I built my PC several years ago, and I am going to upgrade the processor and graphics card. I'm not going to build a state of the art mega machine, as I don't have the budget for that - I would have to replace virtually everything. I currently have an Intel i5 2500 2500K processor, and I will be upgrading to an i7 (3770) 3.4GHz Quad Core processor. Yes I know that's old technology, but that's what my motherboard will support, and it will do everything I need it to do. I will also be upgrading the graphics card, but I am a little stuck as to which one to go for. I am looking at the Nvidia Dual GeForce GTX 1650 OC edition 4GB GDDR5 and the Radeon RX 570 Armor OC 8GB GDDR5 cards. They are similarly priced, but is one better than the other for Elite Dangerous? Main core memory is 12GB of DDR3, and I am running Windows 10. What do you Commanders think?
PC upgrade - what graphics card?
- Thread starter Malfunction
- Start date
At the moment, it is 1600 x 900, but this is on an old Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 TI card, which is struggling a bit, particularly on planetary surfaces - crashes quite often. I hope to be able to play at 1920 x 1080 with a better card.
I had nothing but trouble with the last MSI RX570 OC, was so bad I ended up getting it RMA'd twice within 12 months of owning it - MSI ended up sending me the card back with the BIOS flashed to stock speeds, and as far as they were concerned that was it "fixed". Luckily I had a 2 year supplier warranty, so ended up taking MSI out of the loop and getting a refund via them, and replaced it with a GTX 1060 6GB (was just before the 16** cards came out) - not had a problem with it since.
I would NOT recommend the MSI OC'ed cards, not if MSI's answer to any problems is "run it at stock".
I would NOT recommend the MSI OC'ed cards, not if MSI's answer to any problems is "run it at stock".
Got a Sapphire 8GB RX590 NITRO+ for ~240€ in early Q42019 and am super happy with it, super strong card for a good price imho. Might be hard to get a hand on those right now though.
Nothing wrong with the i7 3770 K or S variants, I've run ED on it just fine. Just make sure you have some efficient cooling on it. I've upgraded since to a Ryzen 5 3600, but that wasn't for 'gaming' purposes.
RAM wise, as long as you're over that magic 8GB, there should be any issues. ED seems to be optimized to run on 8GB or less. Obviously, if you can get 16GB DDR, do so. DDR3 is quite cheap now. Somewhere like crucial, is a safe bet.
If your budget will allow, and not already using one, consider an SSD for your OS, you can pick up something in the region of half a terabyte for less than £50 GBP these days. 250GB for around £25. It maybe running at SATA2 on your chipset but you will still notice an improvement.
As for a GPU, I decided eventually to go for a GTX 1060 6GB. TBH, it has surprised me. It can deliver 4k - Ultra, 60fps, with a lot of fan noise. 1440p - Ultra, 60 fps, with a bit less fan noise. But is much more content at a fair 1080p - Ultra 60fps, with minimal fan noise. Other modes are available but it is very much a 1080p card. There is zero stutter, and frame rates are more reliable that I am on a good day.
With 1280 cores and 6 GB of reasonably fast VRAM it should hold it's own with last seasons titles for a while to come.
I did look at the GTX 1650 and the newer 'Super' variants, but all the review sources I looked at basically said stay the hell away. AMD cards are certainly good, but require much higher wattage PSU's, I wanted my entire build to run on a 400W PSU. The GTX 1060 fits that requirement nicely.
RAM wise, as long as you're over that magic 8GB, there should be any issues. ED seems to be optimized to run on 8GB or less. Obviously, if you can get 16GB DDR, do so. DDR3 is quite cheap now. Somewhere like crucial, is a safe bet.
If your budget will allow, and not already using one, consider an SSD for your OS, you can pick up something in the region of half a terabyte for less than £50 GBP these days. 250GB for around £25. It maybe running at SATA2 on your chipset but you will still notice an improvement.
