GeForce GTX 275

[peat moss]

Think I'll get this , read a nice article today . Anyone have it or the ATI HD 4890 ? Seems middle of the road and price is right .


http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/16400-nvidia-geforce-gtx-275-896mb-review.html

[Skiz]

What do you need a card like that for? Media? Gaming?

I'm sure it's a nice card. Great actually. I just can't justify spending more than about $100 on a GPU anymore. The prices tend to fall like a rock after the initial glitter wears off, and seeing that cards price range it's likely in mid free fall ATM.

Take the 8800GTs for example. I bought a perfectly good one off Craigslist about a month ago for $40. $40 fucking dollars! That card was $500+ like two or three years ago. The one 8800GT that I already had is capable of running every game I've ever tried on max settings (except Crysis). I just bought this second one b/c I just couldn't pass up $40.

My opinion would be to wait unless your antsy.

[IdolEyes787]

The GTX 275 is the card that I have. I did a lot of research before buying and it seemed the best compromise between price and performance.
It runs everything that I throw at in on high and never tops 50C in a Cooler Master HAF case with no special cooling.

[Something Else]

A 4870 will probably be very close to / might even outperform the GTX 275. That's old now.

[Snee]

At least wait a little.

The ATi 5870s and 5850s are getting released like today, once those start getting rolled out, prices of older cards should start dropping.

Also, I think the 4890s have better image quality than the 275s.

Heck, the 5850s don't cost much more than a 275 where I'm looking (my regular place started listing them just now). And that's dx11 and supposedly better performance than a GF285.

[Detale]

I have a GTX 260 and the card is great. I had a minor driver issue with win 7 when the beta was out but now everything plays awesome. About $100 price difference. My 2 cents

[peat moss]

I'm expecting a bonus and thought I'd upgrade my computer with a newer card .I have a Nvidia Geforce 8600 gt now , not bad but want to treat myself and my son plays games on my rig .

I'm enjoying Win7 64 and just bumped to 8gb memory , thought what the heck . Thank you for the ideas I'v got a few weeks yet .

[MadIrish]

This is a decent review of the 4890's v Gtx275 - http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=745

Both are cracking cards really, I'm a bit of a mark these days for the red team (as much because their more recent cards have really breathed new life into the gpu market and pushed prices right down across the board) but either would be a good choice.

Although as said above hanging fire to see how the new ATI 5 series perform might well be wise (even if just to see the 4's and nvidia's equivalents come down in price).

[sirr]

There is tons of fantastic reviews out there now. Some sites i visit regularly are guru3d.com and tonmshardware.com, both have very, very new reviews and comparisons with the new cards.

But as Snee stated, it would be a good idea to wait until prices drop. Shouldn't be too far away either. Can't wait =)

[peat moss]

I was reading about this one :

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2009/08/25/sapphire-radeon-hd-4890-2gb-vapor-x-review/1

I don't want to wait till Xmas , money will be spent by then . :whistling It's about 240 .00 CND .


This is giving pause for thought .

" Final Thoughts...
Of course, the relative merits of 2GB of graphics memory is academic, as a reference-design GeForce GTX 275 costs the same as the Sapphire Vapor-X and is faster in all situations bar Fallout 3. In some games the performance advantage is marginal, in others it's more pronounced, but overall, the GTX 275 has the Vapor-X beaten for performance.

However, the GTX 275 is a louder card than the Vapor-X, though not obnoxiously so, and it ships with even less memory than the standard HD 4870, let alone the 2GB Sapphire. It's hardly comparable on the "future-proofing memory footprint" stakes. "

[Snee]

Dunno how it is where you are, but the price difference between a gtx 275 and a HD 5850 is only 20-25% atm here.

If I weren't like the only person in the world who actually likes physx, I'd go for a 5850 without hesitation. A 4890 over a 275, not so much.


EDit: I should note that I'm considering getting a pair of 275s (either the msi twin frozr OC, or a couple of gainward gs), if the prices drop a bit lower. I've a hard time justifying it at present, though, given the cost of the 5850.

[PlayeR]

so which one do you decide to buy?..if it was me, i would just get 4890..but if you are into folding and physx, then get GTX275..it is so recommended for folding...

if you dont really need a new card right now, wait for nvidia to release their new cards to compete with Ati 5850 5890..im sure there will be big price drop..

