Need Video Card recommendation
Printed From: ASRock.com
Category: Technical Support
Forum Name: Intel Motherboards
Forum Description: Question about ASRock Intel Motherboards
URL: https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=3067
Printed Date: 21 Jul 2025 at 9:06am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Need Video Card recommendation
Posted By: shane49
Subject: Need Video Card recommendation
Date Posted: 20 Jul 2016 at 3:35pm
| I need a recommendation for a video graphics card to add into my PC. It has an Asrock B75M R2.0 motherboard and both PCIE slots are free. CPU is Intel Core I5-3570. Memory is 8Gb. I want to be able to play "Ghost of a Tale" (http://www.ghostofatale.com) when it is released, but reading the latest news on that website, my PC with it's integrated graphics just ain't going to cut it. I also have "Witcher 2" which just will not run on my PC as it is. I have had a bit of a look around the Asrock website and it seems that an AMD Radeon card of some type is supported, but I'm a bit lost now and would really appreciate some advice on what video card to look at. Many thanks in advance. |
Replies:
Posted By: wardog
Date Posted: 20 Jul 2016 at 6:29pm
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The below is where I suggest my customers go for graphic card requirements per game. http://www.game-debate.com/can-I-run/" rel="nofollow - http://www.game-debate.com/can-I-run/ |
Posted By: shane49
Date Posted: 20 Jul 2016 at 8:42pm
| Thanks, already ran a scanner on machine, which reported the inbuilt Intel HD Graphics as hopelessly inadequate, hence the quest for an appropriate add-on graphics card. |
Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 20 Jul 2016 at 8:57pm
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I would look at either a GTX 1060 or a non-reference Radeon RX 480 as best value/$ or if your budget is tight then look at an R7 360 which can be had for cheap now. Do not buy a reference RX 480 at this time as there is a good chance you could have problems with it, non reference designs however have corrected the issues the reference design suffer from.
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Posted By: PetrolHead
Date Posted: 21 Jul 2016 at 6:11am
I'd take everything on that page with a grain of salt, since the minimum and recommended specs may not be accurate (at least not compared to what is stated in, say, Steam). Also, don't trust the Projected FPS Analysis as it can be _way_ off the mark. For Battleborn it suggests that I can run it @ 1080p Ultra and 30 FPS, when in reality the game is unplayable at anything more than 1176x664 and the lowest possible settings. Even then the FPS varies between 20-40 FPS, making the game very sluggish at times and ruining the experience. ------------- Ryzen 5 1500X, ASRock AB350M Pro4, 2x8 GB G.Skill Trident Z 3466CL16, Sapphire Pulse RX Vega56 8G HBM2, Corsair RM550x, Samsung 960 EVO SSD (NVMe) 250GB, Samsung 850 EVO SSD 500 GB, Windows 10 64-bit |
wardog wrote:Posted By: PetrolHead
Date Posted: 21 Jul 2016 at 6:21am
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shane49, what PSU are you using? Its power rating and quality may limit your options. ------------- Ryzen 5 1500X, ASRock AB350M Pro4, 2x8 GB G.Skill Trident Z 3466CL16, Sapphire Pulse RX Vega56 8G HBM2, Corsair RM550x, Samsung 960 EVO SSD (NVMe) 250GB, Samsung 850 EVO SSD 500 GB, Windows 10 64-bit |
Posted By: shane49
Date Posted: 21 Jul 2016 at 6:35am
| It is an ATX 620. But, if necessary I am prepared to replace the PSU. |
Posted By: PetrolHead
Date Posted: 21 Jul 2016 at 7:02am
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Just a generic 620 W PSU? That doesn't bode well for quality, but on the other hand the power output should be more than enough for GTX 1060. The AIB RX 480s are a bit of a question mark at the moment. ------------- Ryzen 5 1500X, ASRock AB350M Pro4, 2x8 GB G.Skill Trident Z 3466CL16, Sapphire Pulse RX Vega56 8G HBM2, Corsair RM550x, Samsung 960 EVO SSD (NVMe) 250GB, Samsung 850 EVO SSD 500 GB, Windows 10 64-bit |
