Looking for a new mid priced video card

[Elliot B.]

Pregen; Before the current gen. Progen; After the current gen.

At the price, the GTX 650 Ti sounds good. Unless its performance is really far from the 660

Grow up and listen to what I am saying. No one credible, including those in the industry, say "pregen". The massively used/preferred term is "last gen".

Someone please back me up, this 15" CRT guy is winding me up.

[laz45]

1024x768? did I just woke up in the year 2000? Get a monitor instead... Black Friday is coming up! I'm sure you can get one pretty cheap!

[pes2013]

Grow up and listen to what I am saying. No one credible, including those in the industry, say "pregen". The massively used/preferred term is "last gen".

Someone please back me up, this 15" CRT guy is winding me up.

..... :/ Theres no need to get emotional about it.....

Topic at hand, is the GTX 660 vs the GTX 650 Ti price difference really worth it? If it is, then OK. If not, then Im not really interested in spending that much.

[TokiToki]

Topic at hand, is the GTX 660 vs the GTX 650 Ti price difference really worth it? If it is, then OK. If not, then Im not really interested in spending that much.

On a modern Intel Architecture, the price difference is probably worth it. Given your CPU (Core2 [email protected]) and resolution (1024x768), the answer is no.

[Shane Nokes]

Indeed, which was part of my point earlier. :)

At 1024x768 he is more likely to run into a CPU bottleneck before a GPU bottleneck, which is something he should look into.

[threetonesun]

FWIW, at 1024x768, you could just buy an AMD APU or a new Intel CPU with the HD4000 on it and game away.

[pes2013]

On a modern Intel Architecture, the price difference is probably worth it. Given your CPU (Core2 [email protected]) and resolution (1024x768), the answer is no.

Indeed, which was part of my point earlier. :)

At 1024x768 he is more likely to run into a CPU bottleneck before a GPU bottleneck, which is something he should look into.

Thanks :) You guys are pretty much the only ones who helped out.

[Shane Nokes]

No problem. If you have any other questions, always feel free to toss them out there. I'm not always on the PC, but usually near one.

[pes2013]

Damn I knew I had a bad feeling about two slot cards....

This is my PC case:

Ill try to explain via case slots from top to bottom :)

1: Nothing. ITs just two USB ports connected to the motherboard. I can remove them I don't care.

2: My current video card. The new one would go here.

3: Empty (notice the PCI slot)

4: My audio card (PCI slot)

5: RAID card

6: Empty (I BELIEVE that is a PCI-E 1x slot)

7: Empty (PCI slot)

Now what I wanted to ask if it will fit or not. Im not sure if all coolers are just standard to take up two PCI slots or is the actual cooler inside the machine a bit "higher". If not I COULD move my audio card to the very very bottom. I guess that's what Im going to do: Ill just move the audio card all the way to to the bottom (just in case and better air flow :)

Thanks to all! :)

[LaP]

Honestly i think upgrading your GPU is a waste of money.

If i were you i would save and upgrade the whole thing. A good AMD or Intel APU might actually perform better than your CPU with 660.

The core 2 duo used to be good CPU but they are really outdated. I'm using one at work and it's signficantly slower than a Core IE5 while working with Visual Studio and Creative Suite.

I can actually run in a CPU bottleneck with my Core I5 750 coupled to a 670. Anyway that's the only way i can explain my relatively low framerate in GW2 lol.

[pes2013]

Ordering the GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB as we speak.

off topic post that is not the original topic....

Thank you for your post.

[Shane Nokes]

Honestly i think upgrading your GPU is a waste of money.

If i were you i would save and upgrade the whole thing. A good AMD or Intel APU might actually perform better than your CPU with 660.

The core 2 duo used to be good CPU but they are really outdated. I'm using one at work and it's signficantly slower than a Core IE5 while working with Visual Studio and Creative Suite.

Oddly enough I find it depends on what I'm doing. I currently run a Core2Duo E6600 coupled with an ATi/AMD Radeon HD3850 that is still pretty damn smooth.

At work most of the machines I've run are now i5 and i7 machines and for some reason have more performance hiccups than this machine. Maybe it's because at home I've always made sure my machine is finely tuned in all regards. I still play new games on it...in fact I have Deus Ex: HR on here...and it runs nice and smooth at 1680x1050...same with Fable III & Burnout Paradise, and so on.

Ordering the GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB as we speak.

Thank you for your post.

To be fair actually their post is fairly relevant. It's similar to what I was saying earlier in that you actually are quickly approaching a bottleneck situation where your processor is going to hold you back more than your graphics card. Once that point hits upgrades to the GPU will have little effect without more bandwidth at the CPU level.

Think of it like the literal neck of a bottle. The smaller that neck...the less that can move freely out of the bottle. That's basically what older parts do to a system over time.

[threetonesun]

Plus any new CPU gets you an APU that's good enough for TF2...

But the 650 Ti will be even better, so enjoy.

[pes2013]

I didn't give it much thought but is the 2GB version worth it for 22 euros? I ordered the 1GB version with 1 fan but I see the 2GB version has 2 fans.

