Graphics Card Advice

[Alegis]

You are getting great scores why buy a card?! I just finished yesterdays Beta using my GTX 560 and only scored a 4.2 in the Benchmark. Had the game set to Max just like I did for the benchmark and had NOOOOOOO problems.

Hmpf... NDA.. heard about that before? No?
Could end not very well for you.

[Zenaku]

I have it in the other topic, its an old topic and no one goes in there anymore. So no one sees my post. If i make a new topic ppl will see it much ore prominently than the old one.

was talking about this topic which people talking on it everyday

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...Graphics-Cards

[Zenaku]

You are getting great scores why buy a card?! I just finished yesterdays Beta using my GTX 560 and only scored a 4.2 in the Benchmark. Had the game set to Max just like I did for the benchmark and had NOOOOOOO problems.

In my opinion spending 240-300+$ on a new card would be silly. Shoot I ran the test for craps and giggles on my old 2010 Asus Laptop with a GTX 265M chip and it didn't look bad at ALL. Score were less then what I had on my Desktop of course but I did have to set the setting for 1.0 to minimum. Even at Med settings this game looks GORGEOUS. *shrug* but if you want to buy it then buy it lol

benchmark told me i can only play Fairly High but we all know that not very true lol. I have a 450 and only got like something like 3.3k score shit the 1.0 one i got even worth and play that on high with DOF. I don't really trust the benchmark anymore.

[Geesus]

benchmark told me i can only play Fairly High but we all know that not very true lol. I have a 450 and only got like something like 3.3k score shit the 1.0 one i got even worth and play that on high with DOF. I don't really trust the benchmark anymore.

You know, I wouldn't really disagree with you on that. 1.0 mentioned certain specs and some people were above them, they worked great of course. But you also had others who were below who ran it just fine as well. Others couldn't get it to do anything worth while. lol

You don't have to trust it but it does give you a little direction so to speak.

Hmpf... NDA.. heard about that before? No?
Could end not very well for you.

Yeah? And what about it? I didn't say anything about CB 1 other than I was in it and how it ran for me. Anyone who knows how to go to the profiles of our forum page or Lodestone can see I have Legacy status and would have been invited so your point other than to now have "troll" next to your name?

[Solace]

You will do just fine with your specs.
Upgrade the GPU.
I say a 670 if you only intend to play at 1920x1080 or lower.
A 680 if you intend to play @ higher res.
If you play @ 1920x1080, a 670 vs a 680 are virtually identical.
I mean it.. They are like almost 100%, neck and neck.
Enjoy.

Expect to loose like 4-6% FPS using PCIE 2.0 vs 3.0
It is really not a huge deal imo.

[Norack]

You will do just fine with your specs.
Upgrade the GPU.
I say a 670 if you only intend to play at 1920x1080 or lower.
A 680 if you intend to play @ higher res.
If you play @ 1920x1080, a 670 vs a 680 are virtually identical.
I mean it.. They are like almost 100%, neck and neck.
Enjoy.

Expect to loose like 4-6% FPS using PCIE 2.0 vs 3.0
It is really not a huge deal imo.

Thx for the advice everyone, I think ill be going with the 670. One more question and than I swear ill be done asking questions. What is the difference between the 670 2GB/4GB version? I would assume just the amount of VRam it has? Also what is the difference between the normal 2GB and 4 GB version and the FTW version for both of them?

[Shura]

Thx for the advice everyone, I think ill be going with the 670. One more question and than I swear ill be done asking questions. What is the difference between the 670 2GB/4GB version? I would assume just the amount of VRam it has? Also what is the difference between the normal 2GB and 4 GB version and the FTW version for both of them?

If you play at a resolution much higher then 1920x1080p or use multiple monitors at 1080p then you should get the 4GB, if not then go with the 2GB. Most games won't break above 2GB, but recently some games like skyrim and BF3 have broken 2GB when playing at higher then 1080p rez. It really depends on what you have now and what you want for the future, if you think your gonna get a insane screen or use multiple monitors in the near future to play PC games then go with 4GB to future proof. If your gonna only stick with 1080p then go with 2gb, i highly doubt FFXIV will even use 2gb.

Here are some benchmarks comparing a 2GB vs 4GB of the same card, notice how for all the resolutions at 1080p or lower, the FPS is the same, for some games even at higher res the FPS is the same.

In regards to the FTW version, this really depends on the specific card so it would be more helpful if you could link the 2 cards your looking at.

[Norack]

If you play at a resolution much higher then 1920x1080p or use multiple monitors at 1080p then you should get the 4GB, if not then go with the 2GB. Most games won't break above 2GB, but recently some games like skyrim and BF3 have broken 2GB when playing at higher then 1080p rez. It really depends on what you have now and what you want for the future, if you think your gonna get a insane screen or use multiple monitors in the near future to play PC games then go with 4GB to future proof. If your gonna only stick with 1080p then go with 2gb, i highly doubt FFXIV will even use 2gb.

Here are some benchmarks comparing a 2GB vs 4GB of the same card, notice how for all the resolutions at 1080p or lower, the FPS is the same, for some games even at higher res the FPS is the same.

In regards to the FTW version, this really depends on the specific card so it would be more helpful if you could link the 2 cards your looking at.

O wow! thx for the advice, I woulda gone with the 4 GB's if i didn't know this which is about $100 more ty ^.^

Here are the cards that I am looking at and ultimately will get 1 of these 2

GTX 670 2GB = http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130782

GTX 670 2GB FTW = http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130787

Not a huge price difference, the FTW version is about $25 more, but I can't see any difference at all in the FTW version other than it has "FTW" in the description.

lol sounds stupid but if the normal version doesn't work better than the FTW version id probably get the FTW version simply because i have a clear case and the FTW one looks better lol.

[AdorraEloom]

I been researching the 2.0 vs 3.0 PCI-E mother boards for the last few weeks. Here is what I learned.

When you use a single card that supports the PCI-E 3.0 (like the 680 GTX) on a 2.0 mother board, you will lose about 1% performance. How ever if you use more than one GTX 680 card (SLI) on a PCI-E 2.0 board, you start to lose a lot more performance, ranging from 25% and even up to 50% performance loss in SLI.

[Shura]

O wow! thx for the advice, I woulda gone with the 4 GB's if i didn't know this which is about $100 more ty ^.^

Here are the cards that I am looking at and ultimately will get 1 of these 2

GTX 670 2GB = http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130782

GTX 670 2GB FTW = http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130787

Not a huge price difference, the FTW version is about $25 more, but I can't see any difference at all in the FTW version other than it has "FTW" in the description.

lol sounds stupid but if the normal version doesn't work better than the FTW version id probably get the FTW version simply because i have a clear case and the FTW one looks better lol.

The FTW version is clocked higher:
Core Clock is 915MHz vs 1006MHz
Boost Clock is 980MHz vs 1084MHz
Effective Memory Clock 6008MHz vs 6208MHz

Its just an overclocked version of the normal card, it also uses a custom cooler but some reviews say it also runs hotter.

Now this really comes down to preference, but i personally prefer bang for buck and in my honest opinion, the 670 is not worth it for almost $400. The ATI 7950 Boost is a much better card for the money; Here you can see a comparison between the GTX 670 and ATI 7950 boost. Notice how their almost tied every time, the 7950 also overclocks like a beast, if you OC it, it beats the 670 and its $100 cheaper.

For me it comes done to value, i go with whatever card offers me the best performance for price, sometimes its Nvidia and other times its ATI and this generation i think the 7950 boost is the best bang for buck card out there.

Sapphire 7950 Dual-X

Here is a Newest Version of the above card, it was recently released so not much reviews out yet.