[Solved] Well-supported and powerful video card?

I'm sick of dealing with Catalyst updates breaking my system and crashing Starcraft 2, so I'm thinking I'll buy a new card for my rig. I want to get something that'll work better and make my life easier.
So I'm looking for a desktop (PCI-e) video card, probably nVidia, that can replace my current Radeon HD 5770. I'd like something relatively quiet and not too power-greedy (this PC is right next to my bed and on 24/7) but powerful enough to support my two monitors, play back 1080P h.264 easily, and do some occasional gaming, the most extreme of which would be SC2 in WINE (I don't need to max out the settings, but a good framerate with more-than-minimum settings would be nice.)
My price range is flexible. Maybe around $200, preferably less, but I'd spend a bit more if it's justified.
So: what are you guys using that's working well for you? Anyone have any recommendations on what card to buy?
EDIT: I ended up getting a GTX 460. It's everything I wanted - quiet, powerful, good driver support. Well, I haven't confirmed yet that Starcraft 2 runs without crashing (as it had a habit of doing under my 5770) but at least it runs unlike under the most recent ATI drivers.
Last edited by mDuo13 (2010-09-10 04:46:14)

My card (the aforementioned GTX 460) arrived. I installed it today with no hitches. Everything worked great except it took me a couple tries to get Starcraft 2 to run (it initially crashed because it couldn't resize my Twinview desktop). I fixed it by creating a Metamode in the nvidia-settings utility where I turned my secondary monitor to "Off". Just switch metamodes, open SC2, and switch metamodes again when done. I may come up with an even simpler solution eventually, but in general, I'm super-happy with how effortless it was getting everything installed, set up, and configured.
And as to the comments on the size of the card - this card is not small at 9.5" or something, but that's comparable to the 5770 I had before and like I said, my case is HUGE. I had like 6 inches to spare behind the card. XD That said, people with ordinary cases probably should measure.
Last edited by mDuo13 (2010-09-10 04:51:08)

Similar Messages

  • 2008 MAC PRO - ORANGE Screen of Death, well death of your video card.

    2008 MAC PRO - ORANGE Screen of Death, well death of your video card.
    My wife's MAC PRO had this occur yesterday, here is how I solved the problem as the system was out of warrantee. System had the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT for the MAC.
    Symptom: System starts boot as normal, see the grey apple screen, just as the desktop screen is to start, the screen turn completely orange. Attempted several reboots, holding down the diagnostic keys, re-installed the video card after cleaning, all these actions resulted with the orange screen.
    Solution: Go to the Apple store and buy the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 Graphics Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro - around $149 at time of posting. The card will work in a 2008 MAC PRO as long as you have upgraded to Requires Mac OS X v10.5.6 or later. Card has DVI and MINI Display port so I also purchased the Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter (you can find these online for less then the Apple adapters) to support my wife's second monitor.
    Replace the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 and system started right up with no issues.
    Hope this helps.

    Sort of falls into the "common sense" though the GT120 cost and performance, I would have recommended the ATI 5770 for $100 more is all.
    What is annoying is Apple doesn't offer a 10.6.5+ DVD to boot from or a way to slipstream the ATI support drivers. Some Mac Pro (2009) can boot with 10.6.3 DVD with the ATI 5770 but in general you need 10.6.4-1/2 (the Mid-2010 build number).

  • I have an older Power Mac G5 Quad, and my video card just went out. I am trying to find a video card that will work for my Power Mac. I have duel screens but I can't seem to find the appropriate video card

    I have an older Power Mac G5 Quad, and my video card just went out. I am trying to find a video card that will work for my Power Mac. I have duel screens but I can't seem to find the appropriate video card. The serial number on my computer is: RM620603R6W. Apple won't help me because the computer is older than suggested. Please give me the exact video card that will work best for my computer.

