GFX Card Hi all, So, I currently have a Gigabyte nvidia GTX 660 2GB card Windforce which is meant to be pretty quiet and has been to date and I recently downloaded...

[kev2021]

Hi all,

So, I currently have a Gigabyte nvidia GTX 660 2GB card Windforce which is meant to be pretty quiet and has been to date and I recently downloaded a cheap game and the specs say it requires a gtx 1060 or newer card so it seems my gfx card is some what out of scope as previously I could games ok, albeit I don’t tend to play games that often tbh.

So what would you recommend as a reasonable gfx card to buy? ideally looking for another quiet gfx card, I don’t need a top of the line gfx card as I don’t play games that often and from memory I seem to recall the power draw increased the higher the spec meaning it costs more to have the PC on etc.

I don’t want to buy a card to match the requirements for this game as I suspect that will soon be out of scope too as the came is 4 years old already but by the same token, I don’t want to buy top end as I just wouldn’t get the use out of it as 95% of the time I’m just doing standard stuff like browsing internet, word, excel etc.

Just looking for some ideas and possibly will purchase in Jan when the sales come, if there are any sales for these.

My current gfx card will run the game BUT I get a loud noise coming from the PC case and when I exit the game, the noise goes away, had this with another gfx card a while back.

Thanks

Kev

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[kev2021]

Just checked, I bought my existing gfx card in 2013 – shows how often I play games lol

Kev

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[UK Sentinel]

2013 Wow! that card has lasted well.

BTW whats the game as there maybe a workaround if you just want that card to work ?

 

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).

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[kev2021]

Dance of Death Du Lac & Fey

It only allows medium or high gfx and I’m using medium, I can change screen size but after a few mins, the card starts to get loud so I exit the game and it returns to normal. There isn’t allow of action, its literally walking and then clicking on items and hearing what it says so far at least.

Min spec is a 960 gfx card, recommended is 1060 gfx card hence my 660 is some what lacking

Kev

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[kev2021]

So far I’ve seen these cards…

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1650 4GB AMP Core Graphics Card – Not familiar with Zotec and no reviews on the site I saw it on, priced at approx £140.

Higher price is:

ASUS GeForce RTX 3050 8GB DUAL OC V2 Graphics Card – priced at approx. £235, no info on noise level, need to see if can find power consumption compared to 660.

Kev

 

 

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[kev2021]

my thinking is 1650 should work fine but how long before it is effectively EOL? Based on how rare I play games, this card may well be sufficient?

the RTX 350 might be the better card but is it worth spending another £100 on? Will I see any benefit for my general use? I suspect not and this card may even be EOL before I play another game.

I recently played Star Trek Fleet Command and that worked fine on my 660 card. These only 2 games I’ve played in years…

Kev

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[kev2021]

So bit more looking – seems the 1650 is 75watt power consumption

the RTX 3050 TDP is 130watts so average will be lower under normal load

My existing 660 review is here I think https://www.guru3d.com/review/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-660-windforce-oc-review/page-7/

Implies around 107 watts? bit confused when idle is 133 watts…

Not sure if these are 100% accurate but is a starting point anyway to look.

Kev

 

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[UK Sentinel]

So the GTX 660 was introduced in 2012 and the GTX 960 was in 2015 and both have 2GB RAM.

Take a look at the MSI GeForce GTX 1650 with 4Gb RAM and around £130 and should not need a power supply upgrade as only draws 75W

Bit of an MSi fan I am but if you are able/willing to upgrade the power core, then the MSI GeForce RTX 4060 is a great value high end unit but does draw 165 watts.

BTW: whats Motherboard and CPU of your gaming rig ?

 

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).

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[kev2021]

Hi,

Don’t have a gaming PC, this is just my general PC I use for everything.

Motherboard is: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. PRIME B560M-A (LGA1200)

CPU is: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11700KF @ 3.60GHz

PSU – 750w  seasonic prime snow silent 80+ titanium (white one) fully modular (purchased 2018)

Upgraded to this in early Jan 2022, kept my gtx 660 from previous PC which was a i5 from probably 2012/2013 or maybe a bit earlier as didn’t have a real need to upgrade before as PC was suitable for requirements. Only upgraded from HDD to SSD.  Then of course NVMe etc drives came out and decided was a suitable time to upgrade given PC wasn’t fully win11 compatible even though it would run it etc.  So the previous PC setup lasted around 10 years or maybe a bit longer than that so not too bad.

Be ideal if this PC setup lasted the same amount of time.

the 660 has 2GB of ram, not 2MB :)

With the increase in energy costs and given that I use this PC all the time so evenings and weekends, I’m not sure the 4060 is a viable choice given the additional cost for using it as it can be on majority of the day on weekends, its not a PC I turn on just for games etc plus most of the 4060 I’ve seen by various makes are around £300 unless you seen them cheaper elsewhere?

