Graphics card to run Ark: Survival Evolved

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 29 Nov 2015 at 15:38

Mate has got into Ark: Survival Evolved but runs a bit crap on his setup currently.

He has the following parts:
1.)FX6350 at 4.4GHZ
2.)8GB RAM
3.)256GB SSD and 2TB HDD
4.)Zotac GTX650TI Boost 2GB
5.)Antec Truepower 550W PSU

He currently uses a 24" 1920X1080 monitor but on low is getting somewhere in the 20FPS region.

Now,he wants to be able to get closer to between 30FPS and 40FPS if possible with some better settings. He does know its a taxing game and it a bit unoptimised.

So what suggestions for a card between £200 to £250 are good??

I would normally push him to an R9 390 but I suspect being UE4 based its better on a Nvidia card like a GTX970??

Edit!!!

Tried it on my GTX960 and another mate had it running on a R9 280 and it runs better on the latter?? WTF??

Tom|Nbk · 29 Nov 2015 at 15:40

What about the AMD 390.

r7slayer · 29 Nov 2015 at 16:06

It ran quite well on my 290x so a 390 should run it well! I got more than 40FPS on average on 1080p settings all on high. I found if you changed from DX11 to DX10 though it made a massive difference and only affected water and shadows slightly and particles slightly in terms of visual difference but the performance increase was massive.

They are also working on DX12 soon so 390 is covered there too. The game is supposed to be using some Gamework features not sure which though general concensus is gameworks is supposed to work on both AMD and nVidia cards but we all know it gimps AMDs performance so a nVidia card maybe a option too but the performance aint great so don't think there is room for gameworks effects. So id just go with the better bang for buck and get a 390! Can't go wrong!

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 29 Nov 2015 at 16:53

Did a few quick tests.

So tried my mate's GTX650 and it was under 20 FPS on medium/high.

Plonked in a housemates R9 280 and it was in the mid 30s on medium/high.

My GTX960 was around 30FPS but had shinier water and AFAIK it is a Gameworks effect.

So,Nvidia probably produces a bit better graphics at the expense of framerates,and AMD has less effects but higher framerates.

Edit!1

Would that PSU be fine with a single FX6350 and a R9 290/390??

I know the GTX970 should be OK.

rtho782 · 29 Nov 2015 at 17:33

The game is horribly unoptimised. If you want to max it out you need a GPU that does not exist.

Dave2150 · 29 Nov 2015 at 18:04

rtho782 said:
The game is horribly unoptimised. If you want to max it out you need a GPU that does not exist.

Yep, it's an alpha. Also, this game is so unoptimized it heats my up GPU more than any other benchmark, including furmark.

pmc25 · 29 Nov 2015 at 19:00

Most of the GameWorks crap hasn't really been implemented yet and won't be for a while. Furthermore the developers have expressed more interest in Vulkan than DX12 publicly (possibly a reason for the postponement of the latter, as well as AMD benefitting hugely more than NVIDIA atm). So get the best value card = 390. PSU would be fine.

murah · 29 Nov 2015 at 19:56

just picked up a 970 recently and upgraded to 16gb ram. Made the difference for sure very happy with performance although the game is practically required to run in DX10 with the -USEALLAVAILABLECORES -sm4 -d3d10 -novid launch options

using these settings:

so wile not maxed I get very good FPS considering its very unoptimised but I'm loving the game and can deal with slow downs in some areas (Typically giant bases with lots of dinos + name tags)

Considering your friend is on 1440p perhaps a 980 would be better?
visually it looks great to me and the Vram tends to be on the high side but not noticed any stutter from the 970 due to its mixed speed vram

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 29 Nov 2015 at 22:01

Thanks for the replies everyone - he is only at 1080P,but I will send back the feedback from this thread to him. Hopefully tomorrow will have some good deals!!

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 30 Nov 2015 at 00:08

BTW,I assume his PSU is more than up to the task with an FX6350??

Limpnoodle · 30 Nov 2015 at 02:34

Game runs like a bag of crap so..

bimbleuk · 30 Nov 2015 at 03:42

I sold my two 970s to friends to play this as they also were playing with old cards in the 20s.

Easily got them into the 40s at 1080 by playing with the settings. Beyond that there's diminishing returns due to the already mentioned, un-optimized engine.

nashathedog · 30 Nov 2015 at 08:03

I tried this on the free weekend a couple of months ago as I had been hovering over the buy button for a while, One session was enough for me to not even think about it since.

At the moment nothing will run it well and consistently unless you are spending thousands on graphics and even then I'm unsure of the dual card status.
My fps with a Fury was okay/ish but there was loads of visual glitches.
I was really disappointed in this as the concept sounded great.

I read about the DX12 postponement and read implications that it was postponed because they were working with Nvidia support and apparently Nvidia wanted the DX12 patch postponed due to there own DX12 performance not being what they wanted. Rumours eh! Ya gotta luv em

rtho782 · 30 Nov 2015 at 09:54

Dual card doesn't work with it. A single Titan X or Fury X is not enough for it. It's quite heavy on CPU too.

If you're someone that likes 60FPS be prepared to play it on low everything where there aren't really any textures.

It's not worth upgrading for this one game!

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 30 Nov 2015 at 11:45

As I said before my mate knows its demanding so doesn't mind if he gets closer to 40FPS with a few settings turned up,so he is not expecting a constant 60FPS on Epic settings,and he enjoys it so I can't tell him to stop playing it,and it will probably mean any of the other games he will play will be fine.

Plus a few other people I know have got into it,and a mate has set up a private server know.

Personally,I got it refunded since I thought it was too demanding for what it is,and I know I have a basic mid-range card,but TBH I would rather spend more money on a 14NM/16NM card next year.

However,would a GTX970 ro R9 390 be fine on his Antec 550W with an overclocked FX6350??

I had a look around at the R9 390 and the Nitro looks a good bet?? Is that correct??

Also,what GTX970 models are good??

He has a max budget of £250.

ALXAndy · 30 Nov 2015 at 12:08

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
As I said before my mate knows its demanding so doesn't mind if he gets closer to 40FPS with a few settings turned up,so he is not expecting a constant 60FPS on Epic settings,and he enjoys it so I can't tell him to stop playing it,and it will probably mean any of the other games he will play will be fine.

Plus a few other people I know have got into it,and a mate has set up a private server know.

Personally,I got it refunded since I thought it was too demanding for what it is,and I know I have a basic mid-range card,but TBH I would rather spend more money on a 14NM/16NM card next year.

However,would a GTX970 ro R9 390 be fine on his Antec 550W with an overclocked FX6350??

I had a look around at the R9 390 and the Nitro looks a good bet?? Is that correct??

Also,what GTX970 models are good??

He has a max budget of £250.

I would say he would be fine. If a 9590 consumes 220w then there's no way he would even get close with the 6350.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 30 Nov 2015 at 12:11

ALXAndy said:
I would say he would be fine. If a 9590 consumes 220w then there's no way he would even get close with the 6350.

Thanks.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 30 Nov 2015 at 14:18

So will the Powercolor R9 390 or Gigabyte G1 R9 390 be better - he has more or less a hard limit of £250 and wants the R9 390 now it seems. He seems to have literally missed most of the deals now and those are the only ones now left at that kind of price I can see at any retailer which has stock.

Edit!!

These two:

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/R9_390_PCS_Plus/

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 1 Dec 2015 at 12:28

After much deliberation he wanted an R9 390 and we decided on the Powercolor R9 390 PCS+ over the other R9 390 cards for £250.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 2 Dec 2015 at 20:14

Mate says he now gets around 50FPS on High settings at 1920x1080.