Which Video Card To Get

[steve123]

Do i get Sapphire 7970 oc 3GB Vram edition or Asus ENGTX680-DC2T-2GD5 GTX680 DirectCU II T Edition 2GB Vram
Trainz does seem to run better with AMD , maybe crossfire 7970 oc, what do you people think.
steve

 

[Euphod]

Trainz does seem to run better with AMD , maybe crossfire 7970 oc, what do you people think.
steve

That's news to me. It's always been the general consensus on the forums that Trainz likes Nvidia better, but your results may vary. I've also read that Trainz doesn't profit from Crossfire or SLI. I'm sure both cards are great and expensive and will work well, so maybe the question comes down to what else you plan to do with your PC?

 

[steve123]

I am not a fanboy of either AMD or Nvidia, but for me it always seems that AMD run better because it has more Vram and a higher 384-bit aposed to Nvidia 256-bit, so add both of these 2 together and AMD come out on top,

the move Vram the better the ability to remember texture for a much larger map, also aswell AMD are able to overclock much more than the Nvidia cards, not that these guy here are in to overclocking but all things must be taken into account, really the only thing that bothers me about AMD is the driver issue.

I have had many video cards using Trainz and 2 AMD 5970 dual gpus crossfire Trainz ran like crap 2 Nvidia gtx 580 SLI Trainz ran like crap 1 AMD 6970 Trainz ran much better than both sli or crossfire ,
2 Nvidia gtx 9800 cards Trainz 2006 ran much better with sli for that version video card and game version only
but i have never tried crossfire using 1 gpu on seperate cards with Trainz. i should have wrote the book on SLI, Crossfire for Trainz.
One thing is for sure TRAINZ DOES NOT LIKE A DUAL GPU VIDEO CARD do not waste your money on it.
steve

 

[clam1952]

News to me as well, most favour Nvidia, incidentally the new Nvidia 680 is faster than the 7970 and is supposedly the fastest card on the market at this point in time. Both are total overkill for Trainz though unless you are running some massive size screen.


Edit: 680 is 384 bit as have been other Nvidia cards such as the 580 and 480 etc.

 

[Deano5]

I have a pair of NV 460's running in SLI, never had any issues. Trainz runs as smooth as silk.

 

[steve123]

I have 2 Nvidia gtx 580s and Trainz 12 ran really bad in SLI however TS 2010 ran better with SLI using 2 x 580s
and by the way Nvidia 680 is only 256-bit not 384-bit as stated by Clam1952 so i don't know where this information is coming from, maybe later there will be a 384-bit but not at this point in time

Also the AMD 7970 has a much higher overclocking range than the Nvidia 680 due to the 680 built in turbo which makes the 7970 oc a faster card in quite a few games
The Nvidia 680 is a faster card than the 7970 at stock standard, but not overclocked and it takes 2 minutes to over clock it. but NV drivers are at the moment better than AMD.
sorry for late reply power went out 2 hours ago as i was writting a reply
steve

 

[Deano5]

Hi Steve. What settings have got in the NV panel for your cards and where did you put your DVI cable?
It can make quite a difference which socket on the cards you use and what variety of settings are used.

 

[steamboateng]

The NVidea 570 is a 320 bit card. NVidea recently came out with a new set of drivers that substantially improves video performance from this series of cards.

 

[William0d0]

I don't know which video card is better but having recently upgraded my video card from a GTS 450 (1 gig) to a GTX 560 (2 gig) I noticed something which could be significant to your uprade.

With routes that use a lot of the old school billboard style trees instead of speed trees there is very little difference. Speed trees are what make my new video card show a real increase in performance.

So, depending on the routes you run, a GTX 680 (or AMD equivalent) could very well be either awesome or money down the drain.

 

[steve123]

Hi deano ,
i was using hdmi connection not dvi
interesting
most settings were maxed out .
steve

 

[clam1952]

by the way Nvidia 680 is only 256-bit not 384-bit as stated by Clam1952 so i don't know where this information is coming from, maybe later there will be a 384-bit but not at this point in time

From a review, on checking other sites it seems they got it wrong, I stand corrected. Still even given that it's only 256 bit it's still pretty impressive.

