Simviation Forum - GPU shopping time!

Jul 5^th, 2010 at 7:21pm

Celtman Offline
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Hey everyone

I'm looking for a new GPU, mainly for FSX but for other games also

I currently have a 260 GTX, which I like, but I have the budget to stretch further now

What do you guys recommend with a budget for £300-£350?

If it helps my PC also has:

i7 920 CPU
6GB 1800MHz DDR3 RAM
ASUS P6T M'board

Also looking to buy a WD raptor drive, are these much better for FSX than a standard HDD? Or would a SSD be even better?

It's been a long time since I bought stuff, I'm a bit out of touch with it all now Shocked

Thanks

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Reply #1 - Jul 6^th, 2010 at 1:49am

NNNG Ex Member

GTX 470.

SSD.

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Reply #2 - Jul 6^th, 2010 at 1:57am

waspiflab Offline
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http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/Graphics-ATI/ATIHD5800Series...

Read alot about the 5870 cards in magazines etc they have great results. In tests these have nailed the nvidia gtx470 Wink

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Reply #3 - Jul 6^th, 2010 at 2:11am

NNNG Ex Member

The GTX 470 is somewhat cheaper than the 5870. And I'm betting the GTX 470 would outperform the 5870 in FSX, But yes the 5870 is faster and if I could have either I'd get the 5870.

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Reply #4 - Jul 6^th, 2010 at 6:10am

Celtman Offline
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So the 5870 is faster and better for overall gaming, but the 470 is better in fsx?

How much better do you think it would perform? I mean FSX what I mainly use my PC for, other gaming is more of a sideline.

I heard something about the 5870 being two cards strapped together, so FSX only uses half the power (or something like that Tongue

) is that true?

Also would you recommend installing the OS on an SSD or FSX on an SSD?

Thanks for the help guys

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Reply #5 - Jul 6^th, 2010 at 12:48pm

waspiflab Offline
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I don't believe any card out there yet is good enough for FSX and it's CPU hungry but you'll get pretty good fps with either cards.

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Reply #6 - Jul 7^th, 2010 at 3:55am

NNNG Ex Member

Quote:

So the 5870 is faster and better for overall gaming, but the 470 is better in fsx?

I have not seen any direct comparisons of the 5870 with the GTX 470. However Nick N explained that the 5870 was approximately the same as the GTX 285 in FSX. I have also seen benchmarks of the GTX 470 versus GTX 285, and the GTX 470 is significantly faster in FSX. If you want these benchmarks you'll have to ask someone else because I don't have a link to them, I think it was on Avsim, not sure though. So I presume that GTX 470 will be faster than the 5870 in FSX. That being said, both are very good cards in FSX, and the 5870 will be somewhat faster in most applications. The GTX 470 is slightly better value for money over the 5870 in most applications, so either way you can't really go wrong.

Also the GTX 470 uses a heap of electricity you might want to check your PSU can run it.

ALSO FSX is limited by the CPU, so while in most games a GTX 470 might double your fps, you're unlikely to get double fps in FSX. The best upgrade for a fsx computer is generally a faster processor, or overclocking it.

Also you could probably sell your current GTX 260 to get some more cash.

Quote:

How much better do you think it would perform? I mean FSX what I mainly use my PC for, other gaming is more of a sideline.

I don't know how much better it would perform in FSX. There are a number of free reviews of the GTX 470 which would compare it to the 5870 in other games though.

Quote:

I heard something about the 5870 being two cards strapped together, so FSX only uses half the power (or something like that ) is that true?

That's true for the 5970, but not for the 5870.

Quote:

Also would you recommend installing the OS on an SSD or FSX on an SSD?

SSD's are extremely fast... install both on an SSD but that's easier said than done since an SSD that size would be hideously expensive. Depends on what you want though, Windows that is extremely responsive, a FSX that runs really well, or a really expensive SSD and get both. I'd rather put Windows on it but it's up to you. Perhaps a Raptor, while much slower, might be a good choice as then you can put both the OS and FSX on the same disk for less money.

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Reply #7 - Jul 7^th, 2010 at 8:55am

Celtman Offline
Colonel
Where has all the Marmalade
gone?
Warrington

Gender:
Posts: 645

Quote:

So the 5870 is faster and better for overall gaming, but the 470 is better in fsx?

I have not seen any direct comparisons of the 5870 with the GTX 470. However Nick N explained that the 5870 was approximately the same as the GTX 285 in FSX. I have also seen benchmarks of the GTX 470 versus GTX 285, and the GTX 470 is significantly faster in FSX. If you want these benchmarks you'll have to ask someone else because I don't have a link to them, I think it was on Avsim, not sure though. So I presume that GTX 470 will be faster than the 5870 in FSX. That being said, both are very good cards in FSX, and the 5870 will be somewhat faster in most applications. The GTX 470 is slightly better value for money over the 5870 in most applications, so either way you can't really go wrong.

Also the GTX 470 uses a heap of electricity you might want to check your PSU can run it.

ALSO FSX is limited by the CPU, so while in most games a GTX 470 might double your fps, you're unlikely to get double fps in FSX. The best upgrade for a fsx computer is generally a faster processor, or overclocking it.

Also you could probably sell your current GTX 260 to get some more cash.

Quote:

How much better do you think it would perform? I mean FSX what I mainly use my PC for, other gaming is more of a sideline.

I don't know how much better it would perform in FSX. There are a number of free reviews of the GTX 470 which would compare it to the 5870 in other games though.

Quote:

I heard something about the 5870 being two cards strapped together, so FSX only uses half the power (or something like that ) is that true?

That's true for the 5970, but not for the 5870.

Quote:

Also would you recommend installing the OS on an SSD or FSX on an SSD?

SSD's are extremely fast... install both on an SSD but that's easier said than done since an SSD that size would be hideously expensive. Depends on what you want though, Windows that is extremely responsive, a FSX that runs really well, or a really expensive SSD and get both. I'd rather put Windows on it but it's up to you. Perhaps a Raptor, while much slower, might be a good choice as then you can put both the OS and FSX on the same disk for less money.

Thanks very much for all this! That's really helpful

I think I'll go for the 470, since it hurts the bank balance a little bit less Grin

The PSU should cope fine, it's a 1000W @ 80+ efficiency.

Will consider spending any extra on a bigger SSD Wink

As for the overclock, I'm running at 3.2GHz on aftermarket cooling, what sort of clocks are achieveable on the 920 with air cooling? I've heard crazy figures of 4GHz upwards Shocked

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Reply #8 - Jul 7^th, 2010 at 12:54pm