Hardware & Technical Best Graphics Card for ED?

FlannelBeard

FlannelBeard
FlannelBeard here,

Been out of the pc customization game for about 5 years. Most of my life I would build my own pcs, but luckily the last two i bought (~$400 a piece..!) were from ex-gamers (older coworkers) who built great gaming rigs but decided to quit games. Nice! I didn't have to update a single thing...

Well, I'm afraid it might be time to upgrade soon.

Rocking a quad core 8gb 64bit windows 8 machine with an AMD Radeon HD 5800 Series graphics card.

I've heard great things about NVIDIA with their FXAA support and GPU particle advantages over AMD cards. Which NVIDIA card should I get to maximize the potential of Elite Dangerous?

Max I'm willing to spend is maybe $150-$200. ~$230 if its a killer deal.

Thank you in advance for the help!!! I've heard that getting NVIDIA cards for Elite is an eye-popping difference in graphics quality.

- FlannelBeard
 

Huxus

Huxus
FlannelBeard said:
Max I'm willing to spend is maybe $150-$200. ~$230 if its a killer deal.

Thank you in advance for the help!!! I've heard that getting NVIDIA cards for Elite is an eye-popping difference in graphics quality.
Click to expand...

Well, this is out of your price range, but it might be useful for reference as what might be considered "top of the line" soon.

http://blog.gsmarena.com/nvidia-announces-gtx-980-gtx-970-based-new-maxwell-architecture/

The "lower-end" 970 is supposedly around $330.

I have stuck with Nvidia-based EVGA cards for years and have never been disappointed. I'm still rockin' a 470 GTX and playing ED really well!
 

CobraMK

C
Dont believe in Marketing PR!
PhysX or Mantle are only Marketing from AMD and Nvidia!

Good Cards for ED are the R9 280X or GTX 770 and also the new GTX 970.

In my System works a R9 280X and the Grapics in ED are at max Settings and everything is fine.

PhysX, Mantle, FXAA and so on is only Marketing!
 
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Glock_17

Glock_17
FlannelBeard said:
FlannelBeard here,

Been out of the pc customization game for about 5 years. Most of my life I would build my own pcs, but luckily the last two i bought (~$400 a piece..!) were from ex-gamers (older coworkers) who built great gaming rigs but decided to quit games. Nice! I didn't have to update a single thing...

Well, I'm afraid it might be time to upgrade soon.

Rocking a quad core 8gb 64bit windows 8 machine with an AMD Radeon HD 5800 Series graphics card.

I've heard great things about NVIDIA with their FXAA support and GPU particle advantages over AMD cards. Which NVIDIA card should I get to maximize the potential of Elite Dangerous?

Max I'm willing to spend is maybe $150-$200. ~$230 if its a killer deal.

Thank you in advance for the help!!! I've heard that getting NVIDIA cards for Elite is an eye-popping difference in graphics quality.

- FlannelBeard
Click to expand...

ive found this site pretty handy to compare hardware, it even offers a price indication on the scorelists.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

And both Radeon and Nvidia cards are good tbh, just make sure you buy one from a good manufacteror. That is a bigger issue then to worry about wich chipset they have tbh.
 

Aldric

A
imski said:
At the moment, best bang for buck is still AMD.
Click to expand...

Sorry but this is not the case, the best bang for the buck now is the Nvidea GTX 970, i have just bought 2 EVGA GTX 970s and running them in SLI gives me over 300 FPS in Metro 2033 Redux @ 1920*1080 on max settings on my 144HZ Iiyama monitor.

Switching off SLI and running just 1 card in Metro with the same settings gives me 170 FPS.

They are also incerdibly power effecient, on full load they use about 150 Watts each, and less power consumption less heat.
 
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TheDoctor

TheDoctor
Must also agree with the 970 being best bang for buck currently, I got the EVGA superclocked one and in supercruise it was hitting 170 FPS yesterday.

Should be good for quite a few years and nVidea has the pricing of it at the mid range.
 

Surfinjo

Surfinjo
I'm currently wading through the hardware nonsense. Loads of comments such as this is rubbish or this is great, none actually saying why.

Graphics cards seem to have a plethora of codes, but two that seem consistent.

R There are a few R5s, a few R7s and a few R9s. With each there is a jump is price, so I assume that in that series, each is a different level of technology. Find the series you can afford and look at each of the offerings in that group.

Another is GT and GTX. though the number here are 6, 7, 8 and 9.

I understand that 1Gb RAM is enough for a Graphics card. Though others seem to insist that 2Gb RAM is meaty, whatever that means.

Stuff like cuba seem best ignore as no-one seems to know what it means anyway.

I'm sorry to say, I'm quickly coming to the conclusion that hardware is a biut like the Apple nonsense. Everyone maintains that Apple is the best, yet no-one knows why and can't explain why the figures don't back it up.

It sounds cool to repat what others are saying, but at the end of the day, much like a phone, the question is, will it work.

