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what would be a suitable card?

Abz Hussain

Abz Hussain

Abz Hussain

Associate
Joined
18 Mar 2011
Posts
810
Location
East London.
Im thinking about a building a gaming machine. The only games i really like to play are most 'Racing' types - so F1, NFS, Dirt etc and NFL games.
What would be a suitable mid to top end card that would allow me play these games on the highest settings and best resolutions. Also any low profile cards that could do the job?

my current monitor is a 24 inch dell 1900X1200 i believe but ultimately i will hook up said machine to a HDTV.

Im open to both NVidea & AMD. Budget about £100..could stretch it to another £20 maybe.

Thanks
 
Abz Hussain said:
Im thinking about a building a gaming machine. The only games i really like to play are most 'Racing' types - so F1, NFS, Dirt etc and NFL games.
What would be a suitable mid to top end card that would allow me play these games on the highest settings and best resolutions. Also any low profile cards that could do the job?

my current monitor is a 24 inch dell 1900X1200 i believe but ultimately i will hook up said machine to a HDTV.

Im open to both NVidea & AMD. Budget about £100..could stretch it to another £20 maybe.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Ok i need to add a little more to my above opening post. The Graphics card should also last me at least the next 5-6 years in terms of being able to play the latest games in the same genre as above. Therefore, should i buy the best there is now or alternatively consider some crossfire or SLI soloution? Budget, i deally would not like to spend more than £200 on card/s.
 
5-6 years of racing games - yes, as long as you plan to race Live for Speed (not to confuse with "Need for speed" ;) ) - awesome sim by the way, with possibly the best physics of all racing games... And it was launched years ago and still going strong:)

THe popular racing games need upgrading at least every 3 years, 4 years at a very big stretch:)
 
Hi,
Im sorry to say but Im not too sure a 200 pound card of today would still be able to run the new releases in 5 years time at high settings, maybe low to medium.
Should last about 3 though i would think.
Im fairly new to this though so im not 100% so might e better to wait for info from the old timers who have seen 5yrs + on the pc gaming scene
 
Aye, you really can't guarantee what will happen in the gaming scene in 5-6 years time, so it is very difficult to predict what hardware will run games so far in the future (especially considering there will certainly have been at least one new console generation between now and then). Your best bet is to aim for a card that will last you 2-3 years and plan to upgrade again then depending what is available and what the hardware requirement of the games are.

Looking into the past isn't always an accurate way to gauge progress in the future, but in terms of hardware and software development it does give you a rough idea. For example at the end of 2007 (~4.4 years ago) the 8800GTX was released at a cost of around £350. This same card (assuming it still works - as most will be out of their warranty period) is now only able to run modern games at low to medium settings.
 
Borsch said:
5-6 years of racing games - yes, as long as you plan to race Live for Speed (not to confuse with "Need for speed" ;) ) - awesome sim by the way, with possibly the best physics of all racing games... And it was launched years ago and still going strong:)

THe popular racing games need upgrading at least every 3 years, 4 years at a very big stretch:)
Click to expand...

Thanks for that i will have a look.
 
BaNksY IV said:
Hi,
Im sorry to say but Im not too sure a 200 pound card of today would still be able to run the new releases in 5 years time at high settings, maybe low to medium.
Should last about 3 though i would think.
Im fairly new to this though so im not 100% so might e better to wait for info from the old timers who have seen 5yrs + on the pc gaming scene
Click to expand...


cmndr_andi said:
Aye, you really can't guarantee what will happen in the gaming scene in 5-6 years time, so it is very difficult to predict what hardware will run games so far in the future (especially considering there will certainly have been at least one new console generation between now and then). Your best bet is to aim for a card that will last you 2-3 years and plan to upgrade again then depending what is available and what the hardware requirement of the games are.

Looking into the past isn't always an accurate way to gauge progress in the future, but in terms of hardware and software development it does give you a rough idea. For example at the end of 2007 (~4.4 years ago) the 8800GTX was released at a cost of around £350. This same card (assuming it still works - as most will be out of their warranty period) is now only able to run modern games at low to medium settings.
Click to expand...

Ok so if i lower my expectation to say 3 years..what kind of cards should i be looking at. Bear in mind the last card i put in my last build was a geforce 4 mx440 lol...some way back.
 
cmndr_andi said:
Aye, you really can't guarantee what will happen in the gaming scene in 5-6 years time, so it is very difficult to predict what hardware will run games so far in the future (especially considering there will certainly have been at least one new console generation between now and then). Your best bet is to aim for a card that will last you 2-3 years and plan to upgrade again then depending what is available and what the hardware requirement of the games are.

Looking into the past isn't always an accurate way to gauge progress in the future, but in terms of hardware and software development it does give you a rough idea. For example at the end of 2007 (~4.4 years ago) the 8800GTX was released at a cost of around £350. This same card (assuming it still works - as most will be out of their warranty period) is now only able to run modern games at low to medium settings.
Click to expand...

I still use a GTX8800 in my wifes computer and it is still quite a capable card. It would not be able to play BF3 at an acceptable level but games like Dirt 3 and Portal 2 it is fine.

As cmndr said you never know what way the PC market will go and Depends IMO on the new consoles. I feel the way the games companies at times lazily port over games then the need for better/faster cards becomes a must to play at a good resoloution (GTA4 being a prime example).

I do feel though to get the maximum life from a card you need to spend a decent chunk (7970 or 580)when you do upgrade, but as we all know, this is not always viable or doable.

I currently have a Gigabyte 560TI 1024 which happily plays all games on ultra settings except for BF3 which I have to turn off AA. I am happy with it (for now) I have owned this card for around 12 months and I would expect it to last another 12 months minimum with the games I see being released.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-140-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341

This card is is the 2 gig version which should keep you gaming happily for a good couple of years IMO.
 
Yep, if you liek racing games, then you MUST have a look at Live for Speed - but you do have steering wheel, yes? Without it its not much use.

For three years, £200 card... Right now I'd say AMD 6970 - its fast, and it has 2Gb Vram - so so its quite future proof. But, that 200£ would be price for a used card - not a big deal if you buy carefully.
 
Guys, on a similiarly vein, what single card solution out there would give me around twice the performance of my current GTX280, anything less than double the performance would be a disappointment for me. Gaming at 1920 x 1080, and while the 280 serves me well in most things, it's starting to show it's age a bit. I'd want twice as good, so what's the cheapest solution that'll give me that, if i'm coughing up cash?
 
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pjansell said:
Guys, on a similiarly vein, what single card solution out there would give me around twice the performance of my current GTX280, anything less than double the performance would be a disappointment for me. Gaming at 1920 x 1080, and while the 280 serves me well in most things, it's starting to show it's age a bit. I'd want twice as good, so what's the cheapest solution that'll give me that?
Click to expand...

I couldn't find a direct comparison to the GTX 280, but comparing the GTX 285 with the GTX 570 - this newer card offers around twice the performance. Also, the HD 6970 2GB is available for the same price and offers around the same level of performance, as well as more VRAM.
 
Top man, thanks Andi - that's a good start...actually looking at that link there, at 1680 x 1050 there seems to be about double the performance, but at 1920 looks more like 25-30% better in most things - maybe i've read that wrong.

Anyone else?
 
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