Once upon a time on usenet VanguardLH wrote:
~misfit~ wrote:

Once upon a time on usenet VanguardLH wrote:
misfit wrote:

I'm running an ATI HD7770 (with a QX9650 CPU) but the game I play
is getting more and more complex. Also apparently it's better
optimised for nVidia cards rather than ATI / AMD.

So I need an affordable card that doesn't draw (much) more power
than the HD7770 (~120w). Obviously it should be considerably more
powerful than the now quite old HD7770. I can't afford the latest
gaming cards nor can I afford to replace my PSU. I'd even consider
a second-hand card if there's something that's likely to fit my
needs and price bracket.

Thanks in advance for reccomendations. I'm quite out of touch with
GPU development lately.

You never mentioned the game.

https://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri

Enter the game to see what specs it requires. If you select a game,
there's another "Can you run it" button that downloads an
inventorying tool. It uploads what hardware you have to their site
and thereafter when you pick a game the site will tell you if your
hardware meets minimum, recommended, optimal requirements for that
game on your hardware.

Path of Exile: Atlas of Worlds *min* sys req:
CPU: x86 compatible 1.4GHz
RAM: 2GB
Video Card: NVidia 7800GT

Yeah right! Maybe if you're happy with 20 fpm.

Even with everything turned down to the minimum my QX9650 w 8GB RAM
/ HD 7770 idles at ~30 fps but drops below 10 fps at times. If I
enable shadows and antialiasing at the lowest settings it sometimes
drops to 2 fps for short periods. Seriously.

Cheers,

Tried booting in Windows safe mode to get rid of all the startup
programs to test the game?

I don't think I need to. (This is a hardware group yeah? g)

How much free system RAM is there before
you play the game?

Around 6GB typically.

You certainly don't want the game thrashing to
slow disk cache (pagefile) to play the game.

No I don't - though my disk cache is on an SSD.

Make it so the OS is
only playing the game to see how the game behaves in a clean[er]
environment.

There is no issue with RAM being limited as even with a few things running
in the background I have a couple GB free (and the game always uses between
1 and 3GB regardless of what may also be running).

I've checked with the games subreddit and consensus is that I need a better
GPU. However when it comes to *what* GPU would be suitable for me the signal
to noise ratio there becomes unacceptable as fan boys start pushing their
wheelbarrows and people don't seem to understand that a US$250 card (at one
of those on-line places there) would cost me over NZ$600.

Hence the post here. I already knew that I needed a new(er) GPU - and an
NVidia GPU. I just didn't know what GPU would suit my budget and wanted
advice.

Cheers,
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy
little classification in the DSM*."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)