domokun 515 Posted May 21, 2012 Trying to decide between a GTX 480, 560, and 6870. Each of these are $220 at newegg. The 480 has tremendous performance, but I am hearing that the 4xx series was considered a dud in terms of noise and performance (in comparison to Radeons). I would love to get a 580 or 680 but that costs way too much. Even with the $220 is a bit beyond what I would like to spend. What do you guys recommend? See if your budget can't stretch an extra $20 (to $240) as it'ed allow you to grab a Radeon 7850 which could easily be overclocked to 7870. Otherwise there's a limited offer of a Radeon 6950 at only $200 inc. P&P. That's an incredible deal, particularly if you overclock it and/or flash it's BIOS to 6970. With either of these cards overclocked you'd be approaching performance levels of a 580 for half the price: Check-out this benchmark for a full and fair comparison of these cards' performance under OA Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Leon86 13 Posted May 21, 2012 I dunno man, a 480 for $230,- is a good deal if you look at price/performance. just not very efficient. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
domokun 515 Posted May 21, 2012 According to this 1-year old benchmark, a 480 has comparable performance to a 6970 under OA, except that it runs hotter, consumes more power and it noisier: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2011/04/05/amd-radeon-hd-6790-1gb-review/5 And according to this 1-week old benchmark a 7870 has comparable performance to a 6970, except that it runs cooler, consumes less power and it quieter: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/05/10/nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-2gb-review/4 Given that you can get 7850 for $240 which can be easily overclocked (via ATi's own Catalyst Control Centre) to 7870 speeds, is a good deal if you look at price/performance AND very efficient. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Leon86 13 Posted May 21, 2012 the 7850 has great price/performance too, put the catalyst ai on the highest quality setting otherwise the trees have white dots in them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
domokun 515 Posted May 22, 2012 for sure. I have a 7850, overclocked to 7870+ speeds and it runs very nicely (1920x1200 with x16AF no AA but SMAA instead). Plus I only paid €200 for it ;) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tomcat_ 0 Posted May 22, 2012 I'm gaming on a 22'' 1680x1050 monitor. my rig is pretty old with intel Q6600 @ 3.0ghz and Nvidia 8800GT gfx card I want to upgrade the gfx card to an HD 6870 or GTX 560. Since i don't want to do a full upgrade, do you think that it's worth the money and will a see a noticeable performance gain? thanks for your help Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Leon86 13 Posted May 22, 2012 I guess, your cpu might hold you back in certain scenarios but an 8800GT is very old and slow. If you're not inside a town full of ai you'll notice gains and you'll be able to increase settings. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Maystor 10 Posted May 22, 2012 Leon is right. I upgraded from a similar video card to an HD6850 and have a similar performance CPU. The game runs well and bad at the same time. You will definitely see a noticeable performance gain in most scenarios BUT your CPU will really hold you back in some cases. For example, in Chernarus areas with lots of buildings I still get unacceptable FPS and dropping the resolution from 1920x1200 to like 1280x800 does pretty much nothing. For smooth gameplay this game really seems to need both a good video card and a good CPU. Wish I knew that before before doing the video card upgrade. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tomcat_ 0 Posted May 22, 2012 Leon is right. I upgraded from a similar video card to an HD6850 and have a similar performance CPU. The game runs well and bad at the same time. You will definitely see a noticeable performance gain in most scenarios BUT your CPU will really hold you back in some cases. For example, in Chernarus areas with lots of buildings I still get unacceptable FPS and dropping the resolution from 1920x1200 to like 1280x800 does pretty much nothing. For smooth gameplay this game really seems to need both a good video card and a good CPU. Wish I knew that before before doing the video card upgrade. thanks for the feedback guys.. Did you have your Q6600 o/c @ 3ghz or stock speeds? I imagine that a quad cpu @ 3ghz is not a bad cpu for Arma2? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Leon86 13 Posted May 22, 2012 I used to run a Q6600 at about 3.3 ghz, first with an 8800gtx, then a gtx260, then gtx260 sli. the 8800gtx was the limiting factor quite often, the gtx260 was just about enough to run comfortably on native res without aa, the sli allowed me to turn on aa and increased smoothness outside towns. now I have the i5-750 on 4 Ghz and a gtx470 (overclocked as well) and it runs quite a bit better. In towns the cpu clockspeed really helps. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Maystor 10 Posted May 22, 2012 thanks for the feedback guys..Did you have your Q6600 o/c @ 3ghz or stock speeds? I imagine that a quad cpu @ 3ghz is not a bad cpu for Arma2? I should have mentioned mine is dual core but at higher clock speed. Overclocked to 3.4Ghz vs stock definitely helps but my minimum frame rate is still too low. In some areas on Chernarus I'm getting <20fps and that's just me alone on the island. With added AI it gets quite worse but I imagine a quad CPU will fare better in that respect at least. Leon, what resolution and settings are you running at? I've scrapped the idea of getting an i3 and I'm going with an i5 2500k. Really hoping once overclocked it will help with the minimum fps issue as well as allow me to use somewhat higher settings than everything set to normal. