What GFX card? ATI vs Nvidia

[ruddyrum]

So the time has come to get a new gfx card... My xfx 8800 gtx which ive had for well over 4 years now is giving up its ghost. I replaced the thermal interface material a couple of weeks ago which sorted things out, but just when I thought things were getting better, new problems are arising.

I have £200 which I can happily spend on a new card, however if there is something amazing, I could stretch a little further! XFX customer support is shit, so I want to try and stay clear of them during my next purchase (unless there is an amazing deal)

So questions I ask myself:

- ATI or Nvidia?
- More cores or better clock speeds / more ram?
- Stupid question, but my current mother board has PCI-E 2.0 (x16) - can I use a 2.1 card in there? Willing to buy a new motherboard if 2.1 cards are more beneficial, but would ideally like to stick with my current setup.

Just a few cards which caught my eye:
Scan.co.uk: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti OC 1GB NVIDIA Graphics Card - GV-N560OC-1GI
Scan.co.uk: MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti TWIN FROZR II 1GB NVIDIA Graphics Card - N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II/OC
Scan.co.uk: MSI Radeon HD 6950 2GB AMD / ATI Graphics Card - R6950-2PM2D2GD5

I will of course consider other cards, so any advice/input is very much appreciated.

 

[jamrop]

hey I have been using Nvidia for many years, and i changed to Ati, can't fault them, i do prefer Ati but the only problem is Nvidia and its Cuda support, i miss it lol.

Looking at this chart for metro (power hungry game) h*tp://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/2011-gaming-graphics-charts/Metro-2033-Enthusiast,2664.html


But it depends what you want it for really

I would go for ATI for little extra power and less power wattage used

I would go for Nvidia for Cuda

 

[maddogs]

The last few cards I have had have all been ati as they have been the better cards for last few years. Nvidia have raised their game of late but for value I think the 6950 is a good buy. It almost always clocks to 6970 speeds and earlier version can be modded very easily to be exactly like a 6970 which are around £70 more expensive. Scan had the MSI on offer of £189 yesterday can see its now out of stock though.

The 3 cards you have listed above are all great cards and don't think you will see much difference. However one thing to consider is the system you are putting it into and resolution of your monitor as these cards may be overkill if your not gaming at at least 1920x1080 and your cpu needs to be up to the task too.

 

[oneman]

Also don't forget your PSU, check the power consumption of the card is OK for your system.

 

[ruddyrum]

PC is hooked up to my main TV which output at 1080p so i defiantly need something heavy duty.

I myself have always been an Nvidia man, but am willing to take a leap of faith as the current ATI cards seem to be very good value for money (at least it seems to be the case on paper)

Any ideas with my previous question on PCI-E 2.0/2.1?

Reason I ask is that the ATI cards use 2.1 but my mother board is 2.0

Edit: Just read the previous post after posting. I currently have a cooler master 650W PSU - has 2x PCI-E GFX power plugs which powers my 8800gtx just fine.

 

[little_pob]

Believe it or not 1080p (1920x1080) is about the norm for graphics cards these days (onboard can play HD content at 1080/25P). However, it would mean you should get a better frame rate and/or run at higher AA settings over those with 1900x1200 and 2560x1600 screens.

From what I've been lead to believe, the PCIe standards are designed to all be backwards compatible with the PCIe 1.0 standard. PCIe 2.1 is a partial implementation of the forthcoming PCIe 3.0 standard, but at 2.0 speeds; i.e. 8GB/s rather than 16GB/s. However, as far as I'm aware, no current graphics card would saturate even the 2133MB/s bandwidth offered by the old AGPx8 bus.

 

[ruddyrum]

When you say the PCI-E standards are backward compatible, do you mean the card or slot? It should be self explanatory, but I just wanted to confirm as I believe you could not use a 2.1 card in a 2.0 slot, however you could use a 2.0 card in a 2.1 slot!

The problem with IT today, is that there is far too much choice on the market. I have spent literally hours looking for a GFX card and have still not managed to come to a conclusion. All I want is something to play games/movies on my HDTV at max settings with a relatively good frame rate, without spending a fortune... is that so much to ask!! :arrrr:

 

[little_pob]

The PCI-SIG say any 2.1/3.0 PCIe card (not just graphics) should be able to work in a 1.0a slot, let alone a 2.0 slot. In practice, you won't know until you try.

It won't damage the mobo or GFx card either. The motherboard will not provide more than the 75W that the 1.0 and 2.0 standards allow, so any extra power requirements would be coming directly from the PSU.

A 2.1 card won't be maxing out the bandwidth of a 2.0 x16 slot (the framerate from a 3.0 card may suffer in 1.0a slot). A SATA 600 expantion card with a single Crucial 256GB C300 on the other hand can max out a 2.0 x1 lane.

 

[maddogs]

What spec is the rest of your PC?

 

[ruddyrum]

Core2 QX6800
Gigabyte GA-P45-UD3R
8 GB Corsair (not sure which exactly) DDR2 1066Mhz
shitty XFX 8800 GTX
650W Cooler Master PSU
2 x 10,000 rpm raptor hd drives (RAID 0)

I put the system together about 4 years ago - I would like to upgrade to a whole new system, but it still seems to do the job quiet nicely so I just need a GFX card that will see me through until desktop octo-core CPU's hit the market, and then I'll go for a new, top spec rig again!

still scratching my head, but managed to narrow it down somewhat:
Nvidia: Geforce GTX 480 / GTX 560 Ti
ATI: Radeon HD6870 / HD6950

All 4 flavours are around £200, so still looking around at reviews/benchmarks to decide on ATI or Nvidia - once decided on make, I will determine what model (although I think I will go for the higher end GTX560/HD6950)

 

[maddogs]

I personally would go for the 6950 2gb and mod shaders to make it into a 6970 . I wouldn't touch the gtx 480 as runs as hot as hell and is very power hungry compared to the others. The 6950 and gtx 560 both have great overclocking headroom but the 6950 modded as above will get the best performance only bettered by cards costing a lot more.

 

[ruddyrum]

Thanks for the advise, but after sleeping on it I think ill stick to my guns and go with an Nvidia. After reading this Hexus Review I think I'll go for the MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti TWIN FROZR II.

Looking at the stats, it seems a good all rounder and is well within budget. After further contemplation, I did lean towards the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti SUPER OC as it performed slightly better in the Hexus comparison chart, but it's not in stock, and the performance is not that much better for the additional cost.

Will hopefully finally decide this afternoon and finally order a dam gfx card of somesort, which will finally put an end to my rant