    Hi Mike, make sure the card has Mac ROM, or is a PC card with Mac ROMs flashed to it...
    G5 PCIe options are listed here:
    http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Blog/71BBF3EF-9713-4C53-8B80-26771F8 A4087.html

  • 10.10.3 breaks support for ATI video cards

    The 10.10.3 update has broken support for a bunch of ATI video cards that worked just fine under 10.10.2. This is for my Mac Pro 5,1. Some folks also reported issues with breaking support for Nvidia cards, but have mentioned that the latest Nvidia beta drivers might work.
    There is a thread that may be found here that has some details:
    OS X 10.10.3 Update
    and here (reverting back to 10.10.2 fixes things):
    http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1864352
    Specifically, my Visiontek Eyefinity 6 7750 stopped working, and another users Radeon 7770 stopped working.  Yet, the 7970 continues to work.  Reverting to the old ATI 5770 that came with the machine renders it usable. This is a problem as the 7750 only took a single slot, and the two 5770s eat up 3 slots so I can't use my USB 3 card, etc.
    I remember this once happened before.  I think it was with the 10.9.2 update which borked a bunch of video cards that worked fine under 10.9.1, and then were again made to work just fine with the 10.9.3 update.
    All the 'standard' fixes have been attempted.  Clean installs.  Fix permissions. Etc.
    Not sure why apple would seemingly disable support for these cards, other than by accident, I assume, much like happened with the 10.9.2 update.
    Also not sure if just copying the correct driver from 10.10.2 might solve the problem until Apple get's around to fixing the issue.  Has anyone tried?  Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Thanks!

    Hi, i am using dual Cinema Display 30 and 23 with a HIS ATI 7750 1 GB on a Mac Pro 3.1. Post upgrade from 10.10.2 to 10.10.3 my display eded unusable blurry. Therefore I have tried to replace the 10.10.3 kext with the previous 10.10.2. But it did not work out as expected. I managed to get some video output but no acceleration at all. Therefore the system is unusable. Therefore i full downgraded to 10.10.2 now.
    Never the less it might be a good starting point for someone to get acceleration running. This is what I did:
    I have to set the nvram variable kext-dev-mode=1, but be warned this will allow any unsigned > .kext to load, including rootlets, malware, etc.
    I did this in order to allow me to modify the kext if necessary and to ensure that if 10.10.2 kext might be locked that they still be loaded and the computer will not be prevented from boot.
    sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1"
    sudo shutdown -r now
    Post this i copied from my other Mac running 10.10.2 the file /System/Library/Extensions/AMDRadeonX4000.kext to my Mac Pro 3.1 running 10.10.3 with no proper video output. Basically i copied all ATI related kext from one mac to the other.
    copied  [MAC10.10.2]/System/Library/Extensions/ATI* ----> [MAC10.10.3]/System/Library/Extensions/ATI*
    copied  [MAC10.10.2]/System/Library/Extensions/AMD* ----> [MAC10.10.3]/System/Library/Extensions/AMD*
    someone needs to do a diff here to identify the file with is necessary the only one i found with a significant change seems to be AMDRadeonX4000.kext
    I forced to rebuild kext cache manually
    sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions
    sudo kextcache -m /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/Extensions.mkext /System/Library/Extensions
    And reboot!
    sudo shutdown -r now
    After the reboot I had  display output but no acceleration at all. Seeing the video out put made me happy but the system is unusable to to the lack of acceleration of the display. I am really looking forward for Apple to fix the update and to reapply support for the ATI GPUs hence it allows to save environmental resources to keep good products like the Mac Pro 3.1 running...

  • E30 power supply/cables and upgrading video card.

    I'm thinking of buying a decent gaming card, but I can't seem to find any power cables inside my system. The video card I'm looking at has a six pin connector on it. Also, just in case I need to upgrade the power supply, is the power supply unit standard ATX?
    Solved!
    Go to Solution.

    welcome to the forum!
    the E30 doesn't come with a PCI power connector due to it only being qualified to run the quadro NVS, 400, 600, and 2000/2000D workstation graphics cards.   you would need a different PSU entirely.   due to warranty and support reasons we can't recommend aftermarket PSUs in this system.
    besides, depending on the GPU you're considering, the E30 might not have sufficient airflow to support it.   these are workstations after all and not gaming systems.
    similar advice was given to another E30 owner in this thread.   i'm not sure what makes the E30 such a compelling gaming platform but to each their own.
    ThinkStation C20
    ThinkPad X1C · X220 · X60T · s30 · 600

  • Got 970A-G46 No support for 4 Video cards?

