Graphics cards - best bang for the buck?

mossfoot · Dec 31, 2015

Looking to the future I'm wondering what kind of graphics card I should upgrade to. I've currently got (I think, I'm not at home) a NVIDIA 750ti and it works pretty well.

I know I could just look at benchmark performances and compare it to price, but I'm interested in people's own research as well. And maybe certain models perform better specifically with ED than others? (Hey, I dunno, I'm a noob)

My setup is a single 46 inch screen running at 1920x1080, and using IR clip based head tracking, and I'd like to find a card that will let me have decent 60fps on a planet's surface (I'm currently running around 40 or so I think) on high to ultra settings.

What might be the cheapest card that can achieve that kind of quality?

CMDR JP76 · Dec 31, 2015

780ti.

Every game Ive thrown at it on Ultra settings.....no probs. Currently with Horizons I'm on Ultra settings 1920x1080 60 FPS everywhere.

The lowest I've seen is 54 FPS lol.

On my TV as well btw.

thesnowdog · Dec 31, 2015

If you're thinking about getting a new GPU then wait until next year and get either an Arctic Islands or Pascal GPU. It's going to be more expensive but will last you for years. It would be pointless buying a less powerful GPU for a cheaper price if it won't be able to handle playing future expansions of Elite: Dangerous in a few years time.

If AMD and NVidia have any sense they'll both announce and release their Arctic Islands and Pascal cards around the same time as Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are released, I'm expecting to see this announcement next week at the CES.

Kyuuseishu · Dec 31, 2015

It may be difficult to obtain a new 780ti as they are no longer produced, unless you are willing to go looking at the used market.

Your best bet is most likely the GTX 970, it will get you 60fps at 1080p, a GTX 980 would guarantee it (from experience), anything higher is a waste at the resolution you are currently at.

I can only really recommend Nvidia cards as I lack sufficient experience with AMD so if someone wants to chime in with that feel free.

Jon flint · Dec 31, 2015

Right now the gtx970 is the king when it comes to bang for your buck.

Out of the box it has similar performance to the 780ti. And with some overclocking it will reach and exceed gtx980 (non-oc'd) levels of performance.

Personally though, I'd hang on for pascal next year to see what nvidia's new wave of cards brings.

MottiKhan · Dec 31, 2015

Jon flint said:
Right now the gtx970 is the king when it comes to bang for your buck.

Out of the box it has similar performance to the 780ti. And with some overclocking it will reach and exceed gtx980 (non-oc'd) levels of performance.

Personally though, I'd hang on for pascal next year to see what nvidia's new wave of cards brings.

That's a good plan. Once the new cards are out, even the 980s will be dumped on ebay. When that happens, I'll look for a cheaper 970 or 780ti.

wstephenson · Dec 31, 2015

And if you don't plan on buying into VR, when the next-green cards are announced, I am sure it will be raining lightly used 970s on this forum

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mossfoot · Dec 31, 2015

wstephenson said:
And if you don't plan on buying into VR, when the next-green cards are announced, I am sure it will be raining lightly used 970s on this forum .

Good point!

Soothsayer · Dec 31, 2015

AMD cards are suffering from a long-standing bug in ED that causes low FPS in supercruise, but they're otherwise pretty solid. I'd wholeheartedly recommend the R9 380. It's a rock-solid card, even if it consumes a fairly high amount of power. Nothing against nvidia cards -- their business practices and looming GPU market dominance (which would be very, very bad for PC gamers, since monopoly = high prices) are disconcerting, however. Fallout 4 and Project Cars are the most recent examples of their shenanigans.

Noddie · Dec 31, 2015

Lower detail from ultra to high.

Visually little difference, and the game runs so much better.

Jon flint · Dec 31, 2015

Soothsayer said:
AMD cards are suffering from a long-standing bug in ED that causes low FPS in supercruise, but they're otherwise pretty solid. I'd wholeheartedly recommend the R9 380. It's a rock-solid card, even if it consumes a fairly high amount of power.

Yeah, AMD have some really competitive cards. It's a real shame that they have issues with ED as with many other games they actually outperform their nvidia equivalents.

I've got an r9 390 sat in its box gathering dust since it stopped playing nice with ED.

HeavyGroovez · Dec 31, 2015

If i was sticking with HD then i would buy a 970. Lot of horsepower for the cash.

