Budget graphics card?

[Riverside]

My son's PC (i3, 8Gb RAM) has my old 750ti in it & runs Elite & other stuff okay on a 1080p monitor. In ED he can get 60fps most places with full details, it dips below 60fps in stations, RES etc but I've never seen it go below 30fps even with full detail.

The numbering system for NVidia cards makes it fairly easy to broadly work out how capable an old card is. The first number (the 7 in a 750, the 10 in a 1080) is the generation, the last two numbers (the 50, 80 etc) is how capable it is. For each generation, the 'how capable it is' number can go down by 10 & be considered broadly equivalent.

As an example a 1070 could be considered broadly equivalent to a 980, or at least that if you have a 980 it's not worth 'upgrading' to a 1070.
A 750 should give similar performance to a 660, a 570 or a 480.

I use this logic when looking at cheap S/H stuff, helps work out whether it would be an actual upgrade to whatever is already in a PC.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

My son's PC (i3, 8Gb RAM) has my old 750ti in it & runs Elite & other stuff okay on a 1080p monitor. In ED he can get 60fps most places with full details, it dips below 60fps in stations, RES etc but I've never seen it go below 30fps even with full detail.

The numbering system for NVidia cards makes it fairly easy to broadly work out how capable an old car is. The first number (the 7 in a 750, the 10 in a 1080) is the generation, the last two numbers (the 50, 80 etc) is how capable it is. For each generation, the 'how capable it is' number can go down by 10 & be considered broadly equivalent.

As an example a 1070 could be considered broadly equivalent to a 980, or at least that if you have a 980 it's not worth 'upgrading' to a 1070.
A 750 should give similar performance to a 660, a 570 or a 480.

I use this logic when looking at cheap S/H stuff, helps work out whether it would be an actual upgrade to whatever is already in a PC.

Useful to know. Thank you.

 

[Pyrotiger]

Using a 950 I bought for £110 a year ago, and it's done a really good job. It's certainly quick enough for anything but VR.

 

[lokvette]

Got a EVGA-GTX-750Ti came in around 120 quid, runs vanilla on 60+fps and re shade around 30ish, yeah that is a drop I know but re-shade just adds so much more and Im sure it could be tweaked to free up a few more fps, but for day to day playing off the game even in pve combat its all good.

Runs all my other games fine too, but I will say I really hate nvidia drivers, had no trouble with my old Ati R7, but only now do nvidia's seem stable, and I had to add that Gforce experience pants to get rid off the nvidia driver has stopped responding etc etc...

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Got a EVGA-GTX-750Ti came in around 120 quid, runs vanilla on 60+fps and re shade around 30ish, yeah that is a drop I know but re-shade just adds so much more and Im sure it could be tweaked to free up a few more fps, but for day to day playing off the game even in pve combat its all good.

Runs all my other games fine two, but I will say I really hate nvidia drivers, had no trouble with my old Ati R7, but only now do nvidia's seem stable, and I had to add that Gforce experience pants to get rid off the nvidia driver has stopped responding etc etc...

Thing with nVidia is that they seem to drop a new driver every week or two. Starts to get a bit wearing.

 

[VR Lucian Arkright]

I've a 660GT, and it runs 1080p with pretty much everything turned up to High or Ultra, and averages around 60 FPS. Combat is smooth, planets are great, Space station interiors no problem. Lowest I've ever seen the FPS dip has been 38 FPS for a couple of seconds.
The 2GB RAM means that some of the less used textures can be low res for awhile (for example, SRV bay when deploying is super low res, but full res when returning after the drive).

So a second hand 660, 750 or better would be a great budget option.

 

[lokvette]

Thing with nVidia is that they seem to drop a new driver every week or two. Starts to get a bit wearing.

Yes I just reinstalled windows the other day went to the web site got all the latest drivers and all ready its telling me there are new ones, the ones I have are stable thus I shall stick with them

 

[GreyAreaUK]

I've a 660GT, and it runs 1080p with pretty much everything turned up to High or Ultra, and averages around 60 FPS. Combat is smooth, planets are great, Space station interiors no problem. Lowest I've ever seen the FPS dip has been 38 FPS for a couple of seconds.
The 2GB RAM means that some of the less used textures can be low res for awhile (for example, SRV bay when deploying is super low res, but full res when returning after the drive).

So a second hand 660, 750 or better would be a great budget option.

Thanks. I'd rather go new simply due to the warranty, but it's still something to think about.

