Graphics card buying advice pls

[mikeymikec]

I have a GeForce 750Ti, but because of an annoying intermittent issue (the computer fails to come out of sleep mode, sometimes as rarely as once in three weeks, but sometimes twice in three days), and because I've run out of other things to try, I've pulled the card and put in a spare 6670.

The 750Ti is in warranty, so my first plan was to run with the 6670 (which is adequate for what I play most albeit on reduced settings, StarCraft 2), but because it's beyond the first year of warranty (but within the three year warranty), I'll have to talk to the manufacturer, and I have the feeling that they might take the card in for testing for 20 seconds and send it back as "OK". Anyway, as part of the first plan I intended to run with the 6670 for over a month and if there aren't any resume issues in that time, I talk to the manufacturer.

I have a tax rebate coming through, so a possible alternate plan is to buy a new card, and if the old one is replaced in warranty, I would just ebay it.

I can't see myself sleeping soundly if I spent any more than an absolute max of £200 (UK Pounds). My 750Ti set me back about £110 last year, so I'm thinking that my budget is between the price of a 750Ti and £200, but I'd only stretch to the highest figure if there was a really good reason to.

I don't buy newly-released games often. Since 2010, my game purchases were:

SC2 (WOL, HOTS, LOTV)
Deadpool
XCOM: Enemy Unknown & Enemy Within
Skyrim
Alien Isolation
Batman AA and AC
Tomb Raider 2013
GRID (not played much)

Until this problem with the 750Ti, my graphics card buying strategy had been "only upgrade when a game I want is released that won't play nicely with that card". Everything I've got plays well with it, I play at 1080p and I doubt that's going to change at any point soon. CPU is 4690K. PSU is a Corsair VX450W.

One thing I like about the 750ti is that it's quiet even under load. I wasn't impressed with its predecessor, a 5770 that would routinely go 5000RPM full-tilt when gaming.

I suppose a sensible course is to stick it out with Plan A until it runs its course. I haven't played any other games since swapping out to the 6670 but I have the feeling that some games are really going to suck on it, and I am started to get bored of only playing SC2.

On the topic of a new card, I believe I ought to be looking at a 4GB card rather than 2GB if I want it to last reasonably well in performance terms with newer games. Looking at reviews and benchmarks, the 950 looks like a good baseline. Looking at the choice of cards from one of my suppliers, 750Ti's are available in my price bracket, some 950s, then R370s, 960s, R380s, then some R380X's. I guess that if I look on Amazon UK I'll probably get the same card as with the supplier I'm looking at but for maybe up to £10 less, but because my supplier's site is easy to filter results, I do most of my homework on there.

 

[RussianSensation]

I suppose a sensible course is to stick it out with Plan A until it runs its course. I haven't played any other games since swapping out to the 6670 but I have the feeling that some games are really going to suck on it, and I am started to get bored of only playing SC2.

That's what I would do. If the the older/less demanding games run well enough on a 6670, just coast as long as possible and then it may be possible to buy an R9 390/970 for 200 pounds. Right now 390/970 are around 250-260 pounds, or not far off your 200 pound budget.

As far as other cards such as 950/960/380/380X, you can use the prices in your preferred store to calculate price/performance yourself.

It should be very easy to calculate which is the best card in the price/performance category once you plug in your UK prices/ % output in that chart.

 

[Baron Fel]

You could try living with the sleep issue by leaving the PC on, or always shutting it off so you do not unexpectedly lose stuff by trying to sleep and failing to resume. Leaving the PC on is not so bad if its power consumption and noise are not too offensive. Shutting down is not bad with a fast booting system.

 

[mikeymikec]

You could try living with the sleep issue by leaving the PC on, or always shutting it off so you do not unexpectedly lose stuff by trying to sleep and failing to resume. Leaving the PC on is not so bad if its power consumption and noise are not too offensive. Shutting down is not bad with a fast booting system.

The sleep issue was the most common problem; it also would occasionally do funky graphics corruptions during gaming and then the driver would recover automatically and gameplay continued, most of the time. The final straw came when it did it during a game of multiplayer SC2

No matter how much testing I've done, I've never managed to come up with a consistent test case for the problem(s).

When putting the computer in to sleep mode, I always close down apps first anyway because of the problem when Windows Update wants to install updates and shut down the computer, one loses the open apps anyway.

I don't want to give up sleep mode because it's a really handy feature in the way that I use my computer; I can be away from it several times a day and for it to come back up as quick as it does is really useful. Also, electricity isn't cheap here and we try to do a fair few things to curb power usage already.

That's what I would do. If the the older/less demanding games run well enough on a 6670, just coast as long as possible and then it may be possible to buy an R9 390/970 for 200 pounds. Right now 390/970 are around 250-260 pounds, or not far off your 200 pound budget.

Yep, you're probably right. I'll try running Deadpool on the 6670 to give myself a bit of variation.

 

[parvadomus]

You can try 2 things to "fix" the sleep problem:

1-Disconnect and connect the hdmi cable, or whatever monitor you have plugged in.
2-Reset the display driver using devcon.exe: you can create a hotkey shortcut to call it when sleep mode does not come back.

 

[mikeymikec]

The machine BSOD's with 0x00000116, I don't think a hotkey is going to bring it back; no numlock response, etc.

AFAIK, 0x00000116 occurs when the display driver attempts to reset itself but fails. Windows has no recourse but to shut itself down.