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Final Fantasy Online Forums  >  Community Discussion  >  The Dork Squad

GPU, please to help me understand?




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0
 08.25.2012 6:23pm
Thread Creator

reido
(\/)(o,,,o)(\/)



In the relatively near future I'm looking on replacing my AMD GPU with an nVidia GeForce of some kind.  Looking at game-debate.com as a point of reference and not as a thing to follow to the letter, the minimum required GPU for The Secret World (which hates the AMD card) is a GeForce 8800 GS, the "adjusted" minimum (I dunno) is a GeForce GT 340, and the "recommended" is a GeForge GT 545 DDR5.

So I go to bestbuy.com (again as a point of reference and not a law to be followed, just to look at pricing ideas) to check prices and the only GT 545 they have listed is a DDR3, which is fairly reasonably priced.  So:

QUESTION ONE: How much of a step down is DDR3 compared to DDR5, if it's a step down at all?  Because it's not terribly priced and even just looking it up to make this post have given me a little hope for the future.

But let's take a step down away from the top option and look at the GT340.  Now, I can't find this motherfucker on bestbuy.com at all, so now I'm looking at some other GT models, specifically an Asus NVIDIA GeForce 440 which has a GDDR5--my estranged wife's bitchin' superlaptop is an Asus so it's a company that I've had good experience with. 

QUESTION TWO:  What? the? hell? 

This one's only a little over half as expensive as the 545 in question one but it's got the DDR5 thing which is whatever I don't know what is this I do'nt even

ACTUAL QUESTION TWO:  How does this 440 compare to the 340?  I don't trust the numbers becuase the last timeI did I found out that a 4__ card was actually a lot nicer than a 6__ card of the same naming scheme which makes my head hurt.

So right, one more step back to the minimum, the 8800 GS.  Again I don't see this one on bestbuy.com, but I do see a bunch of 8400s... but they're mostly really cheap compared to the other two--half again as cheap as the 440, so cheap that I doubt their quality.  So,

QUESTION THREE:  How to the 8400s compare to the 8800? 

And:

QUESTION FOUR:  How much of a step up are the other two potential purchases, the 440 and the 545, over the 8400 or the 8800?

And this is all just prospective.  I haven't even checked to see if any of these will even work in my PC.  I'll worry about that once I know a bit more about the differences between them.




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0
 08.26.2012 8:19am


Arckanghel
Pirate.



The DDR3 & 5 are indications of the speed the RAM on the GPU is using. So it's hard to say what the difference is exactly in your overall performance, because it depends. As far as the recommendation for the game, it probably is almost unnoticeable. In short, worry about comparing like cards RAM speeds or sizes, as in a GT545 with DD3 or DDR5, but not comparing different models so much.

A 440 is probably superior to a 340, and the numbers tend to matter, but so does the RAM and the setup the card manufacturer uses. The easiest way to deal with this is compare each card's specs to each other. A GPU is somewhat like a whole computer in that it has a GPU and then a bunch of other parts. The performance of the card is made up by all of them together.

8400. Don't bother. Also don't bother with the 8800, unless you have to.

QUESTION FOUR:  Huge step up.

Bestbuy isn't going to be a very good reference point. Try Newegg instead. Best Buy doesn't really carry a lot of the options and parts, and their price is likely to be awful anyway.

Lastly, figure out what your PC can handle by determining what slot it has. That part is very important as it will determine what you can purchase.




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0
 08.26.2012 2:34pm
Thread Creator

reido
(\/)(o,,,o)(\/)



Thanks, this has been super helpful!




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0
 08.26.2012 6:25pm


Milky Ore
Kickin' it old school



Just for some insight into the nvidia numbering system, the first number is the generation, and then after that is the "level", as in entry-level, mid-level, high-end, etc.  So a 440 and 340 would both be lowish-mid-level, but the 440 is a generation later, so probably better.  But if you had something like a 380, which was high-end from a year before, it'd probably still be better than the 440.  Between 340 and 440, I would pick 440 for sure, because starting from the 4 generation, the cards are DirectX 11 compatible.

Oh, and they also did a switcheroo with the generations.  They started in the thousands, so 6xxx, 7xxx, 8xxx, 9xxx, but then went into the three digit range, with 1xx, 2xx, 3xx, 4xx, 5xx.  So yeah, 4xx is multiple, multiple generations higher than a 8xxx.  I really would avoid anything that old at this point, even if the 8800 was a bad-ass card back in it's day.

Anyway, definitely not an expert, so I'll defer anything else (like a final recommendation) to the others here.  (IIRC, Big Tall and Crisium are the gurus in this arena.)




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0
 08.26.2012 7:24pm
Thread Creator

reido
(\/)(o,,,o)(\/)



THAT is also super helpful, and sheds a lot of light on the things that were confusing me the most. Thanks!




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0
 08.27.2012 12:22am


Onyx
Butts
Administrator



FYI: Newegg.com serves as a far better point of reference than Best Buy. Better and more varied selection and MUCH better prices.

