£700 to spend on a single card solution.

[Asomodai]

Hey guys.

Heres my current specs.

I7 930 OC'd to 4Ghz watercooled
6GB OCZ Reaper Ram. Triple Channel
2 Vertex II's Striped.
GTX 280.
28 Inch monitor running at 1920x1200.
Antec 1200 with Antec CP1000 Power supply.

Essentially my GTX 280 has been failing for the past few months to deliver and I think it is time to move on from it. It overheats very easily whilst the rest of the system is running cool.

Essentially I am looking for a single card solution, I play lots of Physx enabled games and benchmarking.

I have £700 to spend, I do NOT want to SLI at this time though I will in the future. I want to have a working life of about 3 years running near to ultra high settings. I will only use one monitor running at 1920X1200. I may start playing games in 3D on my TV at somepoint. I like OVERKILL and ultra smooth gameplay.

Ideas?

 

[Asomodai]

By SLI however, does he just mean he does not want to cards taking 4 slots and have to bother with setting it all up? As he asked for a single card solution, that there is a single card solution?

Sorry guys I have been very vague.

I want a single card solution, I do not mind if its a dual gfx card. So a GTX 590 would be suitable as is the ATI equivilant.

Cheers!

 

[Asomodai]

AMD's 3D compatability/support is pretty poor, so that rules out AMD cards.

And as for not wanting SLI, can you clarify do you mean you want only a single GPU card and not dual-GPU card- which is essentially two GPUs running SLI on the single card. Either way, a standard GTX590 should be ruled out, as they have high chance of commiting suicide by burning themselves down.

You best option is probably grab the MSI GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme Edition 3072MB and overclocked it from to as high as possible (some people managed to push the overclock on this card up to 1,000MHz on the core clock). Next you should grab a 3rd party cooler for your existing GTX280, and use it as a dedicated PhysX card. The reason why you would want a dedicated PhysX card is because if you have only a single GTX580 doing both rendering and PhysX, with the extra workload for PhysX, it would reduce the amount of resource available for rendering, thus reducing performance. Here's some example of how the speed of the Nvidia card used for PhysX affect frame rate in Mafia II:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-physx-hack-amd-radeon,2764-8.html

I meant Its not that I am against SLI, I am just against getting two cards at the moment. I just want a single card, whether it is dual GPU on a single card using SLI makes no difference.

I have to admit I am very tempted by a GTX590, however I am concerned of the lack of support it's getting and the fact that very few shops have it in stock .

 

[Asomodai]

Just remember, people in general would advise against getting the GTX590...as I mentioned before, they might burn and kill themselves off (the main reason shops stop stocking and selling them).

But to be honest, I would imagine even a 1,000MHz core clock MSI GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme Edition 3072MB would struggle in future demanding games if you do go 3D in the future, as it would drop the frame rate by half. I know you said you want a single card soloution, but for future 3D's sake, I would urge you to consider going SLI either on a GTX570 or GTX580 instead.

I had assumed that the revised GTX 590s did not have that problem?

 

[Asomodai]

OK, in which case, what GTX 580 to go for? I will be using my 280GTX for Physx.

3GB, 1.5gb, Watercooled (Though it would have to be self contained as I dont have a full watercooled system, just the CPU block) Anyone want to point one out to me?

I am unsure about brands as well, generally I just got the cheapest own brand gfx card.

 

[Asomodai]

I think brands are usually defined on warranty and customer service, so if you want a decent warranty length, then go with a brand with a good warranty and that is also known for good customer service.

Which are?

 

[Asomodai]

And as for the RAM size and cooling? I dont mind spending premium for a single card.

 

[Asomodai]

I've got a pair of 8800GTX's with your name on it Rob You know you want them
Go 6990, then afterwards you'll have more sense than money, rather than your current situ... £700 on a card, dear me

At least my system is not crashing everytime I start up BFBC2 Paul

 

[Asomodai]

Just had another thought, I am not really into overclocking gfx cards. one GTX 590 is better then one GTX 580. 2 GTX 590's are better (slightly) then 2 GTX 580's. I know that 3 GTX 580s are definitely better then 2 GTX 590's. But I really dont want to use 3 cards.

If I am not overclocking and dont have future plans for 3 cards (Only 2) Then technically the 590 is a better purchase? The 590s only explode if the card is overclocked right?

 

[Asomodai]

We have advised you to stay the hell away from the 590...if you won't take our advise seriously, I don't think anyone would bother much more in trying to help you...

Simply put, no matter what option you should go for, one thing for sure is under no circumstance should 590 be part of the equation.

No need to get uppity. I am merely sorting out the options. The 590 has only blown its load when overclocked. As far as a single card is concerned, going by just the numbers it has better performance then the 580. I asked for opinions in the first place because I am undecided. The only reason people have given me to stay away from the 590 is because it has a thermal problem when overclocked. I am not going to overclock any graphics card.

I am taking your advice onboard, but I need to make sure the card I go for is the correct one for my needs and not what you consider "best for you"

My needs being, great performance on a single card. Thats the best for my budget.

 

[Asomodai]

Anyway, I went for the GTX580 MSI Lightning edition.

Is it worth keeping my GTX 280 and running Physx off of it? How easy is it to do?