[peat moss]

I'm thinking I'll set my sights lower and get this :

http://www.alinx.ca/itemdetail.asp?ItemID=11486

I will probably buy a new computer next year and think that will do me for now . ( Wife is ragging me ) Sounds like it has good cooling , 2 gb of DDR5 memory . I like the store and they have been good to me and friends so maybe I'll get a OEM , minus drivers , box etc or maybe a return ?


I'm sure I'll get a deal some how . ;)

[Snee]

What about a 5770? I just ordered two of those (the asus voltage tweak edition thingies) to play around with for a few months.

Performs a bit below a 4890 (cost less too) looking at current benchmarks, but I'd wager they improve with better drivers, and they come with dx11 support.

Two of them in CF seems to be able to compete with a single 5870, whilst costing less atm, which is nice. (I'm just gonna run a 9600gso or a gts 250 for physx, and pray that Nvidia don't figure out how to bugger up the driver hack for that for good)

[Takoom]

What about a 5770? I just ordered two of those (the asus voltage tweak edition thingies) to play around with for a few months.

Performs a bit below a 4890 (cost less too) looking at current benchmarks, but I'd wager they improve with better drivers, and they come with dx11 support.

Two of them in CF seems to be able to compete with a single 5870, whilst costing less atm, which is nice. (I'm just gonna run a 9600gso or a gts 250 for physx, and pray that Nvidia don't figure out how to bugger up the driver hack for that for good)

i don't agree more

[peat moss]

Just installed my Radeon HD4890 today , what a gong show . I thought I had a good size case ( Antec 900) but had a hell of a time moving cables , power wires around to fit it in . Does it have to be so big ?


Takes up two spots which I understand for cooling and what not , but the power plugs are on the front of the fucking thing so you have to be a chimp to hold the flash light , wires and hdd cables and insert in the pci slot .

Next time I remove the PSU first instead of every other cable then pray that it still boots . I did n't know that you have to use both power plugs . Fuck me , took me two hours to figure that out .

[Snee]

I hope that card was hella cheap is all I'm saying.

[peat moss]

No made me pay full price ,the buggers . $ 269.00 . Havn't played a game yet just playing around with Win7 themes and do notice quite a difference , colours seem quite vivid . Either that or I'm more hung over than I thought .

Don't see a Physx setting like Nvidia has in control panel , Ati does 'nt have one ?

[Snee]

No made me pay full price ,the buggers . $ 269.00 . Havn't played a game yet just playing around with Win7 themes and do notice quite a difference , colours seem quite vivid . Either that or I'm more hung over than I thought .

Don't see a Physx setting like Nvidia has in control panel , Ati does 'nt have one ?

Naw, mang. And lately they (nvidia) even blocked physx in their drivers when there's an ati card in the rig alongside the nivdia one.

There's a hack for that, though. Not sure it works with the latest drivers, but def the ones before that. Requires win7 and an nvidia card (obviously) though.

ATi doesn't want physx atm, nvidia offered, but they said no, something about not condoning proprietary stuff from nvidia. Some guy tried making his own drivers for running physx on ati cards as well, but he seems to have given up on the project, after proclaiming both nvidia and ati are dicks, or something.


EDit: I should say that your 4890 will have directx 10.1, the nvidia one runs directx 10, so while you don't have physx, you do have that instead, I guess.

[kooltilldend]

its a crazy card...i was planning to get it with my new desktop...yet neither the desktop came...nor the card :( (i'm broke lol)

[peat moss]

I thought I saw a DirectX 11 driver on a site but think it was phony ?

@Kool , I feel your pain buddie .

[Snee]

I thought I saw a DirectX 11 driver on a site but think it was phony ?
the 4000-series doesn't support dx11 on a hardware level, it might be possible to use some dx11 features, though. You can do that on the geforce 200-series, iirc. But full dx11 supoport isn't possible due to hardware limitations, no matter the driver afaik.

dx 10.1 is supposedly a lot closer to dx 11 than dx 10 is, though.

[peat moss]

Thank you Snee , always appreciate your very knowledgeable posts . Now if a new Computer game would come out so I can play around with the settings .

My kid has bought a couple of new games , but their for the PS3 .:frusty:

[kooltilldend]

well till a new one comes out, u can always try optimizing settings on Crysis...or is this a separate discussion?

