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| Thread ID: 134339 | 2013-06-21 11:01:00 | What should I upgrade my graphics card to? | Ninjabear (2948) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1346589 | 2013-07-02 23:21:00 | Call me old fashioned but I don't think anything less than new/significantly improved microarchitecture or a shift to a smaller process node justifies launching a new generation. | pablo d (15490) | ||
| 1346590 | 2013-07-02 23:38:00 | I also think people overstate the "Driver problems" that AMD has. Nvidia is obviously superior in this department but honestly, it's such a non-issue most of the time. Source: proud owner of (Nvidia) Riva TNT2 M64, MX440, FX5200, 6800GS, 7800GS, 8800GTS, 9600GT, GTX 660 Ti, GTX 680 and (ATI/AMD) 9600 Pro, 9800 Pro, HD2900 Pro, HD3850 CF, HD3870 CF, HD4770 CF, HD4850 CF, HD4870 CF, HD4890, HD5850 CF, HD6850 CF, HD6870, HD7850 CF, plus a few others I've probably forgot about, and not including the dozens and dozens of models I haven't personally owned but tested for various publications over the years. |
pablo d (15490) | ||
| 1346591 | 2013-07-03 01:48:00 | Call me old fashioned but I don't think anything less than new/significantly improved microarchitecture or a shift to a smaller process node justifies launching a new generation. Well, it doesn't really matter what you deem a worthy new generation, as for the driver issues, i cant believe you are serious, launch drivers was the only driver to use for 7xxx if you wanted CF and eyefinity, they only just fixed microstutter on single 7970 6mths ago and have yet to fix CF MS....Not to mention, while one driver works for game A, its broke next driver release.... If you are a PC enthusiast, then you might enjoy spending 50% of your gaming time getting the right driver combo, but not for me. AMD drivers were getting better, the 6xxx proved that, however they went backwards with the 7xxx IMHO! |
SolMiester (139) | ||
| 1346592 | 2013-07-03 01:53:00 | I guess if you predominantly play the games that have the most serious driver issues then yeah the situation probably seems far worse. I'm just saying I haven't personally been affected by it that much. Just my 2c :) | pablo d (15490) | ||
| 1346593 | 2013-07-04 01:00:00 | I've only owned 2 AMD graphics cards (not counting very old cards I've forgotten the names of), the HD 7970 I currently have and a HD 4850 which I used for a long time. It's a small sample set, but both have had driver issues or issues with particular games when I got them. In contrast I don't remember any similar issues with all the Nvidia cards I've had and there's a lot of them. My HD 4850 proved to be one of the best cards I've ever had. It lasted for a couple years of very good performance at a very good price but for the first 3 months I owned it I had to put up with weird graphical glitches in several games. Eventually a driver update fixed that. It still will play most modern games at medium settings even now (I'm not using it but I still have it available to test with). Similarly the 7970 is a great card, plays far cry 3 at maxed out 1080P settings and Crysis 3 & WoW at near to max settings but of those 3 games I have so far tried on it it has issues with 2 of them - not a great start. WoW has lower framerates than a GTX 580 and drops to almost unplayable levels occassionally in raid type situations (doesn't happen on the 580 - even at maxed out settings) and crysis 3 crashes if I leave it at it's default detected settings. I don't think saying AMD have driver issues is unjustified. It could well be that I just happened to pick 2 games with issues out of the hundreds that possibly don't, but feedback on the net would indicate otherwise. Anyway the main point is at a $600 budget there is no currently worthwhile upgrade available from either Nvidia or AMD from a GTX 580, remembering these were $800-$900+ cards a couple years back and occupied the space occupied subsequently covered by a GTX 680 until the recent relase of the 780. A GTX 670 is an upgrade, but not a huge one, the 7970 is a little faster again but costs slightly more also. Neither would do more than enable an occasional game to play at slightly higher graphics settings. So back to my original statement, wait until a GTX 770 or better is affordable. Some people are not receptive to using WoW as a measure of a cards perfomance due to it's age and perceived low requirements (not true at all). But consider this, it's a 7 year old game with still more than 10 million subscribers - any graphics card manufacturer that doesn't test with it is ignoring a large portion of the gaming community. Also despite numerous opinions to the contrary, WoW on ultra is unplayable on anything other than a fairly high end graphics card and reasonably fast procesor. A 650Ti Boost can handle it on high quite well, for ultra you need a 660Ti or better. |
dugimodo (138) | ||
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