Ultra-mode video card shopping guide
By
5th_Player,
Posted on: 2009-11-25 11:21 in Developers' Corner
Quote:
Once they get SLI running, I doubt that will hold true. There are some monster laptops out there.
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Originally Posted by Aramar
That's a pity...I was really hoping my 9800m GTX would at least cut it on the "reduced features" option mentioned for the lower-end desktop cards.
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Generally, it will mean that you'll get no benefit from having the second (or third, etc.) card; and in fact will usually see slightly *less* performance than a single card, because there's still some communications overhead between the two cards. Depending on how your motherboard and related components work, you may have further drawbacks; for instance, some older motherboards could run one x16 slot for a single card, or two x8 slots for SLI. In that sort of situation you're effectively at a single x8 if they don't fix things. |
Originally Posted by KatanaFury
What does SLI not being supported mean? If you have two GTX 260s in SLI will ultra mode not work at all, or will you just not see a benefit from the SLI? (As in, would it just be like a single 260)
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If they don't get it working, two GTX 260s in SLI will therefore give you technical capabilities equivalent to one GTX 260, but slightly to moderately less actual power due to overhead.
What is a more complicated question is the "two cards in one" cards, such as the GTX 295. Depending on exactly how this is done, it used to be that some such cards were internally SLI / Crossfire, and you'd only get the benefit of running half of it. Note that even currently, running two GTX 295 is described as "Quad SLI".
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Exact quote seems to be "I don't think ANY mobile graphics chip is going to be able to push ALL the features of UM on High with an acceptable FR."|
Originally Posted by Perfect_Pain
On twitter Posi told me there is no current laptop that will be able to play Ultra Mode on high settings... I was thoroughly let down...
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At this point, we're pretty sure that you want a card in the 1,000+ GFLOP range to turn Ultra Mode all the way up for quality, and it's not clear how much frame rate hit you'll get even at that level. Note that the 5770 they talk about is about 1,360 GFLOPs, respectably over that 1k figure. As of right now, the best available mobile graphics chipset I found stats for appears to be the brand-new ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5770, which clocks in at 520 GFLOPs according to ATI; basically *half* of what you'd want for so-so turned up performance. (And I don't even think there are laptops using this available yet.)
It is possible we'll eventually see a dual- Mobile 5770 laptop, although it's not going to be small either, and that would require SLI / Crossfire support working; even then, you'd barely be edging into the mid-range.
There are some "laptops" that use full-sized desktop GPUs, with special high-power power supplies, noisy cooling, and very short battery life to try and handle them. It's arguable whether they are really laptops, and Posi specifically said "mobile chipset" anyway, which would exclude them.
None of the above is intended to mean you *can't* run Ultra Mode on a laptop, just not turned all the way up. The 9800 GT is described as the minimum suggested buy-in for Ultra Mode, and it's a 500-GFLOP class card; the Mobile 5770 and the GTX 280M actually exceed that, and even the much more available and cheaper GTX 260M is only a hair behind that.
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Well I guess I should be happy then since my video card died a few months ago and I got a NVidia 285 to replace it.
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Originally Posted by Positron
I have updated the first post in this thread with the information I got today regarding a couple things.
Read it here |
Be a hero!!
While your at it please bug Nvidia to get on the physx problems revolving around 64bit windows 7 and release newer drivers that dont crash CoH.
'kinda sux having to go back to older drivers so CoH doesnt crash at random
Quote:
Her home PC has a 295Nvidia dedicated gfx card with a 260 dedicated physX card.|
Originally Posted by Miuramir
Exact quote seems to be "I don't think ANY mobile graphics chip is going to be able to push ALL the features of UM on High with an acceptable FR."
At this point, we're pretty sure that you want a card in the 1,000+ GFLOP range to turn Ultra Mode all the way up for quality, and it's not clear how much frame rate hit you'll get even at that level. Note that the 5770 they talk about is about 1,360 GFLOPs, respectably over that 1k figure. As of right now, the best available mobile graphics chipset I found stats for appears to be the brand-new ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5770, which clocks in at 520 GFLOPs according to ATI; basically *half* of what you'd want for so-so turned up performance. (And I don't even think there are laptops using this available yet.) It is possible we'll eventually see a dual- Mobile 5770 laptop, although it's not going to be small either, and that would require SLI / Crossfire support working; even then, you'd barely be edging into the mid-range. There are some "laptops" that use full-sized desktop GPUs, with special high-power power supplies, noisy cooling, and very short battery life to try and handle them. It's arguable whether they are really laptops, and Posi specifically said "mobile chipset" anyway, which would exclude them. None of the above is intended to mean you *can't* run Ultra Mode on a laptop, just not turned all the way up. The 9800 GT is described as the minimum suggested buy-in for Ultra Mode, and it's a 500-GFLOP class card; the Mobile 5770 and the GTX 280M actually exceed that, and even the much more available and cheaper GTX 260M is only a hair behind that. |
She wanted the laptop for this summer when we drive to California >.>
So she could play and have fun while I drive.
I do not see the fairness in that at all.
Ultra Mode will not be required to play GR right?
We'll be able to play it without activating Ultra Mode(or at least I hope)?