[Snee]

Thank you Snee , always appreciate your very knowledgeable posts . Now if a new Computer game would come out so I can play around with the settings .

My kid has bought a couple of new games , but their for the PS3 .:frusty:

You could always check out Far Cry 2, if you haven't. It runs great with ATi cards. And it's really cheap now, if you wanna be all legal and stuff.

Otherwise Crysis: Warhead (as well as the aforementioned Crysis) is still good for testing graphics cards, but both Crysis games are kind of buggy, and you'll never be able to max it out with a 4890. Good for checking how far you can push it, though.

If you want something more recent, Batman: Arkham Asylum looks lovely, but it really does require physx and probably an nvidia card for rendering as well, to look its best. I don't even know if AA works with an ATi card for it, yet.

I don't know if any of those games are really your thing, though.

[peat moss]

I'm d/l Far Cry 2 Razor 1911 , that sounds like fun . When I type dxdiag in run it says I have DirectX 11 . I'm running Win7 Ultimate so was wondering if I'll have issues with it ?

Found a site with some demo's will give them a try . Thanks again

[Snee]

DirectX 11 just adds more stuff, if your card or games don't support Dx11 features they just won't use them. So as far as I know, there shouldn't be any problems with regards to which version you've got installed of that.

I can rev that game up in a bit anyways, if there are any issues with the game itself and Dx11 I'll notice, I'm just about to replace my old cards with the new ones I ordered, so I'm gonna be trying some stuff anyways.


EDit:
Gah, forgot about FC2 and gotta go do other stuff now. Had too much fun overclocking the new cards.

Will give it a go tomorrow after work.

[peat moss]

Seems like fun , I think there's something wrong with me as I enjoy installing hardware and finding new drivers more than actually playing the games . :lol:

FC2 looks sweet just on default , might buy the game as my boy enjoys the online gaming more . Can't believe all the Nvidia crap , not just drivers left over after uninstalling . I'm going to try the Driver clean up and see if that helps .



I tried a free one called Driver Sweeper , not bad but had to reboot twice.

http://downloads.guru3d.com/Guru3D---Driver-Sweeper-%28Setup%29_d1655.html

[Snee]

Yeah. Adding in new stuff is pretty sweet. I'm down to only having two graphics cards in my rig atm, though :( But as an aside, I can tell you that running two 5770s in CF is pretty sweet. They scale better than anything else I've seen in CF. It's like running a somewhat overclocked cheaper 5870 in FC2. Albeit one that takes up two PCIe slots. They overclock great as well, what with allowing for overvolting without modding. Had to pace myself though, cos the top card gets a tad hot when you start dialing up the voltage.

I'd get a third one, but I can't fit it, and I need that slot for a physx card anyways.

Also: Driver sweeper is good, I've used that as well. When driver cleaner wasn't free anymore, that became the best option.

Also, if you'll be overclocking your card, you may wanna look into msi afterburner. It's great.

And a tip about far cry 2: If you change it so it uses dx10 instead of dx9 (you should if you really wanna make that card work, and up the AA as well while you're at it), and the whole game grinds to a halt when not in windowed mode, it's not a problem with dx itself, really, it's a service in Vista/Win7 being weird. Just look for tablet pc input if so, and shut it down.

[peat moss]

Ya first setting I changed was the DirectX 10 , notice settings for tree , textures for terrain and so on . Can see why you suggested this game .

I don't mean to hog this thread so if anyone whats to add or have a question please jump in . I'm off to try a overclocking program , heard that the memory I have also can be overclocked thru some programs ?

[Snee]

Memory on the card can def be oc'd, for instance with the aforementioned afterburner. Other contenders are Rivatuner, CCC itself, ATT, possibly Smartdoctor (only for Asus cards, and it kinda' sucks) or that EVGA-thing (only for nvidia cards).

If you mean your regular ram, though, I'd only oc it through software if it was to mess around and look for stable settings*, and even then I'd do it through my bios unless I was feeling hella lazy.

The only things I'll oc from inside my OS are my graphics cards, everything else I pretty much do through bios.

As for what to use if you still wanna do it, I can't really say. I saw something used in a review of some corsair xms3 a while back, but can't remember what its called.


*which might be a good idea if you dunno what you're doing, assuming you're very careful.