Budget GPU For Diablo III

[MoInSTL]

Are you looking for a cheap sub-$100 card that will play D3 at reasonably high settings or are you looking for the best performing card at ~$150? Since you've been hanging on to the 6600gt/HD3000 for a while I'm guessing that you will be satisfied with the former. The recommended requirements for D3 is the 4870/260 which is slower than a 6850.

Originally it was for D3. The more I thought about, it became the best performing card for around $150 or less. I hung on to the 6600GT as it was in an ancient Athlon system I never used and used my laptop. The MC deal & cheap RAM was too good to pass up so I went ahead and upgraded.

I game in spurts. But I loved Diablo II and most games now IMO are not that great in single player mode. I played FPS games exclusively on the original Xbox on Live. Stood in line for the midnight launch, the whole thing. Never bothered with the 360 and got away from gaming. My first PC game was D00M, so I have been playing off & on a long time. D3 is bringing me back.

So it looks like a 560 or 6870. Brand only matters in regards to fan noise.

WOOT! I just checked and my state tax refund was deposited so I am ready to pull the trigger boys! I have been a DSL Reports member since 2002 and have a perfect rep for buying and selling there but their data center went down and took out their servers. I also looked in the FS section here and local Craig's.

 

[redrider4life4]

I am running a 5850, core i7 920, 2gb of ram. The game runs worse than I would like, if you are going to upgrade I would spend at least 200-300 now if you want to play on high settings.

 

[Snowshredder102]

I am running a 5850, core i7 920, 2gb of ram. The game runs worse than I would like, if you are going to upgrade I would spend at least 200-300 now if you want to play on high settings.

I had 2gb of ram about 5 years ago, that should be an upgrade you get. I played D3 on maxed settings with a gtx 460, 6gb's of ram, and an i7 920 (clocked to 4ghz) at 2560x1600 no problem. If a 6870 cannot max out D3 there is obviously a problem somewhere else in your system.

 

[MoInSTL]

I decided I prefer buying at a B&M so I will spend $20 more at MC than New Egg. Want instant gratification and easy exchange if needed.

Picked this card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...k=GV-N56GOC-1G New Egg review comments on how quiet it is. I won't be able to pick up until Saturday as I work nights.

Unless there is a big reason why I shouldn't buy it /end thread.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and help.

 

[LoneNinja]

I am running a 5850, core i7 920, 2gb of ram. The game runs worse than I would like, if you are going to upgrade I would spend at least 200-300 now if you want to play on high settings.

Your poor performance is probably due to having 2Gb of RAM, that is a severe bottleneck for overall system performance, even an old Athlon X2 system would perform better with more RAM. Seriously last computer I owned with 2Gb RAM was a laptop I bought in 2006!

 

[Fallengod]

Diablo3 Open Beta started today so if anyone wanted I guess a very general idea(Because its a beta) of how their system might perform, you can go try it.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Well it doesn't take much gpu power recommended gtx260 were high on everything. I really hope this isn't consolized.

 

[Joseph F]

I decided I prefer buying at a B&M so I will spend $20 more at MC than New Egg. Want instant gratification and easy exchange if needed.

Picked this card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...k=GV-N56GOC-1G New Egg review comments on how quiet it is. I won't be able to pick up until Saturday as I work nights.

Unless there is a big reason why I shouldn't buy it /end thread.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and help.

The non-ti 560 is just an overclocked GTX 460. At $180, it's a poor deal.

 

[MoInSTL]

The non-ti 560 is just an overclocked GTX 460. At $180, it's a poor deal.

oh no! really? they are all about the same price. The ar price is better.

 

[Joseph F]

oh no! really? they are all about the same price. The ar price is better.

Yeah, the only differences between the 460 and 560 non-ti are that the non-ti is based on a more refined process node, and its clocks are 810/1620/4004, rather than 675/1350/3600. In that price range, I'd recommend a Radeon 6870.

 

[Elfear]

Yeah, the only differences between the 460 and 560 non-ti are that the non-ti is based on a more refined process node, and its clocks are 810/1620/4004, rather than 675/1350/3600. In that price range, I'd recommend a Radeon 6870.

+1

 

[Stuka87]

I just got done playing through the beta a few times. I actually hit one spot in a 4 person game during a battle where I dropped to 20fps.

Now granted I have every setting set to max, but it typically stays at 60fps with vsync on, and will hit well over 100 with it off. But during heavy battles, the FPS can drop like a rock.

This was with my HD7950.

 

[Snowshredder102]

I just got done playing through the beta a few times. I actually hit one spot in a 4 person game during a battle where I dropped to 20fps.

