Upgrading graphics card... decent card for AHIII?

[100Coogn]

At the moment it looks like Nvidia is a little faster, a little quieter, a little cooler and uses a little less power than AMD.

The GTX 970 was the best bang for the buck card for "everything maxxed" on a single 1920x1080 monitor, now it looks as the GTX 1060 has taken that post, plus it runs quieter.
The GTX 960 was a good budget card for more than average settings, the 1050 looking very promising in that range. The latter is the first GTX #50 that looks like a good performer in AH3, the 950 may have been a little on the weak side even when compared with the older 670 and 770.

Both the 900 and 1000 series are available.

^^^This.
Just got a 970 myself for cheap.  Great card, but it needs more power than the 1000 series.
Got mine off of Ebay.  I'm a firm believer in manufacturer refurbished.  Get some really good deals that way, but you have to decide
if you'd like to take the chance on it.  Some folks want brand new.

Coogan

[SIK1]

Also Warty, we can work on your stick problems, your view problems, and pilot skill problems, just let me know when is a good time to meet in the TA.

 
Sik

[Pudgie]

A little report-out, in case anyone else is in a similar situation, and wants to see what kind of frame rate improvement they might see:

• This is a 2011 custom build system with 4 GB RAM
• With the old radeon card, I was getting between 21 and 30 FPS online.
• With the new 1060 nVidia, I'm getting 55-70 FPS online.
• I also bumped up the distance and detail sliders a bit, and switched from max 1024 to max 2048 textures. Oddly enough, this didn't really seem to change the FPS much in very light testing.

All testing with the DX9 version. I haven't tried running the DX11 version yet. (people report it's slower in general, apparently). 1080p, going to a vizio 42" tv.

Overall, even though the system is from 2011, it is more than playable with this $200 upgrade.

NOTE: it has not solved my stick problems, my view problems, or my pilot-skills problems. I'm particularly worried about that last one, because I've called around, and there doesn't seem to be a reasonably priced upgrade available.

Thanks again everyone for help and suggestions!

Good for you! Was wondering if you'd followed up and pulled the trigger on the GTX 1060...............

 

[DaddyAce]

Glad it worked out well for you Warty!