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tl;dr version-"My video card is huge, s0n."|
Originally Posted by Positron
You bring up a good point: some top-end video cards require their own power cable in your case, and some even require two. Make sure your PC's power supply can handle what you are planning on putting in. In addition, some of these cards are physically huge. I know the card I ended up putting in my home PC -barely- fit and I had to remove several other things just to get it into the slot. If you find yourself in this position and are not comfortable with the inside of your PC, have a friend do the install for you, or have it professionally done.
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Sorry, couldn't resist. Thanks for the tech info.
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Ultra mode is in i17 and is optional. So yes and yes.
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Originally Posted by Pedro Schwartz
Ultra Mode will not be required to play GR right?
We'll be able to play it without activating Ultra Mode(or at least I hope)? |
Infinity and Victory mostly
dUmb, etc.
lolz PvP anymore, Market PvP for fun and profit
What is a good video card to play Ultra Mode on Medium Requirements?
*Still hoping that Praetoria will not totally suck outside Ultra Mode*
Check out all of Noble Savage's Art threads! All things art, Super Boosters, 'Lost' Costume Pieces, Buildings, Animations, and NPC Costume Piece Conversion So, anyone know how a 9800GTS card stacks up to the 9800GT Posi mentioned? I have a Gateway FX laptop that has one of these and wondered if I'd be able to push ultramode on it.
Cool. I picked up a GTX 295 and a core i7 920 to go with it because a certain other game begged for an upgrade. It will be sweet to see CoH put it to use 
I demand charts! Venn Diagrams! Something with pictures to easily show to me and the general userbase what can or can't easily or barely run UM, etc. Less demanding and more suggesting.. if you don't have the equipment, might I suggest getting together a group of testers with a ride variety of graphics cards and let them into Test with a temporary NDA and have them do something like specific story arcs, TFs, etc, together in UM while the devs or player reps join them or watch?
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Well... filed a bug on http://ati.cchtml.com/ ... sent AMD an email... and left a post on their forums. Short of bugging Alex D to hurry up on Multi-GPU support under Gallium3D, I think that's all I can do at this point.
| UPDATE 2-10-2010: Spoke with our engineer today, and he said we were seeing excellent performance from the Radeon 5770 card, which is a mid-range card. We have not tested the 5870, but expect the performance on that card to be one of the fastest for Ultra mode. Also noteworthy is that Ultra Mode does not currently support SLI configured cards. Were working with NVidia and ATI about this, but you all can speed up the process by contacting NVidia and ATI about updating things on their end to get it to work. |
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um, no. If you read a few pages ago we have discussed the laptop thing already. Maybe you will get 1 FPS on your laptop set to absolute minimum settings of UM.
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Originally Posted by NotCold
So, anyone know how a 9800GTS card stacks up to the 9800GT Posi mentioned? I have a Gateway FX laptop that has one of these and wondered if I'd be able to push ultramode on it.
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I am so glad that my GTX 285 is (most likely) the target for running Ultra Mode on maxed out settings!
*squeeeeeee!*
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I volunteer my I5 and my HD 5770 for the testing! I currently flux between 70-100 fps in game with everything on max. If I can maintain like 30 fps with UM full blast... I'll be a super happy camper! |
Originally Posted by Mr_Hellcat
I demand charts! Venn Diagrams! Something with pictures to easily show to me and the general userbase what can or can't easily or barely run UM, etc. Less demanding and more suggesting.. if you don't have the equipment, might I suggest getting together a group of testers with a ride variety of graphics cards and let them into Test with a temporary NDA and have them do something like specific story arcs, TFs, etc, together in UM while the devs or player reps join them or watch?
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Raedon 4890 should be a good mid-range card - although you're going to still wind up paying about $200 for it.
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Originally Posted by Pedro Schwartz
What is a good video card to play Ultra Mode on Medium Requirements?
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nVidia GeForce GTX280 1024MB
So I'm assuming i'll be able to max out this ultra mode right?
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Positron, please tell me that an HD 5750 will be able to do at least in the medium range for UM...
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Desktop 9800GT|
Originally Posted by NotCold
So, anyone know how a 9800GTS card stacks up to the 9800GT Posi mentioned? I have a Gateway FX laptop that has one of these and wondered if I'd be able to push ultramode on it.
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112 SP @ 1500MHz
56 Texture Units @ 650MHz
Laptop 9800M GTS
64 SP @ 1500MHz
32 Texture Units @ 650MHz
Shakes Magic Tech Ball - Unclear, ask again later.
Shakes Magic Tech Ball - Doubtful.
I will note that the 9800M GTS isn't a bad laptop chip. On the contrary it is one of the better ones it's just laptops really aren't in the same class as desktop platforms.
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I'm currently running a business-model laptop. Decent specs (2.4 Ghz dual core, 4GB RAM, 15.4" screen, and so on). Graphically, it's running an NVidia Quadro 140M. While it is suitable for running CoX on a regular basis, I'm pretty much entirely certain that I will absolutely need to upgrade to a new system to get full benefit of Ultra-mode.
My question is: Just how far short of the most reasonable specs for Ultra-mode is my current system?
ppffffffffffffft ive got an older system with AGP.. I wont see Ultra Mode... sadly...
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Excellent update!|
Originally Posted by Positron
I have updated the first post in this thread with the information I got today regarding a couple things.
Read it here |
I'm getting more and more excited about switching to an ATI card now!
Please make that a priority.