general questions about video cards

[keakar]

I have an old gtx 460 1gb 256 bit card that's pretty long in the tooth that I want to upgrade from to a gtx 760 but I wanted to ask:

1 - what are the better brands and what brands have issues and should be avoided? I seam to recall years back that MSI and Zotec cards had a bad rep of going out like clockwork as soon as the warranty was over.

2 - what type of ram capacity is really needed in a vgc? I assume you don't want less then 2 GB today but do you need 3 GB or 4 GB or is that just an expensive luxury?

3 - is there any real advantage to a 256 bit over a 192 bit card?

also I don't play any new games so everything I play is 2010 or older games all pre dx11

 

[Asylum]

From what you have listed I would say pick you up a GTX 580 for about $100 used.

It has 2gb of ram and will max out anything you are talking about.

A 760 should do fine for what you want also.

I always go with EVGA or MSI.

 

[rooivalk]

1. Lately, I think most popular brands are good (MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, etc). It depends on your aesthetic preference, thermal performance, price, and more importantly your local distributor service. Though nowadays apparently MSI has very strong fanbase worldwide.
2. CMIIW big VRAM is only good with combination of big GPU power or SLI/CF. You could say 2GB is golden standard although I could playing with 1GB 560Ti just fine for most games in 1080p with relatively high setting.
You could crank up some games to use 3GB+ VRAM (super modded skyrim or mordor with HQ texture) but I'm not so sure 760 has enough power in the first place to play at comfortable fps with such load. I think 770 / 280x is the border where you'll want 3GB+ VRAM.
3. It means more bandwith, but I prefer to see the actual performance rather than technical detail.

 

[THE_EGG]

I'd look at the R9 280X as they seem to go pretty cheap and are 3GB. TBH I'd aim for 3GB for for future gaming at 1080p though 2GB is also just fine at this juncture for 1080p. If you are set on a 760 though, I'd suggest either the Gigabyte 3X windforce or the MSI Twin Frozr cards (or even the Asus DCII).

From what you have listed I would say pick you up a GTX 580 for about $100 used.

It has 2gb of ram and will max out anything you are talking about.

580s have 1.5gb of vram (some had the 3gb double though). TBH I'd avoid them now because they are getting on a bit. Great cards back in the day though.

 

[R-T-B]

Slightly on topic:

I'm curious about people's feelings about PNY as a brand. I just aquired a cheap GTX 780 XLR8 for my brother and want to know about relative build quality and warranty support.

 

[keakar]

thanks for the education and opinions guys, that's the info I needed to know.

I may switch gears here from the ebay auctions option since I found someone locally on craigs list asking $120 for a gigabyte gtx 660 but he know the specs for it, so I don't know what it is other then a gtx 660.

if I can confirm its 2GB i'll offer him $100 take it or leave it and hope he takes it.

if the stickers on the back are missing and it doesn't say it on the cooler housing, how can I tell if its a 1GB or 2GB card or if its a regular 660 or 660 TI just by looking at the board itself? in other words does anything printed on the circuit board help tell you anything?

what do you guys think about that price if he goes for it?

 

[64K]

thanks for the education and opinions guys, that's the info I needed to know.

I may switch gears here from the ebay auctions option since I found someone locally on craigs list asking $120 for a gigabyte gtx 660 but he know the specs for it, so I don't know what it is other then a gtx 660.

if I can confirm its 2GB i'll offer him $100 take it or leave it and hope he takes it.

if the stickers on the back are missing and it doesn't say it on the cooler housing, how can I tell if its a 1GB or 2GB card or if its a regular 660 or 660 TI just by looking at the board itself? in other words does anything printed on the circuit board help tell you anything?

what do you guys think about that price if he goes for it?

GTX 660 didn't come with 1 GB so it's 2 GB. If you want to know for sure whether it's a 660 or a 660Ti then ask him for the model number of the card and Google it. $100 for a 660 isn't too bad but you can get one for cheaper if you're patient and wait on a motivated seller. Here's what they are being sold for lately on Ebay

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=gtx 660&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc

Also since you will be playing games 2010 and prior then the 660 is fine for 1080p. It will even run Crysis at over 40 FPS average.

 

[THE_EGG]

thanks for the education and opinions guys, that's the info I needed to know.

