Your priority of Features/KPI's for a Graphics card

[Zak33]

Lo people

What are you looking for in a graphics card?

In order, what are your requirements for making the choice?
By all means invent your OWN list but this ine is pretty complex I think.... but what I want to know is, what drives you?

PRICE?
PERFORMANCE IN BENCHMARKS?
POWER DRAW?
PCI EXPRESS POWER CABLE REQUIREMENTS?
NOISE?
GAME PERFORMANCE?
TEMPERATURES?
SIZE?
HEATSINK QUALITY?
BRAND?
KNOWN OVERCLOCK/BIOS TWEAKS?
AVAILABILITY (ie would you NOT buy anything if what you wanted was not there.. or be swayed to something else?)


What order do you place this stuff in?

I've just discovered I''m into quietness.... and everyone knows I want low power drain.. especially in 2d.

But size used to be important and then I deliberately moved away from SFF as it was restricting my choices.

Mine would be
NOISE
GAME PERFORMANCE (cos benchmanrks are often useless for real life)
TEMPERATURES
HEATSINK DESIGN
PRICE

[Phage]

(COMPATIBILITY - Will my current PSU, case and cables allow me to use it)
GAME PERFORMANCE
NOISE
(TEMPERATURES +ve Correlation to Power and Noise)
PRICE

[jim]

Game performance
Price

That's it to be honest. I used to be interested in noise, but I've given up now. If at some point I have a quieter PC my interest might be rekindled.

[oolon]

Ranked in order.

Price
Performance
Power Draw
Noice
Brand

I have waited for the product I wanted to be available for the price I was willing to pay for it.
Perhaps I should have paid attention to Size... might next time. My 6970 was much bigger than I expected... I can't help but remember my first PC that has a Full length graphics card in it for a while.... EGA I think we are returning to those days. I am waiting for a modern case to have slots in the front as card guides so things will have moved full circle.

Completely no interest in....
Known overclocking/Tweaks ... Stock levels here.

[amdavies]

Generally I'm looking for the sweet spot in terms of price/performance.
For instance, recently you've be able to pick up a 5830 for £77 and a 5870 for £138. Those, to me, are sweet spots that need to be addressed if you were contemplating a purchase.

[Zak33]

Phage is closest to my slection.
Price... I know it's vital guys, but 10% extra might be the difference between 12 months frontline use.. and 18 months... for the better card.


Ditto power use.. I'd always spend more to save electricity, especially in 2d mode.. spending a tenner more if it's used for 5 hours per day, it'll save loads more than £15 per year elec in many cases.

[jim]

Definitely, but then I would spend the 10% extra.

If we're talking about £10 extra for one brand over another, I probably won't bother because I think differences between brands are often overstated - especially in the AMD world where there's no BFG/EVGA style warranties.

As for power use, I don't pay the electricity bills at present so it doesn't make a difference.

[DanceswithUnix]

Edit to add: oops, thread resurrection. Are we in for a zombie invasion?


Mine would be:

Will work with existing PSU, cables etc.
Noise when idle
Longevity
Value


No matter the value, I wouldn't buy 0.5GB DX10 card as I want it to last a year or so for me and then it will be handed down to the kids or other relatives.
Then for value, I want price/performance, not the fastest not the cheapest.

[[GSV]Trig]

i want something that is as fast or faster than my existing 4870 with new features that'll support the next 2/3 years new games and be silent or as near as damn it as my 4870 has an Accelero on it and its pretty much silent bar the pretty quiet turbo module..

[krazy_olie]

Will it be able to comfortably handle all my current games and ones that I expect to have for the next year or two.

All about finding the right value point really, below a certain point you probably haven't spent enough and you will want to upgrade too soon. Above a certain point you are comparing 70fps vs 60fps, which is irrelevant.

Benchmarks are a good guide if you lear how to read them properly, often the difference in performance is not noticeable.

[GheeTsar]

1. Size (will it fit in my case - this only eliminates the very largest cards)
2. Noise per performance (ie: I accept that there will be some noise from a high performing card, but I will pay a premium for a top end cooler).
3. Gaming performance outright
4. Cable compatability
5. Reliability
6. Price
7. Temperatures/Power efficiency
8. Ethics of GPU manufacturer / Loathing of rabbid fanboy factor
....
1000. Propiertary technology

[pp05]

I'm usually limited to midrange bracket and never an early adopter.

For me:

Quietness & Temperature
Improvement on current gfx
Power Draw
Ironed out bugs within drivers
Will it need PCI power connector or not
Size

Lo people

What are you looking for in a graphics card?

In order, what are your requirements for making the choice?
By all means invent your OWN list but this ine is pretty complex I think.... but what I want to know is, what drives you?

PRICE?
PERFORMANCE IN BENCHMARKS?
POWER DRAW?
PCI EXPRESS POWER CABLE REQUIREMENTS?
NOISE?
GAME PERFORMANCE?
TEMPERATURES?
SIZE?
HEATSINK QUALITY?
BRAND?
KNOWN OVERCLOCK/BIOS TWEAKS?
AVAILABILITY (ie would you NOT buy anything if what you wanted was not there.. or be swayed to something else?)


What order do you place this stuff in?

I've just discovered I''m into quietness.... and everyone knows I want low power drain.. especially in 2d.

But size used to be important and then I deliberately moved away from SFF as it was restricting my choices.

Mine would be
NOISE
GAME PERFORMANCE (cos benchmanrks are often useless for real life)
TEMPERATURES
HEATSINK DESIGN
PRICE

[Pob255]

may be a necro thread, but still a relevant necro thread.

for me it's

Budget maximum (generally I cap myself around £120-130)
price vs performance (I don't mind buying older cards as along as they perform well and are a good price*, if the difference between a £100 card and a £130 card is only about 10-15% better performance, then I'd go with the £100 card.)
game performance
cooling/heat sink
power

Generally size is not a issue for me, only the dual gpu cards tend to be too long, but they are too much for me to afford normally.

*good example here, I bought the 9800gtx just after the 9800gtx+ came out, although the 9800gtx+ was a better card, the slightly older 9800gtx was being sold far cheaper for stock clearance, about £90 if I remember correctly.

[shaithis]

For me its:

Must be able to play all current software at acceptable framerate at the ntive resolution of the display it will be driving.

After that it's a case of weighing each offering by it's various other factors.

[Bagnaj97]

1. Price : Performance ratio - Price isn't a huge issue but I refuse to pay the premiums on high end cards. Usually works out to be high mid or low high end cards (8800gt was a prime example).
2. Temperature
3. Noise
4. Performance/watt - gaming grade cards suck power, but I wont buy a card that uses a disproportionate amount (Fermi anyone?)