I have an Asus 580 which is very quiet, but has huge fans that cover 3 pci slots. My system runs COD very well with no CTD's, and has only 1.5 gigs of memory. The upcoming performance patch should allow people with lesser systems to run COD very well. That said if I were buying now I would certainly get the higher performing Nvidia 680, as COD will continue to add features that will tax your system in the future.

step up?
 

Let me ask you this Chivas, if you purchased a 680 today, would you have any regrets when the higher vram version of the 680 came out or even a 685?

The reason I ask is that I am not so sure the "patch" will lower vram requirments at max settings as some have sugested(we can do that allready with in game settings no?)

If anything, as the sim matures the requirments would increase if the old il2 is any benchmark.

Thats where a step up program with the 3 day cross ship might be nice imho.

actually video boards have been doing that for some time now; my 570 does just that and i don't think it's the first ever..

If I were buying today, I would get the best possible video card possible, although others might buy a generation lower to save money. That said you need a balanced system with a highend cpu and motherboard to take advantage of all the components speed.

I don't know what the sweet spot for vram with COD is and it could possibly change after the performance patch. I always get the best possible system with budget restraints being the deciding factor.

A video card vendor with a step up program would be a great idea, if the new series goes according to plan it will be around for atleast another ten years adding more resource hungry features. I don't want to even think about the monies I've spent on highend video cards for the last fifteen years or so.

I think the best decision I made regarding playing COD was installing it on a separate SSD, with only the Hotas peripherals, and a separate copy of Windows 7 64 bit installed on it. I do have to reboot to that particular copy of Windows when I want to fly COD, but it reboots very quickly, and I've never had any performance or CTD issues.

I just swapped out my EVGA GTX 560Ti 1 gig card for a Gigabyte GTX 680 2 Gig. I was pleased with the 560Ti, but I'm finding the 680 performs very well (higher framerates with some eye candy features turned up) despite my aging cpu and it seems to run considerably cooler, too.

I have no benchmarks to offer, nor do I care to get into that aspect; just that my initial impressions ofthe 680 are very good. I also moved to an Asus 27" monitor which supports 120 hz so the smoothness effect is considerable. Online play still is demanding, I've noticed, with noticeable slowdowns in heavy action/many planes.

Off the top of my head I can't remember how, but with a few clicks of your BIO's, should increase your highly overclockable Intel CPU speed up to the 3.6-3.8 range with normal air cooling, with little fear of damaging it. This should give you more balanced speed between your CPU and Graphics card depending on your Memory bandwidth and speed. Others more knowledgeable than I can fill in the blanks.

Oh, don't I wish!!!

Gateway saw fit to lock the bios on my FX6801 PC tighter than than a cow's bum in fly time. I know there are hacks out there to crack this Enigma machine, but I haven't walked that path yet.

I can not fault my card. Gainwood 3 gig gtx580

Live the dream Son!

any of the 3gig 580's will do. I don't OC mine and never will. just no need it is soooo powerful and will not need to be upgraded for about 2-3 years.... Pffftt I know I will go out and buy a 690 anyway... call it impulse buying.

The speed difference is just a difference in the exact speed that was chosen to display, the first (1 GHz) is the actual clock speed of the VRAM, the second (4GHz) is the effective clocks (effective speed being the usual one used when referring to ram speed), as the chips are QDR, meaning that the effective speed is the actual speed multiplied by four. As 4x1=4, there isn't any difference in VRAM speed between the 4 and 1 GHz ones.

It does look like a few of those have factory-overclocked memory, explaining some of the other speeds reported.

thx for your replies everyone... Looks like i will go out an buy myself a Gtx680 then... :)

I have an I5-760 overclocked to 4Ghz
8gig Ram
and win7 64
Nvidia gtx 280

best regards and once again thx!