Advice on Graphics Cards

I'm going to upgrade my graphics card before FFXIV: ARR officially comes out. (Hopefully it won't come out before I get my income tax check) I was just wondering if anyone had any advice on an affordable graphics card for a struggling semi-poor gamer that will help to display the game in decent quality. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance! :)

posting your current spec might help

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Originally Posted by rina_inverse

posting your current spec might help

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How do you do that?

(Me no understand 'puters. Me not too 'puter smart. lol)

run => type dxdiag

is it a prebuilt system?

Dell? Acer? Etc.. if so just post what model it is and ill do the rest.

If not, see the above post.

once its done, click save all info

Open the text document it saved and copy whats in the system info section only, thats all we need

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.130104-1431)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Compaq-Presario
System Model: AY138AA-ABA CQ5320Y
BIOS: BIOS Date: 01/07/10 11:37:11 Ver: 5.17
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 240 Processor (2 CPUs), ~2.8GHz
Memory: 3072MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3072MB RAM
Page File: 1885MB used, 4254MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11

Card name: ATI Radeon HD 5450
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: ATI display adapter (0x68F9)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Display Memory: 1784 MB
Dedicated Memory: 504 MB
Shared Memory: 1279 MB
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor Model: DELL E153FP

Yep, pretty bad, I know. And this is after I bought the initial version and upgraded it. lol

Did you run the benchmark -- what was your score?

FFXIV is pretty CPU intensive so you probably won't see alot of performance increase by just upgrading your video card since you have an older dual core cpu.

So I would just recommend getting something that is a good boost but nothing that you'll be throwing money away with. Like:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102988

A 6670 for ~$50 should give you a good boost but your CPU will be the bottleneck at that point so anything more powerful is just a waste.

honestly your system (not just the graphic card) look pretty old
only changing the GPU will probably cause a bottleneck

If you have a PS3 I would suggest playing on that if you want to save money.

Could you post your benchmark results and what resolution do you run?
A better gpu will net you better results from my testing.
Forcing the benchmark to only use 2 cores, only showed about a 10% decrease in performance compared to it being unlocked, mind you I'm used a Intel 3770k at 4.6Ghz but should give you a idea of cpu scaling.



CPU Thread scaling

Grabbed the weakest card I own which is a GTX 560 TI with a factory overclock of 950MHz
CPU again is a Intel Core i7 3770k @ 4.6GHz

CPU Thread use unlocked,GPU clocked at 950MHz
Score:15058
Average Framerate:139.815
Performance:Extremely High
-Easily capable of running the game on the highest settings.
Screen Size: 1280x720
Graphics Presets: Medium


CPU Thread use locked down to 2 cores,GPU clocked at 950MHz

Score:13284
Average Framerate:123.466
Performance:Extremely High
-Easily capable of running the game on the highest settings.

Screen Size: 1280x720
Graphics Presets: Medium

CPU Thread use locked down to 2 cores, GPU throttled down to 475MHZ

Score:6249
Average Framerate:50.437
Performance:Very High
-Easily capable of running the game. Should perform exceptionally well, even at higher resolutions.

Screen Size: 1280x720
Graphics Presets: Medium


CPU Thread use unlocked, GPU throttled down to 475MHZ
Score:5987
Average Framerate:48.108 (somehow the framerate is lower?)
Performance:Very High
-Easily capable of running the game. Should perform exceptionally well, even at higher resolutions.

Screen Size: 1280x720
Graphics Presets: Medium



As you can see ARR will benefit from a quad+ configuration but not by much, 10~15% difference in performance, it still benefits mostly from a good GPU, grab a GTX 650 or a Radeon HD 7770. It should do extremely well with 720p at max settings, and good enough at 1080p on medium settings.

eh i run on two cpu's and scored high... my suggestion would be if you update the video card make sure that you read the wattage for the psu i upgraded mine and didn't realize i had to buy a new power supply and it kept shutting the computer down in grid when it rained because of drawing too much power.. also i'd probably recommend if you can upgrading your ram

I second the PS3 comment. Not only is it more portable if you have to go out of town... It probably will be more cost effective.. Assuming you have a PS3

I just went with a gtx 660 and upgraded my power supply, scored 7,000 on high and 5500 on max. Was fairly affordable, card was 220 bucks, quite the bang for the buck. Here's a link to it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scrollFullInfo

I just told someone else to grab a GTX 650Ti. They are only like 130 bucks and very good performance for the money.

I agree with some of the others here, just a GPU upgrade isn't likely to help you much since the rest of the system will likely hold it back anyways.

If I can get my settlement Check I plan to build a new gaming centric machine with 2 of those New Titan Cards from nVidia.... assuming I can get them that is. And unless AMD has something better at the time. My Dual 5970s in this beast do well enough. But I want to relegate it to backup gaming machine and heavy CPU work.

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Originally Posted by Riv

I just told someone else to grab a GTX 650Ti. They are only like 130 bucks and very good performance for the money.

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I think that some one else was me XD

atm I'm using an ATI radeon HD5770, managed to score it a whileback on newegg for cheap. It's not the best card out there but it's pretty decent and not ridiculously priced. (got mine for $70 on sale and with a rebate~)

Well, I did plan to get a new power supply for a new video card. I just want one that will run the game well. For the last benchmark I scored low on medium settings, and insufficient on high. I don't get it, since I could run 1.0 well on my machine, and that was supposed to me more stressful on a computer, or so I'm told. :/

Anyway, I just need a new card and power supply obviously, some for cheap. I don't have a PS3, so that's out of the question.

Wow, could you actually play 1.0 on that?

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Originally Posted by Klefth

Wow, could you actually play 1.0 on that?

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Yeah, with no problems! Weird. lol

Also, how can you tell which graphics cards are more powerful? I wish I could do that...

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Originally Posted by Klefth

Wow, could you actually play 1.0 on that?

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Many people aren't as critical as to what good performance or quality is. I've seen many people call something smooth or whatnot, and I look at it and go wtf? That looks like garbage.

But anyways, you most likely won't get a huge boost with just a GPU upgrade. You should notice something, but not nearly what you would if you could upgrade the rest of the system as well.

Considering your current system already has an ATI card, I would get the 6670 for $50 as some else stated earlier, it would give you a nice boost, for fairly cheap. Anything more power full than the 6670 and you would be burning your money as the rest of your computer would bottleneck it.

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Originally Posted by SkyeWindbinder

Yeah, with no problems! Weird. lol

Also, how can you tell which graphics cards are more powerful? I wish I could do that...

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I usually just whore the charts over at Tom's Hardware^^: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ew,3107-7.html

Yea don't spend too much. You'd have to upgrade the mobo and chipset + cpu to break the bottleneck.. Trust the ATI recommendation.

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Originally Posted by AdorraEloom

Considering your current system already has an ATI card, I would get the 6670 for ~$50 as some else stated earlier, it would give you a nice boost, for fairly cheap.

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No lag, no slowdown, no poblems at all. Heck, I even compared my performance to those who had better rigs on youtube, I saw no difference. I dunno. I do treat my machine like a baby though (regular cleaning, maintenance, ect.) Maybe that has soemthing to do with it.

Anyways, I think I'll just go with the graphics card and power supply. Lat time I updated, it went from non-playable to smooth like butter. I just wanted to know which one I should go for. Heck, I may not even need a new power supply if I get a good enough card for 400W! Not looking for movie screen quality, just nice enough to show pretty pictures without exploding. ^^

My computer may be a crapbox, but it holds up well.

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Originally Posted by Nix

I usually just whore the charts over at Tom's Hardware^^: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ew,3107-7.html

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Thanks!

Bookmarked!

PassMark's site is good as well.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

They also have charts for CPUs as well. You do have to be careful reading them though. The GPU charts, you'll see on high end, 680 is above 690. The 690 is actually two chips in one, so with SLI on it should outperform the 680. Depends on the game and drivers, etc.

