Question on New Graphics Card Options

I upgraded the most of innards of my computer about a year and a half ago (i7 950 CPU @ 3.07GHz, 3 GB ram), but at the time I just kept my old graphics card, which is a geforce 8500 GT.

Now with new geforce 580 / 570 / 560 Ti cards on the market, I'd like to be able to run CoH with some of the bells and whistles enabled. In addition to some (or most) of the ultra (?) settings, the other big thing for me is that I’d like to increase the distance of the world draw view a bit so that the buildings and various landscape items don’t seem like they pop up out of nowhere.

The only other things that my computer gets used for are spreadsheet work, web browsing & email, and streaming Netflix to a 1080p TV (but the streaming is done via the RGB output ). My current monitor runs at 1280 x 1024 - and when not streaming Netflix - the graphics card will only be used to drive one monitor. I guess I could play on the 1080p TV… I’m just used to sitting at a desk / normal computer when playing CoH. I might try it on the TV when I get a new card that does HDMI out. So 1280 x 1024 monitor or 1080p LCD TV are the two possible output scenarios for the new card.

Given that background, and also given that I have no interest in AMD due to a bad experience in the past, would I notice any difference between a geforce 570 and a geforce 560 Ti? The reviews on the 560 seem to say that it’s almost as fast as a 570 and there are a few factory overclocked 560 Ti’s on the market, too. I won’t be playing Crysis 2 or 5 or whatever; no Call of Duty or anything like that… just CoH and non-gaming applications so I don’t think I need a geforce 580 (ok, I did play Dragon Age Origins and might play the sequel, but even the 8500 GT seemed ok with that).

Appreciate any thoughts or recommendations as to if the extra cost of a geforce 570 would show any dramatic increase in CoH graphical quality over going with a 560 Ti. I think the CPU and RAM are enough for the game right now? Thanks in advance for the advice.

Personally I would go with the GTX 560Ti but I'm cheap. The GTX 570 is generally 15% faster in games than the GTX 560Ti, but is that worth $95-110 and 50 watts more power (170 Vs 220)?

Compared to the 8500GT, either card will be an extreme improvement.

The 560Ti should be plenty enough muscle for your wishes.

Thanks a lot for all the advice. Just ordered a GTX 560Ti. Too cheep to pay for next day so I have to wait a week for it to arrive, but looking forward to the improved visuals.

Gigabyte's GV-N560OC-1GI... I did want a GV-N560SO-1GI (the one that's clocked a bit higher), but they weren't in stock and I was tired of waiting.

I was also holding out for the Gigabyte SOC version, but got tired of waiting for it too.

With enough cooling, you'll probably be able to overclock the not-overclocked card to be as fast as the overclocked one. (Does that make sense?)

The 560 should be able to murderlate CoH. You can also expect silky smooth performance at 200% world detail.

If you want to eliminate object popup, you can experiment with the "/visscale 4" command. This sets you to 400% world detail. But be wary, there is a reason this setting is not available in the menu. It hurts.

Some features tax the CPU as well as the GPU, especially the reflections, water effects, and shadows when they are on higher settings. Ambient Occlusion is practically all done on the GPU.

Good to get an official word on that. Mayhaps I should mention that I'm running a Core i7 920 clocked at 4GHz.