Advice on new graphics card

[Fat8oy]

Hi all,

I currently have a AMD FX6100 / 8GB RAM and two Geforce GTX 550 Ti's in SLI config. I have been trying the new StarCitizen beta (which I can't wait for) and the machine struggles. I also play a lot of Rome 2 and although it plays ok I would love to turn the settings up It seems to me it's the graphics cards that's struggling not the CPU or RAM, would you agree?

I have been looking on the site and in the reviews it says the best Upper-Midrange Value Leader is the GTX 760. I would like to keep it close to spending £200-250 maybe a little more if it makes sense, and I was wondering if I would be better to get one GTX 760 (And then should I get the 2 or 4GBs or RAM and lose the SLI or purchase something like the GTX660 get two of them and have them in a SLI setup? I don't need the extra connections two graphics cards give me but is it better to have two slower cards or one faster card? Or if anyone has ant better suggestions I would love to hear them

Thanks
FB

 

[xbizzaroz]

personally id go with one gtx 760 2GB. you won't necessarily need the 4GB because even that card isnt powerful enough for AA and AF on current games (i.e. battlefield 4, titanfall, watchdogs, etc.) however with AA and AF turned off the 760 will play those games very well. ive seen benchmarks on battlefield 4 running ultra 40-60 FPS 1080p.

 

[Fat8oy]

personally id go with one gtx 760 2GB. you won't necessarily need the 4GB because even that card isnt powerful enough for AA and AF on current games (i.e. battlefield 4, titanfall, watchdogs, etc.) however with AA and AF turned off the 760 will play those games very well. ive seen benchmarks on battlefield 4 running ultra 40-60 FPS 1080p.

thanks for your input xbizzaroz, most appreciated, so without AA/AF the 4GB would just be wasted? Surely with more RAM there would be less need for swapping data in RAM and it would work slightly faster? Or is 2GB really enough. I guess if I got the 2GB card I could always add another 760 in 6 months to a years time...

 

[unknownofprob]

the 4GB is a waste anyways, only unless you go SLI. By the time you actually need over 2GB Vram, the core itself is already struggling, meaning that the extra Vram will offer very little help, even with multiple screens and higher resolutions. The 2GB is enough if you don;t plan to SLI, if you do sli, the 4GB is highly advised.

 

[Fat8oy]

the 4GB is a waste anyways, only unless you go SLI. By the time you actually need over 2GB Vram, the core itself is already struggling, meaning that the extra Vram will offer very little help, even with multiple screens and higher resolutions. The 2GB is enough if you don;t plan to SLI, if you do sli, the 4GB is highly advised.

Surely by adding another card I would be going from 2 to 4 GB just by adding that extra card?? Or are you saying that SLi/Crossfire adds a overhead to the RAM on the card therefore taking away from the actual RAM the graphic card can use on screen

 

[xbizzaroz]

even then, with one card you should be able to play today's games nicely. SLI is good for the future...then again by that time the 800 series should be coming out for desktop graphics as they already have the 800 series out for mobile graphics.

 

[ChrisR83]

the 4GB is a waste anyways, only unless you go SLI. By the time you actually need over 2GB Vram, the core itself is already struggling, meaning that the extra Vram will offer very little help, even with multiple screens and higher resolutions. The 2GB is enough if you don;t plan to SLI, if you do sli, the 4GB is highly advised.

Surely by adding another card I would be going from 2 to 4 GB just by adding that extra card?? Or are you saying that SLi/Crossfire adds a overhead to the RAM on the card therefore taking away from the actual RAM the graphic card can use on screen

When you SLI/Xfire cards if you have two different amounts of Vram i.e. 2gb and 4gb. the more powerful card will only run at the specs of the lesser card (a 4gb card will only run at 2gb if paired with a 2gb card).

 

[unknownofprob]

the 4GB is a waste anyways, only unless you go SLI. By the time you actually need over 2GB Vram, the core itself is already struggling, meaning that the extra Vram will offer very little help, even with multiple screens and higher resolutions. The 2GB is enough if you don;t plan to SLI, if you do sli, the 4GB is highly advised.

Surely by adding another card I would be going from 2 to 4 GB just by adding that extra card?? Or are you saying that SLi/Crossfire adds a overhead to the RAM on the card therefore taking away from the actual RAM the graphic card can use on screen

2GB+2GB=2GB

2GB+4GB=2GB

4GB+4GB=4GB

Vram is mirrored not added, if that's what your asking.

 

[Fat8oy]

Thanks all, specially unknown I didn't know it was mirrored. Seems silly to me that its mirror and not not added to. Why mirror its not like a HDDs in raid 1 which make data redundant. There seems no benefit to mirror the RAM.

 

[RobCrezz]

Thanks all, specially unknown I didn't know it was mirrored. Seems silly to me that its mirror and not not added to. Why mirror its not like a HDDs in raid 1 which make data redundant. There seems no benefit to mirror the RAM.

Because the vram is used as a frame buffer, and the gpus need to access that information very quickly, if GPU2 had to access the information from the vram of GPU1 then it would be a massive bottleneck because it would have to go over the PCI-E bus.

 

[Fat8oy]

Makes sense cheers Rob

 

[RobCrezz]

No worries. In your position I would look at the GTX 760 if you plan to SLI. Ebuyer in the UK are selling one for £158 inc free delivery
http://www.ebuyer.com/642889-zotac-gtx-760-oc-2gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-displayport-pci-e-graphics-zt-70405-10p

 

[Fat8oy]

thanks for the heads up ;0)