For video cards, quantiy of RAM is typically more important that if it's DDR3/5/etc. unless you want to build a top of the line gaming rig (which it sounds like you don't). So as long as you have at least a gig of on board memory, it should do you good for most modern games if you don't want it to be super graphic intensive.

Before you buy any card, just make sure your AMD card is PCI Express. Don't be scared off by mentions of PCI Express 2 or 3 because they're backwards compatible with PCIe slots. But if, for some reason, you have an AGP or only regular PCI-based card/motherboard that makes things more complicated and expensive. It probably is a PCIe card, but never hurts to be sure.

nVidia nomenclature can be REALLY confusing to someone not in the know. 8000 and 9000 are older gens of cards, from there it jumped to the 200 line, then 300, 400, and so on. 600 is the current generation of cards, but you'll be fine with the 500 line if you don't want top of the line. But at this point I wouldn't get anything older than the 200 line. Really, I would go with at least 400 line because that's where DX11 compatibility comes in.

From there it's the second number, basically what it comes down to is this:

X10-40 - Budget. Avoid unless you're desperate.
X50 - Lower Mid-range Not as good as 60, but much better than 40. Combines decent performance with a nice price.
X60 - Mid-range Great performance, but more expensive than 50.
X70 - Upper Mid-range Better than 60 not as good as 80
X80 - High end performance. Standard model for enthusiasts.
X90 - Graphic Whoredom. This is the card you'd use if you're already spending several thousand dollars on a killer gaming rig.

I think the perfect card for you would be a 1 gig Geforce GTX 550 Ti. Might want a little more ram on that, but it's not only pretty cheap but should last you awhile. I think 560's should be a lot cheaper now that the 600's are out so look into that, too. If you can get a good deal for a 560 get that as it'd be significantly more powerful than a 550. Also at this range, ignore the various letters and initials as they don't really mean a whole lot until you get into the 80's and maybe the 70's.

ONE MORE THING. More powerful video cards need more powerful power supplies. Unless you already got a high wattage PSU under the hood, you're going to need to get a new one with the video card. Also check with any tech nerd friends you have to see if your cooling would be adequate enough. It should be unless you plan on running dual 680's or something, but better safe than sorry.




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0
 08.27.2012 1:46am
Thread Creator

reido
(\/)(o,,,o)(\/)



I was gonna aim for a 550 having read the previous posts.  I'll look into my power supply/cooling and see what's what.  This isn't anything I'm going to be able to afford for a while, at least, I'm just gathering info for now.




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0
 08.27.2012 8:22pm


Onyx
Butts
Administrator



Oh yeah, if you buy nVidia, stay away from PNY. Their cards are way overpriced.

I like EVGA, Asus, and Gigabyte. Zotac and MSI ain't too shabby either.

Also, https://www.tomshardware.com is a fantastic reference site.




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0
 08.28.2012 1:21pm
Thread Creator

reido
(\/)(o,,,o)(\/)



Onyx said:Unless you already got a high wattage PSU under the hood, you're going to need to get a new one with the video card. Also check with any tech nerd friends you have to see if your cooling would be adequate enough. It should be unless you plan on running dual 680's or something, but better safe than sorry.

How can I check the wattage on my PSU?

Also I am pleased to see BUTTS is winning the poll.




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0
 08.28.2012 2:27pm


Southern Comfort
silently judging all of you



Wattage should be printed on the PSU somewhere.  If you got a cheap PSU, then rest assured that the stated wattage will be a lie.




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0
 08.29.2012 1:39am
Thread Creator

reido
(\/)(o,,,o)(\/)



I bought a PC pre-built from Office Max/Depot because I'm not savvy enough to buy it custom-built or build it myself.  I'll poke around later when I'm not actively using it.




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0
 08.29.2012 5:03am


Dh
Not in the face!
The Alpha and the Omega



The typical store-bought PC that wasn't designed for gaming most likely has a 350-400w PSU.



I made this for you!




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0
 08.30.2012 2:20pm


Crisium
N/A



I'd recommend AMD for a questionable PSU.  I know you said your game doesn't like AMD, but I'd look into solutions to that problem.  The 550Ti isn't neccessarily a power hog, but it's still a Fermi.  The Radeon 7750 is nearly as fast as the 550Ti (~5% slower).  But it uses well under half the power (at times less than a third).  It stands as the fastest card you can buy without a power connector, virtually guarenteeing that it'll work in any PSU.

But otherwise try to find the wattage on your PSU and get the 550Ti if you can.  Find the model number of your computer and search for it if you can't find a label on it.




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0
 08.31.2012 6:42pm


Onyx
Butts
Administrator



I dunno if they fixed these, but ATI video card drivers murdered my computer/hard drive. Maybe it's better if you have an AMD CPU, but I had such a terrible experience with ATI/AMD's drivers that I'll stick to nVidia for the forseeable future.




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