Video card advice?

Rubber Chicken · Post by **Rubber Chicken** » Mon May 04, 2015 2:47 am

Hey, all. I recently came into a deal on a desktop that someone who tried pc gaming but decided it wasn't for them had on offer.

Long story short:

The motor: (mobo, cpu, ram) = 2012 era Ferrari.

The transmission: (ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card) = 1982 Ford Escort.

Obviously, without a respectable vid card, the rest of the system is kind of a waste. (lol, my lower-end laptop that I've run EM on from the beginning gets slightly better FPS at the same settings.

)

Can anybody suggest a decent upgrade for less than $200? I'm definitely going to do my own research, but help in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

~S~

P.S. I've searched the manufacturer's site for any sort of tweaking utilities for the card, but I must say I don't know what I'm looking at. If there are any suggestions for that, it would also be appreciated.

I believe that the specific distributor's brand is - Sapphire.

[Edited on 5-4-2015 by Rubber Chicken]

CS-ACI- · Post by **CS-ACI-** » Mon May 04, 2015 6:54 am

Hello,

Start here http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#X=0,20201

I have found this site handy for finding kit, but then buy it on either NEWEGG or similar.

That should start you off.

Steve

Capt_Caveman · Post by **Capt_Caveman** » Mon May 04, 2015 11:27 am

look here also
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

the new GeForce GTX 960 is $199

do you know what motherboard you have ?

[Edited on 5-4-2015 by Capt_Caveman]

Rubber Chicken · Post by **Rubber Chicken** » Mon May 04, 2015 3:39 pm

Two great sites for aiding my search. Thanks CS-ACI- and Capt_Caveman!

The board is an ASUS - P6T SE with Intel Core i7 running @ 3.07 ghz + 12 GB RAM.

The cooling system on it is quite solid too. There's 3 fans in the case that I see + a liquid cooling unit over the CPU. The current vid card is heat-sinked.

I'll have to take the time to open the case to see what the power supply is rated for, and what extension wires/connectors are available.

(LOL) Ok, not exactly 'Ferrari' but still much more computing power than the current vid card can make use of.

[Edited on 5-4-2015 by Rubber Chicken]

Capt_Caveman · Post by **Capt_Caveman** » Mon May 04, 2015 4:19 pm

the gtx 960 has alot of bang for the buck and will work just fine with that motherboard.
you should open it up and check the wattage of the power supply.
power cable adaptors are avail also if the ones you got dont match the new card.

I think you will be very pleased with it

PaulB · Post by **PaulB** » Mon May 04, 2015 8:12 pm

I think anything in the nvidia line 650 and up would do great.
EM is not quite as demanding as some other demanding 3D games.
Bear in mind that the more powerful nvidia cared you the the MORE powerful powersupply you need.
no since getting a super hign end nvidia that's going to fry your powersupply.
For the very high end nvidia cards you need a power supply rated at > 650 watts.
In my mini tower I have a Gtx 660 oc and my powersupply is 500 watts (or it may be 550w I forget for certain).
Here is a web ste that has charts that you can look at and search or look at almost any video card High end or mid range or low end and see their performance graphed and compare them and get other info.
Video card benchmarks

Rubber Chicken · Post by **Rubber Chicken** » Tue May 05, 2015 1:56 am

The gtx960 is the one I'm considering at the moment. I don't think a 700w power supply is going to be any issue.

Really as long as I can get into Evochron, and get started on a few of the DCS planes (which I've wanted to do for a long time), I'll be a very happy camper.

@ Captain_Caveman - Is there a particular manufacturer I should look at or, go with what seems best? I was looking at the MSI 'MilSpec' model on Newegg. It seems to sacrifice a small amount of clock speed for what it's claiming are more rugged components, and it seems to be the least expensive of the 960s currently offered. Also, the cooling design looks like it really creates a strong airflow that vents outside the case, not just recirculates within the case.
+We should fly together sometime, just to catch up. If you want, u2u me a bat day and bat time. You know the bat channel.

Capt_Caveman · Post by **Capt_Caveman** » Tue May 05, 2015 4:35 am

700 watt psu is good, msi, evga, gigabyte, are all good brands

im on universe101 server lately, nice low ping and very stable.

CS-ACI- · Post by **CS-ACI-** » Tue May 05, 2015 5:41 am

Hello,

I have built several system and the overall rules is you can never have too much power.

I had one that had a calculated need for 550W PSU so I got 750W just too be safe, when I cooked that one I went too 1100W, no problems after that.

I think the recommended power requirements are in ideal circumstances, nothing is ever ideal. Think about the extras you plug in to your USB ports. Keyboard, mouse, iPOD and that power hungry smart phone.

Steve

Rubber Chicken · Post by **Rubber Chicken** » Tue May 05, 2015 1:26 pm

^^ Roger that, Captain.

and

^ Roger that CS. -

The original owner went for a real 'bells and whistles' system. It's got a bunch of LEDs in the case and a front panel lighted digital display for fan speed and temp readout. I'm not sure if this thing has anything to do with the liquid cooler over the CPU, but if not, I'm more than likely going to get rid of it and the LEDS. I'll probably free up 50w to 100w right there. The wiring is extensively and very tightly zip tied, so I think I'm going to wait until the new card is in the budget, and on the way, to start cleaning house. It might end up being a bit of a project...

CS-ACI- · Post by **CS-ACI-** » Wed May 06, 2015 1:20 am

Hello,

Another rules of thumb, if it is not broken don't fix it.

This means it may be unwise to do much tampering with what is already there and working ok.

Steve

Rubber Chicken · Post by **Rubber Chicken** » Wed May 06, 2015 11:47 pm

Very sound advice. Thank you, CS.