new GFX card required

thomasp

hi,

i'm looking for a new GFX card for my i7 rig. i'd be upgrading from an nvidia 9800GT.

for compatibility reasons alone it'll have to be another nvidia-based card. quadro is out of the question due to some specific app compatibility problem.

looking at what's out there i'm mostly after a noticeable performance bump when running shaders in CG apps and a good bang for buck ratio. i also want the card to be as silent as possible - preferably without cooking itself when it's put under load for a bit.

games are zero priority and i'd rather want something with good drivers than the very latest model.

any recommendations for a suitable model?

MrTwoVideoCards

I'd say anything in the 5xx series. A 570 is a good value right now, you could always buy one, then grab another later on. That's if you want to go sli of course. But shader wise the 5 series is pretty intense. Nvidia has done major work since the 2xx series, and in general newer cards have pretty hefty performance when it comes to PP shaders, and various shaders in general.

So aside the generation difference you'd be upgrading from, you'll also notice a massive increase in shader rendering overall.

poopipe

agreed - 580/590 if you can afford it/somebody else is paying.

560Ti or 570 if it's your own money

AlecMoody

I would avoid the 590 or any other dual GPU card. 3d applications won't make much (any?) use of the second gpu and you will have wasted your money. A 570 or 560ti are good options for the money.

Artist_in_a_box

560 ti is what im goin for in my new rig later this week. When I researched them the 560 seemed to have the best value for money with the 570 coming very close second.

thomasp

sure enough, the 560 GTX (without 'Ti') seems to be the most interesting, particularly in terms of operating noise. i'm not after SLI and actually happy with the raw poly-pushing performance of the 9800 for what i do but running lots of shaders could be better.

poopipe

AlecMoody wrote: »

I would avoid the 590 or any other dual GPU card. 3d applications won't make much (any?) use of the second gpu and you will have wasted your money. A 570 or 560ti are good options for the money.

that's what they were saying about SLI when i got a pair of 6600s, within a month the driver support was there for max and I got double power overnight.


fwiw I've been running a 580 on my work box for 6 months now and haven't outstretched it yet

sfjohansson

I have to advice against getting a 560 if you want to use maya...I just got one and it seems to have compability issues...I'm still trying to get it to work...so it that sense it might still be okay...

...from what I've read so far in different forums is that nvidia has disabled some openGL functions on their consumer cards...don't know how much truth there is in this though...The newest nvidia card that is supposed to be 100% is the gtx 285...

That is at least what I've found out so far...

So my advice would be that if you want openGL...research it properly...

joebount

570 dude
BTW, how is your new gig ?

Kbrom12

I have a Palit GTX 560 Ti 2GB and its a beast at everything I throw at it