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Leon86 13 Posted May 23, 2012 (edited) I made a screenshot of em. this spot (cherno construction site, first floor watching cherno) is particularly heavy on the cpu because a lot of cherno is in view, if I move view from left to right the lowest fps I see is about 35. If I put a few squads of marines in cherno running around it still stays above 30. chernogorsk is so heavy the viewdistance only has limited influence if you are on this particular spot, the buildings just dominate the cpu load. 31.5 fps with 2000m vd 29.5 fps with 3000m vd I put the object detail so high to prevent annoying lod changes. hdr is high because of dayz. average fps in the city is higher btw, this is just my attempt to find a CPU limited spot so you can compare easily to your current hardware. last week I was playing dayZ and someone showed up with a helo while I was in elektro hospital, my fps was terrible, didnt have a counter on but I guess it was 15. even a 750 on 4.0 doesnt cut it sometimes I guess, but it's been running well in my other dayz sessions. if you upgrade to a 2500K you'll notice a great performance gain in cpu heavy scenarios, arma scales well to 3 cores and still benefits from quads, a 2500K is roughly twice as fast as a Q6600 and both can be overclocked about 50% with a good cooler and mobo. If you know what you're doing I'd advise to do that, arma can never have too much cpu speed. Edited May 23, 2012 by Leon86 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hypertek 1 Posted May 23, 2012 Hey guys, new here. My laptop specs are HP DV6 6135DX amd a8 3500m oc @2.8 radeon 6750M gpu oc @ 750 / 850 mem (default is 600/800 if i recall) 8gb ddr 3 win 7 64bit 1366x768 resolution Great laptop for $500, plays all my other games really good. Just picked up the game a few days ago. and fraps can get 14-24 fps. Any suggestions on getting them up? It can get choppy. I suppose Ill just have to skim this thread. At that resolution i dont want to sacrifice too much graphical detail. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
i2IDIUM 1 Posted May 23, 2012 (edited) Wow thanks for all the input on the 480 and Radeon cards. I will definitely take a look at that 7850, what brands of AMD cards do you guys recommend? I usually just look at EVGA for nVidia cards. Also, I have not heard great thing about AMD's drivers, esp the recent reports about them tweaking the drivers to output higher fps (presumably to sell more since that is what everyone bases the performance/value of a card on) at the detriment of image quality. Edited May 23, 2012 by i2IDIUM Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gunso 10 Posted May 23, 2012 thanks for the feedback guys..Did you have your Q6600 o/c @ 3ghz or stock speeds? I imagine that a quad cpu @ 3ghz is not a bad cpu for Arma2? i use phenom II quad core last time with 512mb gpu, runs fine as long i dont exceed certain resolution. Lower your resolution if you want better performance then start tweaking on other settings. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
domokun 515 Posted May 23, 2012 hypertek: these tried and tested tweaks should help you get the game running smooth AND looking good Let us know how you get on! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Maystor 10 Posted May 23, 2012 this spot (cherno construction site, first floor watching cherno) is particularly heavy on the cpu because a lot of cherno is in view, if I move view from left to right the lowest fps I see is about 35. If I put a few squads of marines in cherno running around it still stays above 30. Just tried it on mine with your settings and in the exact same spot. The lowest fps I get when moving view left to right is 14-15fps at 1920x1200. At 1680x1050 it's 16fps. Dropping the resolution to something ridiculous like 960x600 gives me a further 1-2fps gain. Damn, I really need a new CPU. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Leon86 13 Posted May 23, 2012 well, if you have the money a 2500K or 3570K with a decent Z77 motherboard, 8GB ram and a big cooler (mugen 2 is still the price/perf king) is the way to go. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
isthatugravybob 1 Posted May 24, 2012 Hi forum, im an xbox 360 player and i decided that instead of getting the xbox 720 i would try afford a gaming PC Now i obviously don't have much of a clue when it comes to the technical stuff but i asked a mate to price up a decent PC for a cheapish price. I just wondered if anyone could confirm whether its good or not: Intel Core i5 3450,1155, Ivy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.1GHz, 5 GT/s DMI, 650MHz GPU, 6MB Smart Cache, 31x Ratio, 77W, Retail 1GB Asus GTX 550 Ti, 4104MHz GDDR5, GPU 900MHz, Shader 1800MHz, 192 Cores, Dual Link DVI-I/ D-Sub/ HDMI 1TB Seagate ST1000DL002 Barracuda Green, SATA 3Gb/s, 5900rpm, 32MB Cache, 12ms, NCQ 4GB Corsair DDR3 XMS3, PC3-10666 (1333), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V Asus P8H77-V LE, Intel H77, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, PCIe 3.0 (x16), USB 3.0 D-Sub (VGA) / DVI-D / HDMI, ATX Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus, Black Mid Tower Performance Gaming Case w/o PSU 450W EZCool Silent pPFC PSU AMD & P4 Ready, 2x 80mm Silent Fans Sony AD-7261S-0B 24x DVD±R, 12xDVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RWx6 ,12xRAM SATA, Black, Lightscribe, OEM Total £495.72 If anyone replies i will be very grateful and could they tell me whether or not i would be able to play Arma with this at decent quality? Thanks again Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Leon86 13 Posted May 24, 2012 Hi forum, im an xbox 360 player and i decided that instead of getting the xbox 720 i would try afford a gaming PCNow i obviously don't have much of a clue when it comes to the technical stuff but i asked a mate to price up a decent PC for a cheapish price. I just wondered if anyone could confirm whether its good or not: Intel Core i5 3450,1155, Ivy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.1GHz, 5 GT/s DMI, 650MHz GPU, 6MB Smart Cache, 31x Ratio, 77W, Retail 1GB Asus GTX 550 Ti, 4104MHz GDDR5, GPU 900MHz, Shader 1800MHz, 192 Cores, Dual Link DVI-I/ D-Sub/ HDMI 1TB Seagate ST1000DL002 Barracuda Green, SATA 3Gb/s, 5900rpm, 32MB Cache, 12ms, NCQ 4GB Corsair DDR3 XMS3, PC3-10666 (1333), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V Asus P8H77-V LE, Intel H77, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, PCIe 3.0 (x16), USB 3.0 D-Sub (VGA) / DVI-D / HDMI, ATX Coolermaster HAF 912 Plus, Black Mid Tower Performance Gaming Case w/o PSU 450W EZCool Silent pPFC PSU AMD & P4 Ready, 2x 80mm Silent Fans Sony AD-7261S-0B 24x DVD±R, 12xDVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RWx6 ,12xRAM SATA, Black, Lightscribe, OEM Total £495.72 If anyone replies i will be very grateful and could they tell me whether or not i would be able to play Arma with this at decent quality? Thanks again you might want to get a faster gpu, like a hd7850. nvidia doesnt have anything as fast on that pricepoint unfortunately, the gtx560 (so no Ti's or 2GB, whatever) is probably the best price/performance card from team green. another thing I would change is that no-name PSU with 2 small fans in it. just get a brand like corsair or seasonic, those are decent psu's that actually meet or exceed the specs. 8GB ram is nice to have, makes everything go smoother, not quite ssd smooth but close. harddisk, might want a 7200 rpm disk, they're noticably faster in all situations. the other 3 parts look good :P cant overclock but I guess you're not into that anyway. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
austendude 1 Posted May 25, 2012 Help!!! Everytime i try to play this on steam it says, "No entry 'bin/config.bin/CfgIngameUI/MPTable.shadow'". Then the screen goes black and then says, "Error compiling pixel shader PSSpecularAlph". WTF!!! I am not a PC person (first PC game i ever bought) I am trying to play DayZ but i wont be able to if I cant load this. My computer has the requirements. I can load Arma II fine. What the hell is going on? Please dont usecomputer language. I barely use my computer so you will just confuse me with all these short words like .exe and crap. Please help! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
froggyluv 2130 Posted May 25, 2012 Help!!! Everytime i try to play this on steam it says, "No entry 'bin/config.bin/CfgIngameUI/MPTable.shadow'". Then the screen goes black and then says, "Error compiling pixel shader PSSpecularAlph". WTF!!! I am not a PC person (first PC game i ever bought) I am trying to play DayZ but i wont be able to if I cant load this. My computer has the requirements. I can load Arma II fine. What the hell is going on? Please dont usecomputer language. I barely use my computer so you will just confuse me with all these short words like .exe and crap. Please help! Hi, this is wrong part of forums but let me see if I can help. 1st. Make sure you are running Steam as Admin. If you don't know, exit Steam fully (including toolbar) then right click the Steam icon to Run as Admin. If that doesn't work go into Start/YourName/Documents/Arma2 folder and find the arma2oa.cfg text file -delete it. It will re-write itself so dont worry. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chaz124 1 Posted May 25, 2012 I already brought arma some time ago but whenever I play it I get poor performance and the graphic looks horrible, could it be because I need a new graphic card? Spec: AMD FX-4100 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.6GHz AMD Radeonâ„¢ HD 6770 Graphics 4.00 GB RAM Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit I have already checked to see if I needed to update my graphics card which I don't. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
austendude 1 Posted May 25, 2012 I right clicked and did run as admin..... It popped the steam page up, didnt really notic any difference besides my computer saying "would you like this program to change your computer yes no blah". It did not work. I did the other step, deleted the arma2oa.cfg thingy. I went back to steam as an admin. and it still said the same errors. Ughhh. I just want to play the damn DayZ game lol. ---------- Post added at 16:08 ---------- Previous post was at 16:00 ---------- Dude I turned off my computer, set steam as admin., and it worked. THANK YOU!!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
froggyluv 2130 Posted May 25, 2012 Glad to hear it :) Steam was probably still running in backround until you turned it off. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites