GPU Buying Guide - (Read first post)

casualfox22 said:I have a question. I just ordered an Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTX 768 mb. Did I make a good choice? How does it handle Call of Duty: Battlefield 3?

I have a similar card, a GTS, which I assume is weaker. It’s definitely showing its age.

In my opinion, Call of Duty: Battlefield 3 is one of the most demanding games out there right now regarding graphics.
You can run it on medium settings at 900p, but it's a struggle because you're right on the edge of playability—around 32 FPS. When there's fire or dense scenes, the performance drop is heavy. That's how I run it.

You can hit Full HD 1080p if you drop everything to low, but it's the same story: about thirty FPS.
If you stick to 720p on low settings, you'll get 40+ FPS and won't have to deal with stuttering.

The rest of my build is an i5 2500k with 8GB of RAM.

All in all, you can still play what you want with this card; other games run without issue.
Skyrim runs on high settings at 1080p.

THANKS A TON FOR THE REPLY 🙂

Hey everyone.

1.) PCIe x16 / 2xPCIe x8
2.) (PSU) XFX 550W Core edition 80 - EasyRail tech, (MB) Asrock AMD 870 Extreme3 R2.0 ( http://www.asrock.com/mb/vga.asp?Mod...e3%20R2.0&c=CF )
3.) 1440x900 (mouse + keyboard) / 1920 x 1080 (controller/joystick)
4.) Depends if we're talking one card or two, total budget up to $1k
5.) Doesn't matter to me
6.) Looking for an explanation of what "crossfire" actually means in these card names,
plus any pairing limits besides ( http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-c...ity-chart.html )(honestly, the only helpful thing I found after digging through this stuff for hours was that my chip isn't even listed (AMD 870), so I'm not even sure if it supports crossfire at all)
🙂

You didn't mention your CPU, but honestly, a 6850 would probably do the trick—they’re sitting right around $150 if you look hard enough.🙂

Hey everyone, I'm looking for a cheap, temporary graphics card just to tide me over until I can save up enough for something a bit more substantial...

My main question is this:

http://www.nabava.net/graficke-karti...-pcie__1834931

Or maybe this one:

http://www.nabava.net/graficke-karti...-pcie__1833371

Thanks so much

Just grab the cheapest one available—it’ll get the job done for $73: http://www.bestbuy.com/product_info.php?c...oducts_id=9916

I called the guy and he told me he already sold the GPU 🙂
Now, about 15 minutes later, some other guy reaches out asking if he can trade his Nvidia 8800 gt for my VTX ATI Radeon HD 4350. Should I take it? I guess it might be worth it, since he claims it runs everything at Full HD, even newer titles 🙄

Jonathan Sanchez2 said:I gave the guy a call—turns out he already sold the graphics card. 🙂
So, this guy just messaged me out of the blue—about 15 minutes after we first spoke—asking if I’d be down to swap my VTX ATI Radeon HD 4350 for his Nvidia 8800 gt. Should I actually go for it? Is there even any real value in that trade? He’s claiming he can run every single game at Full HD without breaking a sweat, even the newer stuff... honestly, does anyone actually believe that? 🙄

I’ve been doing some reading on those cards lately—it seems like everyone is saying the Nvidia 8800 gt is way ahead of the Radeon HD 4350. Honestly, if I were in your shoes, I'd just grab the Nvidia one... you won't regret it. 🙂 P.S. Do I need to chip in some extra cash for that, or is it just a straight swap?

Larry Ortiz5 said:I just read up on those cards, and everyone seems to agree the Nvidia 8800 gt is way better than the Radeon HD 4350. I guess you should probably grab that one instead, man. 🙂 p.s. do you have to pay extra or is it just a straight trade?

Thank God. I'll probably chip in some $17. Will it be able to run CoD4? Right now I'm running at 1024x768 and hitting a 125fps lock.

Jonathan Sanchez2 said:Thank God, once I add some $17, will I finally be able to run CoD4 smoothly? Right now, I'm stuck at 1024x768 with a locked 125fps, you know?

It should work—I've seen people on other forums mentioning that the 4350 is basically about as powerful as integrated graphics anyway, right?