On the CPU side, they seem to use a bench that actually uses all cores. So a 6 core could be higher than a given quad core, but because the quad is faster per core, it would perform better in games.

So, grain of salt stuff.

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Originally Posted by SkyeWindbinder

No lag, no slowdown, no poblems at all. Heck, I even compared my performance to those who had better rigs on youtube, I saw no difference. I dunno. I do treat my machine like a baby though (regular cleaning, maintenance, ect.) Maybe that has soemthing to do with it.

Anyways, I think I'll just go with the graphics card and power supply. Lat time I updated, it went from non-playable to smooth like butter. I just wanted to know which one I should go for. Heck, I may not even need a new power supply if I get a good enough card for 400W! Not looking for movie screen quality, just nice enough to show pretty pictures without exploding. ^^

My computer may be a crapbox, but it holds up well.

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Looks like the 6670 card requires min 400W power supply so you would not even have to upgrade your power supply.

I'm basing this from this site.

http://www.flipkart.com/sapphire-amd...md4f6shhvfzhum

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Originally Posted by SkyeWindbinder

No lag, no slowdown, no poblems at all. Heck, I even compared my performance to those who had better rigs on youtube, I saw no difference. I dunno. I do treat my machine like a baby though (regular cleaning, maintenance, ect.) Maybe that has soemthing to do with it.

Anyways, I think I'll just go with the graphics card and power supply. Lat time I updated, it went from non-playable to smooth like butter. I just wanted to know which one I should go for. Heck, I may not even need a new power supply if I get a good enough card for 400W! Not looking for movie screen quality, just nice enough to show pretty pictures without exploding. ^^

My computer may be a crapbox, but it holds up well.

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What settings are you running the benchmark at? based on the info you provided, your monitor resolution is pretty low, that could be why you can run 1.0 without a problem. Maybe try playing around with the benchmark settings, rather then using the default settings provided. Also as others have said already, even if you don't already have a PS3, buying one might be cheaper overall then upgrading your GPU/PSU.

The main issue with upgrading your PC is your CPU, its pretty old and upgrading the GPU is not gonna make much of a difference, the CPU will bottleneck the GPU. Your original GPU was a NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE, with 128mb dedicated ram(which is useless really) so when you upgraded to the 5450, you saw a big difference; and the CPU did not bottleneck the 5450. If you upgrade just the videocard further, the CPU will bottleneck it so you won't see a performance increase like you did during your first upgrade.

If your really intent on playing on PC as opposed to PS3, then my suggestion to you is to try and save some money up in the next few months and upgrade your entire PC. If a new PC is completely out of the question, then as AdorraEloom said, a 6670 is your best bet without having to upgrade your power supply. If you do change your power supply too, then go with a 6850 the highest you can go without upgrading your CPU. Honestly even the 6850 is pushing it, but since you play on a low resolution screen, it should be fine.

I suggest getting a Gigabyte Geforce GTX 660 Windforce. It's affordable, it's powerful but not excessively so in a way that your CPU will bottleneck it too much, and it's not too power-hungry. If your power supply is a 450 or higher with a single connector it should be ok.

PS: Yes, upgrading your GPU WILL very sizably upgrade your performance. Whatever people say, FFXIV: ARR's engine is very GPU intensive and very little CPU intensive. There may be some bottlenecking but not nearly enough to snuff the power of a good GPU.

Adding one gigabyte of ram and bringing your system to 4 will also help, since you run a 64 bit OS.

I suggest getting the HD 5770. It would be a nice upgrade from your HD 5450 card. Its an awesome card for the price and gets the job done for budget pc gamers like myself. Also, upgrading to a quad core processor would help with frame rates in game.

Be warned. Alot of the people on MMO forums are people with i7 processors who spent 1000+$ on their pcs, and think anything below 100 fps is laggy Lol..

