Originally posted by Eir_S

Hey guys, I'm thinking about getting an Nvidia GTX 280, but I want to know if the problems with the drivers that happened to people back in August or whenever they released that one driver that messed everyone up (very technical details here I know).  I've heard about lots of black screens and pixel problems, etc.

Mainly I want to know if the card is viable to play GW2 on now, or if I should just go for a Radeon card.  Thanks in advance for the help.

Im running a GTX280 at the moment and it runs fine on the most recent NVidia drivers and runs GW2 fine on medium settings.

Had this card 4+ years and never had a problem with it or NVidia drivers. It's old now but still works just fine for most games, it just struggles on max settings generally speaking. It's certainly not future-proof though, it's days are numbered.

Originally posted by patrikd23

Radeon 7970 is most bang for the bucks. I bought Gigabyte 7970  3gb. I am very satiesfied.

Before that I got this card I had bought a Gigabyte GTX 670 4gb so I tried bought cards and my computer liked the amd one more since it got better score and better fps than the gtx one for the same money.  I am happy I had the chance to return it and get the 7970 insted.

I had to clock my cpu i7 though since it botttlenecked my 7970, got it from 2.66ghz to 3.52ghz. The cpu holds at 54c now thanks to the watercooling I bought for around 50 euro. And the gigabyte graficcards have 3 nice fans, I will never buy a card with 1 fan. The GTX one was on 61c and the Radeon on 65-69c when benchmarked or in game.

Both cards are good, but Radeon 7970 is still bang for the bucks.

   An i7 is also the greatest processor to own, also costing over $300+  Iv learned that even though if on a budget CPU- most games created require a decent graphics card. Packaged together with some decent RAM to go along with it all. These days most games seem to be GPU ran. A good graphics card can set you off a long way. Even my old E8400 still resides in my office. It suffices greatly today still. :)

7970 is currently the leading RADEON Card, and it was announced yesterday that they plan on keeping the 7000 series strong in 2013. AKA [Delay in 8000 Series til Q4]

$379.99. USD for 7970 3GB - Excellent card of course, but the price is a bit much~ for the best bang/performance

$249.99. USD for 7870 2GB - The price is good, and the MYST-LE Version is even better. (AKA Crippled 7950 for much Les

$194.99. USD for 7850 2GB - Id highly suggest coughing up more for the 7870.~ +15% more performance.

$114.99. USD for 7770 1GB - Decent card- if you really want one for $110 - you cant go wrong with this.

You get what you pay for in the end.

The 7770 1GB is good for the price, Id highly suggest getting it over the GTX 650. [or any other GT Card] 630/640 which both range to about $100. (Here is what the 7770 tops so you know what you're up against competition/Performance wise.)

Link below to a very nice graphics card REVIEW site for the 7770 (and other RADEON cards such as the 7850/7870/7930)

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7770-7750-benchmark,3135-6.html

(Removed picture due to spam/none MMO related.) ( Tomshardware will show you the way. )

Keep in mind the 7850 is far better than the 7770, and the 7870 is much better than the 7850. I ripped my hair out trying to figure out which one to purchase. My advice is to go on Youtube and look up some benchmarks for your desired card, to get a better idea of the FPS you will come to expect in today's games.

If you want the best bang for your buck, Id HIGHLY suggest getting the 7870 MYST. that is if you intend to cough out more $$$ for a 7850/7870 which can pretty much run any game on HIGH/ULTRA settings. Id suggest the Radeon HD 7870 MYST. Edition (Tahiti LE) 2GB 256-bit GDDR5. As it's a 7950 undercover, or rather it's a crippled 7950. AKA. The 7930- which offer's speeds up to a current 7950. for much cheaper. [$240]

Keep in mind if you purchase it on NEWEGG you get BIOSHOCK INFINITE/TOMB RAIDER Bundle or BIOSHOCK INF/CRYSIS 3 Bundle which release in March for FREE. I'm also under the impression you get the boxxed version.

Plop these two baby's up on AMAZON/Ebay and that's $80-$100 since these games will retail $59.99 ea. In the end the card was really only $140-$160 and you got yourself a crippled 7950. aka the 7930 and you basically just cheated the system in all.~ The bundled [FREE} Game coupons are an added bonus.~ honestly without them- your getting quite the steal on the 7870 MYST- as paying $349.99 for a 7950+ just isn't in my personal range for a GFX Card.

If you cannot manage to cough out a little more the 7770 HD will suffice, but remember the 7870 MYST deal. and the games it bundles with it.. THAT IS IF you get the boxxed versions. (Which I'm not to sure about, it may be digital.) The crippled 7950 [7870 MYST-LE] was a steal without the games.~

-Edited for cleaning up my lines-

Originally posted by Aori

Originally posted by Eir_S

Well I already have a few extra hard drives, and one has Win7 on it already, so that's not a problem, but after reading this, I decided to just build my own.  I've basically done everything in the past except screwing the mobo to the case.  I already have a power supply and extra RAM as well.

For a card I'm looking more at a Radeon HD 7750 or 7770 now.  I don't really want an Nvidia since I've heard there have been issues with GW2 (some of these stories coming directly from friends). 

Either of them scored high on http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_value.html

Don't trust blanket benchmarks, while they can give you a power ideal it doesn't always apply to real world.

Also if you can what PSU/RAM do you have? The Win7 is attached to motherboard not the HDD, so you would still need a new copy for a new PC. Also the drivers on a 'dirty' HDD would conflict with the new PC you plan to build.

The 7770 is a good card for $100, however I would look into a 7850, you can get one with rebates for around $150 but it comes with 2 games currently that can sell for about 20-30 each without issue.

Indeed, clean install every time, never try and swap and old HDD into a new rig, it's a recipe for disaster.

So I have to buy a brand new OS or what? 

Anyway, as I said, yeah I was totally in the dark about the GTX 280, mostly because I bit about everything related to PC's but never followed the card market.  This thread has helped to enlighten me some.

Originally posted by Cothor
You can get the 460gtx on new egg right now for about 100 bucks. I was using it tonight while I played GW2. I never dip below around 50 fps with high settings. It is a very solid card for the price. I've never had an issue with any games. No graphic anomilies or driver issues, just good performance.

The ones on New Egg are used, and not that much of a discount as compared to new cards, so I wouldn't buy one.

Originally posted by Kabaal

Originally posted by Aori

Originally posted by Cothor
You can get the 460gtx on new egg right now for about 100 bucks. I was using it tonight while I played GW2. I never dip below around 50 fps with high settings. It is a very solid card for the price. I've never had an issue with any games. No graphic anomilies or driver issues, just good performance.

460 is a bad choice if you're buying new, it runs hot and draws higher power. Not to mention it is just older tech so its future proofing is far lower.

Compared to a 7770 they might be power hungry but even a Corsair 520W was more than enough to power my old 460 and a 2500K, both overclocked. It also rarely broached 60C unless benchmarking. If a 256bit 460 (don't buy the 192bit version) with a decent aftermarket cooler such as the MSI 460 Cyclone etc can be found cheap enough then it's a good buy on a budget, they can be hard to find cheap though and often the 7770 makes more sense even though it's slightly slower.

It was the 470 and 480's that were stupidly power hungry and hot, not the 460. It was the only card Nvidia did right with that range.

The whole GeForce 400 line was a complete mess, with only the possible exception of GF108, which was used in the GeForce GT 430 and 440.  You don't make the top bin a salvage part just for fun.  The GeForce 500 line was basically the fixed version of the 400 line.

The GF100-based cards (GeForce GTX 465, 470, and 480) had markedly worse performance per watt than the rest of the Fermi cards, but the rest of them were pretty bad, too.  The reference GTX 470 and 480 came with coolers that couldn't really handle the card even at stock speeds, too, though aftermarket coolers sometimes fixed that.

Regardless, that's not what you want today unless you find it dirt cheap.  Radeon HD 7000 and GeForce 600 series cards are so much better.

Originally posted by Eir_S

So I have to buy a brand new OS or what? 

Anyway, as I said, yeah I was totally in the dark about the GTX 280, mostly because I bit about everything related to PC's but never followed the card market.  This thread has helped to enlighten me some.

No, there is no need to buy a new OS. Just call Microsoft, tell them that you upgraded your motherboard and you would like your windows product key re-activated and they will do it for you.

Originally posted by Eir_S

So I have to buy a brand new OS or what? 

Anyway, as I said, yeah I was totally in the dark about the GTX 280, mostly because I bit about everything related to PC's but never followed the card market.  This thread has helped to enlighten me some.

Unless you have a full retail version of Windows (which is unlikely, as it costs twice as much as the system builder version), the license is tied to the motherboard.  If you change the motherboard, you need a new license.  You can likely get Microsoft to let you reuse the license if you change the motherboard and nothing else because the old one died, but it's unlikely that they'd buy that claim if you replaced all of the internal hardware in the system.

Originally posted by Raunu

Originally posted by Eir_S

So I have to buy a brand new OS or what? 

Anyway, as I said, yeah I was totally in the dark about the GTX 280, mostly because I bit about everything related to PC's but never followed the card market.  This thread has helped to enlighten me some.

No, there is no need to buy a new OS. Just call Microsoft, tell them that you upgraded your motherboard and you would like your windows product key re-activated and they will do it for you.

Oh.  Well that'll do just as well.  I've still got the code around here...... somewhere.

Originally posted by Quizzical

Originally posted by Eir_S

So I have to buy a brand new OS or what? 

Anyway, as I said, yeah I was totally in the dark about the GTX 280, mostly because I bit about everything related to PC's but never followed the card market.  This thread has helped to enlighten me some.

Unless you have a full retail version of Windows (which is unlikely, as it costs twice as much as the system builder version), the license is tied to the motherboard.  If you change the motherboard, you need a new license.  You can likely get Microsoft to let you reuse the license if you change the motherboard and nothing else because the old one died, but it's unlikely that they'd buy that claim if you replaced all of the internal hardware in the system.