Now granted I have every setting set to max, but it typically stays at 60fps with vsync on, and will hit well over 100 with it off. But during heavy battles, the FPS can drop like a rock.

This was with my HD7950.

The very minimal times where your screen is flooded and the FPS spikes are unavoidable. It used to happen to me when I played D2 and Starcraft as well. I don't believe much can be done to avoid that even with good GPU power, although the processors a factor when dealing with tons of mobs too.

 

[MoInSTL]

Yeah, the only differences between the 460 and 560 non-ti are that the non-ti is based on a more refined process node, and its clocks are 810/1620/4004, rather than 675/1350/3600. In that price range, I'd recommend a Radeon 6870.

I'm a little limited to what MC has on hand. I am willing to pay $20 more to have 30 days to exchange it if needed.

The New Egg XFX reviews all commented on how loud the fan is. NE AR is $150. MC AR is $170. The Gigabyte reviewer's complained about artifacts even on web browsers. NE, $170 AR, MC AR same @ $170.

The EVGA GTX 560 Ti is $200 AR NE, MC AR is the same price.

So what about the 560 Ti? I thought I had this nailed down and now I'm a little confused again.

EDIT: After some offline feedback from a helpful forum member, I am going with the EVGA GTX 560 Ti

/end thread (finally!)

 

[Jaydip]

<thread>
Unless u have already bought u should check this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161406
I would pay 10$ more and get this one.
Now
</thread>
really :biggrin:

 

[hawtdawg]

560 SE isn't a bad deal. It's about the same price as a 550 Ti, and about 30% faster or more.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130770

 

[BallaTheFeared]

7850 OC seems to be around 470 OC performance, though it uses considerably less power, it's almost double the cost of what you can find 470s for these days.

OP I'd still go Nvidia, any $150-$250 card is going to be fine for Diablo 3, Nvidia offers better image quality though.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Wow, a lot of misinformation in this thread.
The 192 bit GTX 460 is not a "gimped" GTX 460. It's a a GF114 core, some running near 200MHz faster than a GF104 core GTX 460. The memory is clocked faster than a standard GTX 460 as well, giving them more memory bandwidth than a 768MB GTX 460. They are certainly not SE's which are gimped with 288 cores and an even lower clock speed. These should perform better than the 768MB GTX 460 in all situations, and in core-bound situations should outperform your standard 1GB GTX 460.

 

[Kharohz]

My actual curiosity since the GPU requirement is so low, how would Trinity run diablo3?

I'm not even concerned about a constant 60 fps, I'm talking the cheapest of the cheapest computer setups. But completely playable.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Probably well enough, it's not a very demanding title.

I know my 9400m can't do it on the lowest settings at 1366x786, but it's pretty close.

Even an HD3000 the new HD4000 should run it without problems.

 

[Stuka87]

Probably well enough, it's not a very demanding title.

I know my 9400m can't do it on the lowest settings at 1366x786, but it's pretty close.

Even an HD3000 the new HD4000 should run it without problems.

Just for kicks I installed it in my laptop (Dell Precision in sig). The game was unplayable at native res (1080) using the HD3000. At 720 it was a tiny bit better, but still unplayable. Using the Quadro (loaded on perf drivers) it was quite playable at 720, but at 1080 it was averaging in the 20's. This was all done with all settings set to minimum.

Granted mobile hardware is slower, but the intel integrated stuff isn't.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Fallengod]

It sounds like it may be a good idea to stay away from their "low performance" video card category for the game.

I really wouldnt imagine it would be enjoyable on integrated graphics anyways, especially if D3 has big mob fights with many things on screen like D2 had.

 

[hyrule4927]

Ran over 60 FPS on my laptop, and a GTX460M is really an underclocked GTS450, so it doesn't seem to need much GPU power at all. Didn't get to any super large scale battles, so I can't say for sure what it would do there.

 

[MoInSTL]

560 SE isn't a bad deal. It's about the same price as a 550 Ti, and about 30% faster or more.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130770

Don't understand how the SE is almost $100 less and 30% faster than a 560 Ti. Links?

 

[BallaTheFeared]

550ti

Just for kicks I installed it in my laptop (Dell Precision in sig). The game was unplayable at native res (1080) using the HD3000. At 720 it was a tiny bit better, but still unplayable. Using the Quadro (loaded on perf drivers) it was quite playable at 720, but at 1080 it was averaging in the 20's. This was all done with all settings set to minimum.

Granted mobile hardware is slower, but the intel integrated stuff isn't.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So much for my theory crafting

I guess I should have taken into account my laptops res, can you try the HD3000 at 1366?