In need of a new video card for PSO2

[Drifting Fable]

Welp, my ATI HD 5770 seem to have fried as the fan no long operates on it and the screens go black after a few minutes. Dad thinks we still have a warranty on it but that will take some time.

I'm thinking about getting an Nivida card for all these fancy gizmos people use in their screen shots. Currently researching on what version would be the best for me. Recommendations are appreciated.

I use an ASUS P5Q PRO motherboard with 2 PSI 2.0 x16 slots.

EDIT: I also use Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q9505 2.83GHz With 2GB of Ram

[Ezodagrom]

Welp, my ATI HD 5770 seem to have fried as the fan no long operates on it and the screens go black after a few minutes. Dad thinks we still have a warranty on it but that will take some time.

I'm thinking about getting an Nivida card for all these fancy gizmos people use in their screen shots. Currently researching on what version would be the best for me. Recommendations are appreciated.

I use an ASUS P5Q PRO motherboard with 2 PSI 2.0 x16 slots.
Depends on how much money you want to spend, but if you can go for a Geforce GTX660, that would be a good one. If you can't, I guess a GTX650 Ti or a normal GTX650 wouldn't be too bad.

[Sir_Laguna]

Depends on how much money you want to spend, but if you can go for a Geforce GTX660, that would be a good one. If you can't, I guess a GTX650 Ti or a normal GTX650 wouldn't be too bad.

Those cards require PCIe 3.0 slots, while his rig has 2.0 slots. Not sure if that'd work, unfortunately. (EDIT: A PCIe 3.0 card will still work. My bad!)

Drifting Fable, I have two questions: What's your budget like, and what kind of CPU are you running right now? Those two factors will make a difference.

A GeForce GTX 550Ti is about equivalent to your Radeon 5770. I have one, and it's been serving me well for the past few months. That card's about $129 on Newegg right now. If you can afford to spend more AND your CPU's not so old that it would bottleneck (limit the speed of) your video card, try to get at least a GTX 560 or better.

[The Walrus]

Apparently a 660ti and up will work with pci 2.0 just slightly under the normal 3.0 levels

[DoubleCannon]

pci express 3.0 cards can be used on 2.0, I use gtx 550 ti on my pcie 1.1 I think it is. The only difference is the bandwith which isnt even a problem seeing as you wont need max bandwith, though I am also not a comp geek but I think i am on the right track lol.

But yeah go for 660-650 ti, 660ti would be best lol. I am personally not making a new comp rig until intel haswell and nivida maxwell are released

[Drifting Fable]

My father would like to stay as close to $200 as possible. But I believe an extra 30 dollars won't kill him.

I use a Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q9505 2.83GHz With 2GB of Ram. We tried to install 8GB of Ram but the computer kept crashing :/.

[DoubleCannon]

is your computer a 32 bit version windows or 64 bit? 32 bit is limited to 3 gb of ram also many motherboards have limits, but seeing as it has 2.0 pcie it should be able to handle 8gb? unless its 32 bit windows you got on there

[Drifting Fable]

I am using a 64-bit of the Window 7 home premium edition. We got the ram chips that were compatible for the Asus. So I'm not sure whats wrong. :-?

[ZeGoose]

Use one of the 8GB sticks if you have 2. Only use one of them. The one that does not work should not let the computer boot. Return or RMA the whole thing after you confirm it is indeed the RAM's fault. Do not use your old RAM when testing this and make sure you did not change the RAM settings in the BIOS if you know you did.

Video cards under $200 I would not splurge on the latest and greatest seeing how you are still on a C2Q. Spend like $100 on a GTX 460 or AMD 6850-6870 on ebay or shop that you trust.

[D3MON]

My father would like to stay as close to $200 as possible. But I believe an extra 30 dollars won't kill him.

I use a Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q9505 2.83GHz With 2GB of Ram. We tried to install 8GB of Ram but the computer kept crashing :/.

Mind listing your current Mobo SKU/Model number? You can use speccy from piriform to find out what it is.

[Drifting Fable]

Use one of the 8GB sticks if you have 2. Only use one of them. The one that does not work should not let the computer boot. Return or RMA the whole thing after you confirm it is indeed the RAM's fault. Do not use your old RAM when testing this and make sure you did not change the RAM settings in the BIOS if you know you did.

Actually we're using 4 2gb sticks. Does that change anything?


Mind listing your current Mobo SKU/Model number? You can use speccy from piriform to find out what it is.

No good, we can't see to find the book where we wrote it down, and I'm not sure if the screens would stay on long enough for speccy to do its job. I'll keep trying but things aren't looking good on that hunt.

Somewhat good news is that my dad has confirmed the warranty is still there on the card. So looks like I'll be keeping my radeon. But dad is open to buying another card for me to use in the mean time.

However on an somewhat unrelated note, I have heard of this ability to run both Radeon and Nvidia at the same time. From what I know it simply involves connecting both cards to monitor(s) and having the right driver software. So if I were to get a GTX 550 TI or something and install it along side my 5770, I'd have the power of radeon and the gizmos of nvida with more power, right? I already use two monitors and have 600 watt power supply so it seems like its possible from what I know.

[Skye-Fox713]

also double check your power source to make sure it can handle the new video card.