Im moving to VR so will wait for the next gen cards.

Crank Larson · Dec 31, 2015

Soothsayer said:
AMD cards are suffering from a long-standing bug in ED that causes low FPS in supercruise, but they're otherwise pretty solid.

I disagree.

I've bought AMD for years, and my current set-up is a Radeon R9 280 coupled with 32Gb and an AMD Phenom. Everything is manufacturer matched (board and card are MSI), so I really shouldn't have any issues. For over a year after I bought the card, I was unable to enable Hyper-V due to AMD driver issues (this also affected "modern" apps in Windows - video wouldn't play full-screen). This is finally fixed, but I still regularly get odd crashes (and debugging all points to the graphics driver). I haven't noticed any FPS issues anywhere. I don't play any other games on the machine, so don't know if it is just an E: D issue - but I doubt it is.

I'm holding back for the new cards and VR next year, at which point I'm going to Intel and NVidia (which I'd rather not do - being British, I always like supporting the underdog... But I want a stable computer).

Soothsayer · Dec 31, 2015

purplepomegranite said:
I disagree. I've bought AMD for years, and my current set-up is a Radeon R9 280 coupled with 32Gb and an AMD Phenom. Everything is manufacturer matched (board and card are MSI), so I really shouldn't have any issues. For over a year after I bought the card, I was unable to enable Hyper-V due to AMD driver issues (this also affected "modern" apps in Windows - video wouldn't play full-screen). This is finally fixed, but I still regularly get odd crashes (and debugging all points to the graphics driver). I haven't noticed any FPS issues anywhere. I don't play any other games on the machine, so don't know if it is just an E: D issue - but I doubt it is.

I'm holding back for the new cards and VR next year, at which point I'm going to Intel and NVidia (which I'd rather not do - being British, I always like supporting the underdog... But I want a stable computer).

The framerate issue in question arises if a user is running both an AMD GPU and Windows 10. I've seen plenty of threads documenting the problem. Apparently, switching to 15.6 fixes the issue, but using old drivers is lame.

Anywho, I'm using an R9 280 myself, at the moment. Can't say I've had any stability issues, and I tend to overclock mine quite a bit.

Turbosnowy · Dec 31, 2015

Well for some unknown reason I decided on the spur of the moment to replace my Twin Frozr 660 which is about 4 year old with a GTX960 as an xmas present to myself - the crazy bit is the Twin Frozr handled elite just fine, so I was kinda kicking myself as to why I bothered - however new card arrived today and the 960 doesn't even seem to turns fans on when playing ED, which is a bit different to the enormous Frozer which would rev up to.. WHAT? I CANT HEAR YOU? WHAT DID YOU SAY? GAME LOOKS GOOD? OK! YEAH! YES THERE IS SOUND OVER THE FANs etc

Kristov · Dec 31, 2015

970 Ti or a 980 Ti would be the best bet currently, but as others said, wait til the announcements for the next gen cards early this coming year, never know what'll happen at that point.

I'd personally avoid AMDs, and I actually prefer them over nVidia, but I haven't used one in years as I got sick and tired of their driver issues, which have been an ongoing issue for over a decade now. And there are NO signs that the driver issues will be corrected anytime this century either, AMD just keeps mucking about and messing em up, as I said, over a decade of that, it's not a one off, it's a constant, steady, never changing issue with AMD. Which is too damn bad, as the graphics on the AMD cards are better quality than the nVidia cards...really wish they'd get off their asses and actually address the driver problems, but I gave up hope for that years ago.

nosleepdemon · Dec 31, 2015

I just installed a 950 and am setting it up, shall let you know how it performs!

Crank Larson · Dec 31, 2015

Soothsayer said:
The framerate issue in question arises if a user is running both an AMD GPU and Windows 10.

I'm on Windows 10 too, so I think there must be more to it. But then, AMD drivers are still flaky...

Jezzah · Dec 31, 2015

Went from a 780gtx to a 980 ti a few weeks ago. Bloody lovely card that is spanking anything I try to throw at it. If you have the money to get it then I can't recommend it enough.

nosleepdemon · Dec 31, 2015

The 950 is quite an uograde from my 650! It's very smooth! Things get slightly choppy on the planet surface but it's comfortable. All settings on ultra, naturally.