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Nvidia Graphics Cards

  • Thread starter Thread starter Myn
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Myn

Myn

Myn

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Joined
31 Mar 2011
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Bath, UK
Hey guys,

I'm having trouble deciding on a graphics card at the moment and wondered if I could get some advice from those in the know. :)

I have a personal preference for Nvidia, and I have no desire whatsoever to start using Crossfire'd/SLI'd cards.

With that in mind, from what I've seen the main options at the moment are a 580, 570, 560Ti, or a 480. Is this a fair assessment?

Given that I am looking to play high-end games and hope not to have to upgrade for a good 2-3 years, what would you advise as the most suitable? I currently have a 256MB 8800GTS which struggles on Minecraft, so any of these will be a significant step up!

Thanks in advance,

Myn
 
AMD has been on top of nvidia for a long time. but if you want nvidia, don't buy the most expensive, or you'll end up sitting on the same old card in 10 years time, like you found yourself with your current card.
 
Well depends which other games you're looking to play, which resolution monitor you're using, what's important to you (noise, power consumption, performance). Also you will need a decent power supply for any of those cards, the 560 is the only card on that list which isn't too power hungry.
 
High-end games such as Shogun 2: Total War, the upcoming Battlefield 3, etc. Performance is the priority for me, and the power supply isn't an issue in this case. :) Using a single monitor at 1650x1080, nothing too major.

Like I say, performance is the priority, but I'm the type that is happy with 30fps; anything more is unneccessary. That said, I would hope that the games of 3 years time would still run at 30fps too, so a mixture of performance and future-proofing. :)
 
Out of all the cards you have listed the gtx580 is the fastest but its only around 15-20% faster than a gtx480. The gtx570 costs more than a gtx480 but is no faster and has less memory. The ti560 is not in the same league as the gtx480 or gtx570 so it really has to be the gtx480 as the gtx580 costs to much for what it offers.
 
Fantastic, thank you very much for taking the time to help TRD (and everyone else!).
 
It was probably a mistake to mention Minecraft; I've stopped playing that, was just an example as to how useless my card is. ;) Thanks, though.
 
cmndr_andi said:
Hi there,

May I ask what make and model number CPU and PSU you are using?
Click to expand...

You can ask but I'm afraid I may not have an answer; I am currently looking at putting a computer together or ordering a pre-built through OCUK. I know I will be going for an i5-2500k, as for further details on that and the PSU, I'm afraid I cannot answer until further research. :)
 
Myn said:
Apologies for the newb question, but what do you mean by the reference model?
Click to expand...
on ocUK there are three GTX480s, two from Gigabyte and one from Asus. You'll notice the gigabyte one has three large fans and a large heatsink arrangement on it, whereas the Asus one is a smaller box cooler. The Asus one is the board and cooler originally designed by Nvidia, with the crappy and loud cooler. Gigabyte have their own version of the board with their own cooling solution on it, which is far far better.

In a nutshell, a reference card is one that has been built to the original board/cooler designs provided by the manufacturer.

Sorry about the wordy explanation, too much Codeine to block out the headaches had made one a bit wibbly :eek:
 
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