days. but upgrading ur psu would just be a waste of cash.
.

 

[volsung]

The Newegg page for the EVGA GTX 590 says minimum 700W power supply. I know people go crazy with them, and I would not need 1000W, but I do have the video card, sound card, Blu-Ray drive, DVD-ROM drive, and two hard drives in my computer. If I were spending obscene amounts of money on the video card, I'd probably go with a stronger power supply just to be safe. But, it's good to get confirmation that I'll be ok. Thanks!

Yeah sorry I meant GTX 580. But even with the 700w recommendation, your system may not draw that much power and you may be OK.

I have an OC'ed GTX 560 Ti, 3.7 GHz OC'ed Phenom II X6, two hard drives, one optic drive, powerful 5.1 speakers, among other things, and I monitor my power usage through an APC UPS. I usually am around 350 watts under heavy load (The Witcher 2 for example).

 

[pbpoovanna]

I have had a Sapphire Radeon HD6850 1GB for a couple of months. So far it has been very good with no problems.
I am able to run The Witcher 2 on ultra (ubersampling disabled, 1920x1080 resolution) at over 30 fps (35 average).
The card cost about $270 NZD ($205 USD).
If you want to spend a little more you could try a 6870 or higher.

I HAVE THE SAME CARD AS WELL get it!!! witcher 2 and almost every other game thats out works fine with this card!!! getting over 35 fps in witcher 2 with uber sampling off and 1920x1080 resolution