The 1650 you mentioned is a similar price to the one I found and I could only find 75w but not sure if that’s general usage and gets higher if maxed out of if 75w is the max out value so would be lower?

The 3050 looks to be max 130w and the 660 I have atm looks to be max 140watts maxed out and I don’t think the card has ever been maxed out.

One thing i saw for the Asus RTX 3050 card was that IF the temp of the card is below 50 degrees, then the fans don’t come on and I presume it just uses the heatsink to dissipate the heat. If the card goes over 50 degrees, then the fans come on.

I checked my gfx card earlier and according to the system, gfx card was 33 degrees but of course it does have 2 fans on it running all the time so not sure how much of a good indication this is.

I’m kind of leaning towards the 3050 but I also think they maybe dropping the 3050 models but higher models means higher price and for essentially using it just for general usage, doesn’t really warrant £300+ being spent, considering most don’t have USB-C port on for graphics either so not even future proofing. So I’m tempted to go the 3050 rout for approx. £240 unless something more suitable around?

Kev

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[UK Sentinel]

Yes GB rather than MB

Not worth spending to much on a high end graphics card for your type of usage.

I have seen MSI GeForce RTX 4060 VENTUS 2X BLACK 8G OC Gaming Graphics Card @Gadcet.com for £160 and Trustpilot rates them well, deliveries being late seems to be main issue.

Power draw is ‎115 watts.

Note: I try not to recommend companies I have not dealt with myself, so be careful as I have not dealt with Gadcet.com which also has the site Gadcet.co.uk

 

 

 

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).

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[kev2021]

Thanks, not heard of that sight and everywhere else I have looked seems to list it as 12GB not 8gb? and is more expensive.

So been looking some more, it seems the RTX 3050 is (or has) been dropped so whilst there are drivers out for Win 11 atm, not sure if drivers will be available in the future.  This I presume also means the 1650 has been dropped so again same boat…

I saw a review of the MSI RTX 4060 Gaming X and it doesn’t seem too bad, its noted as being extremely quiet, low temps, powerful cooler, compact card, idle fan-stop (most have this now it seems)

Has advised idle power is a bit high and no display port 2.0 support.

Power consumption

Idle: 11w

Multi monitor: 17w

Video playback: 17w

Gaming: 125w

Ray Tracing: 123w

Maximum: 108w

v-sync 60hz: 69w

spikes 20 ms: 148w

source: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/msi-geforce-rtx-4060-gaming-x/42.html

Not sure I get how Maximum is 108w when gaming and ray tracking is more than the maximum? I understand the spikes in terms of it may briefly spike higher before coming back down but gaming is probably for the duration of the game?

Temperatures

idle – 40 degrees = Fan stop

gaming – 62 degrees /72 degrees hot spot = 25dBa 1226rpm for fans

So pretty quiet in comparison, other cards are as high as 45.4dBa

However, the card is just over £300…… :(

Have been on to scan and there live chat has advised the card will work with my motherboard, just the price is stopping me now….. not sure whether to just pay it and forget about it or to get the 3050 and potentially need to replace in the future if no drivers out/no longer supported in other games?

What do you think?

Kev

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[kev2021]

Just seen the MSI GeForce RTX 4060 VENTUS 2X BLACK 8G OC on another site for £298.xx! so quiet a bit more than the £160 on the site you posted so doesn’t seem quiet right, bit too much of a discount, suspect a price error.

Some sites are out of a lot of gfx cards at the moment, not sure if that’s just due to time of year people have bought for gifts etc or if there is still a shortage of supply.

Wonder if there will be a price reduction in Jan as some sites have money off at the moment.

Kev

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[kev2021]

So looking at the  MSI RTX 4060 Gaming X card, does any one know what the average power consumption is when not using it for games, just for general office type working, browsing the web?

I see the gaming usage seems to be reported at around 125-130w, but what about when not gaming? Just having the Pc on, browsing web, sending/replying to emails, doing word, excel etc?

Trying to gauge the running costs.

Thanks

Kev

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[UK Sentinel]

Only 110W power consumption on average while gaming and from what I have read online, seems the actual idle power draw is around 12 watts until the fans kick in and then this can increase to 51 watts etc.

 

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom (J.G.Ballard).

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[kev2021]

Thanks, you reckon that is similar to my Gigabyte gtx 660 windforce 2048 OC card at present?

in terms of wattage when not gaming? Ideally looking for it to be the same or maybe even a bit lower to make it cheaper to use the PC in general but suspect that prob wont happen :)

Thanks

Kev

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