Video Card Upgrade Report

[etheberge]

To people considering upgrading their video card for SHV:

I upgraded my old Nvidia 8800GT video card to an ATI HD5850 and the results are absolutely spectacular, I could hardly believe my eyes.

My system:
Intel Core2Duo E8400 / 3ghz
5gig of good old DDR2
Windows 7 x64

with the Nvidia 8800 GT:

I spent a while trying out different combination of settings to find something that was adequate, I eventually settled on 1680x1050, everything enabled/maxed except shadows off / vsync off / AA at one click above off. But I wasn't really satisfied, the shadows I could live without and they were the major FPS killer, but I really need high AA since I can't stand those jagged edges.

Anyway, even with the setting above, I was getting atrocious performance while standing in the pen, (about 18-20 fps min, max about 30 depending on where I looked) and also in the control room (about 18 to 25 fps). Everywhere else was playable about 30 to 40 fps on the bridge in Kiel harbor, about 10 fps more when at sea.

with the ATI HD5850:

First thing I did was to max out AA and max out the shadows. I figured I would see how it ran with both settings maxed and work my way down to find acceptable performance. All other settings were the same.

So I load a save game that has me standing in the pen and now I'm getting a minimum of about 35 to about 45 fps depending on where I look. Wow, pretty good I think. I then start a patrol to see how it runs on the boat. Standing on the bridge with the boat still within the pen, I'm getting 37-40fps. I go down to the control room and I'm getting even better performance about 45fps, super smooth and stable. I did a walk around of the boat and performance is the same everywhere, at least 45 to 50 fps.

And that's with shadows and AA maxed! Before I couldn't even run 1 click of shadows without the fps going down into the teens.

When at sea during a historical mission with a convoy (PQ17), performance is even better. I'm getting about 70-75 fps on the bridge during a heavy storm and get this, about 90 to 95 fps in the control room and 100 to 140 fps anywhere else. Still with shadows and AA maxed.

Some other numbers: during the tutorial, I'm getting about 80fps when you get woken up and facing the control room. Then about 50-60 during the attack against the ships.

I'm very impressed so far, I didn't expect such a big jump in performance. I would have been happy to get a stable 40 fps with shadows off and mid range AA but these numbers I'm getting are spectacular.

I can't recommend this card enough if all you care about is SHV. Don't know about other games though.

[Decoman]

The Radeon 5850 card should be pretty quiet when running too, with the gpu fan running on auto. :DL Mine is quiet anyway.

[Webster]

good info but not much of a fair comparison when the 8800gt is like a 3650 or 3750 and you went all the way up to a 5850 so ya i would expect it to be a very huge difference :yeah:

[etheberge]

The Radeon 5850 card should be pretty quiet when running too, with the gpu fan running on auto. :DL Mine is quiet anyway.

Yes it is, my case is still open and I could hardly hear it when running the game earlier. Very happy so far.

[Ships-R-Us]

good info but not much of a fair comparison when the 8800gt is like a 3650 or 3750 and you went all the way up to a 5850 so ya i would expect it to be a very huge difference :yeah:

I'm ignorant on this kind of stuff......How does my GeForce 9800GTX+ compare with this 5850 card......You guys know this stuff pretty well
Thank You

PS: One year ago I paid $251.00 for it and now I see it for just over $100. I am feeling I got screwed.........I also see people with these gtx 250's things or some kind of gtx ???'s....How do they compare
Any feedback is appreciated.

[SteamWake]

Man its getting to the point where I cant keep track of all these cards out there.

Do they intentionally make the naming conventions confusing?

[remowilliams]

I'm ignorant on this kind of stuff......How does my GeForce 9800GTX+ compare with this 5850 card......

You might want to check out something like the vga charts (http://www.guru3d.com/article/vga-charts-december-2009/10) to get a rough idea of video card power overall.

I've got a GTX295 myself and it's quite a nice little beastie. :)

[Onkel Neal]

Man its getting to the point where I cant keep track of all these cards out there.

