Which Video Card To Get

[steve123]

I would say that AMD card had a fault to start with or you wouldn't have recooped $400.00, Steamboateng what Radeon video card had turbo that was auto to overclock, ive not heard of it, i thought the 680 was the first,
i just put my 2 Asus Nv 580 gtx's 1.5 Vram 256-bit in and ran Trainz 12 in SLI mode and it ran like crap shuttering stopping starting, also changed the connection on the video cards from HDMI TO DVI made no difference,

it ran much better on one card to start with, then pulled both of those out and put my Gigabyte AMD 6970 2GB Vram 384-bit in and it ran even better again soooooo
i ordered 2 Sapphire 7970 oc edition for this weekend pickup.
And Steamboateng you are only as old as the hardware you feel.
steve

 

[steamboateng]

That Radion card was on a pre PCI Express bus machine; about 8 years ago. Long gone!
I'm running TS12 on a separate 120Gb SSD with an oc'd 4 GHz i7 950 and a NVidea 570 (1.2 Gb vRAM) gpu. It runs like a dream. I'm building a large route and I'm able to pack asset after asset into it, giving me a wonderfully rich environment with no stutter. A GTX 680 would essentially double the performance of the GTX 570. But $500+ is a bit of a reach at this time.
Unfortunately, people, unlike computers, are stuck with the hardware they got. However, you are right....the spirit may be willing, but the hardware.......well it just don't work the way it used to anymore.

 

[Paulsw2]

In respect of overclocking either GPU or CPU, a problem is that we have no benchmarking in Trainz to see what benefits, if any, are available. While overclocking my HD 5870 is made simple by the AMD Overdrive function in Catalyst Control Center, I've always resisted the temptation as I have no idea what the benefits are in Trainz against the possible long term costs of frying the GPU!

Paul

 

[steamboateng]

Steve, your the OP of this thread. If OC'd gpu's and cutting edge lace was was your intent, I think you failed to state such. I don't think now, or ever, that oc'd gpu's are a norm..I don't believe an oc'd gpu is a standard for a product offered as most will use it , out of the box.. Nor do I think a 45 minute 'stress test' as you define it, is a standard of product quality. I believe the standard your willing to accept is false, and misleading. But then. its your money!.

 

[JCitron]

In respect of overclocking either GPU or CPU, a problem is that we have no benchmarking in Trainz to see what benefits, if any, are available. While overclocking my HD 5870 is made simple by the AMD Overdrive function in Catalyst Control Center, I've always resisted the temptation as I have no idea what the benefits are in Trainz against the possible long term costs of frying the GPU!

Paul

Paul, I agree. Overclocking hardware is not the best thing for the overall life of the components. There are products that are overclocked by the manufacturer, but that's a different story and then something that is done by the user. I suppose if the user has money to burn on new hardware, they can do whatever they want with their video cards, motherboards, RAM, and the rest of their computer.

John

 

[William0d0]

I'm a big fan of overclocking for several reasons.

1: I've keep CPU / Motherboard / Memory combinations for several years. Actually I've never had any failures there. The only reason I get rid of them is because they are just far too outdated for gaming anymore. Any potential decrease in lifespan is irrelevant. They are not lifetime investments.

2: With water cooling I get lower CPU temps which negate the heat issues.

3: With Speedstep when I'm not playing 3d games or running any other CPU intensive programs the CPU automatically underclocks to a fraction of it's max. Right now it's running at less then half its 3.3 ghz rated speed. Once I start a game then its kicks up to 4.5 ghz. I'm sure the average is lower then the rated speed.

4: I overclock my video card, but it also automatically underclocks when the speed is not needed. Iv'e had video cards fail and on close inspection noticed that the fan is always hard to turn, but they have also been cheap video cards. I recently had an old cheap 9400 card which keep freezing up the system and I nursed it along for a while by rigging up a fan to blow air into where the cards barely turning fan was.

Maybe you want your computer to live forever, and not overclocking might help you get there.

I say that with quality components overclock away and you will still see a long lifespan, plenty long enough for you to say "I need a faster system".

 

[steve123]

I recon that some of you people still have early combustion engine cars that are not run in yet, come on you guys wind down the window and put your head out of your car the wind will not pop you eye balls out of there sockets that it a myth,
the world has advanced alone way even in the last 10 years. There are certain changed you can make to many things in your computers that will not shorten the life span, but that is up to you, another myths the world isn't flat

 

[steve123]

Well the 2 Sapphire 7970 3gb oc really work as smooth as, no need to overclock these 2, recommend them to all,
it's just a shame they don't perform on the same motherboard, but thats ok my 2 main computers are identical, so 1 new 7970 in both, Trainz doesn't like crossfire or sli that much and i did know this before hand.

steve

 

[Red_Rattler]

Overclock = Please explain?

 

[TramDU1214]

A 670 would be worth considering aswell.
And Overclocking is the art of "tuning" hardware for better performance and a good way to destroy hardware aswell (If done wrong).