GPU reccomendations?

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thebs
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Always have an extra PSU ...

Postby thebs » Mon Feb 06, 2017 3:01 am

Cmdr Chemtrail wrote: ... If you have an old PSU ...
I've never, ever bought a PSU when I've assembled.

Here in the US, what I do is wait for NewEgg to have a sale, often with rebates, and then I buy several PSUs, ideally at least 2 of the same model (if I can buy more than one with rebate), so I have a spare when I find a good one. I usually drop US$100 (after MIR) and get 4-5 lower (450-550W) or 2-3 higher-end (600-850W) PSUs.

I even keep a spare 600W SFX PSU for the pair of SilverStone SG05B cases I have (although the newer SG13 takes a full ATX, at a height penalty).
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Re: GPU reccomendations?

Postby TorTorden » Mon Feb 06, 2017 9:20 am

thebs wrote:
TorTorden wrote:
Quartz wrote:
If dude was having issues with "out of memory" on his/her 970, getting yet another 4GB card is pointless. I strongly recommend getting the RX480 though. 8GB version costs less slightly less/about the same as 1060 6GB and performance is the same or better in some cases.


It's not he doesn't have enough RAM, running out of memory doesn't cause crashes unless you have really bad software/drivers. What you do get is lower fps since you start having to fetch assets from slower storage mediums.
I was running elite and many other games fine on a 2gb card, I only went below 40fps in some busy places when I went from a 1080p to an ultra wide 1440p.

Now if you get error messages like this is you hit bad ram or are having PSU issues causing hardware issues.

The more features enabled, the more buffer and texture is required. At some point, with inadequate on-card, dual-port VRAM, the more system memory is then used for textures, and that's where things can go south.

I wouldn't recommend 2GiB RAM with Horizons. I used to run 1080p on a 2GiB GDDR5 and it was fine for Elite, but started having issues with the textures required with Horizons. I would recommend 6GiB RAM today for Horizons, especially at 1440p.

BTW, beyond aliasing, which definitely eats VRAM, another way to reduce textures, and improve performance, is to turn shadowing down. It has the most impact as it is done after other objects and their textures, have been rendered.

I'm certainly not recommending 2GB cards anymore, especially now that the 4GB 1050 exist.
What I was saying is same as you,.
When you run out of RAM on the gpu, you start running off system RAM.

Loosing performance.
You shouldn't see "out of memory " warnings unless something is seriously wrong.
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Re: GPU reccomendations?

Postby thebs » Tue Feb 07, 2017 4:59 am

TorTorden wrote:
thebs wrote:
TorTorden wrote:
It's not he doesn't have enough RAM, running out of memory doesn't cause crashes unless you have really bad software/drivers. What you do get is lower fps since you start having to fetch assets from slower storage mediums.
I was running elite and many other games fine on a 2gb card, I only went below 40fps in some busy places when I went from a 1080p to an ultra wide 1440p.

Now if you get error messages like this is you hit bad ram or are having PSU issues causing hardware issues.

The more features enabled, the more buffer and texture is required. At some point, with inadequate on-card, dual-port VRAM, the more system memory is then used for textures, and that's where things can go south.

I wouldn't recommend 2GiB RAM with Horizons. I used to run 1080p on a 2GiB GDDR5 and it was fine for Elite, but started having issues with the textures required with Horizons. I would recommend 6GiB RAM today for Horizons, especially at 1440p.

BTW, beyond aliasing, which definitely eats VRAM, another way to reduce textures, and improve performance, is to turn shadowing down. It has the most impact as it is done after other objects and their textures, have been rendered.

I'm certainly not recommending 2GB cards anymore, especially now that the 4GB 1050 exist.
What I was saying is same as you,.
When you run out of RAM on the gpu, you start running off system RAM.

Loosing performance.
You shouldn't see "out of memory " warnings unless something is seriously wrong.

They can happen with adequate system RAM + VRAM in a variety of situations. 8GiB RAM + 4GiB VRAM is definitely inadequate to run a variety of effects in Horizons these days.

Heck, when I was running into the bugs last fall with my Horizons + nVidia + Oculus combination, I quickly found that turning down various features that was pushing my 16GiB RAM + 6GiB VRAM. It definitely factors in.
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Re: GPU reccomendations?