Posted By: shane49
Date Posted: 21 Jul 2016 at 7:07am
| Yes, cheap generic PSU. Would you recommend something better ? |
Posted By: PetrolHead
Date Posted: 22 Jul 2016 at 5:34am
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I would if you didn't have a PSU already. Now I really don't know if it's worth the extra money, since it should be able to handle the GTX 1060 (and most likely the RX 480) which have been suggested. Also, I have no idea how good or bad your current PSU really is. For all I know it might serve you well for several years and a new PSU might be faulty and taker your whole rig with it in a puff of smoke. But... If you were to switch to a well-known PSU brand, you should consider your possible future needs and balance them with your current ones. Are you going to overclock the computer? Are you going to buy several GPUs? Are you going for AMD or Intel? Etc. List the parts you'd like to have now and think about the upgrades you might need within the next couple of years. That will give you a rough estimate of the power output you need. Then you can use the Tom's Hardware's PSU tier list as a guideline: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html You might also want to check out some buyer's guides just to get an idea what you should be looking for (I just googled these quickly, I'm not sure if they're outdated or not): http://www.anandtech.com/show/8754/psu-buyers-guide-holiday-2014 http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-your-own-pc,2601-7.html ------------- Ryzen 5 1500X, ASRock AB350M Pro4, 2x8 GB G.Skill Trident Z 3466CL16, Sapphire Pulse RX Vega56 8G HBM2, Corsair RM550x, Samsung 960 EVO SSD (NVMe) 250GB, Samsung 850 EVO SSD 500 GB, Windows 10 64-bit |
Posted By: shane49
Date Posted: 22 Jul 2016 at 8:59am
What about the Nvidia cards ? They seem to use less power than the Radeon ones due to their newer architecture.
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Posted By: shane49
Date Posted: 22 Jul 2016 at 10:29am
| Due to budget constraints, I'm favouring either the GeForce GTX 950 or the Radeon R9 380. Any comments on these two ? |
Posted By: PetrolHead
Date Posted: 22 Jul 2016 at 4:17pm
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The GTX 950 is aimed at people who are on a budget and mainly play e-sports games such as League of Legends and CS:GO, which do not demand much from the GPU. I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone. The R9 380 beats the GTX 950 and even the GTX 960 in most gaming benchmarks and synthetic tests, so I'd say it's a lot better choice. There are differences between different AIB cards (cooling, amount of OC, quality of components), so before buying one you should read at least a few reviews. I'd go for the version with 4 GB of RAM (unless the price difference to the 2 GB model is big), since it's marginally more future proof. Edit: Remember to compare the prices between the R9 380 4 GB model and the RX 480 4 GB model. ------------- Ryzen 5 1500X, ASRock AB350M Pro4, 2x8 GB G.Skill Trident Z 3466CL16, Sapphire Pulse RX Vega56 8G HBM2, Corsair RM550x, Samsung 960 EVO SSD (NVMe) 250GB, Samsung 850 EVO SSD 500 GB, Windows 10 64-bit |
Posted By: shane49
Date Posted: 22 Jul 2016 at 5:36pm
Man,I reckon I've read and viewed about a hundred reviews and comparisons in the last 3 hours, youtube and web based. This is such a complex arena with so many conflicting opinions, it makes me scared to actually make a decision. The only thing that makes me hesitate about the R9 380 is the hungry power needs, I'm not at the same location as my desktop right now so I can't see what spare power connections are floating around, will check in 3 days time. I have learned an enormous amount of information on gaming video cards in the past 2 days. Many thanks to all those contributors who have taken the time to help me on this, you are gems !
