General (maybe stupid) Video Card question

[alkara]

I was wondering if a video card can really hold a computers potential back? I ask this because my computer is an AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.2gh with 4 gig 1333 mem. I recently ran a benchmark for Final Fantasy XIV and it was a slideshow and I got like a 450 rating (my video card is a 3300 Radeon HD with like 300+ mem) Now was this benchmark low and slideshowy because of the poor outdated video card? I'm just wondering about this because tomorrow I will be installing a Sapphire Radeon 5770 1g and am hoping it'll be a better performer than my 3300

 

[hunter315]

Yeah, the 3300 is definitely to blame for that. The performance of a game is a combination of the CPU and GPU's performance. If the GPU is strong but the CPU is weak the GPU cant output many frames because its always waiting on data about the next frame to come from the CPU. If the CPU is strong but the GPU is weak, the GPU has plenty of data but isnt able to generate the frames to show on the screen quickly, giving you the slide show effect. The 5770 should bring you up the point where they are about equal and your performance will increase greatly.

 

[hooray4boobies]

Well, while other factors of your pc come into it (cpu, ram etc.), the graphic card has the majority of an effect on visuals and gaming. And while there aren't any benchmarks to compare your 3300 to the 5770 w/ FFXIV, i can assure you will see a noticeably large rise in performance when upgrading your card.

 

[jonnyboyC]

yes definitely even though comparing cards between architecture isn't very accurate a look at even the shader core count, the 3300 has 40 shaders, the 5770 has 800 , usually oem (i'm assuming you bought a premade) will have really good cpu specs because that what most people know about. i'm sure you computer could play blue-rays any but video card is a common place where manufactures cut back on, to save money.

really you could get a nvidia gt 250 or an hd 4850 which would cost less then 100 bucks, and should be able to play this game quite well, if you want to play at higher resolutions then you might go for a 5770 for about 140-150

 

[AMW1011]

The benchmark is using completely high graphics at either a low resolution, the Low Setting, or a high resolution, the High Setting. This is a terrible way to do a benchmark, but that is how they did it. This means your looking at a very graphics intensive benchmark.

 

[alkara]

Thanks for the quick replys. I already purchased the 5770, its to be delivered to my door tomorrow so I'm pretty excited. I have another dumb question. My 3300 Radeon is an onboard card, its part of the motherboard. Now when I install my 5700 and plug my monitor into it, will it detect that its the primary card? Or is there something somewhere I have to set?

 

[hooray4boobies]

Your card 'should' be automatically detected (i'm assuming you have a pci-e slot, so won't ask that question).
If this isn't the case, you'll need to enter the bios (F2 or Del at startup) and surf through until you find an option to do with your graphic card. It will be set to Onboard, where you want to change it to pci-e.
Post back if you have any troubles with it tomorrow ;-)

 

[unforgivin]

yeah, on-board graphics are a joke. If your serious into gaming, a solid video card is your number one. On board video is about as good for gaming as a cement block is for water skiing.

So you definitely have the right idea.

Also if there is an option in your bios to disable your on board graphics after you install your new video card, do it.

 

[alkara]

Just to update and let you all know, my 5770 that I bought from newegg.. well it was a dud card. I had a repair tech that I used over the years try to get it to work, he tested everything on and in my computer and tested the card on numerous other computers, he said something about one of the cores or processors were dead in the card. Anyway its RMA time. I was scared to buy hardware like this over the internet and this just feeds into my anxiets =X

 

[hunter315]

DOA's occur once in a while no matter where you get it from, its not like places like best buy or fry's take the cards out of the box and check them, they arent too common but thats part of the reason why newegg has a 30 day return policy and they all have atleast a year warranty.

 

[alkara]

DOA's occur once in a while no matter where you get it from, its not like places like best buy or fry's take the cards out of the box and check them, they arent too common but thats part of the reason why newegg has a 30 day return policy and they all have atleast a year warranty.

Yea, I've already printed out the UPS return slip. Now its the ship and wait game. Oh well, luckily my Onboard mothercard can handle the games I play now pretty darn good so a little wait is nothing But that Sapphire 5770 was a pretty card

 

[unforgivin]

I ordered all the parts for my system from newegg. Everything worked perfectly. I'm always picky on getting the five star rated items with a high number of reviews. It must have just been bad luck in your case. It happens.

When you get your replacement and fire it up your going to notice an exponential difference in your gaming. I'm running a system very similar to yours from the sound of it. Same processor, same amount of ram but at 1600. The difference is i'm running dual 4850s at the moment and they are unstoppable so far. Crank the settings to max and never skips a beat. And they aren't exactly high end cards even for the hd4000 series. Cost me less than 250 for the pair. Just one card gave me a ffxiv bench of 3200+ on the low res.

Your waiting will be well rewarded, judging from your first post i have the feeling you'll be flat out amazed at the difference you will see. So don't be discouraged.

 

[alkara]

I ordered all the parts for my system from newegg. Everything worked perfectly. I'm always picky on getting the five star rated items with a high number of reviews. It must have just been bad luck in your case. It happens.

When you get your replacement and fire it up your going to notice an exponential difference in your gaming. I'm running a system very similar to yours from the sound of it. Same processor, same amount of ram but at 1600. The difference is i'm running dual 4850s at the moment and they are unstoppable so far. Crank the settings to max and never skips a beat. And they aren't exactly high end cards even for the hd4000 series. Cost me less than 250 for the pair. Just one card gave me a ffxiv bench of 3200+ on the low res.

Your waiting will be well rewarded, judging from your first post i have the feeling you'll be flat out amazed at the difference you will see. So don't be discouraged.

Thanks for the encouragement. This Sapphire 5770 was actually 5 star and received the Customer Award for May 2010 as their best product. Now should I worry if I get a second card and it turns out to be dead as well?

 

[alkara]

Best answer selected by alkara.