I may switch gears here from the ebay auctions option since I found someone locally on craigs list asking $120 for a gigabyte gtx 660 but he know the specs for it, so I don't know what it is other then a gtx 660.

if I can confirm its 2GB i'll offer him $100 take it or leave it and hope he takes it.

if the stickers on the back are missing and it doesn't say it on the cooler housing, how can I tell if its a 1GB or 2GB card or if its a regular 660 or 660 TI just by looking at the board itself? in other words does anything printed on the circuit board help tell you anything?

what do you guys think about that price if he goes for it?

Ask for $90 instead and then bump up to $100 if he rejects your $90 offer. Walk at $100 if he doesn't take it.

A 660 should be fine for games made in 2010 and earlier (even many newer games can run fine on a 660 at lower settings).

If the Gigabyte 660 he claims to have has 3 fans then definitely it will be a Ti as only the Ti version was available with the windforce 3 cooler iirc. You could have this webpage ready on your phone or print it out and match up the heatsink designs (subtle differences in the heatpipe arrangement and fins) http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products...,8@1@2,18#1;52,53@53@53,54@54|1,8@1@2,232@234

On that webpage it looks like the non-Ti versions have the heatsink fins running parallel to the length of the card whereas the Ti versions have the fins running perpendicular to the length of the card (or parallel to the height of the card).

 

[peche]

760 its solid enough!
i have one... they are brave cards! recomended gigabyte's OCed version ...!
Regards,

 

[SKBARON]

Slightly on topic:

I'm curious about people's feelings about PNY as a brand. I just aquired a cheap GTX 780 XLR8 for my brother and want to know about relative build quality and warranty support.

I'm still running a PNY GTX560 Ti and haven't had any trouble with it. Build quality seems to be ok. Haven't noticed any shortcomings in this area.

 

[GhostRyder]

I have an old gtx 460 1gb 256 bit card that's pretty long in the tooth that I want to upgrade from to a gtx 760 but I wanted to ask:

1 - what are the better brands and what brands have issues and should be avoided? I seam to recall years back that MSI and Zotec cards had a bad rep of going out like clockwork as soon as the warranty was over.

2 - what type of ram capacity is really needed in a vgc? I assume you don't want less then 2 GB today but do you need 3 GB or 4 GB or is that just an expensive luxury?

3 - is there any real advantage to a 256 bit over a 192 bit card?

also I don't play any new games so everything I play is 2010 or older games all pre dx11

Are you tied to a budget or just limiting yourself?

My advice based on you wanting a GTX 760 and based on what you have said about your game choices would be the following depending on how you want to go about thisL

1: I would not get a GTX 760 new at this point based on prices on newegg unless you find one for a steal. You can get the GTX 960 for cheaper than I am seeing the 760's on newegg and its a newer card that is plenty for 1080p.
2: If your just looking for the best value brand new, The R9 280X might be a better more powerful option for just a bit more or the same if you do not mind refurb or open box deals. To top that off if you want cheaper new there is also an R9 280 for pretty cheap which is still an awesome 1080p card.
3: If you do not mind ebay, check for deals on cards there. For instance you can find a used R9 280X for below $150 which is a steal of a deal for a gamer right now as honestly your not going to hit a performance wall maxing games out at 1080p with that card easily. Same with cards like GTX 770 and others for a great price.

If you do go with ebay, just read the owners history before buying/bidding and make sure its a good seller. Not only that make sure they do not have a history of selling tons of cards (Like for instance 8 HD 7970's or the likes) just because it might indicate a person who was mining coins and the cards might have a lot of their life used up.

Slightly on topic:
I'm curious about people's feelings about PNY as a brand. I just aquired a cheap GTX 780 XLR8 for my brother and want to know about relative build quality and warranty support.

PNY is a great card maker and still one of my favorite NVidia card makers. My last cards from them were a pair of GTX 580 LC editions and they were great cards. I have actually had quite a few and never had any problems with them (It took 8 years for my PNY FX 5500 to burn out and it was used to game on for years by me and my sister). As far as warranty goes I have not heard many complaints and they generally are pretty gracious on returns.

