Hardware & Technical Do I need a graphics card to play Elite Dangerous?
- Thread starter AbjunctiveAim
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Answered my own question - It better be able to handle for that price!
https://www.cclonline.com/product/2...eForce-GTX-1050-Ti-4GB-Graphics-Card/VGA4075/
What? 1440p? Maybe on low... The GTX 1050ti was never really designed for 1440p.
My 960 2GB barely managed it when I switched from a 1080 24" to a ultra wide 3440x1440.
It was fine in space but on surfaces it tanked the FPS a bit, decreasing settings didn't really help that much.
And it was primarily held back by the mere 2GB's of VRAM, so a 1050ti with 4GB should do rather ok, maybe not ultra but surely medium\high settings, might ease off some settings of course.
But this was back when horizons first launched, fair bit of optimising has been done since.
But it will work a lot better than the in chip GPU.
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How much RAM would I need to play the game at 60fps?
On the GPU or system?
Depends on resolution and settings.
In my experience ED tends to peak at around 6-7GB of VRAM.
And just barely stay in under 8GB of system RAM use.
Upping resolution and some methods of anti aliasing.
Could cost more VRAM.
For ideal use of a 1440p screen I suppose a 1060 or 1070 should see you well sorted.
But in a pinch the 1050ti should do.
In my experience ED tends to peak at around 6-7GB of VRAM.
And just barely stay in under 8GB of system RAM use.
Upping resolution and some methods of anti aliasing.
Could cost more VRAM.
For ideal use of a 1440p screen I suppose a 1060 or 1070 should see you well sorted.
But in a pinch the 1050ti should do.
That isn't really too suprising, the 960 really is designed for 1080p gaming, not higher. It's also maxes out on vram at 720p ultra.
I'd love to see a "notebook option" for a graphically scaled down version so that Elite could still be played on the move with just a basic little laptop or notebook. Some can already do this of course but it would be nice if they lowered the threshold even more for basic machines, heck, I'd take Elite II or III level graphics, even now if i could play it on anything! 
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I was actually surprised more in how well it handled 3440×1440.
If it hadn't been for Horizons I would been perfectly ok with it.
And as mentioned the main bottleneck was VRAM for that resolution.
And this was during the 2.0 beta. The level of optimizations for planetary surfaces have come a long way since.
A 4GB 960 would have probably done ok.
A 1050ti with 4GB should actually do a little better.
Of course to knock it out of the park you could go for a 1070 but that would also mean needing a beefier psu, and higher demands for airflow and cooling.
I ended up quickly upgrading from the 960 to the 980ti myself and I had add at least one case fan to get running temps down from 75c and out of the realm of possible thermal throttling.
If budget is tight, I stand by the 1050ti recommendation, but yeah okay higher than 1080p you might not max all settings, but the game look more than ok at even medium.
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That is what is officially known in the policing community as daylight robbery.
No. NO. NO!
Wow. that's 1070ti money.
Seems the major mining craze is settling.
I'm seeing hundreds of even 1080ti's in stock so there are certainly no reason to hyper inflate the price for this value card, prices for the 1080ti is slightly higher, £30-50, more than what I paid for mine last year.
But I suspect that's more to do with crazy RAM prices.
Same shop lists 1050ti at £190 or $248, and that includes 25% tax and shipping.
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At least Jessie James used a gun!
Today Newegg has a GTX 1070ti on sale for $419 US with $10 mail in rebate and a promo code... I wish NVidia would get off the pot with a definitive release on the next gen cards.
To be fair to CCL that price is a mistake you can buy a 1080 for about £75 LESS