I'd love some help with a new graphics card

[Dona.794]

I'd love some help with a new graphics card

Hi all,

Some of you might have seen the posts where I mentioned my graphics card died a terrible death. Fan blades fell off one by one, don't even ask me how - I'm assuming it's the heat wave combined with a recent move. My warranty expired, so I have no other choice but to get a new one, and I'd be very happy if it could be done without replacing the rest of the hardware.

My current system:
Motherboard - MS-7599
AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 640 Processor, ~3.0GHz
4GB ram
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460

There'd that dream of running TW2 in Uber mode, but there's also the reality of simply having the new card do the job at a decent price, while complimenting the rest of the hardware. My apologies if I left something out, let me know if you need more detail. The truth is, I don't keep track of these things unless I'm buying a new machine, which doesn't happen that often. This is as annoying as it is!

Thank you!

 

[M4xw0lf.978]

Hey Dona So, if you keep your CPU, a potent graphics card will only make sense in the least CPU-demanding games - the Athlon x4 is not exactly a beast of a processor
What resolution do you use for playing?
Good news is, you'll get a card twice as fast as your old GTX460 for ~200€... but here we are at question 2: what's your budget?

 

[Thothistox]

Hi all,

Some of you might have seen the posts where I mentioned my graphics card died a terrible death. Fan blades fell off one by one, don't even ask me how - I'm assuming it's the heat wave combined with a recent move. My warranty expired, so I have no other choice but to get a new one, and I'd be very happy if it could be done without replacing the rest of the hardware.

My current system:
Motherboard - MS-7599
AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 640 Processor, ~3.0GHz
4GB ram
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460

There'd that dream of running TW2 in Uber mode, but there's also the reality of simply having the new card do the job at a decent price, while complimenting the rest of the hardware. My apologies if I left something out, let me know if you need more detail. The truth is, I don't keep track of these things unless I'm buying a new machine, which doesn't happen that often. This is as annoying as it is!

Thank you!

Is it just the fan or is the whole card toast? You can replace the fan easily in most cards. Try getting a fan off a broken card. If you search around online there might be someone willing to give you a broken one for free.

 

[Dona.794]

My screen res is 1920x1080, which is what I pick for most games. I haven't really played any that gave me trouble or had me use a lower setting, save it for some older games that had understandable limitations.

Re: budget, 200€ sounds fair (I think that's how much mine cost), but anything under it would be fab. And probably impossible. I'd rather not splurge, but not being able to play games is getting annoying. I can run Guild Wars 2 at lowest settings, but games like TW2 and DX:HR (at lowest settings) make my computer restart in seconds.

Which ties in with @Thothistox's posts - I don't really know. The blades being gone is something I can see (and I had to pluck off a few myself, as they got stuck), but the card seems to overheat when there are particles around (if anyone has played GW2 - the waterfall in jumping puzzle in Lion's Arch makes it restart if I stand around there for too long).

@M4x
Yeah, the machine is quite old by now, that's why I'd like a card that goes well with the rest of the system, even if it's not the best on around. Surely I could get a 460 again, but I'm a bit sceptic at this point.

 

[Georgie_Porgie]

If 200€ is fair then how do you feel about Radeon 7950? Seen a few for 189€ alongside never settle 3 free games bundle

 

[tommy5761]

The computer restarting has me a little concerned . Yes an overheating card could be the issue but then again it could be a power supply as well . Do you know the brand and model of power supply that`s installed ?

 

[M4xw0lf.978]

The computer restarting has me a little concerned . Yes an overheating card could be the issue but then again it could be a power supply as well . Do you know the brand and model of power supply that`s installed ?

If the restarts started only after the blades broke off, then it's probably the card - but yes, more details about the power supply are necessary, too.

@Dona
Regarding your budget, you might even get a Radeon HD 7950 / Geforce GTX660Ti for a little less than 200€ (depending on where in euroland you live).

 

[Dona.794]

@Agbeth
Sure it's an option, but I have never had a Radeon card, ever. Any pros and cons to getting one? I might also mention that I work in Photoshop a lot, creating big-scale paintings, and I might be learning a bit of 3D soon, if that makes any difference.

@Tommy
I'm not sure where to check that, any advice? As for restarting, the graphics card makes a lot of noise (I checked that it's not something else) and then poof, a restart. Man, if I need to replace more than just one component, I think I'll just buy a Macbook for work and put gaming on the back-burner for a while :/

 

[tommy5761]

@Agbeth
Sure it's an option, but I have never had a Radeon card, ever. Any pros and cons to getting one? I might also mention that I work in Photoshop a lot, creating big-scale paintings, and I might be learning a bit of 3D soon, if that makes any difference.

@Tommy
I'm not sure where to check that, any advice? As for restarting, the graphics card makes a lot of noise (I checked that it's not something else) and then poof, a restart. Man, if I need to replace more than just one component, I think I'll just buy a Macbook for work and put gaming on the back-burner for a while :/

Pull the side off the case and take a flashlight and look inside the case and toward the top and back you should see a square box and most have a yellow sticker with a lot of writing on it . There should be a manufacturer name and model on it . Thankfully power supplies are relatively economical .