 

[askavir]

GTX 750ti with 2GB ram is a lot of bang for buck and very cheap

GTX 960 with 4gb ram is even more bang for buck, for a bit of extra cost compared to the 750. I would take this one.

I would argue that the GTX 1060 with 6gb ram is currently the best bang-for-buck card on the market, but its already a bit over the "budget" category.

 

[Powderpanic]

Honestly with Graphics cards unless you are wanting to run multiple 4K screens, you will be better off buying a used one off Ebay.

Graphics cards very rarely fail and lots of gamers for some unknown reason, buy a new graphics card every couple of years for minor gaming improvement. So there is lots of choice at good prices.

I run a 4GB Nvidia GTX680, a card which on release was silly money.
I bought it discontinued for £200 when BF3 came out and i haven't found a game yet that it struggles on enough for me to think about upgrading. ( I Just run a 28" Gaming 144hz monitor )
ED Runs smooth as silk on high res with all the whistles on.

Example

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-980-Ti-vs-GeForce-GTX-1080

980TI on ebay you will pick up for about £220

New 1080 £500

Are you get £300 more performance, maybe if you really look for it.
In normal day to day gaming, Nope!

 

[GreyAreaUK]

GTX 750ti with 2GB ram is a lot of bang for buck and very cheap

GTX 960 with 4gb ram is even more bang for buck, for a bit of extra cost compared to the 750. I would take this one.

I would argue that the GTX 1060 with 6gb ram is currently the best bang-for-buck card on the market, but its already a bit over the "budget" category.

I've got a 1060 in my main machine, and it is indeed a fine card.

Looking at Amazon the 960 looks to be about £90, which is only £15 under the 1050.

 

[fennster]

Probably worth pointing out that the 1050 is considerably longer than the GT710, around 6-7 cms longer. Most likely be fine, but worth checking first anyway.

Small form factor 1050s are available though.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Probably worth pointing out that the 1050 is considerably longer than the GT710, around 6-7 cms longer. Most likely be fine, but worth checking first anyway.

Small form factor 1050s are available though.

The PC in question is a standard mini-tower, so it *should* be ok. Probably..!

 

[fennster]

I've got a 1060 in my main machine, and it is indeed a fine card.

Looking at Amazon the 960 looks to be about £90, which is only £15 under the 1050.

I used a 960 up until Horizons was released and I got significant reduction on the surfaces. Otherwise it was excellent.

Of course a ton of optimisation has been done with both surfaces and general GFX tweaks since then.

 

[BigBANGtheory [VR]]

best value GPU atm is a 2nd hand Nvidia 980Ti expect to pay around £220

 

[Broon]

I ran Elite D on a GTX 750 for quite a while on an i5 4460 3.2GHz and the game runs just fine on mostly High settings (optimized by Gforce Experience).

I wanted shiny so I upgraded the GPU to a RX 480 but I still have the GTX 750 sitting on the shelf in the box waiting for a new lease on life. Maybe we could work out a deal?

WOW! I just looked up the 750's on NewEgg and they went thru the roof pricewise. I only paid around $120 US for mine a couple of years ago. A good used card would cost maybe 2/3 of that price.

Hint Hint

 

[GreyAreaUK]

I ran Elite D on a GTX 750 for quite a while on an i5 4460 3.2GHz and the game runs just fine on mostly High settings (optimized by Gforce Experience).

I wanted shiny so I upgraded the GPU to a RX 480 but I still have the GTX 750 sitting on the shelf in the box waiting for a new lease on life. Maybe we could work out a deal?

WOW! I just looked up the 750's on NewEgg and they went thru the roof pricewise. I only paid around $120 US for mine a couple of years ago. A good used card would cost maybe 2/3 of that price.

Hint Hint

Thanks for the offer, but for various reasons I'd rather go the new route.

 

[cyberchild]

I can vouch for the GTX 950 or even better the 1050 Ti. Both run this game amazingly well with all setting maxed out.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Thanks all

 

[MickyG1982]

The GTX 1050 plays the game very well at 1080p. Seems to run mid / high most of the time at 30fps, this includes inside stations and on planets. However, I haven't seen how well it runs in heavy combat areas yet...

The GTX 1050/1050ti is roughly equal to the GTX 960 in terms of performance. On my system, when playing at 1080p I get a steady 60 in space dropping to the 40's on planets with high settings. My system is hobbled by the AMD processor its based around too, that i5 shouldn't be.