[Ezodagrom]

also double check your power source to make sure it can handle the new video card.
According to the website TechPowerUp, he would have no problem with a GTX650 Ti, which uses less power than his previous card, Radeon HD5770.
A GTX660 though uses a bit more power than the HD5770, average of 88W for HD5770, average of 112W for GTX660, the difference is not big, so it's possible that it would be fine too.

[ZeGoose]

Actually we're using 4 2gb sticks. Does that change anything?



No good, we can't see to find the book where we wrote it down, and I'm not sure if the screens would stay on long enough for speccy to do its job. I'll keep trying but things aren't looking good on that hunt.

Somewhat good news is that my dad has confirmed the warranty is still there on the card. So looks like I'll be keeping my radeon. But dad is open to buying another card for me to use in the mean time.

However on an somewhat unrelated note, I have heard of this ability to run both Radeon and Nvidia at the same time. From what I know it simply involves connecting both cards to monitor(s) and having the right driver software. So if I were to get a GTX 550 TI or something and install it along side my 5770, I'd have the power of radeon and the gizmos of nvida with more power, right? I already use two monitors and have 600 watt power supply so it seems like its possible from what I know.

So you bought 3 more 2GB sticks of RAM? If yes then test each of the newer RAM modules individually to see if any of those have a problem. My bet is that or the newer sticks are not compatible with your older stick due to timing and/or voltages.

Do not use an Nvidia card and an ATI/AMD card together unless you know what you are doing (I know I am making the right assumption that you don't). The drivers will just conflict with each other producing no video output.

[Vylera]

Actually we're using 4 2gb sticks. Does that change anything?



No good, we can't see to find the book where we wrote it down, and I'm not sure if the screens would stay on long enough for speccy to do its job. I'll keep trying but things aren't looking good on that hunt.

Somewhat good news is that my dad has confirmed the warranty is still there on the card. So looks like I'll be keeping my radeon. But dad is open to buying another card for me to use in the mean time.

However on an somewhat unrelated note, I have heard of this ability to run both Radeon and Nvidia at the same time. From what I know it simply involves connecting both cards to monitor(s) and having the right driver software. So if I were to get a GTX 550 TI or something and install it along side my 5770, I'd have the power of radeon and the gizmos of nvida with more power, right? I already use two monitors and have 600 watt power supply so it seems like its possible from what I know.

That's not how it works. The only way for graphics cards to work "along side" one another is if you SLI (NVIDIA) or Crossfire (AMD) cards with a physical bridge. It is impossible to connect an NVIDIA and AMD card together to increase performance. SLI/Crossfire is only recommended for two identical cards to begin with.

If your computer was a prebuilt, it's very likely your manufacturer set some limiters on your Motherboard's performance and BIOS, which is probably why the ram doesn't work for you. http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/ Use this to figure out your motherboard's ram limitations.

As far as a graphics card is concerned, I currently use an overclocked GTX 570 and it basically is overkill for a game like PSO2.

GTX 650 is running a little bit shallow, but still passable. Between 570 and 660 ti, probably should just go with 570 since it's $70 cheaper on newegg, and you can easily make a 570 match or surpass a 660 ti with some slight overclocking with NVIDIA's performance tool.

And if you're going to get 660 ti, you might as well jump the $60 for a 670, which is way better than either 570 or 660 ti.

EDIT: 600 watt power supply is good enough for any of the graphics cards mentioned in this thread so far.

[Miraclearrow]

First off, the person trying to run two different cards in crossfire or SLI... you can't do that. You need two identical cards to run in crossfire or SLI. That being said, if you liked your 5770 (which is a great card, and honestly, if your fan didn't fry, would have lasted you a long time because im sure it had NO problems running PSO), you can always look for the next step up. I have a 7770 and it works extremly well and only cost around 100 dollars. Its a cheap reliable upgrade that will last a while. You dont need to go overkill. That said, if you're gonna run crossfire or SLI, you need identical cards.

[RahvinWT]

Not doing too much research as I do not have the time to do so (15 mins break). Was this what the OP was thinking of? I remember hearing something on this a year ago and thought it interesting. It wasn't clear to m e if you could use nvidia and ati at the same time but I could be missing something.

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/General-Tech/Lucid-Hydra-Performance-Review-AMD-Platform

[Drifting Fable]

Welp I'm back in business again at last.

Decided to keep it simple and bought a GTX 650 and downloaded the inspector upon searching the site for how the maximize the card's graphical power.

Looking forward to the results after the maintenance ends.

[ZeGoose]

Not doing too much research as I do not have the time to do so (15 mins break). Was this what the OP was thinking of? I remember hearing something on this a year ago and thought it interesting. It wasn't clear to m e if you could use nvidia and ati at the same time but I could be missing something.

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/General-Tech/Lucid-Hydra-Performance-Review-AMD-Platform
I know it is possible to use an Nvidia card as a dedicated Physx card along with an AMD card, but it is a pain to get it to work and not worth the hassle. As for performance boost it would not work.

That lucid program is great concept wise but I have yet to see it work well. 2 of my friends had problems with it when I left it on to see if it was beneficial, uninstalled immediately.

[thinktank001]

Welp I'm back in business again at last.

Decided to keep it simple and bought a GTX 650 and downloaded the inspector upon searching the site for how the maximize the card's graphical power.

Looking forward to the results after the maintenance ends.


If you didn't get the ti version, then it is basically just a more power efficient card.