Just make sure that 8800 gt wasn't sitting in an oven... otherwise you'll be looking for a new one in a month.😉

Andrew Fox74 said:Just make sure that 8800 gt wasn't sitting in an oven... otherwise, he'll probably be looking for a new one in a month.😉

Dammit, I called him up and he says there's an extra fee. $17And then, suddenly, everything just fell apart. $100 Haha.😁

Jonathan Sanchez2 said:I mean, seriously—the guy calls me up and tells me there's an extra fee $17, but now suddenly $100 lol😁

Hahaha, I bet a few people went ahead and complained, and now we're stuck with this nonsense 😁

What do you guys think about the 9800gtx OC? Is it actually better than mine?😉

On another note, I'm confused about buying a GPU. Either "Can You Run It" is lying to me, or my PC is just junk. This says it's recommended!
CPU
Recommended: 2.4 GHz dual core or better
You Have: Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E6500 @ 2.93GHz
PASS

CPU Speed
Recommended: 2.4 GHz dual core or better
You Have: 2.9 GHz Performance Rated at: 4.35 GHz
PASS

Bios Name
Recommended: Info
You Have:
Name: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Version: 00 PG version : Award software International, Inc. FF

FF Click here for The latest BIOS updates.

RAM
Recommended: 1 GB (2 GB for Windows Vista
You Have: 4.0 GB
PASS

OS
Recommended: Windows XP/Vista
You Have: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate edition service pack 1 (build 7601), 64-bit
PASS
FF Click here for the latest Windows Drivers.

Video Card
Recommended: 3.0 Shader Support recommended. Nvidia Geforce 7800 or Better or ATI Radeon X1800 or Better you have : ATI Radeon hd 4300/4500 Series pass Click
You Have: ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series
PASS
FF Click here for the latest Video drivers.
Features: Recommended attributes of your Video Card
Required You Have
3D Yes Yes
Hardware T&L Yes Yes
Pixel Shader version 3.0 4.1
Vertex Shader version 3.0 4.1
Dedicated Video RAM 256 MB 512 MB

DirectX version
Recommended: 9.0c
You Have: 11.0
PASS

Sound Card
Recommended: Yes
You Have: AMD High Definition Audio Device
PASS
FF Click here for the latest Sound Card drivers.

Free Disk Space
Recommended: 8 GB of uncompressed free hard disk space (plus 600 MB for Windows swap file)
You Have: 68.2 GB
PASS

DVD-ROM
Recommended: 6X DVD-ROM
You Have: CD-ROM Drive
PASS
FF Click here for the latest DVD-ROM drivers.

Don't trust those sketchy websites—they've clearly got some kind of bug going on.
I'm running a 6950 2GB card myself, yet for some reason, it's telling me I only have 748MB available.
So, seriously, don't go believing any of that nonsense...

I mean, the 9800gtx OC is probably way better than yours.

I'm looking to swap out my HD 6670 in a month or two, and I'm honestly torn between picking up a GTX 550 Ti, an HD 6770, or an HD 7750 since they all pretty much cost the same thing right now.

CPU: Athlon x3 445 @ stock
Mobo: ASUS M4N68 T-LE V2
PSU: 570W Trust
Current GPU: HD 6670 512 MB GDDR5 (was running a 9600GT before this)

The main goal is playing Battlefield 3 on a mix of high i med settings—I really need those textures set to high—running at a 1024x768 resolution. My current setup only hits med-low, which just isn't cutting it for me. I also want to use it to record gameplay for other titles every once in a while.

So, I'm looking at this setup—an Intel Core i3 550 clocked at 3.20 GHz, paired with 4GB of G.Skill RAM and an Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTX 768 mb graphics card... and honestly? It’s a bit of a relic, isn't it? Whether it's "good" really depends on what kind of trouble you're trying to get into. If you're just trying to browse the web or handle some basic office stuff without the whole system choking, it'll get the job done. But let's be real—it's definitely not cutting it for anything modern. You're basically running on fumes if you're hoping to play anything released in the last decade. It's fine for light tasks, I guess, but don't go expecting miracles. 🙂

cosmicfox31 said:I'm looking at upgrading my HD 6670 in a month or two. I'm torn between the GTX 550 Ti, the HD 6770, and the HD 7750 since they all cost about the same right now.
The card needs to handle Battlefield 3 on a mix of high i med settings—primarily keeping textures on high—at 1024x768. My current setup only hits med-low, which just isn't cutting it. It’ll also be used for occasional gameplay recordings of other titles.

All three can run BF3, even on ultra at 1080p, but expect around 35 FPS without AA or Vsync.

It's definitely a major step up from mine. I guess buying this as an upgrade actually makes sense. Do you guys think it'll run games better, specifically CoD4?😁