Nvidia Graphics Cards

[Myn]

Hey guys,

I'm having trouble deciding on a graphics card at the moment and wondered if I could get some advice from those in the know.

I have a personal preference for Nvidia, and I have no desire whatsoever to start using Crossfire'd/SLI'd cards.

With that in mind, from what I've seen the main options at the moment are a 580, 570, 560Ti, or a 480. Is this a fair assessment?

Given that I am looking to play high-end games and hope not to have to upgrade for a good 2-3 years, what would you advise as the most suitable? I currently have a 256MB 8800GTS which struggles on Minecraft, so any of these will be a significant step up!

Thanks in advance,

Myn

 

[Myn]

High-end games such as Shogun 2: Total War, the upcoming Battlefield 3, etc. Performance is the priority for me, and the power supply isn't an issue in this case. Using a single monitor at 1650x1080, nothing too major.

Like I say, performance is the priority, but I'm the type that is happy with 30fps; anything more is unneccessary. That said, I would hope that the games of 3 years time would still run at 30fps too, so a mixture of performance and future-proofing.

 

[Myn]

Fantastic, thank you very much for taking the time to help TRD (and everyone else!).

 

[Myn]

It was probably a mistake to mention Minecraft; I've stopped playing that, was just an example as to how useless my card is. Thanks, though.

 

[Myn]

Hi there,

May I ask what make and model number CPU and PSU you are using?

You can ask but I'm afraid I may not have an answer; I am currently looking at putting a computer together or ordering a pre-built through OCUK. I know I will be going for an i5-2500k, as for further details on that and the PSU, I'm afraid I cannot answer until further research.

 

[Myn]

Avoid the reference model though, it's very hot and loud.

Apologies for the newb question, but what do you mean by the reference model?

 

[Myn]

on ocUK there are three GTX480s, two from Gigabyte and one from Asus. You'll notice the gigabyte one has three large fans and a large heatsink arrangement on it, whereas the Asus one is a smaller box cooler. The Asus one is the board and cooler originally designed by Nvidia, with the crappy and loud cooler. Gigabyte have their own version of the board with their own cooling solution on it, which is far far better.

In a nutshell, a reference card is one that has been built to the original board/cooler designs provided by the manufacturer.

Sorry about the wordy explanation, too much Codeine to block out the headaches had made one a bit wibbly

Wordy but informative, thank you

 

[Myn]

The TWO Gigabyte GTX 480 is pretty immense value for money.

There's a 2GB GTX 480?

 

[Myn]

Thought it was too good to be true. Thanks for clearing that up. Silly acronyms...