AH3 translation

[mthrockmor]

I'm getting ready for AH3 and it seems the most important thing is to get a video card with at least 1G.

For those of us not well versed in the geek talk...in addition to a 1G video card what are the other minimums I need to ask the computer store about?

boo

PS In an earlier post I asked about building my own. I'm going to save that until Summer 2016 at the soonest.

[guncrasher]

if you gonna wait to upgrade till next year then it wont matter what the spects are now.  in 1 year they may change.



semp

[Chalenge]

You should know what devices you have in your case at the moment, including the number of fans, hard drives, DVD/CD-Rom, and your power supply. Plus, if your PSU has got some age on it, then it might be a good idea to replace it anyway depending on which one it is. Most people don't realize that the PSU is the heart of their system. If it goes, it can take everything else with it.

EDIT: And don't expect anyone at the better known stores to know enough to help you. You really are better off listing what they have where you shop and asking more questions about those products on this BBS forum.

[GSakis]

I think it's misleading to talk about VRAM sizes as even the worst and cheapest graphics cards today can have 2Gb or more of VRAM. Even VRAM and VRAM can be different, some use DDR3 some use GDDR5 or HBM and the difference is astronomical. Even if we ignore all this the VRAM size is only a secondary specification, the card needs to have a good GPU with decent speed and size VRAM to work good on games.

[save]

Hi Boo, the better video-card you have, the better it will play with all bells and whistles.
Remember more powerful Videocard = more power consuming it will get.

Personally I try to stay away from graphics cards that runs hot (some AMD-Radeon cards, and some Nvidia cards with inadequate cooling).

Right now my money is on the Nvidia GTX 970 with some good cooling.

[Skuzzy]

I think the NVidia 970 is probably the "best bang for the buck" video card in the 1920x1080 resolution market right now.

[38ruk]

I think the NVidia 970 is probably the "best bang for the buck" video card in the 1920x1080 resolution market right now.

As soon as i buy a MSI 390 for 329 i see the MSI 970 drop to 299 lol.  It was a tough decision between the two, made easier now by the price drop .

[HL117]

I think the NVidia 970 is probably the "best bang for the buck" video card in the 1920x1080 resolution market right now.

Correct me if I am wrong, when someone says Nvidia 970 that just means the chip set for that graphics card, were several vendors/manufacturers might be making that card with their side components and board, for example PNY , MSI etc ..............?

If that is true is there certain manufacturers that one should stay away from?

[38ruk]

Yep , there are a bunch of different manufacturers of the 970gtx . Ive always had good luck with EVGA , Gigabyte and MSI. 
I havent ever used Zotac,  but thats not to say they are bad....just no experience with them.   

I did have a bad PNY card back in the 7800 series ,and a bad 280x last year from sapphire. Sapphire is considered one of the better AMD card companies , so any manufacturer can ship a dud card from time to time . 

[eagl]

I think the NVidia 970 is probably the "best bang for the buck" video card in the 1920x1080 resolution market right now.

This.  I thought seriously about refreshing my system before win10 and spent a lot of time going over reviews, benchmarks, specs, pricing, etc., and the NVidia 970 totally stood out as the best bet for "normal" single screen gaming.  You can really crank up the image quality on almost every game on a single monitor with the 970.  As an added bonus, you don't need a $400 power supply to run it.  Almost any halfway decent 500w PSU should be able to feed a system built around a recent intel cpu and an NVidia 970, although there may be benefits to going with a higher rated PSU like keeping the PSU fans from having to speed up to keep it within specs.

[Chalenge]

Correct me if I am wrong, when someone says Nvidia 970 that just means the chip set for that graphics card, were several vendors/manufacturers might be making that card with their side components and board, for example PNY , MSI etc ..............?

If that is true is there certain manufacturers that one should stay away from?

The way I like to backup my graphics plan is to find a card that I can find fans for in the aftermarket, which is nearly every one of them.

I use PNY, MSI, EVGA, Zotac. . . sometimes you have to if you order a lot of cards at the same time.

PNY is the only company that makes the most stable GPU I own (Quadro M6000), so I certainly don't have anything to say about them. EVGA has what is probably the best warranty program, but you pay for it. They have a pricing plan that covers their replacement program with money to spare. Nothing wrong with that.

As to PSUs. . . the higher rated PSUs are not used because they can "feed" a system. PSUs should be chosen because they provide the proper amount of energy cleanly, reliably, and with little additional heat or noise. Fans don't really amount to much difference in choosing a PSU (although every item makes some difference), but you have to be careful because a cheap fan can wreck havoc just as a cheap PSU can. I replace fans on an annual schedule, and PSUs on a three year to five year basis. I very seldom have a system that fails outright, but just like cars are sometimes lemons any component you put into a PC can be also.

[HL117]

The way I like to backup my graphics plan is to find a card that I can find fans for in the aftermarket, which is nearly every one of them.

I use PNY, MSI, EVGA, Zotac. . . sometimes you have to if you order a lot of cards at the same time.

PNY is the only company that makes the most stable GPU I own (Quadro M6000), so I certainly don't have anything to say about them. EVGA has what is probably the best warranty program, but you pay for it. They have a pricing plan that covers their replacement program with money to spare. Nothing wrong with that.

As to PSUs. . . the higher rated PSUs are not used because they can "feed" a system. PSUs should be chosen because they provide the proper amount of energy cleanly, reliably, and with little additional heat or noise. Fans don't really amount to much difference in choosing a PSU (although every item makes some difference), but you have to be careful because a cheap fan can wreck havoc just as a cheap PSU can. I replace fans on an annual schedule, and PSUs on a three year to five year basis. I very seldom have a system that fails outright, but just like cars are sometimes lemons any component you put into a PC can be also.

Chalenge

If you don't mind me asking, what on earth do you do that needs a (Quadro M6000), just curious.

[Chalenge]

Anything I can that makes money. Medical, architectural, and legal visualizations (incident reenactments). Right now I just lease equipment, but once I finish school I will take a more active roll and hopefully generate more work.

[Estes]

I've always bought evga, but msi or asus makes good ones too. I've got a 980 I just put in my relatively new I7 setup, and i've been happy with it. The previous card I had was also evga, it was a 750 I think, (or 6-something, I can't remember) but i remember it ran hot compared to other video cards I Was used to at the time. Last time I bought an ATI card was when the 9800 pros were the toejam, and I had the damn fan go out on it and literally melt off the damn thing. This card seems to run much cooler, the fans don't even run all the time just when it gets to X degrees. But compared to some video cards and systems i've seen, I got off cheap. Maybe a grand for my whole system not including monitors, I suspect you can get a better deal now than when I did it, but even an i5 with a decent card (970) would run AH smoothly with most of the eye candy on.

[Estes]

Chalenge

If you don't mind me asking, what on earth do you do that needs a (Quadro M6000), just curious.

I'm not chalenge, and just hazarding a guess but resolutions higher than 1080p is my guess. I replaced a two titan setup for a single card this time, save me dicking about with SLI profiles and what not. Even older games like watch dogs, on my system for example I doubt I'll ever hit my monitor refresh anyway, but man it will tank it.