 

[steve123]

If NV came out with a 4GB Vram and 384-bit card yes i would buy it,
I thought you knew something i didn't clam, i had to got to my suppliers sites and check what was avalible.
As william said it really does depend on the route a person is running on there computer, i run big routes so i need the best in all areas, but thats me , and each to there own
it is still a very hard to choose which card, damed if you do and damed if you don't
steve

 

[clam1952]

Doing a bit more digging on Nvidia to see if anything else was in the offing. Unconfirmed rumour says that the 680 was originally designed as the 660 or 670 and was so good they released it as the 680, not too convinced until I saw this supposedly leaked info http://videocardz.com/31650/geforce-gtx-685-gk110-features-4gb-512bit-memory, may be wishfull thinking however coupled to the other rumour on the model change it may explain why no 384 bit.

 

[steve123]

The 685 4GB 384-bit isn't due out untill around late October might end up being just before christmas, but the AMD 7970 has a 6GB 512-bit version due out any time suppost to be in customs Singapore being cleared at the moment
steve

 

[clam1952]

That would tie in I suppose with Nvidia in the last few years always being around 6 months behind. Wonder what the Graphic card situation would be like these days if they hadn't swallowed up 3dfx?

 

[steamboateng]

Right now, a GTX 680 card is well over $500 USD here. I think perhaps waiting a bit for NVidea's next offering, may allow a little more on choices and price. I suspect the GTX 680 card may turn into another 'best bang for the buck' item.The 256 bit memory bus is not that much of an issue since the clock speed is over 6Gb/sec, which puts the data transfer rate up there with the 7970. Bottom line, from what I've read is the 680 outperforms the 7970, cost less and uses less power.
I've got my eye on that puppy, myself. It outperforms my GTX 570 by a factor of 2............ and my 570 runs TS12 very well.

 

[steve123]

The NV680 does out perform the AMD 7970 straight out of the box, but not overclocked as most good tech forums have already stated , also if AMD get there act together as far as drivers are concerned the NV 680 and the 685 will be in trouble ,so time will tell .
It is always wise to review all hardware computer parts and always take a look at the tech forums on the overclocking ability of the card you are thinking of getting because it lets you know if that card or hardware can handle the hard yards as well as future proofing


In the land of wonder the land down-under the AMD 7970 oc edition is $150 to $200 dollars cheaper than the Nvidia 680

steve

 

[steamboateng]

Not for arguments sake, but rather to continue the discusssion, I personally am not a fan of overclocking a gpu. Myself, along with a host of other Trainzers have walked that swamp before. Admittedly, the GTX 680 as reviewed, has a good cooling characteristic, so why push it? There is an open thread in this forum which discusses the effects of heat on electronic components. If one wants to spend $500+ on a card and oc it that''s fine, but be aware there may be short/long term negative effects. Do those effects warrant a slight boost in speed?
I may be somewat cautious on the subject, but I do hold the opinion that a graghics card as designed and marketed is as the maker intends, and his warrentees/guarantees are based on that premise.
Personaly, I feel overclocking a gpu is a gamble I'm not willing to take.
Prices in US:
GTX 680 ~ $530 - $580 USD
7970 w/3 Gb vRAM ~ $480 - $700 USD
I don't know what the differences are but 7970 prices are all over the map?
I must admit also that I'm a converted NVidea fan. Radeon's obfiscations re video drivers have been a perrenial issue for at least 8 years that I know of.
I think it's a good thing for Radeon to give NVidea a run for the money..............prices drop, maybe quality and service picks up!

 

[steve123]

When you buy an overclocked version of what ever brand name Video card being AMD or Nvidia basicly what they are stating is that the GPU chip has been stress tested to be called overclocked and now with the multi bios switch on the AMD 7970 OC cards it is a fail safe for overclocking, otherwise it would be called a referance card, in other words stock standard and not tested for overclocking,
and in most cases video card companies like Asus Msi Sapphire all supply overclocking software tool links for there videocard to be overclock,

There is also a mile of overclocking videos out there on youtube to let you know what are safe settings to put your cards at using overclocking tools provided

of cause the older the card the less the ability to overclock so review it first on youtube for your model of card , but in some cases if your game is lagging a little then a little overclock just might save you spending big dollars on a new card for a few months,
overclocking your card is no harder than changing your video card setting

warrenties can be voided if overclocking a no-referance card more so than an overclocked card

This isn't an argument about video cards it is just a discussion about the pro's and con's on video cards

steve

 

[steamboateng]

I think most of us old guys like them just the way we buy them!
I have an oc'd cpu, but the builder did that.......under a warantee.
I oc'd a Radion card once, which had something like a manual turbo-drive to it, i.e. the software was sopposed to do it on its own.. It died after two months.
Luckily I got Alienware to cover that $400 boo-boo!
Never again!