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Upgrading Graphics Card for GW2, I need advice!

thelastradiothelastradio Member UncommonPosts: 13

I currently have a GT430 and it plays quite nicely with almost max settings, but I'd like it to be a bit smoother. So I'm thinking of getting a GT550 Ti (all I can afford right now). I wanted to know if anyone has this card and is playing GW2, if so, what's your FPS and can you play on Max enjoyably? :)

Currently get 25-30 fps with everything on max except shaders which are on medium. Do you think my FPS will go up a bit with the new card?

Thank you in advance :)

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Comments

  • Loke666Loke666 Member EpicPosts: 21,441

    Cant you find a cheap old 460 somewhere instead? Nvidia cards ending with 50 are mainstream cards, the ones with 60 are for gamers. I know for a fect that a 560 can max out the game on a computer with a normal processor, a 460 should be able to do that as well and if you can find one it should be pretty cheap.

    The 550 is not really the card for us who game.

  • thelastradiothelastradio Member UncommonPosts: 13

    I had a look for a 460 online in my country but can't seem to find anything. Will keep a look out for it. Thanks for the advice re: mainstream and gamer cards!

    Still would like to hear from anyone with a 550Ti and how their game plays, 550Ti outperforms my current card quite nicely according to this:

    http://www.hwcompare.com/9701/geforce-gt-430-vs-geforce-gtx-550-ti/

  • NomadMorlockNomadMorlock Member UncommonPosts: 815

    If you are upgrading your graphics card, get one which will last you for years to come. 

     

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130809

  • thelastradiothelastradio Member UncommonPosts: 13
    Believe me Nomad, if I could - I would :) Thanks anyway.
  • jdnewelljdnewell Member UncommonPosts: 2,237

    Have you considered a 7770?

    Good card and a good value unless you are just a must have nvidia guy =)

  • Storman1977Storman1977 Member Posts: 207

    If you're going to upgrade, then at least truly upgrade.  I would do no less than a GTX 560 (for the same reasons Loke posted) and try my damnedest to get to a GTX 660.

    Hell, I'm saving up to get an EVGA GTX 690 Signature, which is complete overkill for most anything on the market...

  • NomadMorlockNomadMorlock Member UncommonPosts: 815
    Originally posted by thelastradio
    Believe me Nomad, if I could - I would :) Thanks anyway.

    Are you trying to stay in a certain price range?

  • Storman1977Storman1977 Member Posts: 207
    Originally posted by jdnewell

    Have you considered a 7770?

    Good card and a good value unless you are just a must have nvidia guy =)

    The AMD cards are really nice, but I believe that GW2 is built on Nvidia architecture and therefore an Nvidia card will produce the best performance.

  • thelastradiothelastradio Member UncommonPosts: 13
    I'm open to ATI :D That card is very closely priced with the 550 so will have a look into that. Thanks!
  • thelastradiothelastradio Member UncommonPosts: 13
    Also something to consider, thanks :)
  • knapuknapu Member Posts: 131

    I got 

    Nvidia geforce 680  gtx

    PLaying on ultra settings ffxa etz but i hat to turn the shadows off cos when i get to wvwvw it drops to 20 fps from 50 lol.

    My rig is preety nice but the game is really hungry , but looks awsome...

    I am the punishment of God...
    If you had not committed great sins,
    God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you
    — Genghis Khan

  • thelastradiothelastradio Member UncommonPosts: 13
    Affirmative, nomad :P
  • NomadMorlockNomadMorlock Member UncommonPosts: 815
    Originally posted by NomadMorlock
    Originally posted by thelastradio
    Believe me Nomad, if I could - I would :) Thanks anyway.

    Are you trying to stay in a certain price range?

    You could look for one of these second hand on eBay and even new egg occasionally has refurbs of this for about $99

     

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130690

     

    Edit. Wrong link now corrected

  • thelastradiothelastradio Member UncommonPosts: 13
    Originally posted by NomadMorlock
    Originally posted by NomadMorlock
    Originally posted by thelastradio
    Believe me Nomad, if I could - I would :) Thanks anyway.

    Are you trying to stay in a certain price range?

    You could look for one of these second hand on eBay and even new egg occasionally has refurbs of this for about $99

     

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130759

    Still waaaay over budget for me :) Thank you very much anyway.

