Ok, I want to get a new video card for my main PC before the WOW expansion hits next week. Narrowed down to a couple choices. Very similar specs, both nVidia GTX 460 EVGA cards. One has slightly more memory, but slightly less clock speed. Exact same price on both. Ok, tech heads, what one would you pick of these two?
P.S. The formatting doesn't copy and past well, but each line has the two specs for the two cards listed.
Item# N82E16814130562 N82E16814130591
Model# 768-P3-1360-TR 01G-P3-1366-TR
Brand EVGA EVGA
Interface PCI Express 2.0 x16 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Chipset Manufacturer NVIDIA NVIDIA
GPU GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) GeForce GTX 460 SE (Fermi)
Core Clock 675MHz 650MHz
Shader Clock 1350MHz 1300MHz
Stream Processors 336 Processor Cores 288 Processor Cores
Effective Memory Clock 3600MHz 3400MHz
Memory Size 768MB 1GB
Memory Interface 192-bit 256-bit
Memory Type GDDR5 GDDR5
DirectX DirectX 11 DirectX 11
HDMI 1 x Mini-HDMI 1.4a 1 x mini HDMI
DVI 2 x DVI 2 x DVI
RAMDAC 400 MHz 400 MHz
Max Resolution 2560 x 1600 2560 x 1600
SLI Support SLI Ready SLI Ready
Cooler With Fan With Fan
System Requirements Minimum of a 450 Watt power supply
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 24 Amps.)
Power Connector 2 x 6 Pin
Dual-Link DVI Supported Yes Yes
HDCP Ready Yes Yes
Card Dimensions 4.38" x 8.25" 8.25" x 4.38"
Features NVIDIA CUDA technology with CUDA C/C++,DirectCompute 5.0 and OpenCL support
NVIDIA PhysX technology
NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround Ready
NVIDIA PureVideo HD technology NVIDIA CUDA technology with CUDA C/C++
DirectCompute 5.0 and OpenCL support
NVIDIA PhysX technology
NVIDIA 3D Vision support
NVIDIA PureVideo HD technology
Decided to go with the slightly faster card, but slightly less memory.
I got one of those iMacs that were on sale on Black Friday. It's last years model, the 3.3 Ghz Intel Core 2 duo with 4G of memory and a ATI Raedon 4670. I know full well for what I paid I could have gotten a top of the line PC with components I put together myself, instead of last years iMac, but when I got home I took it out of the box, I plugged it in to the wall, turned it on, and I was done. I guess it's a high price to play for that kind of convenience but so far I absolutely love it. WoW is running like I have never seen before, beautifully, and the 27" screen is totally gorgeous.
Don't scoff at me, Rico and Chris, I know I copped out, I appreciate the help you gave me in the past with finding the right components for putting together a customized PC, but I truly think this will be the perfect computer for me and my family.
Quote from: Jobydrone4of20 on November 29, 2010, 11:34:26 AM
I got one of those iMacs that were on sale on Black Friday. It's last years model, the 3.3 Ghz Intel Core 2 duo with 4G of memory and a ATI Raedon 4670. I know full well for what I paid I could have gotten a top of the line PC with components I put together myself, instead of last years iMac, but when I got home I took it out of the box, I plugged it in to the wall, turned it on, and I was done. I guess it's a high price to play for that kind of convenience but so far I absolutely love it. WoW is running like I have never seen before, beautifully, and the 27" screen is totally gorgeous.
Don't scoff at me, Rico and Chris, I know I copped out, I appreciate the help you gave me in the past with finding the right components for putting together a customized PC, but I truly think this will be the perfect computer for me and my family.
This brought a tear to my eye.. :wub
Ha ha, I know I and everyone in the world like me are boons to your stock portfolio. Glad to be of service.
Sounds like a nice machine Joby. Let me know if you try a more hard-core game on it sometime. Curious on how it handles that.
Quote from: Jobydrone4of20 on November 29, 2010, 11:45:49 AM
Ha ha, I know I and everyone in the world like me are boons to your stock portfolio. Glad to be of service.
They are really lovely machines. :)
Quote from: Rico on November 29, 2010, 11:46:55 AM
Sounds like a nice machine Joby. Let me know if you try a more hardcore game on it sometime. Curious on how it handles that.