    Hello, Got this board under the impression I would be able to run 4x individual video cards under a Linux install for work related projects, thus each card is on its own processing data. Right now I have 3 video cards working, but once I introduce the 4th video card, the motherboard starts to not work correctly as in sometimes 1 video card works, and none of them are detected, I do a reboot  then a different card is seen and that's it.
    I have verified I have enough power from my PSU
    I'm using x1-x16 power risers so each card is hooked up for power to reduce the strain on the motherboard itself.
    I have verified that each card is non DOA, each riser is correctly working and tested.
    I'm trying to figure this out so I don't gotta swap to another board which will allow me to run 4x Video cards for my work related projects at my job. Thanks.
    Latest Video drivers, latest BIOS, RAM working correctly, nothing is overheating. each PCI-e slot is alive.

    Quote from: flobelix on 01-May-14, 23:14:16
    It is not possible to run the board with four vgas. NO 970 board is meant for that tasks. Abnormal usage for mining is not officially supported and a matter of your luck and your research to find products working with odd configs. This board features two physical X16 slots and these are obviously the only slots to support vgas. There is no X1 vga. Risers aren't supported. The maximum possible with 970A-G46 is using two vgas in the x16 slots (x8/x8 config). That means besides using two vgas for multimonitor/physx setups also SLI and Crossfire (each two-way) are possible.
    Well I was using it for non-mining projects, running ocl-Hashcat. Not sure why everyone assumes its for mining coins.

  • Ray Traced 3d and MY video card overheats

    Hello,
    First off, I am not trying to get support to fix this, although some insight what might be going on would be great if someone has an idea.  I am using a GTX 480 with After Effects.  Yes, I realize this is not a supported GPU but it does work, in my case, not the best.
    THE ISSUE:  I created a motion graphic that was basically 3 words and some shadows and reflections. I used the ray trace 3d render option, and when I was close to being done, I tried to render it.  Unfortunately the video card temps skyrocketed from 70-80 to over 100 degrees celsius before rendering 2 seconds of the clip. 
    Is this something anyone else using a similar video card has experienced?  I just want to see if anyone else has this issue using a GTX 480. Again I understand its not supported by Adobe, but this is what forums are for, to find others that may have had same issue.
    I can still render, but it involves me pushing the card to the limit, pausing, and then restarting after the card has cooled down.  I do have the most recent drivers from Nvidia, v 306.23.  The ambient temps in my house are around 70 degrees Farenhiet, and my card idles at around 45-50degrees celcius.  I have 24 gigs of ram and a i7 920. just for comparison sake, not sure if this is needed.
    It might be an air flow problem too.  I plan on getting a new pc when the new i7's come out next year, but this is putting a hamper on my work now. I am only a hobbyist/part time freelance at the moment.
    Thanks for any input.

    I believe standard maintenance for air cooled electronic equipment that has no air filtration system built in should be a monthly light cleaning and a semi annual thorough cleaning. One of the facilities that I occasionally work for on a freelance basis only cleans their machines when they fail. Something has failed on almost a third of my visits.
    The last PC I built I put a filter in the air inlets. There's all kinds of materials you can get that do a good job of catching most of the lint without fouling up the air flow.
    I have my laptops cleaned at least semi annually but I vacuum out the air vents twice a month with a low power device that doesn't spin up the internal fans. You've got to be careful that you don't damage the equipment by over revving rotating parts with too much air pressure.
    If I were to set up an office workspace I'd put an electrostatic air cleaner in the office to minimize dust. One equipment failure on a project with a deadline would pay for a really high end filtration system. I run electrostatic air filtration in my home instead of the paper air filters on the HVAC system. It's amazing how little dust and lint we get in the house.