As for a GPU, I decided eventually to go for a GTX 1060 6GB. TBH, it has surprised me. It can deliver 4k - Ultra, 60fps, with a lot of fan noise. 1440p - Ultra, 60 fps, with a bit less fan noise. But is much more content at a fair 1080p - Ultra 60fps, with minimal fan noise. Other modes are available but it is very much a 1080p card. There is zero stutter, and frame rates are more reliable that I am on a good day.
With 1280 cores and 6 GB of reasonably fast VRAM it should hold it's own with last seasons titles for a while to come.I did look at the GTX 1650 and the newer 'Super' variants, but all the review sources I looked at basically said stay the hell away. AMD cards are certainly good, but require much higher wattage PSU's, I wanted my entire build to run on a 400W PSU. The GTX 1060 fits that requirement nicely.
Thanks for you replies. I put in a 880W PSU when I built the machine, so it should be ok. The existing card consumes 150W, which is pretty much what some newer cards do. The GTX 1650 only consumes 75W, but as has been said, the reviews on this card are lukewarm. I think the existing card glitches are really down to it straining to do the job - it only has 1GB of GDDR5, so it's light on that front. On my existing i5 processor, I put in a massive multi-finned heat sink, with a dedicated fan attached to it, so heat dissipation should be ok, but I will be keeping an eye on it. I also put in two extra cabinet fans. I was wondering whether I would notice any difference upgrading to 16GB DDR3 RAM, up from 12GB. I'll try it as it is first, and see how the new processor and graphics card behave. The idea of this upgrade is to keep it going for another 2-3 years, when I might build a brand new system - I was waiting for Star Citizen to be properly launched (har! har!) before doing that!
The i7 3770 and the rx 590 are a pretty good combination and basically the limit of the now last generation. The psu is also more than enough.
However 16gb ram is the recommended minimum for an rx590. You should def. buy a complete new set of 2x 8gb and run them in dual channel.
Besides that its kinda strange why your current pc crashes. Is the ram from two different vendors? Are you using a molex cable with a pce adapter to operate the gpu? Is everything plugged in correctly?
However 16gb ram is the recommended minimum for an rx590. You should def. buy a complete new set of 2x 8gb and run them in dual channel.
Besides that its kinda strange why your current pc crashes. Is the ram from two different vendors? Are you using a molex cable with a pce adapter to operate the gpu? Is everything plugged in correctly?
Okay, there are no power constrants!
75W will be delivered via the PCIe slot anyway.Suggest with that chipset getting a matching pair of DIMMS for DDR3 will certainly help get things moving. Even if you stick with 8 GB 2x4GB will be faster and more efficent than your current RAM. 2x8 GB for DDR3 would be better. You can never have too much RAM.
On the GPU side I'd recommend either a Radeon 570, 580 or even a 590, if you wanted to go Nvida I personally would go any higher up the scale than a GTX1660ti. But not sure what your budget would be?
Once you have your hardware sounds like a good spring clean would be in order. Strip it down, clean it all, rebuild, reformat and reinstall. Then see how it behaves. Windows is a fickle thing, basically you use it until it breaks, then have to start again. Linux FTW. Sadly no native Linux ED client yet. But that would be a seperate thread entirely.
The symptoms of PSU aging in relation to a graphics card is more noticeble when you have only 1 power connector to the GPU, which depending on the graphics card, it can withdraw up to 30A from a single power cable and 30A GPU powerlines are more commonly found on 1000W+ PSUs... you can double check your PowerSupply specs on its datasheet.
I only mentioned this because I had the very same issue with my new GTX1060 6Gb OC... it has a single power connector and it was drawing enough power to make my PC crash under graphics heavy load. Got a Corsair AXi 1500 power supply to overcome this problem. Now it is all good!
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If you haven't already settled on one, I can recommend a Vega 56. I got the MSI Air Boost version, and i think now it's around £250.
For reference, it plays RDR2 with all the quality sliders maxed at 60fps with no drops or stutters. If you don't have a capable CPU, then don't bother even trying 4K if you have RDR2. The card will do it fine, but the CPU won't.
I see others mention PSU, well I'm sure you know to never skimp on that, and i can recommend the SeaSonic prime ultra titanium.
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