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Graphics card for Elite Dangerous advice please.

Drewb

Drewb

Drewb

Associate
Joined
9 Jan 2007
Posts
188
Hi,

I've not played PC games for a few years now and currently use on board Intel(R) HD graphics 3000.

Just bought Elite Dangerous (used to play Elite on BBC in 1984) and can only run at 720p, I'd like to run 1920x1280 60fps. I think the CPU is OK, an i5 2500K at 3.3Ghz but definitely need to get a graphics card.

I've lost track of graphics hardware, can someone suggest a suitable card please. Whilst I will spend what I have to I'd prefer to spend the minimum I need to.
 
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Haven't got the game but it lists pretty modest specs (4 GB RAM, GTX260). If you are on a tight budget something like a GTX 750ti would be fine.
 
rodt99 said:
Haven't got the game but it lists pretty modest specs (4 GB RAM, GTX260). If you are on a tight budget something like a GTX 750ti would be fine.
Click to expand...

Specs are minimum requirements.

GTX750ti is more like it price wise. I just don't want to Spend £130 and find I should have spend £200+. What to do?
 
Personally i would say yes, and imho its well worth the outlay on either card (Lightning or the 970) for Elite, you can max everything and sit back and enjoy the universe in all its glory. The 750ti is ok on a budget but only for light gaming . ED is NOT light gaming.
 
Thanks darket. I Guess I'm spending £200+ then.

Surfer - you said I might need a beefier CPU for the 290x. why would I need more CPU for the 290x but not for the 970? Sorry I just don't understand these things anymore, it's 10 years or more since I built a PC with separate graphics card.

Another question - given I have onboard graphics, do I just plug a new card in and that takes over from the on board or is there more to it?
 
PSU, not CPU. The 290X is quite power hungry (compared to 970 and750ti). You need to have a decent PSU to power it. Probably around the 600W mark as a minimum.
 
rodt99 said:
PSU, not CPU. The 290X is quite power hungry (compared to 970 and750ti). You need to have a decent PSU to power it. Probably around the 600W mark as a minimum.
Click to expand...

Sorry - I totally misread that (brain is a bit slow today - too many beers last night). I'll have to check the PSU. Of the two (290x and 970) suggested I'd prefer the cheaper 290x.
 
Before you do anything what make and model psu do you have? The 2500k is still a very good cpu and all it needs is some overclocking. Most will hit 4.2-4.5ghz with a decent cooler. What motherboard do you have?

The 750ti is not worth the money when you can get these:-

MSI 7850 2GB £59.99

MSI 7950 3GB £85.99

MSI 7950 3GB TwinFrozr £95.99

Yes they only have 90 days warranty but they all come with the game bundles. You get 1 game with the 7850 and 3 with the 7950.
 
Right. Motherboard is ASUS P8Z68-V. PSU is Corsair 620W. As well as M/B and CPU it runs 1xSSD and 2xHDD.

620W isn't going to be enough is it?
 
darket said:
The 750ti is ok on a budget but only for light gaming.

ED is NOT light gaming.
Click to expand...


Sorry have to completely disagree

Been playing Elite: Dangerous since Beta using a 750Ti and it runs the game extremely well at 1080 at high settings with 150fps in open space dropping to 80+fps inside a station.
 
pastymuncher said:
Before you do anything what make and model psu do you have? The 2500k is still a very good cpu and all it needs is some overclocking. Most will hit 4.2-4.5ghz with a decent cooler. What motherboard do you have?

The 750ti is not worth the money when you can get these:-

MSI 7850 2GB £59.99

MSI 7950 3GB £85.99

MSI 7950 3GB TwinFrozr £95.99

Yes they only have 90 days warranty but they all come with the game bundles. You get 1 game with the 7850 and 3 with the 7950.
Click to expand...

Yeah, these are awesome value, a 7950 is absolutely miles ahead of a 750Ti! Or a 7850 for much less money will match it just fine.

620W PSU is enough grunt to run these cards assuming it's decent quality, I'm not good at remembering which of Corsairs PSUs were good or rubbish though.
 
Just ordered 7950 TwinFrozr. I'll risk it with the PSU, if it's not up to the job I'll take it from there.

Thanks to everyone for their help.
 
The only 620w Corsair psu was the HX620 so will be fine although it's getting on a bit now as it was released in 2006 and replaced by the HX650 in 2009. it's a quality unit built by Seasonic with 600w on the 12v rail.
 
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