  • Can anyone recommend an OS and/or video card upgrade?

    Dear experienced video editors!:
    I am currently trying to send a 1080p (Pro Res 422-encoded) Final Cut Pro 6 sequence to Motion 3 to do some effects work and the following message (from Motion 3) arose when I tried the "Send to Motion" command:
    "This project is too large to render with these settings.  Your hardware cannot support a project of this size.  Try reducing the resolution of the project."
    My questions for anyone able to help me are:  What 'settings' are they referring to?  Which 'hardware' cannot support my project, exactly? and What can I do to do my effects work in Motion 3 without reducing the resolution? 
    I have an early 2007 model Mac Pro desktop with the following specs...
    2 X 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
    Mac OS X (ver 10.5.8)
    6 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM memory
    ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card
    The footage I am editing was shot with a Canon T3i at 24p at 1920x1080 res.  Before bringing the footage into Final Cut Pro 6, it was transcoded from H.264 to Pro Res 422.
    Any advice is appreciated!
    Shaun M

    Hi Shaun, here's some video card choices, but check which Mac Pro they work on, might even ask OWC for Motion details...
    http://eshop.macsales.com/Search/Search.cfm?Ntk=Primary&Ns=P_Popularity|1&Ne=5000&N=7418&Ntt=video+cards

  • Parallels and 128MB Video Card

    So I have a brand new 15" MBP with the 128MB video card and when I boot up XP in Parallels, I am told that the drivers aren't up to date for the card to be used in XP. Nvidia has no drivers for a 32bit version of XP which is making things a bit difficult for me. Anyone have this problem or know how I can over come it?

    You don't need drivers for an operating system inside Parallels.
    This is provided by the Parallels tools installation. You don't need to install any NVidia or ATI drivers inside Windows XP.
    If you are trying to get 3D Acceleration to work- note that it doesn't support Direct X 9.1 (despite Parallel's claim it does) and performance is dismal at best.
    -SC

  • G5 Quad and dual video card question

    I purchased the Quad with the 7800 GT..I originally had 2 monitors on the one card. In doing so you are splitting the Vram into 125 meg per monitor..I don't want that since my CGI demands require more screen redraw from my working monitor..so I purchased another card for my pallet monitor..the 6600LE but some (core image effect not sure) don't work..i.e...the ripple effect
    is there something about the 6600 LE that doesn't allow all of apples desktop eyecandy to work?
    G5 Quad   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

    That's interesting. The 6600 should support core image and everything else that it needs to. That's one of the cards Apple ships with the G5s. You have the 6600 in the eight lane slot right?
    Perhaps it is something screwy with the way multiple video cards are handled?
    If you want to try an experiment you could swap the 7800 and the 6600. Put the 6600 into the 16 lane slot and put the 7800 in the 8 lane slot. See if the 7800 then won't show the ripple effect.

  • USB Ports and AGP Video Card on same IRQ

    I've got a tough one.  I have 6 USB ports.  Call them 1,2,3,4,5,6. Ports 1 and 2 work fine with my new USB 2.0 80GB External Harddrive.  This pair of ports 1 and 2 are direct into motherboard.
    However system crashes when I plug USB 2.0 External Drive into ports 3,4,5,6. These are Dports with cables that plug into the MB.  One of these Dports has the four error lights which are all green.  Western Digital has cautioned against sharing this drive with other IRQs.  Says that the video card and the WD harddrive require dedicated IRQs...but I have no control of how W XP assigns them.
    Ports #3-6 work fine with mouse,  scanner, and printer etc. However they fail when trying to use WD External Hardrive.
    I also checked IRQ settings and IRQ 16 is used for a USB Port and for my MSI AGP video card.  I believe this conflict is the cause of the problem.
    So help..how do I fix this dilemma?  
    I have Windows XP and see no way to change IRQs.
    BIOS does not even show IRQ as a choice..only 1-15.  Also BIOS is latests version for my MSI 845G Max L MS-6580 mother Board.  USB drivers are all Intel.  Video Card Is MSI AGP MS-8878 G4Ti/MX 420 w TV out.  Bios and Drivers are current.
    How can I run the USB 2.0 External Harddrive in Ports 3-6?

