Advice before buying

[Aaramus]

So after receiving some good advice I've decided to go ahead a purchase a new PSU and a new graphics card.

These are the ones that I'm considering

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/nvidiageforcegraphicscards/nvidiagtx460fermiseries/EVGA/01G-P3-1363-KR.html&srccode=cii_7240466&cpncode=27-4556755

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/ocz-zs550w-uk-atx-psu-550w-11342068-pdt.html

Now before I actually buy these I would like to know a few things. What kind of performance should I get from these cards for Planetside 2 and (for those in the UK/EU) is this good pricing for the products?

Any help will be appreciated.

[Goku]

What resolution are you running? I did not see anywhere in the other thread.

What type of case do you have?

Unfortunately no word on the midrange 600s. Rumormill wasn't successful.

[Aaramus]

At work at the moment so I cannot get the case information, is that in terms of its dimensions? It's quite big as when I opened it yesterday there was a lot of room inside.

I will most likely be running at 1280x720.

Shame about the 600's, although I think I'm set on the 460 for now.

[Mutant]

£110 for a GTX 460 1GB is a good price and that model is a super clocked one, better than standard GTX 560 (and most 560 OC)

You are talking about £170 for a GTX 560 Ti before you get any real improvement in performance.


£50 for a decent 550W PSU seems about right.

[Vancha]

We can't say what performance you'll get. PS2 will definitely run at that resolution on a 460, but at what settings, there's no way of knowing.

The 460 is as cheap as I can find it for, though have you considered a 6870? Personally I think I'd stick with the 460, but the option's there.

[Aaramus]

I have an AMD card at the moment and I've had all sorts of problems with the drivers, especially with running some of my older games for some reason which I never had with my old pc which had a Nvidia card. Therefore definately going for that 460.

I'm hoping to be getting at least on mediumish settings, I don't care too much for incredible graphical fidelity.

[Goku]

Looks like you are set. I just wanted to make sure you didn't have too small of a case to fit the GTX 460 in. At 1280x720 the 460 will be more then enough for PS2.

[Aaramus]

When I get home (in about 40 minutes) I'll get the dimensions for you just in case.
Hopefully if I order with next day delivery today they'll arrive by tomorrow or wednesday.

Cheers guys for the huge help!

[Aaramus]

So my card came yesterday (along with the PSU however the idiot courier decided to come in the 5 minutes nobody was in the office!!) and I was wondering whether I should use the HDMI or DVI cable.

I actually use a 19" TV as my monitor which has a VGA and HDMI slot (the card came with adapters) and I normally use the VGA cable.

[Vancha]

What do you use for sound? HDMI can carry sound to the TV, DVI doesn't. Picture quality should be identical. I also seem to remember that HDMI can occasionally cause issues that DVI doesn't, but I can't remember what.

[Aaramus]

I use a set of speakers as they're much better than the sound I get from my TV.

If there's a chance of issues with HDMI then i'll stick to DVI. Would it be worth buying a monitor or is there not enough difference?

[Vancha]

If the TV's works just as well, I can't think why you should.

[Goku]

You should be all set if you set everything up correctly.

[Aaramus]

All installed and works brilliantly! Apparently the model card I have is 4gig which was a surprise (this is according to the dxdiagthing). Thanks for all the advice and I hope to see you guys in game!

[Ailos]

DxDiag shows not just your card's own memory, but also memory that your OS gave it from the system's main RAM.

Either way, great to hear your upgrade's working well!