video cards, twice the price twice the performance?

[pembquist]

Looking at real video cards instead of my GE Force 210 and I wanted to know if a GTX 1060 is worth twice a GTX 750. My box is an old dell inspiron 531s with a new power supply (500 watt or more, don't remember) an Athalon 64 x 2 6000+ ~3.0GB, the memory is 4 gig of I don't know what and the OS is VISTA 32 Bit. I've always used VGA but I think my monitor has a DVI as well.

I can see my way to the price point of the 750 if I can get non slide show with very low settings, I'm guessing that the extra 100% of dollars won't double the performance given my set up's vintage.

Any advice?

EDIT: I just looked on the EVGA website at a 1060 and it doesn't include Vista in the OS requirements. I think New Egg insinuated that their were drivers for Vista but it could just be lying.

[Bizman]

It might be time to upgrade a little more than just the video card. How massive an upgrade is up to your budget. Based on benchmarks your system should do reasonably well by upgrading the video card, however I don't know how well that CPU would do given the issue with certain AMD processors using only one core some years ago. Plus the support for Vista will end in less than a year, making an already obsolete OS pretty much useless.

The cheapest way to get a reasonably capable system might be trying to find abandoned PC's with a Windows 7 license sticker. A year or two ago our local institute auctioned such desktops starting from €21. Adding some RAM, a video card and an applicable PSU they would've been able to play AH3. With a little luck they could have been from the multimedia classroom, meaning they would've been equipped with those already.

[pembquist]

I'm trying to stay this side of the slippery slope, If I found a free Win7 with a decent cpu, (I don't know what the equivalent to what I have would be,) I'd be all over it. As it is I'm assuming eventually I'll just transplant my video card, PS, and drive over to what ever I find. I've already got enough computers, (mac, chromebook, decent I7 laptop, Ubuntu box, Ipad,) for productivity--HAHA!-- purposes that I can't rationalize spending much on a machine that has only one decadent purpose!

[Bizman]

(I don't know what the equivalent to what I have would be,)

On the Intel side it would be a Core2Duo E8400 or E8500, AH being able to use both cores. With a five years old Radeon HD6970 I get 25 to 59 FPS on a 1600p monitor, averaging 40-50 in the situations I usually die in. Kanth just reported getting 147 FPS using a new GTX 1060 on a similar system.

[Condor]

Based on bench marking the GTX 1060 with a G3D Mark of 9363  http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+GTX+1060+6GB&id=3548  will give almost 3 times he performance of the 750 (G3D Mark 3247).  The real question is how will the 750 perform in AH3?  For reference I have a Radeon HD 6950 (G3D Mark 3174); close to the 750. In a GV if there is much action I need to disable almost all of the graphics to keep FPS at 30-40. It does a little better if I'm in the air. A buddy has a GTX 670 (G3D Mark 5382) He also has to dial the graphics back a fair amount. So my guess is you would be disappointed with the 750.  Bizman's HD 6970 has a G3D mark of 3470.

[Bizman]

Yep, any GTX #50 is on the low side. #60 and higher is what you should look for in older Nvidia cards.

[Hajo]

I owned and used a 750Ti.  It worked very well. It is not a high powered vid card.  Most standard power supplies 300 watt range are fine.

You can't have everything turned way up.  I disabled shadows (no big deal, I don't like them even with my 970)  I set my environment slider to1,  turned down detail and range sliders to about half, and flew 1024

resolution.  Higher resolutions aren't that important unless you wish to zoom in on another's nose art to see it.  I ran between 59 and 40 FR.  No problems at all.

But as Bizman stated, if you have the money a better PC with a better CPU might be in order.  If you don't have the money for a higher end video card which usually means upgrading your power supply

I suggest an Nvidia GTX 750Ti as an option.  It works.  Several are using it in game with good results.  Doesn't require a high wattage power supply.  It is not a small card.

