best variant of gtx560

[Golf1.6]

I play some old war strategy games, like civ 5, command & conquer etc.

Civ 5 is the most taxing but managable with my hd4870 although a bit jittery lategame.

I want to upgrade to a graphics card just a small increment. The increased graphics performance is good but I really want to go for low power consumption on idle.

The hd4870 consumes too much power and runs very hot even on idle. I remember seeing the comparison charts for power use and the gtx560 was the lowest out of the bunch and was actually 40watts low on idle than the hd4870.

So I am on the hunt for gtx560 but not sure which variant to go for, there are so many makes and memory specs. I presume other than memory space all other specs are the same on all cards? If not what specs should I be on the lookout for?

 

[Golf1.6]

also are there any areas where the gtx560 is weaker than hd4870 or is it better all across the board?

 

[Golf1.6]

table of power consumption can be found here http://www.behardware.com/articles/817-3/the-energy-consumption-of-93-graphics-cards.html.

The gtx560 isn't listed but the gtx 570 is listed and it's a little bit better than the 560 too.


gtx570 has just 25W draw on idle (2d render).
The 4870 has a whopping 77W draw on 2d.

Instand 50W reduction just from swapping cards and much better performance when playing games too,.

Obviously the 570 uses much more power when on 3D as it's a higher performing card. But I only play games a couple hours a day so it's not a problem.

 

[Rroff]

The 560ti 448 uses a cut down version of the high performance core design and probably runs a bit warmer/uses more power but is the best performance

The 560ti and 560 use top spec versions of the middle performance tier core design and are a bit slower but use less power.

They are all a fair bit faster than the 4870.

 

[Golf1.6]

Thanks for the respone Rroff, can you shed some light into the GTX570?

Are they the same across the board or have similar difference, if not what would be the difference between a low end 570 vs a high end 560.

Thanks

 

[Golf1.6]

the hd6950 seems to be quite efficient too! and has very low idle and twice as powerful on max load.

 

[Rroff]

Looking at the list of games you mention it could be your CPU isn't quite upto it as they tend to be fairly CPU heavy.

I'd probably advise avoiding the non 448 560 ti and the regular 560 (the 560ti 448 should be fine but uses a bit more power) and likewise the 6950 as from my experiences those cards have been somewhat problematic.

If you can stretch to it something like a 7790 might do you well and mean you don't need to change drivers from what your used to.


EDIT: Regarding the 570s they are all much of a muchness aside from some having more VRAM than others - a high end 560ti model will probably be close to stock 570 speed with a little less power useage.

 

[Flying_Hellfish]

What Rrof says is true -IIRC I noticed quite a jump in FPS in CiV5 when I moved up from Q6660 to 2600k, this was with a GTX 480 in both machines. Given how old your current card is, it'd be safe to assume the processor is also?

There's no doubt the 560 will be an upgrade, but how much of one will depend on the CPU you are using.

 

[Golf1.6]

my cpu is 2500K it's pretty good.

My problem isn't graphics related. My problem is to reduce the idle power usage which apparantly used 77W just running applications on windows.

 

[Rroff]

Not convinced your going to save any money if thats the goal. For the cost of upgrading you'd cover many years of the extra power use over a less power hungry card.

 

[Golf1.6]

well i stopped using my proliant microserver which used 35w on idle and I calculated that it was £50 a year in leccy. With the 100% green tax now it will be £100 a year.

It's a fair amount of savings, and the added improvement is a bonus.

I'm not a performance "overclocker", I used to be but then I started driving and now I'm more interested in cars than computers. I prefer silence computing actually and have gone to great lengths to build a silent case which weighs 20kg on it's own. very dense and very heavy.

The 4870 runs very good becauses it idles at 77w! So changing to a card that's a buit more smarter with power usage will improve ambient temps and allow the computer to run quieter.

 

[JonSmith]

If you want a new card get a HD7850:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5625/...-7850-review-rounding-out-southern-islands/17

They're just more power efficient than the 5 series of Nvidia cards, and the current series of Nvidia cards are just too expensive for what you want. Buying a 40nm card now when 28nm has been out for ages is just silly.

Overclocked a 7850 rivals a 580, and they overclock very easily without affecting idle power draw.

 

[Golf1.6]

If you want a new card get a HD7850:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5625/...-7850-review-rounding-out-southern-islands/17

They're just more power efficient than the 5 series of Nvidia cards, and the current series of Nvidia cards are just too expensive for what you want. Buying a 40nm card now when 28nm has been out for ages is just silly.

Overclocked a 7850 rivals a 580, and they overclock very easily without affecting idle power draw.

wow thanks, just looked up 5870 on the chart linked earlier. It's uses less power than the gtx 570 both in idle and peak. Great economical card. Most of the cards on the bay seem to be single fan too so I presume it runs a lot cooler than the gtx equivalents.