Hardware advise for Star Citizen YT (GPU for $500?)

=MGN=RedEagle

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Sep 16, 2016
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Hi guys,

I am working on YT/Streaming SC and I need to know what you would do with around a $500 budget as far as hardware is concerned. I have an i7-2600 @3.4Gz, 16 GB ram but only an AMD 6770.

I get from 7-14 frames per second.

I want to up the frame rate to a reasonable quality to do videos and streaming and I was wondering what GPU you would recommend considering my budget and specs.
 
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Save it and wait. SC isnt fully out. Next year if things go well zen will force intels hand. 16nm/14nm will be mature and more refined. Pcie 4.0 might release.

Dont build for a game that isnt out yet.
 

=MGN=RedEagle

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Sep 16, 2016
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mgnredeagle
Do me a quick favor before I recommend you anything.

Go into Arena Commander, not the Universe and report back on your FPS.
I get from 6-14 FPS.

Save it and wait. SC isnt fully out. Next year if things go well zen will force intels hand. 16nm/14nm will be mature and more refined. Pcie 4.0 might release.

Dont build for a game that isnt out yet.
Sadly I can't wait, I have a special situation where I get one now or I cant.
 

Reyalp CB4

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PharaohSteve

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You really should wait, but if you have to move now than I recommend the following :

If you're only going for the GPU at this time a GTX 1070 is great and will future proof you for a few more years as it's already capable running VR and 4k games. I personally would recommend throwing in another $100 - $200 and upgrading your CPU as well. The i7 6700k is great for streaming and will cut down your video rendering times as well.

In the meantime, follow this guide and see if you can tweak anything to pick up some frames : https://testsquadron.com/threads/custom-user-cfg-guide-and-information.7630/
 

Thalstan

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You have an Intel, I recommend Nvidia. If you had AMD, I would recommend AMD (I just think those combos work better)
Bias alert: I am an Nvidia and Intel user and have been since the Riva TNT2 card and my first 286. I am not an AMD/ATI fan, so maybe someone with more favorable attitude towards AMD would put in their copper heatsink's worth.

Get the best video you can for the money. PC gamer seems to think that the Nvidia 1060 is the best bang for the buck and the 1070 slightly better, but is more expensive. Both of these should be under 500

If you are open to AMD, then check out the AMD R9 Fury X. It supposedly has the best benchmarks out there for an AMD card and those are around 500 USD.

Citing my source:

http://www.pcgamer.com/the-best-graphics-cards/

THAT SAID...your system needs an upgrade as well. Can you install more RAM? If so that will help. Are you using a 64 bit OS? If you are using 32 bit, you are not using anything just under 4 GB of memory.

What is your current plan towards upgrading your system? One component at a time or a whole new system down the line? If so, will you be taking this video card with you or leaving in place as a spare/hand-me-down?

Before you spend it all in one place, figure our what your plans are
 

Reyalp CB4

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In the meantime, follow this guide and see if you can tweak anything to pick up some frames : https://testsquadron.com/threads/custom-user-cfg-guide-and-information.7630/
yeah this as well

also keep in mind that If you are playing online like in the Mini-PU dont expect to really get more than 15-25 fps. Thats kinda average norm right now unless you end up in and instance by yourself, which doesn't last long, you are at the mercy of the servers and netcode. This supposedly will get better with 2.6 and so on, but thats a wait and see game.

The way i see it if they can log down a solid fps between 30-60 where its doesn't stay 60 but never drops below 30 id be ecstatic.
 

BUTUZ

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The AMD 6770 is really letting you down big time, it's a really powerless card compared to modern stuff. A GTX 1060/1070 or an AMD RX470/480 would be my recommendation. You'll get a huge boost in playability.

You're CPU is a bit long in the tooth (3 generations old) so I wouldn't bother buying a more expensive graphics card, to get the most out of a top of the line card you will need a new CPU and Motherboard too.
 

DansAFK

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New CPU / Motherboard would deffo be the upgrade path to take if you want to get the most out of a new graphics card.

However,

You will get a very sizeable fps gain from a GTX 1070 upgrade. The i7 2600 still performs fairly decently in quite a lot of games and shouldn't impact the GPU performance as heavily as you might imagine. I checked out a video on youtube of this cpu paired with a gtx 980 ti , true it's overclocked but it's still a good indicator imo >>
View: https://youtu.be/MW__6o4R4rs
 
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KingNerd

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I just wanted to confirm what you're saying about intel over amd for the time being. I started out not having a certain choice and about 8 years ago got into working on computers professionally. I have spent several years in a shop working desktop and laptops stuff, a couple years doing servers and networks and 3 or 4 more doing everything. My most recent machine, the one I'm running right now, is running an AMD A10 7850K which is in my opinion a fine processor but I chose it for a certain reason.

