Need some help choosing a GFX card.

Community Off-Topic
1

So, my system specs are:


System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
       System Model: GA-870A-UD3
               BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
          Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor (6 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
             Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 8190MB RAM
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT 512 MB

Thermaltake Dokker case
Corsair 500W PSU

I’m looking to upgrade my GFX card, one that will be more or less future proof, and will currently fit in my system. The one i’m currently having is obviously ancient…

I’m eyeing the GeForce 980 card, but i’m not sure if the PSU is enough for it.
Also, i’m thinking about a cheaper option, the 970, but i don’t know how much lower the performance is, if it’s worth it.

I have a PCIE 2.0. Will that be a problem? I mean, will it bottleneck a new PCIE 3.0 card?

I never had a Radeon card, so i have no idea which one is currently the best one for the money, but they do seem to be cheaper than Nvidia GFX cards.

I want to learn Unreal 4 and work in it, but this GFX struggles with even the simplest tasks, objects and textures, so i need a good card, but one that’s not too expensive and will last me a few years.
Also, how do Radeon cards compare to Nvidia cards in Unreal 4? Any performance differences?

Anyway, i’m happy with my system, and i can overclock it if i need to etc. so i’d rather just buy a GFX card, and not change anything that doesn’t need changing.

Can anyone shed some light to my dilemma? I’d appreciate any suggestions and info.

2

I personally own a GTX 970 and it makes a great work. About the PSU, mine is an antec 520W and I have no problem running it. About the differences between Nvidia and Radeon, I owned a HD5870 a longtime ago and it was a rather nice card for an affordable price, but now, I think that Nvidia does a better job with their new models than Radeon although their prices are a bit cheaper than Nvidia’s cards. Anyway, getting a new card with a PCIE 2.0 is going to be complicated…

3

Because you don’t have the a PCI-E 3.0 slot it will limit what you can do with that system as far as getting a really good graphics card. The best you can get is something in the lower mid-range

4

The GTX 960 4gb is a pretty good deal right now.

5

in the amd way…

i have r9-290 and works fine with UE4.

pci 2.0 can limit you if you buy a top card, but i think pci3.0 cards are compatible with 2.0 (if im wrong someone rectified that), and thinking in upgrade later your cpu/mb you can buy a 380 or any new better card. Its price its a problem with AMD you get more for less money.

6

The CPU would probably be a bottleneck as well

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I’m also more inclined towards Nvidia. :stuck_out_tongue: Radeon does have some powerful and cheaper cards, but i’m always hearing about their drivers being buggy and other issues some people have when trying to play a game with Radeon’s…

Will the slot be that much of a bottleneck on 1920x1080 on 1 monitor? Cause i’m wondering just how far you need to fill that bandwidth to actually see the difference. I was searching the net and found some comparisons. There are differences, true, but minor. They only become more prominent when using multiple cards and more than 1 monitor…

I looked it up in the shops i know here, but none have it. :frowning: All they have are 2 GB versions… Oh well…

Performance-wise, the 970 doesn’t look bad for the price though…

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Pcie 3.0 works in 2.0 slot, just not at full speed. But concidering i’m not gonna full load it anytime soon, i’ll be ok with it.
Also, i don’t plan on buying 2.0 cards because when i upgrade the MOBO and the CPU later, i don’t have to buy a new card.

Anyway, how are your experiences with AMD’s drivers and such? I heard people mention that sometimes they tend to be buggy…

Yeah, i’m aware of that, but for now, it’ll have to do. :confused:

9

If you want to be sure the PSU and bus is not a problem, go for the 970. Great performance for the money and energy consumption. A 960 should be enough from a development perspective if you want something cheaper.

10

I don’t see why the OP should be bottle-necked, even with a GTX970. It’s a PCIE x 16 channel you’re plugging it into, yes?

11

Doing a quick search, it doesn’t seem that there’s going to be much of a performance loss using a newer graphics card in a PCI-E 2.0 slot, so that wouldn’t really be an issue. But the processor would be the bottleneck .