Project Reality Forums

My specs...

Q6600 Intel Quad Core 2.4ghz
Asus P5N-D Motherboard (nforce 750i SLI)
4gb DDR2 ram
850W PSU
24" monitor running 1920x1200 native

And I used to be running...
2x XFX 8800 Ultra 768mb

But, one of the two cards died, and I'm not very happy with the performance of only one.


So, I'm here looking for advice on which graphics card I should get. I don't really want to go with a Radeon, I just prefer nvidia. And I'm not opposed to getting two cards and running them in SLI if it's cost effective.

I'm looking for a good card, but not the best. I don't want to pay out the *** for it, but I don't want to have to upgrade again in 6 months either.

I know lots about computer hardware, but graphics cards are ever evolving, and I don't keep up to date with the latest and greatest. So, I thought maybe someone on here who keeps up with them, would have some suggestions.

Would a GTX 560 Ti be in your budget? I believe you could SLI two 1GB GTX 460's and get better performance usually for less money. My personal preference would be to get one powerful card now and then putting in a second later when I need more power, but it's up to you.

Still on DDR2 RAM? I would consider upgrading your mother board as well if possible.

It depends on the size of your case and how much room you have (presuming you have a fair budget).

On the Nvidia side the best card I know of is the 580. On the ATI (AMD) side the 5870 (5970 is you're rich and can deal with the issues it can have) or 6970 .

Right now I think the Nvidia 580 is on the top of the charts. It all depends what you want to do, how much you have tos pend, and the room you have in your case.

I have the gtx 580 and its a big card lol, make sure you have enough room for it, if your thinking of buying it.

But from what your saying, I would recommend buying a SuperOverclocked Gigabyte GTX 460...
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-071-GI
Or type it in google for a shop closer to your country

Thanks for the feedback guys. Case space shouldn't be an issue, my case is huge. I'll check out the ones suggested.

I believe the GTX 560 Ti is more powerful than a GTX 460, but of course it costs more. Either one will be a great choice depending on your budget. According to what you said in your first post, I doubt you will want a GTX 580 as they are very expensive. The GTX 570 will get you performance between a 580 and 560/460 if you're willing to spend that much.

It depends which games are u playing. 8800 is fine for PR only. Anyway, I would buy 460, it OCs a lot if needed and seems to be overall good card for decent price. Putting 2 of them later on to SLI should kick any 1-card system there is, with half the price tag...

On nVidia:
460 or 460 SLI, 560 Ti is pretty close around a 470. Used 470 for $200. 570 is around a 480.

On Ati/AMD:
5850, 5870, 6850, 6870, 6950 that can unlock to a full 6970

Atkinson wrote:It depends which games are u playing. 8800 is fine for PR only.

I only play PR right now. But, I would like to be ready for some new games coming out. Arma R, DCS:A10, etc.

But, currently in PR, I get some bad FPS(<20) on parts of a few maps. Wouldn't a better card help with that? Or is that my 2.6ghz cpu not keeping up?

It's likely that it is your CPU. If you can, OC it and see if it helps.

GTX 580

badmojo420 wrote:I only play PR right now. But, I would like to be ready for some new games coming out. Arma R, DCS:A10, etc.

But, currently in PR, I get some bad FPS(<20) on parts of a few maps. Wouldn't a better card help with that? Or is that my 2.6ghz cpu not keeping up?

Partially yes.. OCing it will help but whats mostly to blame is the game itself. With all the new content and random optimizations PR uses less CPU than it should so you end up with a Gpu load of only 25-40%. After the new patch and the optimizations as well as the meory leak fix.. FPS should go up at least 10-30%.