1.0 was CPU intensive and 2.0 is GPU intensive so take that as you will

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Originally Posted by Ricky

1.0 was CPU intensive and 2.0 is GPU intensive so take that as you will

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1.0 was GPU rape, locked down to mostly 2 cores is hardly cpu instensive.

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Originally Posted by Darlan_Ashwood

I suggest getting the HD 5770. It would be a nice upgrade from your HD 5450 card. Its an awesome card for the price and gets the job done for budget pc gamers like myself. Also, upgrading to a quad core processor would help with frame rates in game.

Be warned. Alot of the people on MMO forums are people with i7 processors who spent 1000+$ on their pcs, and think anything below 100 fps is laggy Lol..

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The good ones know that anything related to FPS has nothing to do with Lag. However, the human eye sees by spotting changes and differences, not in a certain FPS like many like to say. People have been known to see the difference between say 60 FPS and 120 FPS, I know I can.

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Originally Posted by Darlan_Ashwood

I suggest getting the HD 5770. It would be a nice upgrade from your HD 5450 card. Its an awesome card for the price and gets the job done for budget pc gamers like myself. Also, upgrading to a quad core processor would help with frame rates in game.

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I would not waste money on a 5770. It's way past the end of it's lifetime, so much that it's discontinued at many retailers.

For what it does it would be wasted money. When you purchase hardware, it's better to do so with the future in mind, and spending 100 bucks on something that was already obsolete two years ago is not my idea of being smart with one's money.

At about 200 bucks a GTX 660 is very affordable, will run well with her configuration, and will give a real boost to her system, with the added bonus that if she'll ever decide to upgrade the other components, the 660 will be a good base for a new system, while a HD 5770 would just bog it down and would have to be thrown out like the rest of the components. Wasted money.

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Originally Posted by Pseudopsia

If you have a PS3 I would suggest playing on that if you want to save money.

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Yep great suggestion!

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Originally Posted by Abriael

I would not waste money on a 5770. It's way past the end of it's lifetime, so much that it's discontinued at many retailers.

For what it does it would be wasted money. When you purchase hardware, it's better to do so with the future in mind, and spending 100 bucks on something that was already obsolete two years ago is not my idea of being smart with one's money.

At about 200 bucks a GTX 660 is very affordable, will run well with her configuration, and will give a real boost to her system, with the added bonus that if she'll ever decide to upgrade the other components, the 660 will be a good base for a new system, while a HD 5770 would just bog it down and would have to be thrown out like the rest of the components. Wasted money.

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Spending 200$ on the graphics card alone is in no way saving money..and I dont see how a 5770 would be ''bogging down'' compared to a 5450

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Originally Posted by Darlan_Ashwood

Spending 200$ on the graphics card alone is in no way saving money..and I dont see how a 5770 would be ''bogging down'' compared to a 5450

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2nd vote of confidence here for the 5770, got mine on sale and I'm SO glad I did.

5770 is better then 6670 but it needs a 450W psu, unless i'm mistaken, i was under the impression you had a 400W PSU. If your gonna upgrade your PSU anyway then go with a 6850 which is better then 5770, price should be pretty close to so might as well go with the better one. GTX 660 is better then both but not worth the price for your system.

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Originally Posted by Darlan_Ashwood

Spending 200$ on the graphics card alone is in no way saving money..and I dont see how a 5770 would be ''bogging down'' compared to a 5450

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You're saving money because you won't need to buy another one for years. It's a fairly futureproof card. The 5770 was obsolete two years ago, and it's *discontinued* now. There's a reason for that.

A 5770 will bog down any modern PC. When she'll finally decide to change her other parts, and sooner or later she'll have to if she wants to continue playing on PCs, the 5770 would be a dead weight in it.

On the other hand a card like a 660 will be a good base for any upgrade. Hence, saving money.

Advising anyone to buy a discontinued card is honestly quite nearsighted. It does not save them money on the long run, and the performance they'll get will be sub-par anyway.