[flyndung]

thats about as far as you can upgrade the 531 sadly a brisbane 3.1  x2 6000+ wouldnt be worth it... but you know if you can find a cheap 775 based computer ... example i just found recently a Dell Optiplex 380 at goodwill for 15.00 threw in a harddrive and bought a Xeon 771 3.0ghz  quad core with 12 meg cache and all for under 30.00 had a really nice system .. the 771 to 775 mod makes a nice upgrade to the aging 775 platform but for the money invested its a great return. also the nice thing about the Dell Optiplex 380  is uses DDR3 instead of the DD2. just a though til you have money to put into a real upgrade,

also if your running the X2 6000+ windsor it's a really hot processor.. esp with a 125w TDP
 

thought i would pass this on too:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-Optiplex-380-DCSM1F-Core-2-Duo-w-2-93-GHz-80-GB-HD-4-GB-Ram-DVDrw-WORKING-/381772749805?hash=item58e36ddbed:g:LpAAAOSwLnBXXLoW
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-E5450-3-0GHz-12MB-1333MHz-SLBBM-LGA771-CPU-Server-Processor-/201671049321?hash=item2ef4880069:g:eKUAAOSwxg5X1Eod
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Intel-CPU-LGA-771-775-Mod-Adapter-Sticker-Upgrade-Core-2-to-Xeon-Quad-/252494431817?hash=item3ac9d74649:g:Z50AAOSwvgdW3Fv1
 
you could probably sell your 531 and make all your money back you spent too

[Denniss]

If you want the 1060 avoid the 3GiB edition at all cost - not only slower it has just half the memory of the real 1060.

[Bizman]

"At all cost" is a bit dramatically said. For 1080p the 3GB memory should be as sufficient than the 3.5+0.5GB of the highly praised GTX970.

However, reading this: http://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/2604-gtx-1060-3gb-vs-6gb-benchmark-review?showall=1 and noticing the most expensive 3 GB version and the cheapest 6 GB version, both by EVGA, cost exactly the same and the price difference between the cheapest models being only 16% or $50 at one of our dealers I agree the 6 GB version is a better choice both for reliability and longevity.

[BowHTR]

The real question is how will the 750 perform in AH3?

I have and use a 750 for AH3. Im able to run with all sliders to the far right, with environment slider at 0. Disable reflections and shadows (Get distracting to me at times) and everything else is enabled. Run a steady 59-60 fps. with fire, smoke, and up to about 40 players around i drop to about 50ish fps. With shadows on, it will cost me about 3-5 fps, which is no biggy.

[Hajo]

I owned and used a 750Ti.  It worked very well. It is not a high powered vid card.  Most standard power supplies 300 watt range are fine.

You can't have everything turned way up.  I disabled shadows (no big deal, I don't like them even with my 970)  I set my environment slider to1,  turned down detail and range sliders to about half, and flew 1024

resolution.  Higher resolutions aren't that important unless you wish to zoom in on another's nose art to see it.  I ran between 59 and 40 FR.  No problems at all.

But as Bizman stated, if you have the money a better PC with a better CPU might be in order.  If you don't have the money for a higher end video card which usually means upgrading your power supply

I suggest an Nvidia GTX 750Ti as an option.  It works.  Several are using it in game with good results.  Doesn't require a high wattage power supply.  It is not a small card.

The 750Ti is available at amazon for 126 dollars.  EVGA

[Gman]

Great advice regarding finding a used PC, and then plopping a 750ti or another GPU that doesn't require a PSU swap or PSU power connectors for an entry level computer to get into AH3 with.  The aforementioned dual core Intel CPU PCs, or even early i7 8xx to say 920 and such can be found VERY cheap if you search through the local used online sales sites in your area. 

kijiji.ca here in Canada, I've found dozens of such systems for a couple hundred bucks that work just fine, and for around 100 USD if you look for deals you can find a good GPU like a 750ti - I have a home theater PC that's an i7 920 that came with a 5770 originally that I've put a 750ti in I got for cheap, and have flown AH3 offline with it a bit, and it works great with the reflection turned to 1 or off, and some details turned down a bit.  Maintaining 60fps at 1080p with textures and some stuff turned down is very possible.

The 1060 is great for the money, but requires a PCI E connector, which means with a budget used PC that you probably need to swap PSUs, and at that point it's getting close to the cost of just building a new budget PC is worth it IMO.  The 750ti, or even the 950, both don't require a PCI E power connector, and usually a 350 to 400 PSU will get you by on either of those cards.