 

[keakar]

Are you tied to a budget or just limiting yourself?
My advice based on you wanting a GTX 760 and based on what you have said about your game choices would be the following depending on how you want to go about thisL
1: I would not get a GTX 760 new at this point based on prices on newegg unless you find one for a steal. You can get the GTX 960 for cheaper than I am seeing the 760's on newegg and its a newer card that is plenty for 1080p.
2: If your just looking for the best value brand new, The R9 280X might be a better more powerful option for just a bit more or the same if you do not mind refurb or open box deals. To top that off if you want cheaper new there is also an R9 280 for pretty cheap which is still an awesome 1080p card.
3: If you do not mind ebay, check for deals on cards there. For instance you can find a used R9 280X for below $150 which is a steal of a deal for a gamer right now as honestly your not going to hit a performance wall maxing games out at 1080p with that card easily. Same with cards like GTX 770 and others for a great price.
If you do go with ebay, just read the owners history before buying/bidding and make sure its a good seller. Not only that make sure they do not have a history of selling tons of cards (Like for instance 8 HD 7970's or the likes) just because it might indicate a person who was mining coins and the cards might have a lot of their life used up.

im not just looking for the best "value" rather im looking for the absolute best upgrade I can make within my budget. I realize there are better values at or under $100 for new cards if I am willing to get a lesser card then 660 or 760 but I don't want a small change or I may as well keep mine.

well I only have $100 to spend so I am both on a budget and voluntarily limiting myself to that amount.

mainly because its not a critical priority since my gtx 460 does everything I need but I think its a good time to get a great value in a huge upgrade card since my 460 is like 288 cuda cores and the 660 is like 900 or so I think. so my thinking on this is find a 660 or 760 or equivalent to that for $100 or less or just keep what I have. while there are lesser upgrade options I don't want to gamble on a used card for lesser upgrade and I certainly don't feel its worth spending $100 to by a new 500 series card even though it would be a noticeable improvement I just don't feel like investing in buying a new card almost as old as my old one

as to my choice to look for, when I had looked and on ebay the 660 and 760 were both selling for the same prices so I figured 760 is the one to watch for. unfortunately they both seam to be getting to the $125-$150 range by the time they are sold. hell a brand new 660 costs $150 lol.

my cut off bid limit is $100 so I will have to get lucky or catch a new item just listed to buy at that price or one that slips past the vultures on ebay who bid up everything too high.

as to new, no I don't want the extra expense of new even though I hate risking second hand stuff because you just never know what they did to it.

im even very nervous and unsure spending $100 when I could get this for $150 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125443&cm_re=gtx_660-_-14-125-443-_-Product

and im on a very tight budget so that $50 extra is a huge jump to make and would rather just live with what I have now then spend that much.

I don't know radeon cards so

what would be the radeon version of the 660 and 760 cards?

and the radeon versions of the 660 ti and the 760 ti versions?

Ask for $90 instead and then bump up to $100 if he rejects your $90 offer. Walk at $100 if he doesn't take it.

A 660 should be fine for games made in 2010 and earlier (even many newer games can run fine on a 660 at lower settings).

If the Gigabyte 660 he claims to have has 3 fans then definitely it will be a Ti as only the Ti version was available with the windforce 3 cooler iirc. You could have this webpage ready on your phone or print it out and match up the heatsink designs (subtle differences in the heatpipe arrangement and fins) http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/list.aspx?s=43&p=52,53@53@53,62&v=1,8@1@2,18#1;52,53@53@53,54@54|1,8@1@2,232@234

On that webpage it looks like the non-Ti versions have the heatsink fins running parallel to the length of the card whereas the Ti versions have the fins running perpendicular to the length of the card (or parallel to the height of the card).

well it has 2 fans and parallel fins so it must be a regular 660 then, still nervous about how to tell if its 1gb or 2gb if the sticker is missing or doesn't say it because there is no other view then a top view picture (no reason to believe the stickers wont be in place, just thinking worst case here)

 

[rtwjunkie]

My son's rig with an EVGA 660 3GB will actually play Crysis 3 at Medium-high, playable frame rates on 1080p, despite that IDIOTIC GEForce Experience saying it can't play it at anything but 1024x768! It's quite a capable card.

As to buying with no stickers, or serial numbers, that is something you should NOT consider at all. But don't worry about the VRAM, they were all 2GB or 3GB.

Actually, to find the good stuff, and to avoid high prices, only check option for Buy It Now. Yes, some will be priced high, but when looking for deals, that is ALWAYS where I find them. Just make sure you read the description carefully and query the seller about it's use. And the ones that also Best Offer are good too. I picked up a GPU, and a motherboard by offering 15 and 20% less than the listed price. The key there is keep stuff in your watch list. If it's not purchased after a few days to a week, it's ripe for an acceptance of your offer.

Hopefully this helps.

