Graphics Cards choice??

[danotmano1998]

Ok, last night I had a funeral for my Nvidia8800GTX graphics card.
It's seen it's use, for 3 years now give or take I've been pushing it on all the fancy games and high resolutions. It's never once failed to keep me happy and have all the highest settings on without issues.

But the time has come...
It's been a couple of years since I've looked at the technology. Now you've got so many more options and Nvidia decided to redo their naming schemes so it's more confusing to determine what I need. Here's what I'm looking for:

1. $200 or under.
2. No hassle, no frills, dual monitor config. (DVI)
3. Speed to handle at the very minimum DDO on max settings.

Any suggestions from our tech-savvy users?

[sebastianosmith]

Ok, last night I had a funeral for my Nvidia8800GTX graphics card.
It's seen it's use, for 3 years now give or take I've been pushing it on all the fancy games and high resolutions. It's never once failed to keep me happy and have all the highest settings on without issues.

But the time has come...
It's been a couple of years since I've looked at the technology. Now you've got so many more options and Nvidia decided to redo their naming schemes so it's more confusing to determine what I need. Here's what I'm looking for:

1. $200 or under.
2. No hassle, no frills, dual monitor config. (DVI)
3. Speed to handle at the very minimum DDO on max settings.

Any suggestions from our tech-savvy users?

If it must be an Nvidia-based card (no hassles with existing drivers), just about any 460 GTX card will do the trick. Most come with dual DVI ports and will cost between $130-$180US. Make sure you get the latest incarnation with DDR5 VRAM as there are a few budget cards with DDR3.

[stricq]

If it must be an Nvidia-based card (no hassles with existing drivers), just about any 460 GTX card will do the trick. Most come with dual DVI ports and will cost between $130-$180US. Make sure you get the latest incarnation with DDR5 VRAM as there are a few budget cards with DDR3.

Agreed. A 460 GTX will do all of that and more.

Best: With a 460 GTX, you can play DDO on both monitors as if it were 1 large monitor.

[danotmano1998]

EVGA GeForce GTX 460 SE 1GB GDDR5 PCIe Interface Type: PCI Express 2.0


Interface Speed: x16
Connector(s): Dual DVI, Mini HDMI 1.4
Multiple Monitors Support: Yes
Max. Monitors Supported: 2
Chipset: NVIDIA GeForce
GPU/VPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
Maximum Resolution: 2560 x 1600
Maximum Digital Resolution: 2560 x 1600
Video Card Profile: Double
Memory Type: GDDR5
Memory Interface: 256-bit
Video Memory: 1GB
Stream Processors: 288
Core Clock: 650 MHz
Memory Clock: 3400 MHz
Shader Clock: 1300 MHz
Memory Bandwidth: 108.8GB/sec.
Overclocked: No
1080p Support: Yes
Video Output: Dual DVI Mini HDMI 1.4
Multi-GPU Support: 2 Way SLI
Minimum PSU Wattage Requirement: 450W

Here's what I'm thinking seems to fit the bill and is below budget..
No, I'm not set on nvidia vs. radeon. I've just had better luck with nvidia's, so I'm partial.

[stricq]

EVGA GeForce GTX 460 SE 1GB GDDR5 PCIe Interface Type: PCI Express 2.0


Interface Speed: x16
Connector(s): Dual DVI, Mini HDMI 1.4
Multiple Monitors Support: Yes
Max. Monitors Supported: 2
Chipset: NVIDIA GeForce
GPU/VPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
Maximum Resolution: 2560 x 1600
Maximum Digital Resolution: 2560 x 1600
Video Card Profile: Double
Memory Type: GDDR5
Memory Interface: 256-bit
Video Memory: 1GB
Stream Processors: 288
Core Clock: 650 MHz
Memory Clock: 3400 MHz
Shader Clock: 1300 MHz
Memory Bandwidth: 108.8GB/sec.
Overclocked: No
1080p Support: Yes
Video Output: Dual DVI Mini HDMI 1.4
Multi-GPU Support: 2 Way SLI
Minimum PSU Wattage Requirement: 450W

Here's what I'm thinking seems to fit the bill and is below budget..
No, I'm not set on nvidia vs. radeon. I've just had better luck with nvidia's, so I'm partial.

Yes, that one. EVGA has good support, too.

I was looking at that card on Newegg yesterday and drooling.

Also, be sure your power supply has the TWO power leads needed to juice this thing up!

Doug

[sebastianosmith]

EVGA GeForce GTX 460 SE 1GB GDDR5 PCIe Interface Type: PCI Express 2.0
...
Here's what I'm thinking seems to fit the bill and is below budget..
No, I'm not set on nvidia vs. radeon. I've just had better luck with nvidia's, so I'm partial.

Realistically, just about every 460 board is going to be based on the reference design so go with price, seller and manufacturer of choice.

[sebastianosmith]

Also, be sure your power supply has the TWO power leads needed to juice this thing up!

Oh, yeah. You'll need at least a 500watt PSU to power the thing. Good catch stricq. I quite often forget about that when advising video card replacements. Doesn't everyone have a kilowatt PSU these days?

[Musouka]

Good advice about the power... before you get any of these video cards, make sure you have enough pins and adapters with your power supply. Otherwise you may have to purchase some extra adapters. Most of the new video cards require 2 power adapters connected to it, like 2 6pin, 1 6pin and 1 4pin...

[theboyftw]

I just upgraded my nvidia 9600gt to an ATI 5770. Eyefinity goodness is amazing if you've got the monitors laying around!

[danotmano1998]

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate the input.

As far as what my power supply is.. I'll have to look.
IIRC, I had to have 2 power supplys for the 8800GTX, and a google search confirmed that.
So I should be ready. Again, thanks!