The problem with the latest, greatest game on a Mac isn't always a hardware limitation, it's that the ports that are done done from PC to Mac are often clunky at best. The trick is to run graphic intense games in Boot Camp running Windows, then you can buy a native PC game and run it on a partitioned HD as opposed to Parallels, which is software and too slow.
As Apple OS becomes more and more prevelant, especially in the portable space, I think you will see more games made for the platform or made in conjunction with the PC side.
I have the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles for all my gaming needs. There's no PC-only game out there that I would be insterested in playing on my iMac other than WoW. Well, that's not entirely true, I did want to check out "the Witcher" and was disappointed when the console version got cancelled. Maybe I'll check out if there's a Mac version of that game. Otherwise, no games other than WoW until Diablo 3 comes out, if it ever does.
I did download the Steam client for Mac, but the list of Mac games on that service was a little thin. I guess I should get used to that now.
Quote from: Bryancd on November 29, 2010, 11:50:14 AM
Quote from: Rico on November 29, 2010, 11:46:55 AM
Sounds like a nice machine Joby. Let me know if you try a more hardcore game on it sometime. Curious on how it handles that.
The problem with the latest, greatest game on a Mac isn't always a hardware limitation, it's that the ports that are done done from PC to Mac are often clunky at best. The trick is to run graphic intense games in Boot Camp running Windows, then you can buy a native PC game and run it on a partitioned HD as opposed to Parallels, which is software and too slow.
As Apple OS becomes more and more prevelant, especially in the portable space, I think you will see more games made for the platform or made in conjunction with the PC side.
Boot camp shouldn't really impact performance with modern Macs. So install Windows if you need it and run games or other software there if it's Windows only.
I wonder if I can use the disc that came with my laptop when I bought it a few years ago or if I would have to buy Windows again? My laptop was bought when Vista first came out. If I can even find the disc, that is. I really need to take better care of these important things. I think Boot Camp came loaded on the iMac, I'll look for it when I get home.
Quote from: Jobydrone4of20 on November 29, 2010, 01:56:53 PM
I wonder if I can use the disc that came with my laptop when I bought it a few years ago or if I would have to buy Windows again? My laptop was bought when Vista first came out. If I can even find the disc, that is. I really need to take better care of these important things. I think Boot Camp came loaded on the iMac, I'll look for it when I get home.
Yeah, Boot Camp is partioned on the HD. Hold down the shift key when you start the iMac and it should give you the option to boot from it.
Congratz on the new buy. If it works for you, that's all that matters in the long run. I think they are pretty too and wouldn't refuse any Apple product. I'm not anti Apple, just anti me paying for it.
Thanks Chris, glad you're not too disappointed in me ;)
Back on the original topic of my new video card, it should be at my apartment when I get home from work later today. So, I should be rocking in WOW in Dalaran later tonight! I'll be all ready for the big expansion next Tuesday too! :)
P.S. Oh, one other nice thing about the new video card is it has a mini-HDMI out port (with an adaptor). So, I should be able to dual screen with my nearby HDTV. Nice!
Awesome Rico. Just get yourself out of Dalaran and over to Ironforge!
Quote from: billybob476 on December 03, 2010, 06:52:48 AM
Awesome Rico. Just get yourself out of Dalaran and over to Ironforge!
What's up there? I can port easily over. Actually I think my mage is in IF now.
Oh I don't know, just time to get yourself back to the old world what with the Cataclysm and all. Aside from your mage who can port around they removed the portals in Dalaran so it isn't as quick to get places from there.
Gotcha! I just mentioned Dalaran since it seems to be one of the most graphic intensive zones and works the graphics card the most. Although a lot of that I think was when everyone hung out there. Maybe that will be changing now that the portals are gone.
You want a video card workout? Go to Stanglethorn and stand on the beach with the new water effects set to maximum. It's beautiful.
Quote from: billybob476 on December 03, 2010, 08:22:08 AM
You want a video card workout? Go to Stanglethorn and stand on the beach with the new water effects set to maximum. It's beautiful.
Good idea. Been wanting to check out the new Booty Bay (or whatever it's called now) anyway. I do like the new water look. Very pretty!
Actually the guys at Doghouse Systems are recommending that you turn the new "Sunshafts" settings to medium/low. They are subtle but surprisingly system-intensive to render.
I've been getting around 40-50 FPS in Dalaran on my new computer, 60 out in the wild. I am looking at the game in a whole new way. On my laptop I got about 5 fps in Dal and maybe 15-20 on a good day in the wild.
