Video Card for Rift

I discovered in beta I had an issue with my ATI 3870HD card and ATI drivers (10.12). The screen would lock up, sound would continue, screen would go black, then screen would recover. This happened quite frequently and sometimes would just kick me out of the game. Set the graphics to low in the game, and the problem disappeared. After skimming the Rift forums, it sounds like the problem may be fixed by rolling back ATI drivers to 9.7 or turn off the shadows in the game. I wasn't able to test the tweaks (other then lower all settings), because beta event 4 ended.

Thinking about buying another card. Always stuck with ATI through the years but considering NVidia now. Looking at two cards in my price range --- ATI 6870HD or Nvidia 460. If anyone would like to chime in with their thoughts, I would greatly appreciate it. I am not sure if this post should be located here or somewhere else on the Gaiscioch forums, so if I posted in the wrong place, I'm sorry.

Thanks!

Glie



» Edited on: 2011-01-16 12:23:28

My son had the same problem and it helped for him to roll back the drivers. The other thing is you might keep an eye on how hot your graphic card is getting. The older ATI cards have issues with resetting the GPU when they get too hot. Also I'm using a 5770 with no problems or big issues, but I keep my GPU fan running at 60 percent.

» Edited on: 2011-01-17 04:18:48

» Edited on: 2011-01-18 09:17:07

» Edited on: 2011-01-18 09:17:50

Actually 10.12 drivers are borked my system has been crashing every day about 10 times randomly and on start-up now. I had to safe mode and roll back to 10.11 and now it works.

i'm running 10.12 just fine since they came out. The 3870 is an old card, and shadows are always taxing on a card. I turn off shadows on my OC'd 4870 as well. The FPS drop isn't worth it most of the time. the 6870 is a solid card, in between 5850 and 5870 in performance. I would hold off on the new 6900 cards tho until the 11.X drivers start coming out. First driver version for new hardware always limits them and has issues with games still in dev. Now if you buy a card strictly for Rift, go with Nvidia. The amount of optimization for Nvidia hardware from Trion is just ridiculous. In fact it has me a bit pissed off. I really hate it when studios pick a hardware to side with.

I know at least one dev that is running an ATI card. I havent had any problems with my ATI, HD 48** using 10.10.

Thanks for the great info!

I'm running 10.12 on a 5870, no problems.

Scott Hartsman and I have very similar Rigs and use the same ATI 4870 GPU. I think his CPU is a bit faster than mine, I'm using a Q6600 2.4GHz which I am still intending on Overclocking one of these days. I run on 10.10e hotfixed drivers still, on default settings with lighting and shaders boosted to 10/10 and ground clutter turned down low.

you do know 10.10e has no effect on 4000 series cards? it is only for 5800 and 6800 series cards and on windows 7.

I just got a Radeon 6970, no problems so far. Although you do need to make sure you do not have customized settings in CCC. Have the video card use the game settings.

Well installed a new 6870 HD 1 GB video card and played with no issues during Beta 5. Card is HUGE - almost didn't fit my mid ATX. Had to move drives and cables around :)

I JUST purchased an Nvidia 460 GTX from MSI and I am not disappointed. It is an awesome card. :) The MSI card I have is awesomely easy to overclock and the warranty even covers some of it. It's pretty nifty. I would personally go with the Nvidia, and I just recently did, especially if Rift is your primary concern.