Hi guys, Got my new upgraded graphics card on Friday just gone. Fired up my game of the moment, Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. My god was there a difference?? Oh yes there was! Playing it at the highest settings before made my gameplay suffer and felt like I wasn't in control of the action, especially the accuracy. I tuned it down a little and presto much better but still a little niggle was noticeable... Plugged in my POV GTX570 TGT 2.5GB (damn is this a huge card or what...the TGT passive cooler on this thing is HUGE!! >> triple slot) And voila! Everything hunky dory....damn that extra vRAM made a difference. ANd this was an ageing game....I am sooooo glad I went for the upgrade!! Now SLI is most certainly up for grabs in the future, with a healthy overclock on the side too!! And ps. Yes I made the 7 day deadline for returning my original GTX570 Twin Frozr III back to Scan. /me is a happy bloke indeed! pps. And thanks to that I have finally killed the last two alpha drones, spinner and veras on hard mode too!! EDIT: As you might notice I had a 1.28 GB GTX570 that I swapped out for a 2.5GB version...
Edited first post....Was the MSI GTX570 Twin FRozr III....swapped via DSR for a 2.5GB version from POV...unfortuantely they seem to be the only ones who had stock available...I wanted an EVGA version but they outta stock for some time....had to pay extra for this AND i had to pay nearly 10 quid for delivery of the original card back to Scan!
I'm just wondering what res you are playing at, That game fit easily into 512Mb when I played it. Edit, ahh I see the monitor in your sig is 1080p
Ah yes sorry forgot that bit...my bad. res is at 1900x1080 yes. What res were you playing at? Was it at max details/AA?
1680x1050, Max details, can't remember what AA but I don't ever seem to remember it running sluggishly so I would have put the highest, same for AF which I would have enabled in the cpl if it wasn't available in game. I was using 2x 512MB 9800GTX+'s at the time. I notice the difference in more modern games with having a single 1GB 560TI now. 2.5 GB will definitely extend the life of your card.
Damn a 2.5GB 570! Sounds fantastic! What was the price difference between the 1.28GB card and the 2.5GB one? Or wasn't there much of a difference in price at all?? Also will the extra memory really make much difference in games!? <--- Stupid question or not? Because it still uses the same graphics chip as the 1.28 gig version, it just has more memory so I suppose you'll get a bit better performance right?
Price was an extra £60....perhaps a little wee bit more than it should be but at present there aren;t very many of these available. I did get to keep my free Wolfking Warrior keyboard worth £20 as well that came with the original order. However, I feel the extra vRAM is important if I want to extend the life of the card. Better performance will happen when the detail and AA are set to max settings. Yeh I was playing at max detail and x32 MSAA...with vSync on....on the 1.28GB version there was definetely problems with smooth gameplay...which at first I thought was my mouse till I turned the settings down to x16 AA. Hehe...not if requires Origin...I have too much beef with that thing atm to play BF3. I have to say I may be over-reacting to Origin as many folks did when Steam first came out, but I've used Steam for many years now and I find it to be awesome. When the two are compared in the small print, Origin gives me the creeps....
Wait, what? An MSI GTX570 struggled with Riddick!?! How?? That game is SO old.. I played it on my 4870 512mb on high (admittedly low or no, can't remember AA/AF) - it was certainly playable. How is that possible? Or am I missing something here?
Don't underestimate the oldies! Recently found Batman Arkham Asylum killed the memory of my GPU with a little more than 2 AA. Although this was 2560 by 1440.
I guess. I was only in 1680x1050. But it still surprises me. It just makes me wonder for my upgrade. I was hoping for a 560Ti level, but that would die under those conditions I reckon, especially since i'll be getting a new monitor too. Which will have a minimum of 1920x1080. So i'm probably going to be looking at 580+ level come march time for my new build. Which is going to be hard on a low budget! haha.
Probably have a new round of GPU releases by then, by previous generations a GTX 670 could equal a GTX 580. Hopefully not in price though! Mindless speculation!
Yea, well i'd be aiming to get the equivalent of the 570/580 now. at that time. So a GTX670/680 or whatever is out! Just hope i'm not destroyed by the price too much. xD
Your build is looking pretty damn good sirfur, I'm now considering getting a higher tier gpu for my next build... Well with a bit of luck next year's will bring some great improvements either cost-wise or in performance...
Well, which Riddick was it is the other question? I have no doubt I would have had almost zero problems running max AA and max detail with Vsync on Escape from Butcher Bay, even with the 'updated' version. The Dark Assault on Athena game is far more visually stunning and hence more demanding. When you turn the settings up on Dark Athena it starts looking pretty awesome. The higher the AA and the resolution the more vRAM the game requires. AFAIK, Dark Athena was being used for GOU benchmarks up till recently not long ago. Technically any game thats 1-2 years old isn't 'old' unless its based on a much older architecture....most good or popular games last a 1-2 years minimum as being 'current gen'. Thanks, I'm liking it very nicely too!! It also means that when the time comes I can add a second 2.5GB 570 and overclock them both to near enough 580 levels and have fun with a super combo machine!! Which one? Did you set the AA to x32 MSAA? TBH I don't notice any difference with Vsync...seems to just slow the system down too much. With regards to x32 MSAA vs x16 AA there isn't much discernible difference. I'll try and get some screen shots later.