Do they intentionally make the naming conventions confusing?

Yeah, I wish they would just call them nVida 669, nVida 670, nVida 671, nVida 672, etc.

[longam]

I'm ignorant on this kind of stuff......How does my GeForce 9800GTX+ compare with this 5850 card......You guys know this stuff pretty well
Thank You

PS: One year ago I paid $251.00 for it and now I see it for just over $100. I am feeling I got screwed.........I also see people with these gtx 250's things or some kind of gtx ???'s....How do they compare
Any feedback is appreciated.

Running the same card with shadows maxed, and a dash of AA (which really is debatable if it is needed with dx11, I see no jaggies with it on or off) and no stutter here. The shadows ride the wave and all effects are perfect.

[Ships-R-Us]

Running the same card with shadows maxed, and a dash of AA (which really is debatable if it is needed with dx11, I see no jaggies with it on or off) and no stutter here. The shadows ride the wave and all effects are perfect.

Thank You Sir.:salute:

[krupp_88mm]

Then about 50-60 during the attack against the ships.

I'm very impressed so far, I didn't expect such a big jump in performance. I would have been happy to get a stable 40 fps with shadows off and mid range AA but these numbers I'm getting are spectacular.DOOD your wasting your cards power.. notch down the aa setting by one.. (you wont notice a difference), then go to desktop right click on your desktop and select the catalyst control center, (that you can install with your ati drivers), once you clicked on that, click the first tab, graphics tab, select 3D from the drop down menu, click on the AF and mipmap and aamode tabs at the top, max them out.. everything is going to look twice as amazing when you enable those trust me.. GL

here you can DL CCC if you dont have it,
http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

i was very surprised how much difference 16x af made, this game LOVES the AF, aa at 4x or 8x is plenty any more just waste card power
also 4x aa with supersampling is going to look 399% more better and use less power than 8x aa,

[krupp_88mm]

also update to latest drivers 10.3 DL them here.. i got an extra 10 FPS with these drivers VS the stock ones that come with the card.. i dont know about you but im getting much better performance than you with same card and more settings maxed so maybe its the drivers ....huge jump

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1763/mirrors.php

*note if you DL the 10.3 drivers here you dont need to DL CCC just the 10.3 drivers should come with upgraded CCC

[Webster]

I'm ignorant on this kind of stuff......How does my GeForce 9800GTX+ compare with this 5850 card......You guys know this stuff pretty well
Thank You

PS: One year ago I paid $251.00 for it and now I see it for just over $100. I am feeling I got screwed.........I also see people with these gtx 250's things or some kind of gtx ???'s....How do they compare
Any feedback is appreciated.

the 9800 cards are just the same 8800 repackaged with extra onboard ram is all. they still use the exact same gpu in them (G92 i think)

i kinda lost track after the invidia 200 series started but as i understood it the ATI cards kept getting better and invidia just played around with the names and numbers but hasnt really created anything new for a while

[Ships-R-Us]

the 9800 cards are just the same 8800 repackaged with extra onboard ram is all. they still use the exact same gpu in them (G92 i think)

i kinda lost track after the invidia 200 series started but as i understood it the ATI cards kept getting better and invidia just played around with the names and numbers but hasnt really created anything new for a while

Thanks Webster for taking the time to reply with the good info......I'll know better now on my next purchase.

[CCIP]

the 9800 cards are just the same 8800 repackaged with extra onboard ram is all. they still use the exact same gpu in them (G92 i think)

i kinda lost track after the invidia 200 series started but as i understood it the ATI cards kept getting better and invidia just played around with the names and numbers but hasnt really created anything new for a while

Just to add to that, I think the 250/260 series are also the same GPU, just with additional RAM/features.

[jazman]

Man its getting to the point where I cant keep track of all these cards out there.

Do they intentionally make the naming conventions confusing?

Marketdroids. Not smart enough to be intentional.