For a game like Elite, suck it and see.
 

TheDoctor

TheDoctor
The problem is that the OP hasn't been keeping up with things for 5 years so we don't really know how much he has been following with the technology but he has several choices.

1 - He buys a card at the top end of his price range such as a GTX 760 which should do him for elite and for the next couple of years at least.

(there is a nice lengthy review of it here http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/57029-nvidia-geforce-gtx-760/)

2 - He can scrape another $100 and gets a brand new GTX 970 which is going up another whole level of performance and he'll be good for 4-5 years.

(another long review
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/74853-evga-geforce-gtx-970-ftw/)

3 - He can wait a few months and see if nVidea brings more cards and shuffles the price down on the 970 closer to his price range or if AMD responds with their new card offerings.

I am concentrating on nVidea as currently the OP's budget will get him a GTX 760 or a R9 270X which is a rough equivilent to the HD 7870 which is getting very long in the tooth. ( I replaced my old 7850 with the GTX 970 due to it not cutting it with new games)

AMD rebadged all of their cards I swear to make it a lot harder to work out that the prices on them hadn't moved a great deal over the last couple of years and gave them a 10% speed boost with a small clock adjustment.

But I would recommend that he concentrates on known brands such as ASUS, EVGA, Sapphire etc and he does his homework no matter what he decides.

Hexus is a fantastic site which not only does very lengthly reviews but makes sure that they are easy to understand and have plenty of comparisons to other cards so you can make a good judgement.

But before buying anything come back and we can see what card you have in mind.
 

FlannelBeard

FlannelBeard
TheDoctor said:
But before buying anything come back and we can see what card you have in mind.
Click to expand...

Thank you, and all, for taking the time to write and help me out. TheDoctor seems to have hit the nail on the head.

I've decided to make the jump and sacrifice another $100, which would have gone into savings this month, to pick up a ~$330 card.

I did find this ... video card benchmarks ... might not be 100% accurate but it gives me a great place to start. Right now I'm looking at the cards GTX 770, and R9 290.

I won't make a decision for at least 20-25 days, so I have some time to see if anything price drops.
 
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TheDoctor

TheDoctor
Zetta said:
In which case you should really get a GTX 970 - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-970-maxwell,3941-16.html
Click to expand...

Yup agreed the 700 series from nVidea have been discontinued and the 970 cards out perfrom the 770 and some of the overclocked ones beat the 780 so that I why I suggested the new 970.

But waiting a couple of months is your best bet as I expect there to be a 980 Ti out which may shuffle prices about.

Also the newer cards are also a lot more power effecient running at 150W rather than 250W which means less heat in your case as well as power consumption and you can run it off a 500W power supply.
 

FlannelBeard

FlannelBeard
TheDoctor said:
Also the newer cards are also a lot more power effecient running at 150W rather than 250W which means less heat in your case as well as power consumption and you can run it off a 500W power supply.
Click to expand...

Agreed, but why would anyone run a 500w power supply with a gaming rig? :p 650w minimum for me.

Zetta said:
In which case you should really get a GTX 970 - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-970-maxwell,3941-16.html
Click to expand...

Thanks for this chart, makes good sense and shows some facts.

You guys are extremely helpful, dear lord! thank you all so much!
 

Dejay

Dejay
I just got my Geforce GTX 970 and it's supposed to be great bang for bucks, but I still only get ~50 fps in stations. Might have to upgrade my CPU and motherboard / ram...

For the Oculus Rift I might upgrade to dual 970 SLI.
 

[VR] Mad Mike

[VR] Mad Mike
FlannelBeard said:
Max I'm willing to spend is maybe $150-$200. ~$230 if its a killer deal.

Thank you in advance for the help!!! I've heard that getting NVIDIA cards for Elite is an eye-popping difference in graphics quality.

- FlannelBeard
Click to expand...

at those prices imo you want to be looking 2nd hand.

As a lot of people jump ship onto the new NV cards (with a 780ti fire sale, or a 9x series card) then I think you will see 2nd hand channels flooded with GTX 670s and above.

for your price bracket I think you will be able to get a GTX 770 2nd hand, maybe even a GTX780 at the higher end of your budget.

No idea on AMD sorry, because for me, when it is supported physx is a game changer and worth the little extra cash. (even though this wont help in elite)

If you plan on gaming at 1080p either of the above cards will be fine for ED, and anything really at the moment.
 

[VR] Mad Mike

[VR] Mad Mike
Dejay said:
I just got my Geforce GTX 970 and it's supposed to be great bang for bucks, but I still only get ~50 fps in stations. Might have to upgrade my CPU and motherboard / ram...

For the Oculus Rift I might upgrade to dual 970 SLI.
Click to expand...

dont forget you can oc the balls of most of the 970s.

apparently many - the MSI aftermarket cooler ones especially - are hitting upto 1500mhz on boost!.
 
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