  • jdnewelljdnewell Member UncommonPosts: 2,237
    Originally posted by Storman1977
    Originally posted by jdnewell

    Have you considered a 7770?

    Good card and a good value unless you are just a must have nvidia guy =)

    The AMD cards are really nice, but I believe that GW2 is built on Nvidia architecture and therefore an Nvidia card will produce the best performance.

    I run a 7870 and have it maxxed out with 60+ fps everywhere. It may be built and run a tad better with nvidia, but not enough to warrent buying that brand card if another is a better value. Especially if on a budget.

  • thelastradiothelastradio Member UncommonPosts: 13
    Originally posted by jdnewell
    Originally posted by Storman1977
    Originally posted by jdnewell

    Have you considered a 7770?

    Good card and a good value unless you are just a must have nvidia guy =)

    The AMD cards are really nice, but I believe that GW2 is built on Nvidia architecture and therefore an Nvidia card will produce the best performance.

    I run a 7870 and have it maxxed out with 60+ fps everywhere. It may be built and run a tad better with nvidia, but not enough to warrent buying that brand card if another is a better value. Especially if on a budget.

    Cool I will definitely keep an ATI on the cards. I'm in the market for something in the 550Ti range and power consumption is also an issue, most of the better cards require a better power supply.

    Thanks for all the advice, if anybody comes past here and plays with a 550Ti, let me know your experience :)

    Have fun.

  • jdnewelljdnewell Member UncommonPosts: 2,237
    Originally posted by thelastradio
    Originally posted by jdnewell
    Originally posted by Storman1977
    Originally posted by jdnewell

    Have you considered a 7770?

    Good card and a good value unless you are just a must have nvidia guy =)

    The AMD cards are really nice, but I believe that GW2 is built on Nvidia architecture and therefore an Nvidia card will produce the best performance.

    I run a 7870 and have it maxxed out with 60+ fps everywhere. It may be built and run a tad better with nvidia, but not enough to warrent buying that brand card if another is a better value. Especially if on a budget.

    Cool I will definitely keep an ATI on the cards. I'm in the market for something in the 550Ti range and power consumption is also an issue, most of the better cards require a better power supply.

    Thanks for all the advice, if anybody comes past here and plays with a 550Ti, let me know your experience :)

    Have fun.

    My advice is to look at some articles and comparisons for the cards that are within your budget. As far as a 550ti vs 7770, the 7700 wins in every catagory from power consumption to performance.

    I am not biased towards either and have used both cards over many years. But my last two cards have been ATI. Price vs performance you cant beat em IMO. Driver support may not be as good as Nvidia I will agree, but barring that ATI has been a better value for me.

    Good luck with what ever you choose =)

  • thelastradiothelastradio Member UncommonPosts: 13
    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/guild-wars-2-performance-benchmark,3268-5.html << Found this, has some nice info about the different cards and how they perform with GW2. I think a 550Ti or ATI equivalent will be perfect for my needs. Thanks for all the advice everybody :)
  • thelastradiothelastradio Member UncommonPosts: 13
    Originally posted by jdnewell
    Originally posted by thelastradio
    Originally posted by jdnewell
    Originally posted by Storman1977
    Originally posted by jdnewell

    Have you considered a 7770?

    Good card and a good value unless you are just a must have nvidia guy =)

    The AMD cards are really nice, but I believe that GW2 is built on Nvidia architecture and therefore an Nvidia card will produce the best performance.

    I run a 7870 and have it maxxed out with 60+ fps everywhere. It may be built and run a tad better with nvidia, but not enough to warrent buying that brand card if another is a better value. Especially if on a budget.

    Cool I will definitely keep an ATI on the cards. I'm in the market for something in the 550Ti range and power consumption is also an issue, most of the better cards require a better power supply.

    Thanks for all the advice, if anybody comes past here and plays with a 550Ti, let me know your experience :)

    Have fun.

    My advice is to look at some articles and comparisons for the cards that are within your budget. As far as a 550ti vs 7770, the 7700 wins in every catagory from power consumption to performance.

    I am not biased towards either and have used both cards over many years. But my last two cards have been ATI. Price vs performance you cant beat em IMO. Driver support may not be as good as Nvidia I will agree, but barring that ATI has been a better value for me.

    Good luck with what ever you choose =)

    Thanks a lot :D 7770 looks very promising as well!

