Maximan Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 (edited) EDIT: Okay all, no need to reply to this thread anymore, I've had a conversation with SkyrimTuner (the author of Realvision) and he informed me that ENB is optimized for nVidia GPU's, and ENB and mods present less issues for nVidia GPU's. The GTX 960 is the best card within my price range. Thank you. This thread can now be closed. TL;DR - Will the GTX 960 handle SR:LE and REGS at 720p on Medium/High settings while overclocked? I can drop textures and use performance optional mods. All I need is 50+ FPS. Hey all. I'm in the market for a decent GPU. I've been playing Skyrim modded with SRLE + REGS + a few other custom mods for quite a while now on Intel HD 4600 graphics, though I rarely ever play because, as you can probably tell, it's a terrible experience with an iGPU. I seem to have everything properly set up, but I'm still adding a few mods. Anyways, I should get to the specs before the issue on hand. I5-4690K @4.2Ghz8GB Corsair Vengeance Pro RAM 2133Mhz750W EVGA PSU128GB Crucial MX100 SSD720p Insignia TV The other specs really don't play much of a role in performance. And yes, yes, I know, 720p is terrible, don't remind me. But at the moment that is what I'm stuck with until I upgrade. Everything else seems to be good enough. So, I can't really go over $250. I've narrowed my choices down to a GTX 960 4GB or an R9 280x 6GB. Everything seems to be going towards the GTX 960 except for performance. Heat, noise, features (0Db fan profile, I'm not talking about Gameworks), and it's a newer card that doesn't present as many issues as AMD's 200 line did, such as black screen and driver bugs. The R9 280X does lead in performance though, and has more VRAM, but considering neither of the cards can handle 4k textures at settings maxed out then I doubt I'll cross over 4GB any time soon. The card I want to get is the MSI GTX 960 Gaming 4G.https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127860 Or should I get the Gigabyte version?https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125777 My question is, can this card handle Skyrim at 720p with settings on Medium/High when combined with SRLE and REGS? I have no issue dropping textures to performance versions. I want ENB on full blast as well, but I can drop some features such as blur and such. I see Neovalen has a GTX 980 but again, I'm playing on 720p and can drop settings. All I want is 50+ FPS. I'll more than likely only use a bit of AA as well. So, is the GTX 960 enough? This will be my first ever card in my first ever build (already built). My plan is to have this until Arctic Islands/Pascal comes out in a good year to year and a half. By then, those cards should crush Skyrim at 4k with well over 400+ mods and the heaviest of ENB's. I'm sitting here with an Intel iGPU right now and it saddens me to see that Skyrim is sitting there in my Steam library, setup and ready to go but without a proper card :( Also, I'll more than likely be pushing this card to 1500Mhz-1600Mhz to squeeze out more juice. When I get my Corsair H100i GTX then I'll also push my CPU as far as possible as well, though I doubt I'll hit 4.6Ghz or above. One more thing. With the new 300 series from AMD, will there be price drops on these cards? I'm going to purchase tomorrow. My other post is on the other mods I'm going to add on top of SR:LE and REGS.https://forum.step-project.com/topic/8174-skyrim-revistedle-mod-suggestions/ Thanks! Edited June 19, 2015 by Maximan
darkside Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 (edited) Both cards should be fine at 720p. I don't know about best card in that price range. Edited June 19, 2015 by darkside
Maximan Posted June 19, 2015 Author Posted June 19, 2015 Both cards should be fine at 720p. I don't know about best card in that price range.Alright, that's good then. However, it seems I've made a split second decision, and apparently this came out.https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127878&cm_re=r9_380-_-14-127-878-_-Product I've seen reviews where the 2Gb version outperforms a GTX 960 4GB version in some games. Considering this also has a 256 bit bus width would this make this the better choice?
phazer11 Posted June 19, 2015 Posted June 19, 2015 NO get the 4GB because at the very least with skyrim you'll regret not getting the higher VRAM.
Maximan Posted June 19, 2015 Author Posted June 19, 2015 NO get the 4GB because at the very least with skyrim you'll regret not getting the higher VRAM.Don't worry, I know that I should get the 4Gb version (Mods eat VRAM), that's why the card I linked is a 4GB version :) I was simply making the observation that the 2GB version of the R9 380 outperforms the 4Gb GTX 960.
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