 

[M4xw0lf.978]

@Agbeth
Sure it's an option, but I have never had a Radeon card, ever. Any pros and cons to getting one? I might also mention that I work in Photoshop a lot, creating big-scale paintings, and I might be learning a bit of 3D soon, if that makes any difference.

@Tommy
I'm not sure where to check that, any advice? As for restarting, the graphics card makes a lot of noise (I checked that it's not something else) and then poof, a restart. Man, if I need to replace more than just one component, I think I'll just buy a Macbook for work and put gaming on the back-burner for a while :/

Photoshop (CS6) uses OpenGL, not CUDA, therefore you have no disadvantages with a Radeon. 3d stuff - no idea
For gaming both are equally fine, if you don't absolutely want GPU-Physx effects.

Judging from the description of the crashes, I'd blame the graphics card.
And checking your PSU's specification is usually easiest by looking in your PC, there should be some specs or at least a name directly on the PSU somewhere.
edit: what Tommy said

 

[sfinx]

@Agbeth
Sure it's an option, but I have never had a Radeon card, ever. Any pros and cons to getting one?

I don't think you can make a mistake with both producers. They aren't far away in level of technology from each other.

What I heard (I also never have AMD) - AMD cosumes little bit more energy, drivers for AMD sometimes came later than for NVidia. NVidia cards were little bit more expensive. That is all, I think. And I think most of that is history now.

3D graphic and games depend on level of graphic card, not on AMD vs Nvidia.


Maxwolf: Is there a problem for them to run OpenGL?

 

[GuyNwah]

AMD cards generally deliver more "bang" per watt and per dollar. It used to be that AMD had the mid-range and lower market pretty much to themselves; with "Hawaii", they are making a move at the high end.

CCC is fugly compared to nVidia Control Panel, but it's workable. And AMD is pretty much caught up as of the recent driver versions.

What AMD doesn't have is support for nVidia proprietary APIs. If you have applications that require CUDA or PhysX (Photoshop specifically does not require these), you need nVidia.

Both manufacturers have good OpenGL support, and Adobe approves all current models for Photoshop CS6. http://forums.adobe.com/thread/979969

 

[Dona.794]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone, I'm a bit slow to reply here because there's absolutely no stickers on my power supply (at least not from the visible side) and I've been trying to figure out what it is, but it seems I've lost the info on my full system. To top it off, I just realised my computer is too slow in some other areas (unrealted to the graphics card), so... I'm still deciding what to do. A Radeon would be a good start in any case, I'll certainly look into it.

@Guy
Thanks for the extensive info, as always! I don't think I'm using applications that require nVidia's stuff, at least not for now, so that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[waltc.480]

AMD cards generally deliver more "bang" per watt and per dollar. It used to be that AMD had the mid-range and lower market pretty much to themselves; with "Hawaii", they are making a move at the high end.

CCC is fugly compared to nVidia Control Panel, but it's workable. And AMD is pretty much caught up as of the recent driver versions.

What AMD doesn't have is support for nVidia proprietary APIs. If you have applications that require CUDA or PhysX (Photoshop specifically does not require these), you need nVidia.

Both manufacturers have good OpenGL support, and Adobe approves all current models for Photoshop CS6. http://forums.adobe.com/thread/979969

I honestly don't care for the nVidia control panel--it looks too much like some kind of generic WinXP control panel, or something.../>/> CCC is form designed around function, imo, and you'll never confuse it with a generic Windows config program. I think that's as it should be.

She may not be sure what CUDA is, and as far as PhysX goes, it's one of those proprietary things supported sporadically in games that simply adds more debris to explosions and can choke up the frame-rate/game play while doing so. I'll be glad when AMD gets the middle of the Rx Hawaii lineup on the new gpu, though--because I immediately thought about which I'd rather have, True Audio or PhysX?--not a difficult decision to make. True Audio isn't just an API, it's dedicated gpu hardware circuitry designed to offload the audio processing from the cpu, and the great thing about it is that it outputs through your existing sound device, whatever that may be. Like PhysX, though, games will have to support TA. The demo seriously surprised me, heard through normal stereo phones. It really is 7.1 surround through stereo headphones (or speakers), and the gpu offloads the processing! I don't think the new low-end 260X will have enough graphics horsepower, though, even though it, too, supports TA--be nice to read some reviews. (290x eliminates all else in performance but is a tad more expensive, too.../>/>)

TA Demo(use plain old stereo headphones or stereo speakers to listen)

 

[GuyNwah]

Different strokes for different folks, I suppose: I find CCC distasteful, with garish colors and poor responsiveness. It also requires .NET 4.0, which I do not allow on my computers except as it is strictly necessary. Now nVidia has gone and required .NET 4.0 for Geforce Experience, which requires me to do custom installs that don't include that worthless piece of green crap.

Dona is a graphic artist, and her principal concern is OpenGL and Photoshop support; both manufacturers do that very well.

All but one of the "new" AMD offerings are just relabels of existing product, and the "new" R290X is not a new architecture at all but just a really big second-generation GCN.

And system bells and whistles like CUDA, GPU PhysX, True Audio, and Mantle are worthless to end users except as application developers make use of them. They're no reason to choose any product over another unless you have an application that depends on one of these.