Video Card Upgrade Report

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

[Ships-R-Us]

Originally Posted by 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

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?

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by 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?

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

[jazman]

Originally Posted by 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?

Marketdroids. Not smart enough to be intentional.

[Steeltrap]

OK, FYI here's an up to date list of graphics cards on the market, organised as a hierarchy from most powerful to least.

It's taken from 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.

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]

Originally Posted by Steeltrap

OK, FYI here's an up to date list of graphics cards on the market, organised as a hierarchy from most powerful to least.

It's taken from 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.

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!!

[remowilliams]

Originally Posted by Ships-R-Us

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 to get a rough idea of video card power overall.

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

[Steeltrap]

Originally Posted by remowilliams

You might want to check out something like the vga charts 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).

[longam]

Originally Posted by Ships-R-Us

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]

Originally Posted by longam

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.

[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

[etheberge]

Originally Posted by krupp_88mm

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.