questions on video cards

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bjballar41

Member
i was looking at video cards for when i upgrade my motheboard from the one with the built in video card. i have an athlon quad core for now plan on upgrading to an fx if i stay amd or i5 if i go intel depending on where money is at the time. id like to run 3 sceens when i upgrade and was looking into the nvidia chipset but it looks like i can only get up to a 500 series if i stick with amd is that true? what will i need to run the three screens? i will probably get more into gaming on the computer if i can get a nice set up
 
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Virssagòn

Virssagòn

VIP Member
That's not true, not sure where you got that from but amd works with nvidia just like Intel does.
If you want to run 3 screens, you'll have a big resolution, that requires more vram of the gpu.
It depends on what you're planning to do on it, what gpu you should get.
If you're planning to be gaming or doing heavy graphically stuff you'll probably need a greater gpu.
What resolutions have your screens btw?
I'd recommend an hd7950 for nice price/performance and 3gb vram.
 
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bjballar41

Member
i havent gotten the screens yet was just looking at video cards to see prices on them. i was looking at the motherboards for amd and they only support express 2.0 where as intel boards support express 3.0. i dont know alot about video card. but i know i wanna use three screens if im gonna play games. other than that just gonna be a daily computer.
 
Virssagòn

Virssagòn

VIP Member
bjballar41 said:
i havent gotten the screens yet was just looking at video cards to see prices on them. i was looking at the motherboards for amd and they only support express 2.0 where as intel boards support express 3.0. i dont know alot about video card. but i know i wanna use three screens if im gonna play games. other than that just gonna be a daily computer.
Click to expand...

Every quality mobo supports 3.0, no matter Intel or AMD based.
Though, I'd go for an i5 if it's mostly for gaming, if also for multitudes apps take an FX8320.

Any reason why you prefer nvidia? You'll need at least 2gb vram, the more the better. That's why I recommend that radeon, with nvidia you'll need to spend much more to get more then 2gb. What's your budget?
 
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bjballar41

Member
as of right now no budget as i said just scoping out prices for the upgrade probably about summer time next year for the motherboard and video card id probably be around 200 or so for a video card. kinda why i was leaning towards amd motherboard so i can just use my athlon until i upgrade that around this time next year. ive always heard good things about nvidia.

maybe ill just keep this mobo that has the built in one and then starting next year start buying parts for an intel computer based with this cpu.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
 
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bjballar41

Member
whats the main difference in the geforce and radeon cards? i know the geforce from nvidia are the ones everyone likes.
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
They are just different versions of the same thing. Right now AMD Radeon HD7950 is about teh best $/frame card on the market.

Nvidia, at least this time around, kind of wimped out. They released the midrange GK104 chip as the 680. Tesla, the direct compute chip got the full out GK100 chip instead. So basically, you get 256 bit BUS, cuda, and physx.

AMD on the other hand just kept rolling with their line. The top end cards are not surprise. They use stream, and a 384 bit bus. Games well, and OCs well too. Not voltage locked like most Kepler GPUs are.

Basically, unless you need CUDA or Physx, then go AMD. You will get more for your dollar with AMD.
 
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bjballar41

Member
well what manufacture would u go with looks like mostly off brand people besides one asus msi and gigabyte

seems like alot more manufactures support nvidia
 
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Cgoggz56

New Member
I'm by no means a pro, but I have a bit of information on graphics cards specifically for gamers on my blog that you should check out. It is less than a month old and i don't have a lot of content up yet, but in time I will. I generally check out ASUS when looking at graphics cards, motherboards, etc.
 
Virssagòn

Virssagòn

VIP Member
bjballar41 said:
i never imagined picking out a card would be so hard worst part of building a computer so far
Click to expand...

I still recommend to get more then 2gb of vram, so I give you this choice;
Or the hd7950 with 3gb vram for 299$ (now also 3 games included as AMD gift, pretty good deal) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006
or the gtx660ti with 3gb vram for 329$ (includes free AC III) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127708

The performance should be about the same, more leaning to the hd7950.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/647?vs=645
mind you this link above is the gtx660ti with 2gb vram compared to the hd7950 with 3gb vram. Just think about 8% performance increase in the higher resolutions for the gtx660ti 3gb.
 
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bjballar41

Member
those two cards are on the same level? one has two dvi hook ups other only has one. one does sli mode other doesnt list it?
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Nvidia cards do sli. AMD cards do crossfire. You need 2 cards to do either. The ports on the card doesn't determine if it does sli/crossfire or not. Most cards will run 2 monitors and some will even run 3.
 
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