Postby Pembroke » Fri Feb 24, 2017 2:14 am

I ended up going with the MSI rx 470 8gig model, mainly because I was able to pick it up for $160 But, I am pretty sure I already immediatly regret it... 35 fps on low settings is a real let down. Sorry for my time away, but to bring everyone up to speed, the PSU tested fine, but I bought a new one anyway because modular is nice, motherboard and cpu are both solid and fairly new. So after 200 dollars on new ram and a gpu, I have come to the conclusion that fate says I am not allowed to play games.
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Re: GPU reccomendations?

Postby Loriath » Fri Feb 24, 2017 7:06 am

Pembroke wrote:I ended up going with the MSI rx 470 8gig model, mainly because I was able to pick it up for $160 But, I am pretty sure I already immediatly regret it... 35 fps on low settings is a real let down....



Passmark benchmarks list that as being faster than my 1050TI, so I would have to assume that there is something amiss there. Chances are its a Driver issue that is making it not perform. My card has no problems running Ultra with shadows turned down a bit, yours should really do better than that. Would not be the first time drivers were an issue.

Have you looked at previous/beta drivers to see if there is a performance gain? I am not up with AMD's Driver issues, but there must be something there that is out of place. I did a quick google and they say to make sure that the DDU is run in safe mode to ensure the registry keys are set properly and that if not it causes some issues. More google time would probably reveal more helpful info.
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Re: GPU reccomendations?

Postby charlie2alpha » Fri Feb 24, 2017 7:40 am

That can't be right, I get about 60 fps with my old AMD RX 285 with high settings. I'm expecting an AMD RX 480 8 GB today hoping I'll be able to use ultra settings plus antialiasing.
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Re: GPU reccomendations?

Postby Pembroke » Sun Feb 26, 2017 6:02 pm

turns out, you have to not use ANYTHING MSI packages with the card, including the LED controller software, as it forces the card to avoid using the fans for some reason, and instead, try to control temperature by throttling the card.I therefore have to tolerate the rainbow clown vomit that is the LEDs in stock setting, but the card performs well
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Re: GPU reccomendations?

Postby Brianogog » Fri Apr 28, 2017 10:14 pm

I had a GTX 980 Astrix? but flogged it for much needed coin, as i was down my heels. At present i have a second hand GTX 780 Ti, cost only £124 and seem's fine...Apart from being heavy on the.juice of course...

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For non-VR, 2-2.5K, nVidia GTX 1060 3GB GDDR5 is cheap ...

Postby thebs » Mon May 29, 2017 7:02 pm

I just picked up a pair (2) Zotac ZT-P10610A-10L - their Mini-ITX (6.85"/174mm long) nVidia GTX 1060 3GB GDDR cards at Micro Center here in the USA for US$139/each (no rebate, out-the-door price). Micro Center has had them $50 off (US$149) over the past week (and still the price). It only requires one (1) 6-pin PCIe as the TDP is 120W.

Most benchmarks show even the 3GiB GDDR5 in the 1060 can best the 4GiB GDDR5 in the 970 in nearly all benchmarks (or is very close), even with quality turned way up. The 6GiB GDDR5 version can help a bit more, but usually not much at all. One would be better off going the GTX 1070 8GB for not much more than the GTX 1060 6GB prices out there. I wouldn't use it for VR or 4K, but for 2-2.5K, this card is just fine.

Not Elite benchmarks, but here are the 2K (1080p) and 2.5K (1440p) benchmarks for OpenGL and Vulkan in No Man's Sky and Doom. As you can see, the GTX 1070 8GB really pulls away, making it worth the upgrade over the GTX 1060 6GB, but the GTX 1060 3GB is right there, and almost always edges out the GTX 970 4GB. One has to really go 4K or run 2.5K at extreme graphics, to really make the GTX 970 meet the GTX 1060 3GB.

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Full review at TechPowerUp.COM:
- https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zot ... Mini_3_GB/
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Re: GPU reccomendations?

Postby Pam Demonium » Wed May 31, 2017 1:43 pm

I use a 970, and it runs ED wide open with no problems.


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