Which Card Is Minimum For Maxing Out Games @ 1080P?

[Prof. Cheese]

Personally I would say the minimum for a single card would be a GTX 295 for nVidia/HD5850 for ATi. I'm interested to know what others think though as I've read a number of people say that a 8800GTX is fine for this, but to me that's just

 

[RavenXXX2]

Depends on the game, but in general I would say a 5850 is the safest bet.

 

[555BUK]

Depends on the game, but in general I would say a 5850 is the safest bet.

+1

 

[Strawberry]

I can max out every single game I have on an OC'd 4890 and it runs playable for sure, the only game that stresses it is, as expected, Crysis which crawls along at a surely 30-40 fps depending on map.

30fps is playable though, with explosions occasionally dropping it to 25fps in high-demand maps (like avalanche).

Maxing out Crysis at 1080p I would say 5850 as well.

 

[Marine-RX179]

Personally I would say the minimum for a single card would be a GTX 295 for nVidia/HD5850 for ATi. I'm interested to know what others think though as I've read a number of people say that a 8800GTX is fine for this, but to me that's just

Actually if you read your own question again...people ain't wrong saying 8800GTX

You asked the "minimum" for max out at 1080p, not "comfortably" max out at 1080p 8800GTX does indeed capable of maxing out at 1080p at lots, just not those usual graphic demanding ones.

 

[Prof. Cheese]

I can max out every single game I have on an OC'd 4890 and it runs playable for sure, the only game that stresses it is, as expected, Crysis which crawls along at a surely 30-40 fps depending on map.

30fps is playable though, with explosions occasionally dropping it to 25fps in high-demand maps (like avalanche).

Maxing out Crysis at 1080p I would say 5850 as well.

Interesting. What would you say is the most demanding game you have that you can run at 60FPS+ maxed out?

 

[Prof. Cheese]

Actually if you read your own question again...people ain't wrong saying 8800GTX

You said the "minimum" for max out at 1080p, not "comfortably" at 1080p

I should have expected pedantry within a handful of posts.

But to throw some back at you, they would be wrong because then the 8800GTX wouldn't be the minimum at all!

 

[Strawberry]

Interesting. What would you say is the most demanding game you have that you can run at 60FPS+ maxed out?

I can run UT3, Oblivion, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Mass Effect 2, Modern Warfare 2, Prototype, BioShock etc absolutely fine, I don't usually have Fraps on because the fps counter seriously detracts from immersion, but I have never ever experienced a single slow down in either one of these games except for Oblivion (with an extreme res texture pack, LOD mods and view distance mods).

All of these games run above 55fps though.

Edit: Also, I never have AA maxed out since 8xAA at 1080p is redundant. Usually I use 4xAA, sometimes 2xAA if framerates drop below 45-50ish.

 

[nikebee]

Depends on the game, but in general I would say a 5850 is the safest bet.

Spot on I'd say.

There's not an awful lot that the 5850 can't handle, if it gets into any issues just overclock it to 5870 speeds