Oh and my mage has made about 200 gold in tips over the past couple nights just porting people around. It's fun meeting folks and they are very appreciative. I guess when Caty hits Dalaran will be a ghost town again, but for next few days consider it a gold mine for mages.
Oh yeah, I have dual ATI 4850's in my machine, I'm definitely around the 80's in the 'new' old world. I was up over 120fps in the 'old' old world.
Well, just my new baby put inside my PC - the new nVidia 460. Went in easy, requires two PCI-E power connections. Good thing I have power to spare on my power supply. Now to do some testing. :)
Screenshots!
Thanks for this thread btw, I plan on upgrading my GPU later this month so this has been very informative :).
King
Quote from: billybob476 on December 03, 2010, 07:38:41 PM
Screenshots!
LOL! How would that work if we don't have the same level of graphics power?
Quote from: X on December 03, 2010, 08:12:52 PM
Quote from: billybob476 on December 03, 2010, 07:38:41 PM
Screenshots!
LOL! How would that work if we don't have the same level of graphics power?
Maybe we have better ;D
Actually that is a good question...
King
Well I'm very happy with the new card so far. Significant bump up over my 8800 GT (which is still a great card and I plan on putting it into a secondary PC back home). Did a quick run around a few zones last night in WOW. Got anywhere from about 150 fps down to about 45 fps. With all settings on high. The water and light effects look great. I can see more detail than before, especially since Blizzard has updated the graphics pretty much everywhere now. This new 460 nVidia card is by no means the top of the line that is available right now. But it was only $139. - which really is a great price for the performance. Anyway, I'll do more testing today but here's a screenshot of me flying over the Deathwing burned Stormwind.
Awesome. Those are some amazing FPS values!
What are you getting when you turn every video option to ultra? That includes smapling etc..
Quote from: Blackride on December 04, 2010, 09:11:47 AM
What are you getting when you turn every video option to ultra? That includes smapling etc..
Haven't tried that yet, but will next time in game. In most areas on high I was averaging about 70-90 fps. It would peak up at times and dip depending on the zone, people around me, etc.
Cool I am interested to see what you get. I have an ATI 5870
This morning I was doing more tinkering with dual display mode. Since the new video card has an HDMI out, I fed a cable to my nearby TV. And since it's HDMI, it not only carries the video signal, but the audio too. In the image below I was watching the latest episode of "30 Rock" on the TV. Display shows in both places, but the sound is only out of the TV when in this mode. I might need to try this with WOW later too. Cool!
lol! Too bad your computer screen is almost as big as your TV already.
If you switch the display mode to Ultra, common practice is to set shadow detail one notch above 'medium'. It frees up a lot of GPU power and the difference in shadow rendering is not very noticeable.
I've been exchanging emails with the guys at Doghouse since 4.0 hit.
I just tried Ultra in Outland (Hellfire). Dropped from 70-80 to about 40-50 fps. I frankly don't see a big graphic difference between High and Ultra. Keep in mind I run 1920 x 1200 res. So, right now High setting seems to be a sweet spot to stay at for me.
Oh, the reason I like to pipe over shows and things to the TV is because I can sit on the couch to watch. But yes, my monitor is big!
Quote from: billybob476 on December 04, 2010, 10:52:13 AM
lol! Too bad your computer screen is almost as big as your TV already.
If you switch the display mode to Ultra, common practice is to set shadow detail one notch above 'medium'. It frees up a lot of GPU power and the difference in shadow rendering is not very noticeable.
I've been exchanging emails with the guys at Doghouse since 4.0 hit.
His GPU should be able to handle that at the highest levels though.
OK so I run everything on ultra bla bla bla on the 5870 and I am getting about 60-80fps. You are getting very good results though at that price point Rico. You definietly should be pleased! I also doubt I can tell the differene in video of 20 fps......yet it costs hundreds more.....
Quote from: Blackride on December 04, 2010, 11:08:43 AM
Quote from: billybob476 on December 04, 2010, 10:52:13 AM
lol! Too bad your computer screen is almost as big as your TV already.
If you switch the display mode to Ultra, common practice is to set shadow detail one notch above 'medium'. It frees up a lot of GPU power and the difference in shadow rendering is not very noticeable.
I've been exchanging emails with the guys at Doghouse since 4.0 hit.
His GPU should be able to handle that at the highest levels though.
Definitely, I think the main reason they recommend that is there used to be some kind of shadow rendering issue with ATI cards.