    I did load new Intel INF Drivers and AGP drivers yesterday.
    No luck USB Ports 3-6 still fail with External Hard Drive.
    I'm not clear on how to turn back on AICP or ACIP.  BIOS?
    Also not IRQs 16-23 are listed with active devices on the Device Manager
    16 has a USB Controller at 24c2
    16 also has AGP video card
    17 has Audio '97
    17 also has Fast Eternet.
    18 has USB Controller at 24c7
    19 has USB Controller at 24c4
    23 has PCI to USB Interface.  
    Port 3-6 do work fine with mouse, dig cam, Scanner, printer.  These ports only fail with External Harddrive plugged in.  Ports 1and2 work fine with external HD??
    So question is how do I check on the IRQ ports using AIPC or APIC...or whatever the name is...thanks folks.

  • BIOS And new Video card

    So i am buying a new video card MSI GTX 970 and my PC is an h9-1300ex so i was wondring if i need to update bios or anything.
    Thanks.

    Hi, Your PC should be able to run the GTX 970. Open up your PC and check the auxiliary PCI-E power connectors and make sure that your PC has the correct plugs based one the GTX 970 model that you plan on using.  

  • Power supply died, and now video card is malfunctioning

    I had the power supply in a 24in iMac (16 months old) replaced yesterday after the computer malfunctioned (Thought it was the hard drive, tech said it was power supply and seemed to have been correct).
    The hard drive was formatted prior to sending it off to be repaired so i get it back and go to install Leopard and the resolution looks low. I install OSX anyway thinking it may be a software issue. But that didnt help. All menus have a slight pink tinge to them. Desktop background is pixalted and just ... low resolution looking.
    The video card was fine before bringing it in. I can't see why it would suddenly do this. if the video card was messed up, I would expect it to just not display anything.
    The monitor is set to 1920 x 1200 and it is correctly displaying at that resolution. It s just that colors are off and images are pixelated. Dont know how else to describe it.
    Any ideas?

    Here is an image.
    Also the background image is sort of pulsating. Really strange. http://uploader.ws/upload/200907/Picture11.jpg
    Edit: You may have to right click and open in new window
    Edit 2: Just looked at this on my other computer and it looks fine... Ill take a picture with my phone but I assume if the screen shot captured doesn't have the display malfunction that I am seeing, it means the video card is dead? Or the logic board? Arggg.
    Edit 3: Picture taken with iPhone so you can see what I see
    http://uploader.ws/upload/200907/photo_2.jpg
    Message was edited by: Vuguru

  • 4 cores or 8 cores and which video card to choose

    My father and I are presented with a dilemma. Should we get 8 core model or the 4 core model at several hundred dollars cheaper?
    I have never actually bought for myself a computer, and I want to make this one last. At the moment, 8 cores is completely top of the line, and assuming I choose such a model, I will probably have an exceptionally well computer that will last be many, many years.
    I am most likely going to at all times be running Windows and Leopard side by side using Parallels and have a game running in Windows and developing, browsing, chatting, watching movies, ventrilo, etc. in the other space.
    For this reason, would it be wise to purchase the 8 core model? It is considerably cheaper to add the extra quad core with Apple as it is nearly half the price of one found on newegg or a dell configuration. I really want this computer to last and use it for a long time and play the most top of the line games with my friends such as Age of Conan, Crysis, etc. Also, I will have a 24 inch monitor that I will also need my computer to power.
    My current computer cannot even run Age of Conan at the lowest quality settings. I figure if I want to be able to run this game at 1920x1200 resolution in Parallels while running applications on Leopard, shelling out the extra three or four hundred dollars would be worth it. Seeing as I will be using this computer for years, even though most applications do not use 8 cores now, they will then.
    I believe that the 4 core model of the Mac Pro does not allow for an additional xeon quad core, so if I did buy the single quad core model, I would not be able to add another quad core, thus limiting me. Also, even if there were, it would void my warranty.
    Also, I have heard of the 8800 GT causing some problems in the Mac Pro, typically in the first generation ones, however, I had seen cases of people noting problems in the January edition. I want to do a lot of gaming in this rig, and the 8800 is the de facto card of choice for most gamers, at a reasonable price. However, will it give me problems? I have heard of some people having 0 problems at all with this card. Will it give me those occasional blue and green lines through my monitor? Has Apple fully developed the drivers for this card? Will I have problems with it?
    Thanks for any help and I await your responses.