Since I ordered it late Friday (was busy) it hasn't shipped yet so maybe I can email them and change it for the 2GB version....What is your opinion?

[Ambroos]

I have an Intel E6750 which is quite a similar setup and I game at 1280x1024 - one or two years ago I upgraded to a Radeon 5750. I can assure you the GPU upgrade (from a GeForce 8600 GTS) was quite a big help FPS-wise but I don't get the full FPS you can usually get from a 5750, probably because of a CPU bottleneck.

I didn't give it much thought but is the 2GB version worth it for 22 euros? I ordered the 1GB version with 1 fan but I see the 2GB version has 2 fans.

Since I ordered it late Friday (was busy) it hasn't shipped yet so maybe I can email them and change it for the 2GB version....What is your opinion?

Two fans will run much quieter than one fan that has to do double the work.

[pes2013]

Two fans will run much quieter than one fan that has to do double the work.

Well noise really has never been a issue for me :) I really wanted to know if Ill get some extra performance out of those 2GB.

For PCs. generally the more RAM the better but not sure if its the same for video cards (in the sense of it being noticeable)

[Ambroos]

Well noise really has never been a issue for me :) I really wanted to know if Ill get some extra performance out of those 2GB.

For PCs. generally the more RAM the better but not sure if its the same for video cards (in the sense of it being noticeable)

More RAM is mostly needed for higher resolutions. At 1024x768 you won't really notice it.

Something I've been wondering about, why do you game at 1024x768? With a newer GPU you can probably run everything just as well on any higher resolution!

[threetonesun]

Well noise really has never been a issue for me :) I really wanted to know if Ill get some extra performance out of those 2GB.

For PCs. generally the more RAM the better but not sure if its the same for video cards (in the sense of it being noticeable)

At the moment, only in rare cases, like if you want to run the high-definition texture pack in Skyrim, or any other game loading gigantic textures. That said, I think 2GB will be useful in the near future, with new consoles coming out in the next year, and more reasons for developers to include high resolution textures, but then again, once that happens, the 650 Ti might not be able to run those games at highest quality anyway.

So... I wouldn't worry about it. As for the 1 fan / two fans, two of the same size is better, as you can run them at lower RPMs and get the same amount of cooling, but 1 bigger one is better than 2, IMO.

[pes2013]

More RAM is mostly needed for higher resolutions. At 1024x768 you won't really notice it.

Understood.

At the moment, only in rare cases, like if you want to run the high-definition texture pack in Skyrim, or any other game loading gigantic textures. That said, I think 2GB will be useful in the near future, with new consoles coming out in the next year, and more reasons for developers to include high resolution textures, but then again, once that happens, the 650 Ti might not be able to run those games at highest quality anyway.

So... I wouldn't worry about it. As for the 1 fan / two fans, two of the same size is better, as you can run them at lower RPMs and get the same amount of cooling, but 1 bigger one is better than 2, IMO.

I enjoy several high-definition texture packs in PES sometimes.....I think we "future proofing" the card, the 22 euros is worth it.

Lets just hope where I am buying it from doesn't put any "but"s in there....

Thank you all once again for the help :)

[pes2013]

http://www.techspot.com/review/603-best-graphics-cards/page12.html

Man I really hate everyone right now :p

Also, couldn't change it. They said it already shipped (didn't get a email about that but whatever) and I could make the change sending it back but all shipping costs were on me.

[remixedcat]

Ordering the GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB as we speak.

Thank you for your post.

That's what I got... the EVGA SSC version. Not a bad card for a mid-range one

[Ambroos]

http://www.techspot....rds/page12.html

Man I really hate everyone right now :p

Also, couldn't change it. They said it already shipped (didn't get a email about that but whatever) and I could make the change sending it back but all shipping costs were on me.

You made a good choice, trust me. FPS isn't everything. nVidia drivers really are much, much better. You have so many configuration options that actually work, you have nice extras like Adaptive VSync, FXAA, proper 3D (with all sorts of glasses) in all games, PhysX, ...

[pes2013]

You made a good choice, trust me. FPS isn't everything. nVidia drivers really are much, much better. You have so many configuration options that actually work, you have nice extras like Adaptive VSync, FXAA, proper 3D (with all sorts of glasses) in all games, PhysX, ...

OK, thank you for reassuring :)

I mean my price point has indeed the lowest possible and it seems the one I got is pretty much good so :) The hate comment was a joke, most that been very helpful in this thread, so thank you once again.

Should receive it tomorrow :)

[leesmithg]

I got a decent card for sale.

I stuck it on eBay...It's got a day or so left and it is on a few watch lists.

View it here

Only thing ever used in the box was the card, which is nearly as clean as the date I installed it.

It's boxed with all attachments, software and instructions you need.

[Slammers]

You've chosen a decent card. In the future when you want to play newer games (probably near future) you can keep it when you upgrade your cpu, ram, motherboard and maybe psu.

I wouldn't recommend getting a higher resolution monitor until you upgrade your CPU.

edit: sorry if you said, but what powersupply do you have (if you know)