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Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 22 Jul 2016 at 6:46pm
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I agree with PetrolHead on the r9 380, it is by far the better option between the two you are looking at. I am using a GTX 960 and aside from my compulsive desire to upgrade with every new generation I am very happy with it. I have the 2gb model which is a little short in some games (for high textures) so I wish I had waited for the 4gb version. The 380 is more or less equal to the 960 (win some lose some depending on game and factory overclocks on either card). Even with the reasonable pricing on the RX 480 and GTX 1060 they are still a little expensive for those on a budget. -------------
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Posted By: shane49
Date Posted: 23 Jul 2016 at 7:29am
| OK, thanks again Xaltar & Petrolhead, I'll aim for the R9 380, they are both the same price here in Australia - $AUD 249. |
Posted By: PetrolHead
Date Posted: 23 Jul 2016 at 11:06am
Remember that benchmarking video games is not really an exact science. The results may vary a couple of % between runs even on the same computer with the same settings, so it's no surprise that different people running benchmarks on different rigs, different settings and even different drivers get different results. This is why it's a good idea to read through several reviews and concentrate more on trends than individual results or exact FPS figures. By the way, I'd pay extra attention to GPU reviews that don't only report the average FPS in benchmarks, but also the 99 and 99.9 percentile FPS (i.e. the average of the lowest 1% and .1%, respectively). Some reviews are even reporting frame times. This is all valuable information since it will give an indication of how consistent the performance is and reveal differences between GPUs that are not visible in the average FPS values. Edit: I see you've made your decision (I was went afk mid-post for several hours). In that case I'd maybe stop reading reviews so that you won't start to unnecessarily doubt your choice. ;) It is worth considering which AIB card to choose, though. Not all brands are equal. Have you decided which brand you'll go for yet? ------------- Ryzen 5 1500X, ASRock AB350M Pro4, 2x8 GB G.Skill Trident Z 3466CL16, Sapphire Pulse RX Vega56 8G HBM2, Corsair RM550x, Samsung 960 EVO SSD (NVMe) 250GB, Samsung 850 EVO SSD 500 GB, Windows 10 64-bit |
Posted By: shane49
Date Posted: 23 Jul 2016 at 1:23pm
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Posted By: PetrolHead
Date Posted: 23 Jul 2016 at 2:45pm
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Sorry, I should've been clearer. I meant AIB partner brands - for example Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, Sapphire and XFX - who make their own versions based on the R9 380 GPU. These cards may differ in many ways from each other, so while the GPU itself will be the same in each, there may be differences in size, how many power connectors the card uses, how silent and efficient the cooling is, how easy it is to overclock, is the GPU factory overclocked etc. Prices will also be different for different models and the difference between the cheapest and most expensive model may be significant. ------------- Ryzen 5 1500X, ASRock AB350M Pro4, 2x8 GB G.Skill Trident Z 3466CL16, Sapphire Pulse RX Vega56 8G HBM2, Corsair RM550x, Samsung 960 EVO SSD (NVMe) 250GB, Samsung 850 EVO SSD 500 GB, Windows 10 64-bit |
Posted By: shane49
Date Posted: 23 Jul 2016 at 4:41pm
| Yes, I'm already comparing different manufacturer's versions of the R9 380. I have seen how performance differs between a couple of them, so I'll be doing some more research into each different model of this card next week. Thanks again for your comments. |
Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 23 Jul 2016 at 9:16pm
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General rule of thumb, always get the best one you can afford that has the best cooling solution and power design. The details on power design can be hard to find but generally google should be all you need to find it. A solid power design means the card gets more, more stable power and will have a better chance to overclock well compared to a weaker power design. My Gigabyte GTX 960 G1 Gaming for example has the same power design as most other GTX 980s and as a result was a phenomenal overclocker. Even if you do not plan to overclock the GPU, the better cooling and power design usually accompany higher factory clocks. -------------
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Posted By: shane49
Date Posted: 28 Jul 2016 at 1:52pm
| OK, nearly at end of this exercise. I have managed to buy a Sapphire Radeon 2Gb R9 380 Nitro OC card for AUD $195. I'm going to follow this up with a PSU upgrade to a Thermaltake Toughpower 550W 80+ Gold unit for AUD $119. Many thanks again to all who contributed to this thread. |
Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 28 Jul 2016 at 2:15pm
Enjoy your upgrade  -------------
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Posted By: PetrolHead
Date Posted: 31 Jul 2016 at 1:12am
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Sounds like a nice combo. Happy gaming! :) ------------- Ryzen 5 1500X, ASRock AB350M Pro4, 2x8 GB G.Skill Trident Z 3466CL16, Sapphire Pulse RX Vega56 8G HBM2, Corsair RM550x, Samsung 960 EVO SSD (NVMe) 250GB, Samsung 850 EVO SSD 500 GB, Windows 10 64-bit |
Posted By: shane49
Date Posted: 05 Aug 2016 at 2:42pm
| I installed the Sapphire card and the new PSU yesterday, what a staggering difference ! Must go back and have another look at all my other games now. Cheers everybody ! |