 

[GhostRyder]

well I only have $100 to spend so I am both on a budget and voluntarily limiting myself to that amount.

mainly because its not a critical priority since my gtx 460 does everything I need but I think its a good time to get a great value in a huge upgrade card since my 460 is like 288 cuda cores and the 660 is like 900 or so I think. so my thinking on this is find a 660 or 760 or equivalent to that for $100 or less or just keep what I have. while there are lesser upgrade options I don't want to gamble on a used card for lesser upgrade and I certainly don't feel its worth spending $100 to by a new 500 series card even though it would be a noticeable improvement I just don't feel like investing in buying a new card almost as old as my old one

as to my choice to look for, when I had looked and on ebay the 660 and 760 were both selling for the same prices so I figured 760 is the one to watch for. unfortunately they both seam to be getting to the $125-$150 range by the time they are sold. hell a brand new 660 costs $150 lol.

my cut off bid limit is $100 so I will have to get lucky or catch a new item just listed to buy at that price or one that slips past the vultures on ebay who bid up everything too high.

as to new, no I don't want the extra expense of new even though I hate risking second hand stuff because you just never know what they did to it.

im even very nervous and unsure spending $100 when I could get this for $150 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125443&cm_re=gtx_660-_-14-125-443-_-Product

and im on a very tight budget so that $50 extra is a huge jump to make and would likely make me settle to just live with what I have now.




well it has 2 fans and parallel fins so it must be a regular 660 then, still nervous about how to tell if its 1gb or 2gb if the sticker is missing or doesn't say it because there is no other view then a top view picture (no reason to believe the stickers wont be in place, just thinking worst case here)

First off, the standard GTX 660 only come in a 2gb configuration as the lowest and not a 1gb configuration so you do not have to worry about whether its 1gb or 2gb.
Second, I would not pay that much for a GTX 660 at this point as used there are way better options out there, if your really wanting to stick to $100 bucks and a guaranteed new card that will be a nice step up from a GTX 460 while gaining lots of new features, get a GTX 750ti as that thing is pretty nice for 1080p especially considering the types of games and the areas you want to game in (There are open box deals for even cheaper!). Or at that point you can also get a R7 265 (Which is a little step up from a GTX 750ti to about the range of a GTX 660) or if your wanting to be at a low price point try a R7 260X though you are starting to dive into the areas of cards that are not big step ups from your current card.

I would say used is going to give you the best bang you will see for your money. Try an HD 7950 or HD 7970 on ebay for ~$100 bucks and you will have something to last you quite awhile.

 

[keakar]

First off, the standard GTX 660 only come in a 2gb configuration as the lowest and not a 1gb configuration so you do not have to worry about whether its 1gb or 2gb.
Second, I would not pay that much for a GTX 660 at this point as used there are way better options out there, if your really wanting to stick to $100 bucks and a guaranteed new card that will be a nice step up from a GTX 460 while gaining lots of new features, get a GTX 750ti as that thing is pretty nice for 1080p especially considering the types of games and the areas you want to game in (There are open box deals for even cheaper!). Or at that point you can also get a R7 265 (Which is a little step up from a GTX 750ti to about the range of a GTX 660) or if your wanting to be at a low price point try a R7 260X though you are starting to dive into the areas of cards that are not big step ups from your current card.

I would say used is going to give you the best bang you will see for your money. Try an HD 7950 or HD 7970 on ebay for ~$100 bucks and you will have something to last you quite awhile.

well the 750 ti is 4 steps down from the 660 on the video card performance chart (113% vs 139%) so im not thinking that's something I want to settle for especially since they start out asking $100 for those as well used on ebay

I looked at the new options and found nothing I think is enough value for the performance gained in my opinion so I do kinda have set my goal at 660 performance or better in a used card that can be had for $100 or less. I am adding the 7870 to my list to watch but they too are starting at $100 used on ebay.

it looks like my gtx 460 is selling for around $75-$100 on ebay used as well and that's just crazy im my mind but I will definitely put mine out there and see if I can get $75 for it lol.

 

[keakar]

pdate:

I wish to thank all of you for helping me.

I just pulled the trigger on this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121660

they must have just dropped the price and added the rebate because I didn't see this yesterday.

anyway I couldn't see the sense in gambling on a used card for $100 when I could get it new for $120 so I pulled the trigger on it. it also helped that I had a $10 gift card from them I didn't know if I would ever get to use before it expired so in the end, with the gift card plus $30 rebate, this card will actually only cost me $110

now if I can get some sucker to overpay me for my old gtx 460 card on ebay I will be super happy