I wanted to build a tiny gaming rig that had the best onboard GPU currently on the market and so I purchased this processor for that reason. I ended up not building my NES computer (would have been awesome) and got into star citizen, now my mini board with that CPU is in a big full size case to accommodate my R9 390 8g video card. With that much power I'm not having any issues running star citizen but for how much I spent on this rig I better not have a problem. With that being said if I could start from scratch and build a rig that's NOT meant to be inside of a gutted out NES console I would have went with a full size board, a new gforce 1080 and an intel i5 CPU.

Although it used to be necessary or better to run an AMD cpu with a Radeon card that issue was fixed over 5 years ago, it hasn't been a relevant issue in a long time and it won't be coming back. It's not true that you get "more power" from a radeon being in an AMD machine anymore except for a few core features that are so insignificant they shouldn't even mention them.

The fact of the matter is at the time that I'm typing this the best GPU's on the planet (don't waste your money on anything else please god) are the new GForce 1060, 1070, 1080's and NOTHING comes close to their level of power. i'm not saying that as a fan boy or anything, I'm not, it's just the truth. Math doesn't lie! And some people will say "well only by 20% der der" and you know what, ignore those people because 20% is 20% when you're paying almost the same price. if you believe the other way how about you send me $20 paypal and I'll send it back with 20% less and it's a great deal!

My advice? Keep your current rig, buy the new EVGA 1070 and rock away my friend! Anything else is either a waste of money or overall loss of power unless you can go bigger and spring for the 1080. Also, if you just "wait" and buy a card then you'll never get one, there is ALWAYS going to be a better one right over the horizon, it's the law of how these things work. Get what you can while you can and don't regret it later, enjoy it while it's hot and in 5 years replace it when you can't play the new games you want to play.


You have an Intel, I recommend Nvidia. If you had AMD, I would recommend AMD (I just think those combos work better)
Bias alert: I am an Nvidia and Intel user and have been since the Riva TNT2 card and my first 286. I am not an AMD/ATI fan, so maybe someone with more favorable attitude towards AMD would put in their copper heatsink's worth.

Get the best video you can for the money. PC gamer seems to think that the Nvidia 1060 is the best bang for the buck and the 1070 slightly better, but is more expensive. Both of these should be under 500

If you are open to AMD, then check out the AMD R9 Fury X. It supposedly has the best benchmarks out there for an AMD card and those are around 500 USD.
 
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DansAFK

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What you will find is the Nvidia GTX 10 series cards will produce similar if not better fps to the AMD counterparts whilst using less power. I wouldn't argue that Nvidia is flat out better at every level though.

The GTX 1060 counterpart would be a RX 480, performance comparisons are very close depending on the game. Games that are heavily optimised for DX12 from the outset actually pull slightly more FPS out of RX480 than the Nvidia gtx 1060. Doom being the main example here.
I paid a little more for my EVGA GTX 1060 6GB SC , £259 << vs >> £250 for a Sapphire rx480 8gb

The only reason I went nvidia this time round is because the card uses less power and is super compact, it scores a little higher in some of the benchmarks for games I tend to play and it can pull even further ahead if you overclock it. In the future when we see a dx12 implementation into star citizen theres a good chance the rx480 will pull ahead especially with its 8gb video memory vs 6gb. But then thats the reason I bought in at the low end of the GTX 10 series, I can sell it in a year and buy a GTX 1080 at a reduced price or whatever 11 series newer generation card they bring out which will probably slightly beat the GTX 1070 at entry level prices.

For the GTX 1070 vs the RX480 your usually looking at a 30 fps lead at 1080p on most benchmarks in favour of the 1070.

The GTX 1080 doesn't really have much of a AMD counterpart at this point, arguably 2 x RX480 in crossfire if you wanted to go down that route, but more power , more heat and a cf motherboard if you don't already own one.


For cpu's however, intel all the way baby! I'v had AMD processors for 15+ years and switched to a i7 6700k at the beginning of this year. Wow it made a difference even in things like star citizen. Although if the new AMD Zen processors truly live up to the hype surrounding them then they could be a really good contender to match performance of what we currently get from intel.
 
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BUTUZ

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AMD CPUs never live up to the hype.
 
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NoTick

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I suggest an increase of RAM as well... So Maybe RAM and a 1060 GTX as pricing allows.
 
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DansAFK

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Got the gtx 1060 and went from 14 frames to 57.
Awesome! Massive jump for you :) I am really happy with my GTX 1060 so far, I have been playing the new tomb raider game at full settings. Looks gorgeous and runs really well. Have you set up the shadowplay stuff yet? ALT + Z , I leave mine constantly recording 5 mins of footage and hit a hotkey on the keyboard to capture gaming moments or take screenies.

Some shadowplay screenies from tombraider, all in game engine.




 
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