    Fromethius,
    you cannot assing CPUs to the VM in Parallels. In VMware you can select 1 or 2 virtual CPU for the guest OS, though that doesn't neccessarily translate 1:1 with your physical CPUs.
    As for games, neither VM nor Parallels with run most later games well; remember, shader support is only experimental right now, so your results will vary.
    I play games on Mac natively, but it depends on which ones you are after.
    The is no problem with the 8800 card. The issues talked about - which is valid - is it's subpar CORE performance. That hopefully will be addressed in a driver, but won't affect you.
    As for the system - get all you can afford. Don't wait for 'upgrades' - you'll never buy s system otherwise as something new is always on the way.
    I work with a lot of video so I have an 8 core 3.2 with 16GB or RAM - and would never want less. Does that mean you need that? Or someone else doesn't even need more? Not at all - you just need to see what you really mean to do. 4 cores and the 8800 should be just fine for you. IF you can afford the 8 core, in case you will do a lot of work at the same time, great. Otherwise, rather not skimp on memory. Anything under 4GB, IMHO, ain't good enough.
    Cheers,
    dan

  • FCP 5.0 and Kona video card

    Hi. Just upgraded to FCP v 5.0 and am having problems with my Kona card. Upgrading the software seems to have reset many a/v preferences, and I can't get video to play on my NTSC monitor. Initializing capture tool makes the screen break up into strange green and gray noise / patterns.
    Anyone else having problems? Anyone have an idea?
    Thanks in advance.

    Turns out that we needed to download some driver updates for the card. It was a relatively simple solution, but took the better part of the day to figure out, largely because Apple's tech support was really less than helpful. The folks at AJA, who make the card, were very helpful, but I think we would have figured it out a lot quicker if Apple provided better phone support for their Pro applications (to my mind, it doesn't matter that there was a third party card involved -- installing the software is what brought the issue up in the first place).
    Thanks to Bogie for the tip, though.

Maybe you are looking for

  • Error while Migrating the custom routines in Transformations

    Dear All, I am in the process of migrating BW 3.5 to BI 7.0.I migrated the Standard cubes and DSO's from BW3.5 to BI 7.0 flow successfully. But while migrating the transformations which are having the custom routines,I am facing the below errors. The

  • How do I use Dictation with an iTunes file?

    I'm trying to produce typed text from an .mp4 file that I have in iTunes.  I read about Dictation but noted that: Enhanced Dictation automatically stops listening when you switch to another window, or if you press the Fn key again, or when you click

  • Error Using Procedure In Sender JDBC

    Hi, I executed a Procedure in Informix DB to started a process. This Procedure has the following return parameters: RETURNING INTEGER,                    DATETIME YEAR TO MONTH,                    CHAR(4),                    CHAR(10),                

  • How to make adobe form as Interactive

    Hi,   I am trying to make adobe form in input-output mode ie. Interactive. For that I am passing parameter   fp_docparams-fillable = 'X' to function module which generates Adobe form (In driver pgm)  But its giving error as <u>"<i>Error in Adobe Docu

  • N-GAGE 2 is avail for download to N95 & N95 8GB

    It works on my N95-1 with no problem, but it's about 7MB to install. Use the SEARCH Luke!