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Graphics New card or Upgrade?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by SirFur, 18 Nov 2012.

  1. SirFur

    SirFur PC Gamer and LAzy B0nes

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    Hi guys,

    Seems like my brother might need a new graphics card....his HD 5750 seems to be playing up....at least he has green flickering across the screen at times and when streaming video online he gets lots of artifacts... (thought these artifacts aren't there when he watches a something from the HDD)

    In any case he has an old card and I was thinking of getting him a new one - not that he taxes it much for games though - but he does play them.

    Now I have a 2.5GB GTX 570 - powerful card and I've had for over a year now - very happy with it. My plan was to get a second 2.5GB card when the prices were lower but that hasn't happened at all - the price is very much the same now as it was a year ago for a 2.5GB card.

    I have had a look online and the GTX 670 seems to be a decent card and in fact the 4GB is not too much more vs a 2.5GB card.....though it is fair amount more than the cheapest 2GB GTX670....

    I am wondering whether I should give my bro my card (the GTX570) and go get myself a GTX670 4GB version....or should I stick with mine for now and get my bro something like a GTX 660ti or something along those lines? And wait for the 570 2.5GB to have a price drop (though I feel this is never gonna really happen).

    Let me know what you think guys,

    Thanks
     
  2. Delons

    Delons What's a Dremel?

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    Since your brother does not play that many games, you could get him a lower end Radeon card such as the Radeon 7850 or if you want to stick with Nividia go with a GTX 650.
     
  3. theshadow2001

    theshadow2001 [DELETE] means [DELETE]

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    It would be my personal preference to have 670 over two 570's in sli. Also if you are gaming at 1920x1080 I wouldn't bother with a 4GB. There is some dispute on the forum whether the 4GB is worth it even at triple monitor resolutions.
     
  4. SirFur

    SirFur PC Gamer and LAzy B0nes

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    True...at the moment...

    The 4GB will help ensure the card lasts longer....

    I noticed a definite difference between the 1.25GB vs 2.5GB cards of the GTX570....and thats when I bought it....right now I can max any game at 1920 x 1080 without any fps issues or lag for online games (yes I know lag also depends on your net connection). The textures bandwidth required when increasing the AA etc can be pretty intense especially if the games have MSAA x32 etc. If I'm future-proof buying a card I want as much vRAM as I can buy.


    He does play games, some hefty ones too (like Just Cause 2, Crysis 2 etc) but just lately he's at uni so tends to play less of them and more arcadey ones....by not many games I meant not many hefty ones these days (most he has are 6 months old, he hasn't yet got any new games).
     
  5. theshadow2001

    theshadow2001 [DELETE] means [DELETE]

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    Well in that case the question to ask yourself is which card can handle RAM requirements better, a 7970 with 3GB and 384 bit memory bus or 680/670 with 4GB and only a 256 bit memory bus.

    Don't ask me though because I don't know. I suppose the answer may lie in comparing benchmarks where high resolutions are used. Which ever has the smallest drop in frame rates when stepping up from 1080p to something like eyefinity resolutions probably has the better memory capabilities. Anyway that's all just a guess and I might be wrong.
     
  6. rollo

    rollo Modder

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    People on this forum have ran the numbers between

    2gb and 4gb nvidia cards the difference is 1-2 fps at any resolution before you hit multi screen monitor.

    This may change if games one day actually start requiring 2gb of video ram but thats not going to happen till the next gen of consoles at the earliest.
     

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