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347

    For most of the world, the only reason to even consider a GeForce GTX 550 Ti is rabid Nvidia fanboydom.  A Radeon HD 7750 will get you equivalent performance for cheaper, and while using barely over half as much power.  The 7750 will also be reliably able to use the full 1 GB of video memory, while if a GTX 550 Ti goes over 768 MB, it loses a ton of memory bandwidth due to the mismatched channels.

    The next step up from the respective vendors is a GeForce GTX 460 or Radeon HD 7770.  The analysis comparing them goes about the same as when comparing the GTX 550 Ti to the Radeon HD 7750, with only the exception that the GTX 460 actually made sense to buy at times before the 7770 price dropped several months ago.  (For previous generation parts in the respective performance tiers, a Radeon HD 5770/6770 was nearly always cheaper than a GTX 550 Ti, but a Radeon HD 6850 didn't always undercut a GTX 460.)

    The Radeon HD 7770 is probably the best bang for the buck in the price range you're looking at.  But your information says you're in South Africa, so you have a narrow selection, which can skew prices.

  • NildenNilden Member EpicPosts: 3,916
    If you get a 7770 just be aware it could do the nasty "Display driver has stopped reponding and has recoved" bullshit.

    "You CAN'T buy ships for RL money." - MaxBacon

    "classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon

    Love Minecraft. And check out my Youtube channel OhCanadaGamer

    Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/ 

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347
    Originally posted by Storman1977

    If you're going to upgrade, then at least truly upgrade.  I would do no less than a GTX 560 (for the same reasons Loke posted) and try my damnedest to get to a GTX 660.

    Hell, I'm saving up to get an EVGA GTX 690 Signature, which is complete overkill for most anything on the market...

    A GeForce GTX 560 (or Radeon HD 6870) is the next step up after a Radeon HD 7770.  But it's likely out of the budget of the original poster.  Those are both older cards, too, which means much worse energy efficiency.

    The GeForce GTX 660 isn't sold to the general public.  Nvidia doesn't have many of them to sell, as is typical for fourth bins of a GPU chip, so it's OEM-only.  Your link goes to a GeForce GTX 660 Ti, which is a different card entirely.  The GTX 660 Ti is a lot more expensive than a Radeon HD 7870 for only a little more performance.  Or at the other end, it's essentially the same price as a Radeon HD 7950 that performs substantially better.  A GeForce GTX 660 Ti can hang with AMD's lineup in a price/performance comparison so long as a game isn't very memory intensive, but will choke of a game wants a ton of memory bandwidth or capacity, of which the GTX 660 Ti has neither.

    Getting a single GTX 690 is completely stupid.  If that's the performance level you want, get two GeForce GTX 670s in SLI.  That's nearly equivalent in performance, but a lot cheaper, and avoids the usual problems of dual-GPU cards.  Or better yet, wait for GK110 to launch, though it will probably be spring or summer 2013 by the time they show up in GeForce cards in large volumes.

  • HorrorScopeHorrorScope Member UncommonPosts: 599

    You will be better off with a stripped down 460 and they are less then a 550. $90 vs $120.

    What's your cpu?

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347
    Originally posted by Storman1977
    Originally posted by jdnewell

    Have you considered a 7770?

    Good card and a good value unless you are just a must have nvidia guy =)

    The AMD cards are really nice, but I believe that GW2 is built on Nvidia architecture and therefore an Nvidia card will produce the best performance.

    You might as well believe that the sky is green with purple polka dots.  It uses DirectX, which means that it will work with any card that implements DirectX properly.  It's highly implausible that ArenaNet didn't check performance on several different AMD and Nvidia cards, as well as Intel graphics, before launching the game.  Indeed, ArenaNet's own performance charts showed the game having a slight preference for AMD cards.

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347
    Originally posted by thelastradio

    Cool I will definitely keep an ATI on the cards. I'm in the market for something in the 550Ti range and power consumption is also an issue, most of the better cards require a better power supply.

    Thanks for all the advice, if anybody comes past here and plays with a 550Ti, let me know your experience :)

    What power supply do you have, anyway?

    A Radeon HD 7750 has a TDP of 75 W, while a Radeon HD 7770 has a TDP of 100 W and a GeForce GTX 550 Ti has a TDP of 126 W.

    Actually, what else do you have in your computer?  List your full system specs.  I get the impression that you bought some cheap junk OEM machine and are hoping to upgrade it, which isn't always practical.

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