GPU for 6 Boxing

dr00d69

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Looking to upgrade my older ATI cards I use with Crossfire. I don't even need two because Crossfire will not work in windowed mode (source: ISOBoxer)

Not looking for the best, just want to play 6 accounts on my machine easily without lag.

The rest of my comp can handle it.

Currently I'm using a laptop with 3 toons and my desktop with 3 toons. I'd like to ditch the laptop and just play them all on my desktop.


Been awhile since I've been in the gpu market so I am looking for suggestions.

What say you MMOBUGS>
 
EQ isn't really graphic intensive, but when loading multiple sessions, the bottleneck is often the texture cache and such. Look for a card with a decent amount of RAM and have fun. Also, yes crossfire / SLI isn't useful for boxing. It's more for running a single game at max settings. Some of the newer games are really GPU intensive, but bring all kinds of eye candy.
 
Get an NVIDIA card with 3GB+ GDDR5 (make sure its not GDDR3), driver support is far better from what I've experienced over the years. I stopped buying AMD cards a few years back cause of this. I'm loading about 14-16 accounts with WinEQ2 , gtx 680, 32gb of ram. Without Wineq2 (EQ's window mode), I"m only able to load about 4-6 before I start lagging.

NVIDIA cards will be quite more expensive also, but I don't plan on going back to AMD any time soon even if they are quite abit cheaper.
 
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What price range are you looking for ?

I normally look at newegg and sort the component by best rated and look for a card that fits the price range.

You can also check hardware review sites like tom's which post month 'best bang for the buck' type reviews.

Best Graphics Cards for the Money: March 2015

Given you had two AMD in x-fire I'm guessing you are looking at a fairly high end card like :

$340 : GeForce GTX 970 : EVGA 04G-P4-3975-KR GeForce GTX 970 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Graphics Card - Newegg.com

$200 : GeForce GTX 960 : EVGA 02G-P4-2966-KR GeForce GTX 960 Gaming 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready SLI Support SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card - Newegg.com

I've had cards from EVGA, MSI, and PNY . Others may be able to comment on support , returns, eta. I did have an EVGA board fail under warranty and was able to get a replacement pretty easily. ( was several years ago though )

FYI : I have a GeForce GTX 670 2GB ram and it runs 6 no problem and it is slower than either of these newer cards.
 
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Since you've not given a budget I'd suggest a GTX 980. It's not the best but second best :) GTX 970 are good value.


Avoid AMD/ATI, they are junk.
 
I grabbed an EVGA GTX 970 a few months back. I regularly box 9 with no lag at all.
 
I run 9 on my HIS ICEQ HD7890, i have 15 on easy with my new EVGA GTX 970 and my 3rd machine will be a GTX 960 so i figured 15-20 on with that one.
 
Thanks so much guys, I don't really have a budget to limit my self, but I don't want to get the best new thing and spend a lot of money if I don't have too. I was looking at the GTX 670 because it seems reasonable and can handle 6 boxes no problem from what I've read.

I'm still shopping and looking around.
 
have a nvidia 770 4 gig version and get zero lag but a god damn if eq its self isn't random as fuck for what fps you will get in any zone
 
I'd add my vote for a GTX 970. It's the best bang for the buck card available right now. I run one and have ran up to 12 clients with wineq2 without noticing any issue. In my opinion Nvidia has left ATI in the dust in terms of processing power per dollar, efficiency, and overall speed. Nvidia cards aren't really that much more expensive than ATI these days, but they are just better in every category.

As previously mentioned though, EQ isn't an especially GPU resource hog. Your CPU is going to matter more in the long run most likely, given ample GPU memory. I run a hyperthreaded hexacore CPU so when I'm running 12 clients, every client has it's own logical core. I'm pretty sure CPU wise I could run 24 clients before I start noticing any big issues, from what I've seen in the past you can usually get away with 2 copies of EQ per logical core before you start to notice responsiveness issues. Also take note, I'm talking about running the clients full on without limiting their resources when in the background.

After that the other consideration is to be sure you have enough system ram to accoomdate the number of clients you want to run. I think right now an instance of EQ using old character models and all settings on minimum will use up around 500 to 700 MB of memory per instance. An instance with new models and full settings is around 1200 to 1400 MB. These numbers could be off with newer clients as I haven't looked at it in great detail anytime recently.

