Question Good GPU Model?

[jarmonik]

It's not a problem of graphics card, but coder's. Artlav writes his code primarily for ATI, and I know from experience with Morrowind Graphics Extender, that sometimes the same code doesn't work the same for ATI and NVidia. If he was writing his code primarily for NVidia cards, he would have problems with ATI cards instead, so as I said, this isn't a graphics card issue.

Usually OpenGL is prised by it's compatibility. But looks like those times has come and gone.

BTW. Here is one pretty good site that allows to compare products. http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=88&pgno=0

 

[Carmen A]

You do bring up a good point though orb. If it does happen to be a AGP. Thats a whole different ballgame. New motherboard/cpu is your best bet. Then you will need ram memory,possibly a new power supply. Make sure the new motherboard will fit into the new case. Or just buy a whole new computer ready to go. My point is know what you have before making any hardware purchase. Because one thing can lead to another real quick

I had wanted to upgrade my old computer's memory and storage (ancient 1.6ghz core2duo which I made all my OMP videos and flights on) but as the pricing went it was more economical to go right for a fresh system and base any future upgrades from there.

$200 USD for a complete 3.06g i3, massive ram and storage and the onboard video is better than my old X1550 Radeon.

I have no idea how to make use of so many cores so I will dedicate one to Probe worship

Network performance is vastly improved on this platform too. I can has server? :3

 

[Columbia42]

Thanks Xyon. I also looked up my computer specs and apparently I should have a PCIe 16x slot so that makes sense. My next decision is whether to go with an ATI or an Nvidia card. I've heard good things and bad things about both. Is there any definitive claim about which one is better?

 

[jedidia]

Still speaking Orbiter Galaxy related, there seem to still be larger issues with G-series NVidia cards (black textures for rocky planets) that Artlav has of yet no Idea where there are coming from, as the Orbiter Galaxy generator seems to be the only thing causing the bug, while the same generator in spaceways does not. That said, my new ATI card (HD 5770) isn't working flawlessly either yet. Although not exporting textures in black, it shows lack of detail in generating the textures.

So, I guess it doesn't make that much of a difference wheather you go with ATI or NVIDIA, there are still problems around, and I still hope Artlav will get behind them eventually. Currently, he seemes to be pretty clueless about a possible source of the bug. After all, he isn't a developement studio that can get a model of every important card on the market to test the stuff, so he has to go on guessing, since his card is working (HD5880 if I'm not mistaken, a pretty expensive toy...).

What you should pay attention to is that the card supports at least shader model 4.1, but that is pretty much the case for all DX11 cards.

 

[Columbia42]

I checked out the ATI HD 5770 and it looked pretty good but it looks like it requires a minimum power supply of 405 watts and my computer only has a power supply of 305 watts. Do most GPUs require more than 305 w to run?

 

[Turbo]

I checked out the ATI HD 5770 and it looked pretty good but it looks like it requires a minimum power supply of 405 watts and my computer only has a power supply of 305 watts. Do most GPUs require more than 305 w to run?

Most newer more high-end GPUs do indeed require a bigger power supply. I run a Nvidia GTX 465 1gig and it requires a minimum 550w and 2 additional power connectors. I used to run a Nvidia 9600Gt 512mb, which ran just fine on my old setup with a 300w, no extra power connectors (the box said it needed 350w). You can find a 9600 - 9800gt for pretty cheap nowadays (think I payed $80 for it year and a half ago) and it will run most modern games (I only experienced lag on 1600x1200 COD black ops, which lead to me upgrading)

As far as ATI, I havent used them for 3 - 4 years now, so I cannot comment on them. Good luck

 

[jedidia]

I checked out the ATI HD 5770 and it looked pretty good but it looks like it requires a minimum power supply of 405 watts and my computer only has a power supply of 305 watts. Do most GPUs require more than 305 w to run?

Actually, the new generation of high-end cards eats less power than the older. The HD5770 is way better than the XT1900 I had before, but needs about 20 Watts less at peak.

However, a power supply of 400W is pretty much what you should have if you want to run any decent graphics card. Less might do most of the time, but can bring your system down if you throw something really demanding at the GPU.

 

[n72.75]

I've got two 3870s in my laptop, they work great as heaters but performance-wise they are bit lacking.

 

[Lucy]

Actually, the new generation of high-end cards eats less power than the older. The HD5770 is way better than the XT1900 I had before, but needs about 20 Watts less at peak.

However, a power supply of 400W is pretty much what you should have if you want to run any decent graphics card. Less might do most of the time, but can bring your system down if you throw something really demanding at the GPU.

Indeed, while idle they consume less than older cards used to thanks to some rather clever energy efficiency features. The extra power is only drawn when it's needed, which is where newer cards now need more than they can pull off the PCI-E connector itself, and thus need those additional connections.

I got an 850W power supply when I upgraded my graphics card for a relatively cheap amount (well, relative to the cost of the card, I suppose...), and when it sits idle the whole rig uses less power per hour than my TV.

 

[Columbia42]

Thanks for your input everyone. I just bought a new 600w power supply and I'm looking at either the ATI 5770 or 5570 as the most viable options. The 5570 is a lot cheaper and the only considerable difference I've found is that it uses DDRS 3 ram instead of DDRS 5 as in the 5770.