Gah!  I'm not even sure which version I have, but I will try contacting them anyway.  If push comes to shove, well, I'll just get a new one.

Originally posted by Eir_S

Originally posted by Quizzical

Originally posted by Eir_S

So I have to buy a brand new OS or what? 

Anyway, as I said, yeah I was totally in the dark about the GTX 280, mostly because I bit about everything related to PC's but never followed the card market.  This thread has helped to enlighten me some.

Unless you have a full retail version of Windows (which is unlikely, as it costs twice as much as the system builder version), the license is tied to the motherboard.  If you change the motherboard, you need a new license.  You can likely get Microsoft to let you reuse the license if you change the motherboard and nothing else because the old one died, but it's unlikely that they'd buy that claim if you replaced all of the internal hardware in the system.

Gah!  I'm not even sure which version I have, but I will try contacting them anyway.  If push comes to shove, well, I'll just get a new one.

The only way that you'd have the full retail version is if you built the computer yourself and bought the full retail version for $200, rather than buying the system builder version that is identical except that you can't transfer it to another computer and only costs half as much.  If someone else built the computer for you, then they used the system builder or OEM version.  Period.

Originally posted by Kabaal

Originally posted by patrikd23

Radeon 7970 is most bang for the bucks. I bought Gigabyte 7970  3gb. I am very satiesfied.

Before that I got this card I had bought a Gigabyte GTX 670 4gb so I tried bought cards and my computer liked the amd one more since it got better score and better fps than the gtx one for the same money.  I am happy I had the chance to return it and get the 7970 insted.

I had to clock my cpu i7 though since it botttlenecked my 7970, got it from 2.66ghz to 3.52ghz. The cpu holds at 54c now thanks to the watercooling I bought for around 50 euro. And the gigabyte graficcards have 3 nice fans, I will never buy a card with 1 fan. The GTX one was on 61c and the Radeon on 65-69c when benchmarked or in game.

Both cards are good, but Radeon 7970 is still bang for the bucks.

The 7970 is the top end flagship card and certainly not "bang for the bucks", it's AMD's most expensive card. The real cards with good cost to performance ratios from them right now are 7870 and 7950's.

Your post is like telling someone a ferrari is cost effective for someone who just wants to do a 20min drive to work in the city. I also doubt you saw much if any difference going from a 670 to a 7970 unless you're gaming at say 1600x2560 or multi monitor resolutions, if you're on 1080p then the difference is likely in your head.

I noticed it both in graphics and in benchmarks. With the 7970 I had 700 more points in 3Dmark11 when benchmarked. And amd is always more bang for the buck SINCE THEY ARE CHEAPER than Nvidia with same preformance.

Yeah, that's why I'd go with AMD.  I'm looking for less expensive cards with equal performance. 

Anyway, about the OS, I have a disk here... it says Windows 7 Professional.  I don't know any more than that, it doesn't say OEM on it.  It just has a code attached that was clearly torn off of a box (I got this with a recent used computer that didn't last long, but it was not built specifically for me... bad decision I know, but relevant to this discussion). 

Does this sound transferrable to a blank HDD by the info given?  I don't know much about OS's, as should be obvious by now. lol

Originally posted by Eir_S

Yeah, that's why I'd go with AMD.  I'm looking for less expensive cards with equal performance. 

Anyway, about the OS, I have a disk here... it says Windows 7 Professional.  I don't know any more than that, it doesn't say OEM on it.  It just has a code attached that was clearly torn off of a box (I got this with a recent used computer that didn't last long, but it was not built specifically for me... bad decision I know, but relevant to this discussion). 

Does this sound transferrable to a blank HDD by the info given?  I don't know much about OS's, as should be obvious by now. lol

The best bang for buck GPU right now is the 7870 xt, however with your budget the 7850 is good and will handle GW2 on high perfectly fine. Its a good time to get a GPU atm, they come with newer games that still sell for a good amount of money.

As for the OS, the CoA(Cdkey) should say OEM software or Retail software.

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Originally posted by Eir_S
Yeah, that's why I'd go with AMD.  I'm looking for less expensive cards with equal performance. 

Anyway, about the OS, I have a disk here... it says Windows 7 Professional.  I don't know any more than that, it doesn't say OEM on it.  It just has a code attached that was clearly torn off of a box (I got this with a recent used computer that didn't last long, but it was not built specifically for me... bad decision I know, but relevant to this discussion). 

Does this sound transferrable to a blank HDD by the info given?  I don't know much about OS's, as should be obvious by now. lol

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Legally - no, OEM are tied to the initial motherboard on which they are installed, and even if it were a retail copy, you would be required to verify that it is only installed on a single computer. If it's an Upgrade edition - which is the most likely if it's in a box, then it has to follow the rules of whichever type of OS it upgraded - either OEM or Retail, and in which case it was probably an OEM edition that it upgraded.

On the side - probably will work fine, worst case is you have to call Microsoft and tell them you had to replace your motherboard because it broke.