[Steeltrap]

OK, FYI here's an up to date list of graphics cards (http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/best-graphics-card,review-31829-6.html) on the market, organised as a hierarchy from most powerful to least.

It's taken from www.tomshardware.com (http://www.tomshardware.com), a site I highly recommend if you want to learn all about PCs and their innards.

This chart, for example, is found at the end of their monthly "Best Graphics Cards for the Money". If you go to the site you'll find the article on the front page. As I've said, it's a regular monthly article.

I use Tom's whenver i update my PC so I can see what's doing in the business. RAM, HDD, CPU, GPU, Motherboard: they're all covered.

I put an HD 5970 in mine. Overpriced and overkill at the moment, but I like to "future-proof" to last a few years if I can. :D

Lastly, it's important to understand 'bottlenecks', where your GPU, CPU or RAM becomes the 'weakest link' of the interaction of the three. For example, if your CPU is the limiting factor, shoving a more powerful GPU won't give you much of a return, if any at all. Tom's has an article somewhere on this, and they regularly look at what combines well with what. I think it's a great site if you want to spend the time doing some reading.

Cheers

[Ships-R-Us]

OK, FYI here's an up to date list of graphics cards (http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/best-graphics-card,review-31829-6.html) on the market, organised as a hierarchy from most powerful to least.

It's taken from www.tomshardware.com (http://www.tomshardware.com), a site I highly recommend if you want to learn all about PCs and their innards.

This chart, for example, is found at the end of their monthly "Best Graphics Cards for the Money". If you go to the site you'll find the article on the front page. As I've said, it's a regular monthly article.

I use Tom's whenver i update my PC so i can see what's doing in the business. RAM, HDD, CPU, GPU, Motherboard: they're all covered.

I put an HD 5970 in mine. :D

:up: That's right Steeltrap. Toms is a great site....I should slow down posting as I like this XO avatar......This site is like a box of chocolates as you never knows what's next.

[Steeltrap]

Yeah, and you quoted me before I'd finished editing!! :haha:

[Steeltrap]

You might want to check out something like the vga charts (http://www.guru3d.com/article/vga-charts-december-2009/10) to get a rough idea of video card power overall.

I've got a GTX295 myself and it's quite a nice little beastie. :)

Just a note to that (very useful) chart for those who may not be aware of this: anything listed as 'SLI' or 'Crossfire X' means TWO of the card listed.

For example, the top of the chart, the RADEON HD 5870 Crossfire X, means buying TWO 5870's and linking them in 'crossfire', which is ATi's multiple GPU utility/system (SLI is nVidia's equivalent to Crossfire).

[etheberge]

DOOD your wasting your cards power.. notch down the aa setting by one.. (you wont notice a difference), then go to desktop right click on your desktop and select the catalyst control center, (that you can install with your ati drivers), once you clicked on that, click the first tab, graphics tab, select 3D from the drop down menu, click on the AF and mipmap and aamode tabs at the top, max them out.. everything is going to look twice as amazing when you enable those trust me.. GL

here you can DL CCC if you dont have it,
http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

i was very surprised how much difference 16x af made, this game LOVES the AF, aa at 4x or 8x is plenty any more just waste card power
also 4x aa with supersampling is going to look 399% more better and use less power than 8x aa,

All right thanks for the tip I'll try it for sure. I hate it when they don't tell you in game what exact levels of AA the stupid slider represents. Thanks bro.

[Fischer]

Another great resource for information about and comparing GPUs is:

http://www.gpureview.com/

A detailed comparison of the two cards mentioned:

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=571&card2=614

/Fischer

I'm ignorant on this kind of stuff......How does my GeForce 9800GTX+ compare with this 5850 card......You guys know this stuff pretty well
Thank You

PS: One year ago I paid $251.00 for it and now I see it for just over $100. I am feeling I got screwed.........I also see people with these gtx 250's things or some kind of gtx ???'s....How do they compare
Any feedback is appreciated.