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GPU for light gamer

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

Soldato
Joined
31 May 2005
Posts
15,654
Location
Nottingham
Will be paired with an AMD X4 965 at 3.4Ghz so nothing which will be CPU bottlenecked otherwise would be wasteful. No platform upgrades foreseen at this time as this rig does what the user wants.

Gaming use is the Sims 3 and Indie stuff.

Currently has a HD4850 512MB which is being owned by Sims 3 at 1080p.

Thanks.

Edit:

Found this, handy:

http://modthesims.info/wiki.php?tit...aphics_Card_Compatibility_and_Recommendations
 
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Used 7970/280X for <£100, massive upgrade!

Does most games at 1080p/60FPS at respectable settings (high, not ultra).

On par with 960 which you could probably also pick up dirt cheap used.
 
Depending what the power supply in use is, you could also look at a 750ti if you need something low power, but still a good upgrade. Not as good as the above cards though
 
If its only for stuff like The Sims 3, just get something basic like an R7 250 for 60 pounds if new, or a 2nd hand 7770 for about 40 pounds (they're very similar).

Talks of 7970's is a bit mad, what, so he can get 500fps in The Sims 3?

Also the 4850 should be running The Sims 3 effortlessly maxed out at 1080p. It's not exactly crysis. Have you tried different drivers/checking that that it's not a software issue of some type?
 
CEX sometimes have good prices on cards. Well....in between the mad, crazy pricing on 90% of their cards, there are some occasional diamonds. And they give you 24 months warranty as well. OCUK also have decent b-grade prices sometimes. I got a few 750ti's for 50 pounds a while back.
 
Jacksonn said:
Yeah could be true, look at places like ebay ect. They just sell them for like £30 less than retail.. :/
Click to expand...

eBay cards often go for /more/ than new retail price ;)

OP has access to the MM tho, which is a far more sane place to shop. And safer :)
 
I don't get why you'd recommend a /really/ low end card, to the point where it will only play the Sims (current version).

OP also said "indie games" (which could be anything). And then there's the prospect of a future Sims version needing a bit beefier hardware. Or him wanting to play something else now and again.

When you could get a decent card with some proper grunt for <£100, why spec a £60 card which is practically anaemic? Are there no indie games that use Cryengine or the like? Must be some...

On the other hand, he's survived on a 4850 all this time, so maybe he doesn't want to play anything but Sims/2D games.

I still think /really/ low end cards are a complete waste of money for most people.
 
Sims is not hardware intensive, because of the market it aims at it needs to be incredibly hardware friendly, which it is.

It even works fine on Intel integrated graphics. Obviously if the OP has been getting along with a 4850, its a pretty good indicator that the indie games are not intensive, complex titles.

Also, getting a faster card would be a total waste of time, because that processor is old and slow, and would bottleneck almost any better card in the latest games, if it did come to that. Would you put a 7970 with an old Phenom X4? I certainly wouldn't. It's putting a leash on a lion.

The sims will never require anything other than a fairly cheap graphics card to run well. It's designed that way intentionally. An R7 250X will cover him for years of Sims titles effortlessly.
 
Terrorfirmer said:
Would you put a 7970 with an old Phenom X4? I certainly wouldn't. It's putting a leash on a lion.
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Got any proof of that? Most games are so incredibly GPU bound that you could happily use a dual core Intel Pentium. A 4-core Ph4 shouldn't be holding it back.
 
Terrorfirmer said:
CEX sometimes have good prices on cards. Well....in between the mad, crazy pricing on 90% of their cards, there are some occasional diamonds. And they give you 24 months warranty as well. OCUK also have decent b-grade prices sometimes. I got a few 750ti's for 50 pounds a while back.
Click to expand...

+1 for CEX. Usually their stuff is massively overpriced, but if you've got a clear idea about what you are looking for and it's a bit 'old hat' then there are some real bargains to be found.
 
for sims you could use a 5770 and you can pick them up for under £30, sims isnt a demanding game and if you go for sims 4 it wont matter what you have it wont be perfect.

what i mean by that is i have sims4 and i get what ive seen described as tearing when im moving the camera and i have highest settings and using a gtx 750, but sims2 is spot on and last time i played 3 it was much improved, but still not demanding. you could even use a gt 210 lol
 
Terrorfirmer said:
CEX sometimes have good prices on cards. Well....in between the mad, crazy pricing on 90% of their cards, there are some occasional diamonds. And they give you 24 months warranty as well. OCUK also have decent b-grade prices sometimes. I got a few 750ti's for 50 pounds a while back.
Click to expand...


where i buy most my upgrades from and where ive seen the 5770 for £28 and decent amd 7 series cards for under 45.
 
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