Video card upgrade recommendation, Far Cry 4

M

Milehigh

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 18, 2004
Messages
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I know my vid card is old, GTX 260, and evidently it won't run Far Cry 4, so an upgrade needed. I'm running an i5-3570k, 8 gigs of ram, and a couple 22" Samsung monitors. I'd like to spend less than $200, and I don't run at max res for games as an older gamer, but do enjoy 1st person shooters and had a great time with FC3.

I did look at this card:

EVGA 02G-P4-3753-KR G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 750 Ti Superclocked 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card

Would that meet my needs? Not a bad price and under $200... my other concern? My two monitors use DVI connectors, this card only has one... is that an issue?
 
If you don't mind used and are open to AMD, get an R9 290 from the FS section. Got a friend of mine a couple for $175/ea a month back. Easily the best bang-for-buck for the past few months, especially if you can get a brand that covers warranty regardless of owner (usually based on serial number).
 
If you are wanting to go used, a 770 or a 290 as Xin mentioned works be great. Otherwise, go for a GTX 960.
 
A 290 will be twice as fast as a 750ti. For FC4 you want all the power you could get. I'd get a 290. A 750ti would struggle.
 
Not sure if youre looking for new or used but i would recommend picking up a used one from here. For 200 you should be able to find a AMD 290/gtx 760. Or if wanna spend less ive seen 280x go for 150.

Any of the 3 should run game just fine.
 
Basically, it boils down to if you want to buy used or new, and power consumption. That's why I heartily recommend the GTX 960 for new (at about the same speed as a vanilla R9 280/7970, and can be had for under $200 with lower power requirements), or the GTX 770/R9 280X/290 used.
 
I have a Corsair 650 PSU, and do run power to my current video card so assume power shouldn't be an issue. How much more power would a 290 require over a GTX 960?
 
Milehigh said:
I have a Corsair 650 PSU, and do run power to my current video card so assume power shouldn't be an issue. How much more power would a 290 require over a GTX 960?
Click to expand...

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GTX_960_G1_Gaming/26.html

looking at Peak power, "Peak: Metro: Last Light at 1920x1080, representing a typical gaming power draw. Highest single reading during the test."

stock 960, 1127 core - 120W

overclocked 960, 1241 core - 144W

stock R9 290, 947 - 263W

so it draws ~2.19x more watts than a stock 960 for ~1.43 more frames

~1.83x more watts than the overclocked 960 for ~1.33 more frames

other thing to note about the R9 290 is that I don't recommend buying the reference stock R9 290 at all whether new or used. If you end up buying a non-reference R9 290, then it might be higher clocked resulting in more potential performance but higher power consumption.

you could wait for GDC and see if AMD will release any new info about the 300 series and whether they'll have new chips for ~$200 bracket or will just be rebadging

if you want the GTX 960, you really should wait for 4GB models
 
The 750ti is rather slow. I would look into the GTX 960 for $200 (itself a bit disappointing IMO) and AMD's options. If you can stretch your budget, the R290 looks like a good deal for the performance it offers. I would recommend the 970 but it is out of your price range by a large amount.
 
if you want to keep things cheap for far cry 4. go with a R9 280X as it perform great in that game.. much better than expected in fact.. but as many others said above if you can extend the budget up to a R9 290 that would be the best option for the money... any of those cards poop over a 750TI..
 
If you pick up the 290 try and make sure it wasn't beaten half to death by mining.
 
Since the GDC is this week, I'll wait to see if anything happens there as far as announcements. Lots of good advice here, still waffling on direction...
 
Well, after some research, I'm considering upping my budget... thoughts on this card?

EVGA 04G-P4-3975-KR GeForce GTX 970 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Graphics Card
 
What would be the best upgrade from a GTX 670 playing Far Cry 4 on high settings?

I run an I5 3750K, 16 gig ram, SSD
 
Well, I think I've about decided to pick up a GTX 960 as I only game at 1080P... any preference between the EVGA or MSI flavors? The MSI was reviewed favorably here on HardOCP, but the EVGA seems to have higher clock speeds right out the box. Comments welcome :)
 
Why would you go for the 960? It's as fast as 3 year old cards and only has 2 gb. Get a used non reference 290 or 290x. Heck I seen 290x go for 230 on ebay which is a great price.

Even a 4 year old HD 7970 beats the 960 in Far Cry 4 which is why if you are willing to spend $200 or close to it I recommend looking into ATI R9 290 or R9 290x cards.
 
Last edited:
Brando457 said:
What would be the best upgrade from a GTX 670 playing Far Cry 4 on high settings?

I run an I5 3750K, 16 gig ram, SSD
Click to expand...

first, a budget, second resolution you will be playing.. if not then of course all people will target to the best target the money can buy...

Milehigh said:
Well, I think I've about decided to pick up a GTX 960 as I only game at 1080P... any preference between the EVGA or MSI flavors? The MSI was reviewed favorably here on HardOCP, but the EVGA seems to have higher clock speeds right out the box. Comments welcome :)
Click to expand...

and even at 1080P you will be have a bottleneck there (and a big one) with the 2GB vRAM of that card... far cry 4 even on medium consume above 2GB of vRAM... so, think it twice before buy a gtx 960 for a vRAM heavy game..
 
I've not had good luck with used parts and prefer new, though I have looked. There is a page on EVGA's site indicating a 4 gig 960 might be coming out. Would that alleviate a bottleneck?
As for AMD, I don't like extra power requirements or heat...
 
yes there will be a few 4GB 960s, but the rumored prices are from 250$ - 280$ and then, is even more pointless to buy a card like that over a GTX 970.. which is about a 40%-50% stronger card.
 
DeadSkull said:
Why would you go for the 960? It's as fast as 3 year old cards and only has 2 gb. Get a used non reference 290 or 290x. Heck I seen 290x go for 230 on ebay which is a great price.

Even a 4 year old HD 7970 beats the 960 in Far Cry 4 which is why if you are willing to spend $200 or close to it I recommend looking into ATI R9 290 or R9 290x cards.
Click to expand...

Yeah, after he said that I was kinda like

59709309.jpg
 
Well, I bit the bullet and ordered a GTX 970... so the 960 conversation swayed me :) Better to stretch the budget than be sorry later that I didn't...
 
Milehigh said:
Well, I bit the bullet and ordered a GTX 970... so the 960 conversation swayed me :) Better to stretch the budget than be sorry later that I didn't...
Click to expand...

great choice, you will be pleased..
 
970 is a great choice and don't listen to anyone about the 3.5gb vram issue that angry nerds are complaining about. I had a single 970 gtx and it played far cry comfortably at everything besides AA at ultra at 40fps and this was at 1440p.
 
I'm running the Asus Strix DCII 970 and really like it for BF4, can run on Ultra preset with 120 res scale never hitting below 60, never. In FC4, had to drop some of the settings to High , really thought it would do better but hey it's a new game. Check out the review on here, it has some great pointers as to what affects performance and doesn't. Shadows are a pretty big one, just turn them down a notch one at a time and go back to the game in between to see if it's too big of a change for you. Anyway, I've owned 970s and 980s, love them love them love them. The 290 I have to say in BF4 w/ Mantle was downright amazing, the frametimes were sooo smooth. But...yeah heat, even the asus model, and power (which you don't notice while gaming but still, it could affect overclocks on your entire system). Ever wonder why you could OC your CPU to 4.8 and then picked up a high watt card and it blue screened until you dropped it to 4.5? Yeap, PS. Overall though, the 290 really was a nice card. Good price to performance and had a back plate. I only sold it because I build gaming machines and sell them on CL once in a while.
 
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