So for 6 copies of EQ, if you have a quad core hyperthread cpu you should be fine there. And for the memory, if you wanted to run them full settings without restricting background resources, make sure you have at least 12 Gigs of ram. That is 9 for EQ and a little extra for the OS. If you want to run them on lower settings you can get away with 6 gigs of ram. You don't want to push your ram to the limit because if you do it will start offloading system ram to your page file (on disk) and that will seriously slow your entire system down when it starts doing that.
 
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I am running my 2nd 6 box team without any noticeable issues on a 5 or 6 year old GTX280. I would think anything decent made within the past handful of years will run 6 without issues.
 
I found a great deal on a GTX 960, about to load up EQ now x 6 and see how it goes, will report back.

The rest of my comp is more than able to support the 6 boxes, I know my old Crossfire 5790s weren't cutting it.
 
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William12;235724 Anyone who says ATI is junk are fanboys ignore them. QUOTE said:
Anyone that says they are comparable are fanboys ignore them.
 
I'm no nvidia fanboy. I've used both hence my opinion. Would never ever use ati/amd again. I really don't care what the OP buys. From my own personal experiences I'd recommend nvidia as they have been trouble free for me.
 
Agree. I've flip flopped between AMD and Nvidia over the years and right now Nvidia simply outclasses AMD on every front. It's not fanboism, it's technical facts.

Take for example R9 290x vs GTX 970. Now in realiity the R9 290x should be comparable to the GTX 980, but even the 970 outclasses it, and the 970 is CHEAPER.

Radeon R9 290X vs GeForce GTX 970

Even though the R9 290x has better floating point performance, it is slow in actual rendering and computing. And the 970 has significantly lower TDP (148W vs 300w) which means it's going to produce less heat and use less energy, also meaning it is most likely overclocked easier.


When I did my last PC upgrade I changed directions a little from my usual methods. I went more for quietness and efficiency while retaining respectable processing power instead of balls to the wall maxing everything out (guess this is a sign that I'm getting older lol). The difference in power usage and heat production from my old 5970 to the 970 was staggering. I dropped 160 watts of idle power usage, and over 200 watts of loaded power usage from that upgrade alone. The temps on the GPU dropped 35 to 40c idle, and around 25 to 30c fully loaded. My GPU now runs under 50c fully loaded. This in turn means the rest of my case is much easier to cool and my CPU itself runs cooler. Granted these are different generations of cards I'm comparing, but the newer generation of ATI cards have not improved on this heat and power footprint much.
 
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The problem I have with AMD is their driver support is horrible. It might not matter if you only play EQ, but playing other games it can get pretty frustrating.
 
Agree. I've flip flopped between AMD and Nvidia over the years and right now Nvidia simply outclasses AMD on every front. It's not fanboism, it's technical facts.

Take for example R9 290x vs GTX 970. Now in realiity the R9 290x should be comparable to the GTX 980, but even the 970 outclasses it, and the 970 is CHEAPER.

Radeon R9 290X vs GeForce GTX 970

Even though the R9 290x has better floating point performance, it is slow in actual rendering and computing. And the 970 has significantly lower TDP (148W vs 300w) which means it's going to produce less heat and use less energy, also meaning it is most likely overclocked easier.


When I did my last PC upgrade I changed directions a little from my usual methods. I went more for quietness and efficiency while retaining respectable processing power instead of balls to the wall maxing everything out (guess this is a sign that I'm getting older lol). The difference in power usage and heat production from my old 5970 to the 970 was staggering. I dropped 160 watts of idle power usage, and over 200 watts of loaded power usage from that upgrade alone. The temps on the GPU dropped 35 to 40c idle, and around 25 to 30c fully loaded. My GPU now runs under 50c fully loaded. This in turn means the rest of my case is much easier to cool and my CPU itself runs cooler. Granted these are different generations of cards I'm comparing, but the newer generation of ATI cards have not improved on this heat and power footprint much.

According to reviews the 390x is 70% faster than the 290x.

More Radeon R9 390X Specs Leak: Close to 70% Faster than R9 290X | techPowerUp

This would give AMD the best performing GPU in the market.